Hydrofoil Surfer’s Heart-Stopping Encounter Will Leave You Breathless

Quick Smiles:

• Surfer gets up-close encounter with mama whale and baby off Santa Barbara coast
• Heart-pounding moment caught on camera reminds us of the ocean’s incredible beauty
• Both surfer and whales walked (swam?) away safe from unforgettable wildlife encounter

The ocean is an incredible place. Its waters cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, and millions of species make the ocean home. Some of the creatures are tiny while others are positively enormous.

Human beings love to play in the vast waters, and because the ocean can be pretty dark, we don’t always see the animals, and they don’t see us. Tavis Boise shared an incredible Instagram video of an unexpected encounter with a whale while hydrofoil-surfing.

“What started as a normal downwind foiling session turned into something I’ll never forget. While riding out off the coast of Santa Barbara, a mom and baby Gray Whale surfaced right next to me.

Close enough to get knocked off by the whale-wash,” Tavis shared on Instagram.

Tavis admitted that seeing a whale on a video or in a photo is nothing like seeing one in person. “It is easy to dream of these wildlife scenarios but once you are actually face to face with a whale, all plans go out the window.

This was such a cool encounter and was less than 1/4 mile from shore,” Tavis wrote.

Friends joked with Tavis about his wild whale surfing encounter.

“Remind me to keep my distance from you when we are out on the water! I think you might be the wildlife magnet of SB,” someone wrote.

This person shared a similar experience with a whale and lived to tell the tale.

“I was keyboarding off Ledbetter once on a twin tip and I became right between the mother and the calf as they surfaced I was going about 20 miles an hour. It was one of the most insane moments of my life in the ocean,” they wrote.

Tavis is braver than we are. The ocean continues to remind us of the beautiful, majestic creatures we share this planet with. What an absolutely incredible moment of nature’s wonder!

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