A surfer is riding his board off Mona Vale when a humpback whale emerges from the water, lands on him and pulls him deep into the water. His body camera films the attack.
Mona Vale – In recent years, reports of dangerous orca attacks and… threatening encounters with sharks on the open sea. The Australian surfer Jason Breen is now making a name for himself with a very special encounter with sea creatures. He was unceremoniously swept off his board by a baby humpback whale while wingfoil surfing off Sydney’s Northern Beaches on Wednesday morning (October 25).
“Surreal encounter”: Baby humpback whale blows windsurfers off their boards
The 55-year-old Newport man was cruising off Mona Vale Beach in the South Pacific when a humpback whale emerged from the water, landed on him and pulled him about 20 to 30 feet (about six to nine meters) below the surface. “Standing face to face with this beautiful, majestic mammal was a surreal encounter,” reports the experienced athlete. Breen suspects that the whale got caught in the foot rope of the surfboard during its “attack”.
“I thought I was dead”: baby humpback whale drags surfer meters deep under water
At first he just thought, “Shit, I just got attacked by a whale,” Breen says in the video, which he later posted online. “I thought I was dead, to be honest,” he explains. “For a few seconds I thought, ‘This is what it’s like when you die.'”
What is wing foiling?
Wingfoiling is a water sport that combines elements of windsurfing, kitesurfing and stand-up paddling (SUP). When wingfoiling, the athlete stands on a small board that looks similar to a SUP board. In his hand he holds an inflatable wing, also called a wing. This wing is inflated by the wind and acts as a sail.
The athlete uses the wind to glide his board over the water. He holds the wing in one hand and uses it to control both the direction and the angle of attack of the sail. The steering is similar to windsurfing, but without the fixed sail and mast.
By cleverly using the wind and their own body balance, the athlete can glide on the water, make turns and even perform jumps. Wingfoiling requires skill, balance and experience in dealing with the wind.
Surfer is attacked by a baby whale: Bodycam GoPro records spectacular encounter
As he wriggled under the whale, the 55-year-old says he could feel its smooth skin against his own, which led him to believe it was a juvenile. Then his leg rope broke and he was able to fight his way back to the surface and save himself to his board. When he makes it to shore, he meets some fellow surfers and tells them what had just happened to him.
“They just said, ‘Yeah, sure!’” Breen said. “They thought I was telling a made-up story, but then I realized my GoPro had recorded everything.” The footage from his action camera went viral – and numerous media outlets, among others the Australian broadcaster 9news have now reported on the spectacular encounter.
Breen himself says he was lucky that it was only a young whale that took him off the board. Had it been an adult whale, it probably wouldn’t be alive to tell the story: “There’s no way I’d be here, I’d definitely be dead,” he said. “It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event.”
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