Whale watching is favorite past-time for many. Watching the huge water-bound mammals breach for air is one of the most epic moments anyone can witness. Usually, whale watching is done from afar — and on land. For one paddleboarder, he got an up-close and personal look at a killer whale in its own territory.
Paddleboarder, Luke Reilly, had the surprise of a lifetime when an orca swam directly underneath him and attempted to grab his board.
Reilly was enjoying a day paddleboarding off the coast of New Zealand when the unforgettable moment happened. Near the cliffs of Kuaotunu, Reilly was paddling while filming with his GoPro — he never expected to capture what unfolded that day.
Reilly intended to film the beautiful rocky cliffs amidst the contrast of the gorgeous water. However, he captured something much more interesting. From the depths of the water below, Reilly noticed a killer whale swimming toward the surface.
“This one just bee-lined it for me. He popped up about 10cm away from the back of my board.”
The whale most likely came up from the deep ocean thinking Reilly’s board was a delicious meal like a seal or sea lion. At first, the killer whale comes up to the paddleboard but never breaking the surface of the water. It seems as if the orca is investigating the strange object.
Reilly continues to paddle while keeping his eye on the massive creature when all of the sudden, the whale starts swimming behind him. This was when the orca decided to finally surface the water, Reilly isn’t quite sure what the whale’s motives are at this point.
All of the sudden, the killer whale tried grabbing the back of Reilly’s paddleboard.
“I got a bit nervous thinking, ‘what’s this guy going to do?’ He slowly crept up and grabbed my board and I yelled ‘What are you doing?” “It was quite freaky but so amazing at the same time,” Reilly told a New Zealand news station.
After realizing that Reilly’s paddleboard wasn’t, in fact, a delicious seal or sea lion, the whale decidedly loses interest. Continuing to film, Reilly sees the orca finally dip back underneath the water and swim off into the distance.
What would you do if you had a killer whale encounter as close as the one in the video below?
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