On the list of things you don’t want to get body slammed by, a humpback whale has to be number one.
Especially if you were wind surfing like this Australian man, who barely survived after a massive whale breached the surface right where he was surfing and almost dragged him down to a watery grave.
Jason Breen was shredding the white caps of Sydney’s Northern Beaches when he was suddenly thrown into a life-and-death situation.
You always know you are assuming some risk when you are out in the ocean, or even out in nature, but you never assume the worst. The 55-year-old surfer should have though, because the worst thing possible ended up happening to him.
As Breen skidded across the ocean just off the coast of Australia, a humpback wheel jumped out of the water, tangling in the wind surfing kite and slamming right on top of the surfer.
When the whale hit the water and started going under, the leash of the kite was stuck around it, and since it was attached to Breen by the ankle, the man started to get pulled down into the depths of the sea with the large sea creature.
In an incredible stroke of luck, the ankle rope (that is designed to never come apart) snapped right off, and allowed for Breen to be disconnected from the whale. Once he realized he was no longer being pulled down, he swam up to the surface, and miraculously lived to see another day.
All of that sounds like it’s straight out of an action movie (or maybe even a horror movie), and it’s even hard to believe. However, Breen has the evidence to prove all of it thanks to the GoPro camera he had rolling the entire time.
After he made it up to the surface and caught his breath, he looked into his GoPro camera and said:
“I just got hit by a whale.”
No arguing against that…
Of course, the story of Breen’s unlikely survival has garnered a lot of attention, and was covered by the local Australian news channel.
The 55-year-old surfer described the entire experience in his own words in an interview, saying:
“It came down, landed straight on me and then got caught in my leash and dragged me probably 20 or 30 feet under.
I could feel it against my skin the whole time. If he’d had barnacles, I would’ve been ripped to pieces, because the whale’s body was beside my the whole time.
You would think that an experience like that would be life-altering, and that Breen would never again return to the ocean. But you have to remember that this is Australia we’re talking about, which is probably the toughest continent on the planet.
That’s why Breen saying that he was going wind surfing again right after his TV interview is really not a surprise at all. One might even say that’s the Australian way: almost die, and then do it all again with a smile on your face.
You can view the news story below, which features some of the GoPro footage that Breen captured as he got body slammed and dragged under by the humpback whale:
