An Australian surfer was left fearing for his life as a whale body-slammed him into the sea – and he caught the whole ordeal on camera. Jason Breen was wing surfing – a form of the sport which uses a small sail – when a humpback whale emerged from the water and knocked into him, plunging the 55-year-old into the ocean.
Mr Breen told local media he feared for his life as the animal dragged him deeper into the sea by the board leash attached to his leg. “Luckily, I felt the leash break and from there I got released from under the whale’s body and was able to come to the surface,” he said. “I thank my lucky stars that something that’s not supposed to break broke and ringed the webbing out.”
Mr Breen then swam to the shore, where he discovered that his GoPro camera had recorded everything. “S***, I just got hit by a whale,” he says in the video of what happened, shortly after making it back to the surface.
This extraordinary incident was captured on film by a person on a nearby headland who happened to be filming by coincidence, and Mr Breen’s GoPro camera also managed to capture the incredible encounter. “The whole thing was unusual, one in a million – it’s a massive ocean and there was a guy on a headland who just happened to be filming by coincidence and my GoPro… I wasn’t pointing or filming so to get the footage was amazing.”
Despite the terrifying experience, Mr Breen miraculously escaped unhurt. This incident serves as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of the ocean and the awe-inspiring encounters that can occur within it.
