(UPI) A surfer off the Massachusetts coast had an uncomfortably close encounter with a great white shark and moment was captured by a photographer on shore.

Devon Zimmerman, 30, said he had only been surfing on Cape Cod off Nauset Beach in Orleans for a short time when he spotted the dorsal fin in the water only a few feet away.

"I had very literally just gone through the surf and was laying on my board between sets, and you know, there was this eerie quietness to it and then I heard this rustling in the water," the Brooklyn resident told the Boston Globe. So I looked over my shoulder and thought maybe it was a seal emerging.

Zimmerman said he soon realized it wasn't a seal, it was a great white shark.

"I was like, 'Oh my God,' in my mind, this thing's real -- and it's between me and the beach," Zimmerman told the New York Daily News. I froze.

Zimmerman said he lifted his feet out of the water and watched as the shark "just kept on swimming."

The surfer hurried back to shore and spoke with witnesses, including photographer Joe Mault, who captured a photo of Zimmerman warily watching the shark.

"[The photo] made me nauseous, really. It made me sick to my stomach when I saw it," Zimmerman's wife, Sarah McAteer, told WCVB-TV.

Zimmerman said the encounter left him feeling shaken, but lucky.

"Before we kind of cross over the Massachusetts border we're definitely buying some lotto tickets, Powerball picks. If anyone needs them, give me a call," he joked.

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