There’s been a surprising amount of really cool surfer and whale encounters in the last year.
Last month, a group of foil surfers cruised through a pod of killer whales off the coast of California. Around Christmas, two surfers shared the lineup with a huge gray whale, getting the best holiday gift ever.
Before that, an Australian foil surfer got body-slammed by a baby humpback whale while foiling off of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Then there are the Australian surfers who shared a seriously sublime moment with a mother right whale and her calf.
Related: Watch: Pure Mayhem at the Superbank Redefines a Crowded Surf Spot
Wildlife photographer Tystan Snodgrass captured the clip above. It shows an enormous gray whale staying still very close to a handful of surfers waiting for waves.
Snodgrass captioned the post:
“Surfers got a surprise guest yesterday, it made its way to Scripps Pier and then headed back out north and west to deeper waters where it dove and I lost track of it.
“It’s thin but hopefully heading back from Baja to the north and won’t suffer the same fate as the recent one here in #lajolla.”
The whale that Snodgrass referred to is the juvenile gray whale that was beached last week at La Jolla Shores in Southern California.
Sadly, the whale ended up dying that evening. It was a male estimated to be about one to two years old, measured 24 feet long, and weighed about 11,000 pounds.
Viewers were stoked and a little envious. Check out a few comments below:
“No way! Bucket list to see in the shallows”
“Amazing! Lucky surfers. I hope they see this.”
“Doesn’t look like they noticed”
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