Sydney wind foiler films his own near-death encounter with humpback whale calf

A Northern Beaches water sportsman is grateful to be alive after colliding with a breaching whale calf, with the freak encounter captured entirely on camera. See the extraordinary vision.

‘This is what it feels like to die’: Wind surfer collides with whale

A Northern Beaches water sportsman is grateful to be alive after colliding with a breaching whale calf on Wednesday morning, with the freak encounter captured entirely on camera.

Jason Breen, a 55-year-old wind foiler from Newport, believed he was going to die when the baby humpback leapt from the ocean directly in front of him, landing its entire weight on top of the surfer and dragging him beneath the waves.

“I had just turned around to come back in (to land), I was just having a good time on a beautiful day … when a whale breached about two meters to my right, right up in the air, and just landed straight on top of me,” he recalled.

“He pulled me down about 20 to 30 feet … I was under for probably 30 seconds.

“During that time, to be honest I was thinking ‘this is done, it’s all over’ because I could feel its mass against mine and I couldn’t get out.

“I just thought ‘this is what it feels like to die’.”

The leash tethering Mr Breen to his ‘wing’ and board suddenly snapped, allowing the surfer to resurface. The broken cord is the only reason he’s still alive, he said.

Footage of the entire near-death encounter in the Mona Vale basin was captured on Mr Breen’s Go-Pro, while a bystander on land filmed a second view of the crash.

Remarkably, Mr Breen not only avoided being killed, he barely sustained a single scrape. The only evidence of the “one in a million chance” encounter on the surfer’s body was a small cut, giving Mr Breen all the more reason to be grateful he had video to prove what would otherwise be a tall tale to mates back on land.

The “pretty lucky” watersports enthusiast is an experienced wind foiler and surfer, in the ocean as often as he is out of it, and said he’s seen “a lot of whales” this season.

“We’re in their domain, so it’s just unlucky and I’m glad obviously the whale wasn’t hurt.”

Fellow foiler Andrew Allen said his mate was “very, very lucky”. The “inquisitive” baby whale had been spotted breaching further down the coast moments earlier, and had to have been “moving very fast” to get so close to Mr Breen so quickly, he said.

“They’re everywhere at the moment,” Mr Allen said.

This is the heart-stopping moment a breaching whale landed on a kitesurfer off Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Photo: 9 News Sydney

“We try to stay well away from them but if they sneak up next to you like that there’s not much you can do.”

The astonishingly rare encounter comes less than a month after a Sydney fisherman was killed at La Perouse when an adult humpback whale breached on top of his boat.

Stuart Collings, 61, died, and his brother-in-law Darren Curmi, 53, was injured in the early-morning incident.

Sydney tour operator Katie Trepess from Sea Monkey Sailing said while the whale-watching season is drawing to a close, there are lots of mums and bubs still sticking around close to the coast.

“The southern migration usually winds up in about mid-November,” Ms Trepess said.

“There do seem to be a lot of mothers and calves out there at the moment.

“(Whale calves are) like toddlers, so they’re practicing and playing around, they’re a little bit less aware of their surroundings … (and) they can sometimes be a bit clumsy.”

While recent collisions and near-misses are rare, Ms Trepess said surfers and other ocean-goers should be aware that there are whales around, especially if they’re travelling at speed.

“They should always think about what they are in relation to whales,” she said.

“We’re in their environment, not the other way around.”