A video has captured the heart-stopping moment a breaching humpback whale landed on a wing foil surfer in Australia.

Jason Breen was riding the waves off Mona Vale on Sydney’s northern beaches yesterday when a whale calf suddenly broke through the surface of the water beside him.

In the footage, filmed by Jason’s GoPro camera, the massive creature is seen rising up before falling right on top of him.

Jason can be heard screaming just before getting body-slammed – but incredibly he was left unhurt by the experience.

After a few seconds of turbulence in the water, the 55-year-old is seen climbing back on his board, looking shocked, but otherwise okay.

He then shouts: ‘I just got hit by a whale!’

Recalling the encounter, he later told Seven News: ‘I saw the head come out, then I saw the body come out and then I saw the whole thing above me.

‘It probably dragged me 20 or 30 feet under, to be honest,’ he said.

‘I thought it was all over, then I felt my leash break and I thought, “Thank god” and came up to the top.’

He said he remembers feeling the skin of the whale against his own.

‘It was a big calf, if it had barnacles I would have been ripped apart because the whale’s body was beside me the whole time,’ Jason added.

He said the incident wouldn’t stop him from heading back into the ocean.

Wing foil surfing is a water sport that developed from surfing, kitesurfing and windsurfing and involves holding an inflatable wing while you surf on a hydrofoil board.

In 2020 two kayakers were almost swallowed by a humpback whale which overturned their boat in California.

Liz Cottriel and Julie McSorley were paddling off Avila beach with other whale-watchers looking at the humpbacks.

Just as Julie realised the whale was too close, she ‘lifted up and was in the water’.

But the women came back out of the water shortly after their terrifying experience and other whale-watchers helped them. Neither of the women were hurt.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Sara Odeen-Isbister

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