The 13-year-old schoolgirl from East London, South Africa, was out in waters off the coast.
She was 75 metres out and ready to catch a wave when she received the fright of her life.
A huge great white shark appeared out of nowhere and took a bite out of her surfboard.
Zoe was sitting on her board when the 10ft fish latched on, just missing her leg.
She told The Telegraph: “I just saw this huge black eye looking straight at me and a huge bang as it took my board and began shaking it.
“It latched on with its jaws just missing my leg and it tipped me backwards and I fell in and I just saw the black shape of it in the water and panicked.”
The teenager said she was so terrified she didn’t know what to do next, until another surfer intervened.
She explained: “I heard another surfer screaming at me to get back on my board and I pulled myself onto it but was terrified of where the shark was and what to do.
“Then I saw a surfer friend JP Veaudry paddling straight out to get me and he told me not to think about the shark but just paddle for all I was worth.
“He kept asking me if I had been bitten by the shark but I said I didn’t know as I was in a state of shock and adrenalin was just pumping through my body.”
Despite the terrifying experience, Zoe was determined to get back in the water the next day – albeit not alone.
She said: “I have never been so relieved to get on a beach in my life and JP told me I was very lucky. They reckon it was at least ten feet long, maybe bigger.
“It was the first time I have ever seen a shark in three years of surfing and my memory of it is this big black eye looking straight at me – I was so, so scared.
”I can’t thank JP enough for risking his life to paddle out and save me and get back to shore. It has taught me never to surf alone ever again.”
JP, who lost his leg in a motorbike accident and is now number two in the world at adaptive surfing, said it all happened very quickly.
The 40-year-old added: “I heard a death defying scream and saw loads of thrashing about in the water.
“Zoe was screaming and flailing in the sea as the shark had pulled the board out from under her. My first thought was to get out of there and onto the beach.
“But I couldn’t just leave her out there with the shark so I paddled straight out to get her and she had got back on her board and I paddled back in with her.
“She said she didn’t know if she had been bitten but when we got to the beach I saw she was ok but she was lucky that she was sitting on her surfboard when it attacked.
“The shark had bitten in the exact place her arm would have been if she had been paddling and who knows what would have happened if there was blood in the water.
“You can see the teeth marks on the board so you can imagine what it would have done if it got Zoe.”
South Africa is well known for its high population of great white sharks.
