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An encounter with a humpback whale is not to be taken lightly. If it is, you might be body-slammed and dragged into the depths of the ocean.

That’s what happened to an unsuspecting foil surfer in Australia recently. Jason Breen was foil surfing off Sydney’s Northern Beaches in the morning when he suddenly received a major whopping by a baby humpback whale.

The 55-year-old water sportsman said the whale got caught in his leash and dragged him around six or nine metres underwater where he had to tussle to get loose.

Per Surfer, Breen recalled the incident to 9News, who posted a video of the crazy incident captured on Breen’s GoPro cam:

“It came down, landed straight on me, and got caught in my leash. It probably dragged me 20 or 30 feet under, to be honest. I thought it was all over, then I felt my leash break and I thought, ‘Thank god’ and came up to the top.”

The animal hit him like a bullseye:

Breen was not seriously injured and reckons the whale’s smaller size was what saved his life:

“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.

That other footage you see besides Breen’s surfing cam shot was taken by Paul Netteback, who just happened to be passing by “filming Breen surf by pure coincidence when he witnessed the whale topple him”.

Sheesh, what a moment.

[source:surfer]