MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — Steven Robles was an hour into his regular weekend swim off some of Southern California’s most popular beaches when he came face-to-face with a great white shark.

The 7-foot-long juvenile had been trying to free itself from a fisherman’s hook for about half an hour.

“It came up to the surface, it looked at me and attacked me right on the side of my chest,” Robles said. “That all happened within two seconds, I saw the eyes of the shark as I was seeing it swim toward me. It lunged at my chest, and it locked into my chest.”

As a reflex, he tried to pry open the shark’s mouth.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it. Oh my God, I’m going to die. This is really, this is it,”’ Robles said.