“I was trapped, and I couldn’t breathe. And there was nothing I could do.”
A few years back, Australian adventurer and nature enthusiast Jason Breen set out to enjoy one of his favorite water sports — wing foiling, a thrilling mix of windsurfing and kitesurfing. The weather was flawless: clear skies, bright sun, and a perfect breeze. As he skimmed over the ocean’s surface, Breen was fully immersed in the joy and speed of the ride.
Then, out of nowhere, the unexpected happened.
“I looked up, and suddenly, the sky disappeared,” Breen recalled in a video shared with The Dodo. A humpback whale had erupted from the sea just feet in front of him, crashing back down and knocking Breen off his board and into the water.
“I could feel the whale’s body press against my face,” he said. “I was completely submerged, unable to breathe, trapped in a tangle of ropes. I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t see a way out.”
For nearly 15 terrifying seconds, Breen struggled underwater, panicked and gasping for air. Then, miraculously, one of the ropes snapped, giving him just enough freedom to reach the surface.
“I was seconds away from giving up,” he said. “I really thought that was it for me.”
Rattled but alive, Breen rushed to tell his friends what had happened. But they were skeptical — after all, who expects a whale to leap out of the sea right on top of someone?
Later that day, while trying to calm down at home, Breen’s phone lit up. A bystander, who had captured the entire incident on camera while sipping his morning coffee, had posted the video online. Breen watched it in disbelief, then checked his own GoPro footage, which confirmed every shocking detail.
“After that, everything kind of blew up,” Breen said. His surreal encounter quickly spread online and caught the attention of people around the globe.
Looking back, Breen feels more gratitude than fear.
“I’m lucky to be here,” he said. “It was just a magnificent creature doing what it does in its home — I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes I wonder if that whale dove back down and told his friends, ‘You won’t believe what I just ran into up there.’”