Surfer Captures Ultra-Rare Moment He Collides With Breaching Whale—And Video Goes Viral

(Courtesy of @jasonthejaw)

A rivalry between kite surfers and foilers like Jason Breen, 55, can cause clashes when they’re both surfing the waves at once, he admits.

But a surfing collision with a breaching whale? That was a first for the experienced ocean sports enthusiast from Sydney.

Mr. Breen was foiling (or wing surfing) when he captured GoPro footage of himself colliding with a whale at Mona Vale Beach on Oct. 25.

It was “one in a million,” he told a local windsurfing channel later that day. “It was a massive ocean.”

A seasoned member of the Sydney surfing scene, Mr. Breen had toted his camera out on the water with him when the rare whale crash came out of the blue. Footage captured a whale suddenly breaching, nose first, right in front of him, smacking his face and upper body.

Mr. Breen, 55, was struck by a breaching whale off Mona Vale Beach on Oct. 25. (Courtesy of @jasonthejaw)

The foiler was knocked down, and then the whale dove down with Mr. Breen in tow, about 20-30 feet deep. The surfer was held underwater for a good 20 seconds. With the whale pressed tightly against his body, the surfer felt in danger of drowning.

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“I’m in trouble,” he thought.

With a whole lot of whale and precious little air underwater, he reckons he might have surfed his last wave that day had his leg rope not snapped, freeing him.

“That saved me,” he told the outlet.

GoPro footage shows a whale colliding with Jason Breen while wing surfing. (Courtesy of @jasonthejaw)

The footage shows him submerged for several seconds, before emerging and declaring breathlessly, in shock, “I just got hit by a whale!”

Aside from being very shaken up, Mr. Breen sustained no injuries from the hit. “I came out with a little bit of a sore shoulder and sore side where it hit me,” he said. It might have been a humpback calf, he guesses, as its skin felt smooth with no barnacles. The whale just swam away afterward.

The GoPro footage instantly went viral online, with news outlets like Channel 9 and FOX lighting up his chat on social media that same day.

The footage went viral once it found its way onto the news and social media. (Courtesy of @jasonthejaw)

The very coincidental run-in was fully unexpected for the seasoned foiler who began windsurfing in the early 1980s.

“You could see the whales breaching maybe 100 meters to 1 kilometer out to sea,” he said. But so close? You just wouldn’t expect that.

Perhaps it wasn’t just a coincidence, one surfing host surmised. Maybe the whale wanted to “hug me,” Mr. Breen said. Or maybe it’s possible it saw his foil and mistook it for dolphins playing.

The rivalry between surfers might even explain the debacle. “This whale probably thought I was on a kite and probably thought, he needs to be taken out,” Mr. Breen said in jest. “But he was just mistaken, I think.”

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