A stand-up paddle boarder in Australia received quite the surprise by a dolphin that leaped out of the water, knocking him off his board and into the surf.
A pod of dolphins were riding a wave off the coast of Gracetown in Western Australia’s South West region when the encounter occurred Friday.
“One of them for some reason decided to jump out of the water, took me out quite well with a fairly legal hip and shoulder I think,” Andrew Hill, 54, explained. “And hats off to him, he connected with me really well.”
He told 7 News Sydney he thinks the dolphins were herding fish.
Hill said that pods of dolphins swimming at him happens quite regularly, but “generally they just take off to one side left or right.”
Hill, who was out on the surf with his son, said, “It’s good to see dolphins. Surfers like seeing dolphins, but obviously I’d prefer them to stay a little bit further away than they did yesterday.”
He said he was a bit winded by the encounter, but no worse for wear.