He almost convinced himself it was a big fish, but the movement was unnerving. 

He had stopped his kayak to adjust his seat but now abandoned the task, eager to catch up to his wife, who was 50 metres up ahead in a separate kayak. 

He was back in the seat, paddling, when the source of the splash revealed itself. 

“Shark!” he yelled to his wife.  

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The creature nudged the side of his kayak – enough to make it move but not enough to realise his fear of capsizing.

Mr Hawkins saw the side of it – he thinks it breached the water – and realised it rivaled the 2.7-metre length of his kayak, and was wider than he was. 

“Everything kind of slowed down,” Mr Hawkins, 39, told the Mercury.

“Obviously I just wanted to keep on top of the kayak. My seat sits a bit higher, so it’s not very good in terms of balance. 

“It [the nudge] wasn’t really hard, because if it was hard I would have fallen in for sure. It was just kind of a little tap – just testing, I think. 

“I didn’t actually think at [the first splash] that it was a shark, but I’m quite glad that I started paddling rather than staying still, because I reckon it was following me. Then I stopped [to adjust the seat], so it stopped and had a look.” 

The encounter occurred about 5.30pm Tuesday between Puckeys Estate and Fairy Meadow Beach, as the couple was making the return leg of a journey from Belmore Basin to Towradgi Point. 

Mr Hawkins yelled to his wife to paddle to shore and the pair spent about 10 minutes making a beeline in.

The father-of-three first gave the creature a parting glance. 

“I looked back and saw it behind me – just a bit of darkness in the water – then I didn’t look again.”

His wife would later tell him she spent some of the return journey in silent prayer. 

The couple is rattled by their experience, and didn’t want their pictures in the paper for fear the story would reach their children.

“I surf, I boat, I used to spearfish … but I don’t think I’ll be ocean kayaking for a while,” Mr Hawkins said. 

“And I did decline an offer to go surfing this [Wednesday] morning.”

The encounter came about five hours after crew aboard a Department of Primary Industries helicopter spotted a three-metre White Pointer off Wollongong’s City Beach. 

Surf lifesaving jet skis and inflatable rescue boats were sent into the water to encourage the creature into deeper waters, before the beach was re-opened. 

Anthony Turner, Surf Life Saving Illawarra duty officer, said the same shark could be involved in both encounters. 

“It’s highly unusual,” he said.

“We haven’t heard of an incident down in this region where a kayak has been nudged by a shark of that size. They have been sighted by boats and people paddling before, but not nudged, which is quite a frightening experience for the people involved.” 

The encounter came almost a year after a trio of freedivers’ hair-raising experience with a similarly-sized great white in waters off Wollongong’s Five Islands. 

Mr Turner said the couple involved in Tuesday’s encounter did the right thing in returning directly to shore and immediately reporting their experience to life savers. 

“We just want the public to be alert and not alarmed by these incidents,” he said.

“Our best advice is always to swim between the red and yellow flags where lifesavers and lifeguards are always monitoring the conditions and always keeping an eye out for any marine animals out there.” 

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