Unbelievable moment wing surfer gets hit by humpback whale as it breaches the surface
A Sydney wind surfer has captured the jaw-dropping moment when a humpback whale collided with his board.
9News reported that Jason Breen, 55, filmed the incident with a GoPro camera while surfing at Mona Vale.
The Newport man told the outlet that he was instantly knocked off the board due to the impact.
"It came down, landed straight on me and got caught in my leash," Breen told 9News.
"Just got hit by a whale!"
— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) October 25, 2023
A wing surfer has filmed an unbelievable encounter in Mona Vale.
STORY: https://t.co/1yA2rX3yMC#9News pic.twitter.com/0bD5s5ycWf
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"It probably dragged me 20 or 30 feet under, to be honest," he added
"I thought it was all over, then I felt my leash break and I thought, 'Thank god' and came up to the top."
Thankfully, Breen didn't suffer any injuries.
"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," he said.
He believes that whale's 'small size' saved his life.
Passerby Paul Netteback was filming Breen when the incident unfolded.
"I wanted to keep filming but then I thought someone might have just died, so I stopped filming and I got triple zero ready," he said.
Many were left completely shocked by the footage, as one X user wrote: "That whale landed on him.. Bloke is lucky to be alive."
Another said: "They’ll be walking on land soon and coming for all of us."
While a third commented: "That is by far, the craziest s**t you’ll ever see this year I can’t believe he’s alive that was mental."
Last month, a man died after a whale hit and flipped his small boat during a fishing trip in La Perouse, about 14km (nine miles) southeast of Sydney.
The skipper was pulled from the water, treated by paramedics, and then transported to a nearby hospital, while the other fisherman died at the scene, as per Al Jazeera.
Police revealed in a statement that the man 'was likely to have struck or been impacted by a whale breaching, causing the boat to tilt, ejecting both men'.
Water Police Acting Superintendent Siobhan Munro described the incident as a 'tragic accident', adding the skipper of the boat had tried to hold his companion 'as close as he could' to save him.
Charisa Bossinakis