UPDATE

Shark expert Ralph Collier this morning weighed in on what he thinks happened on the backside of Catalina this weekend, when a woman was knocked off her kayak by a great white shark, a bump that sent her flying into the water screaming while her family and other anglers watched helplessly from a boat.
Bettina Pereira survived the encounter with out a bite, and just sore muscles. When she flew into the air, Pereira actually stepped on the shark at one point, then pushed off in the opposite direction, her husband Andrew said in an interview Monday. 
Collier, who runs the Shark Research Committee, contacted Andrew and confirmed it was a great white they encountered, based on the description and behavior of the shark.
“They’ve been at the island for millions of years,” Collier said. “So the fact that something has finally happened over there does not surprise me. I’m surprised it’s taken this long. ”
Collier said that it was an “investigation attack.” 
“The shark was not interested at all in eating her, otherwise it would have stayed in the area and eaten her,” he said.
It was unusual behavior, however, for the shark to come back and ram the kayak, which knocked her into the air and flipped the kayak over.

Read more from an interview with Collier, where he tells us why we are seeing more sharks lately, and recalls similar kayaker encounters (where another person landed on the shark), and one attack in Malibu that ended in death.

Here’s the original story:

Andrew Pereira Monday recounted his wife Bettina’s unbelievable great white shark encounter Saturday morning off Catalina.

The Huntington Beach couple – along with their three kids – had taken their 50-foot boat to the island for an annual fishing tournament, and as always, Bettina dropped her kayak into the water to paddle around a bit.
They were on the backside of the island at Eagle Rock, and Bettina was about 500 feet from the shore in 200-foot deep waters when she felt a knock on her kayak.
At first she thought it was another boat or a whale - but then she looked in the water and saw the dorsal fin come out.
“It comes right under the kayak, threw her in the air, threw the kayak in the air,” Andrew said. “When she landed, she landed on the back of the shark, on her two feet. It was incredible.
Bettina screamed for help. The shark heads in one direction, and she jumps off in the other direction.
Andrew didn’t see the initial bump, but looked over when their 14-year-old son Andrew said “mom fell off the kayak.”
That’s strange, Andrew thought. In the 12 years she’s been out in the waters kayaking, she’s never fallen off. Then, in a split second, young Andrew yells: Oh my God, there’s a shark after her!
“It seemed like a long time, but it all happened so quick,” he said.
Bettina is currently on the boat resting, her body sore from the attack. Andrew is handling media calls so she can rest.
“I’ve never had any fear of having her in a kayak. There was nothing I could do,” he said. Their boat, Bettina Lee, was anchored and they couldn’t get to her.
Fortunately, there were two small boats nearby that rushed over to her within 20 seconds. The boat “Topless” picked her up out of the water.
Andrew thinks the shark took a bite out of the kayak during the scuffle, and didn’t like what he bit into.
When asked if this will keep him and his family out of the water, Andrew said they love the water and changing their lifestyle wouldn’t be easy.
“You can’t live your life being fearful of something like that happening,” he said. “My wife, I’m sure it will be a long time before she gets on the kayak.” 

I just wrote a blog a few hours ago about a possible great shark following an outrigger here in Laguna Beach this weekend. Read that story here.

There is a video on CBS2.com about the great white incident at Catalina interviewing Pereira via phone, where she said her first thoughts was that a whale had knocked her off. “I landed right on the shark’s body,” she said.

Here’s part of a witness account about the Catalina attack by Bill Weilbacher, who was on a nearby boat and saw the entire attack. The entire post is here at allcoast.com:

“The woman is fine physically and was not actually bitten, but I’m sure she’s going to have her share of nightmares for some time to come.

… I was in the process of pinning my first squid on the hook when I heard a scream from the direction of the kayak. I looked over and saw the kayak flipping over and the woman going in the water. She was about a hundred yards away.

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