I live near Sydney, a couple of beaches up from where Home and Away is filmed. It’s beautiful and I’m in the water every day. We get a lot of whales migrating down from Queensland – it’s not unusual in whale season to stand at any Sydney beach and see a breaching whale, but they’re normally 5km out to sea.
I had never been any closer to one than that. That changed on 25 October last year. It was a beautiful spring day, cloudless and sunny.
I couldn’t wait to get down to the beach. It was blowing about 20 knots, perfect conditions for wing foiling. It’s a mix between kitesurfing and windsurfing – you hold on to a wing on a foil board out on the water.
I called a few mates to see if anyone wanted to join me, and two said yes. The three of us went out and got up on the foil. It was about 30 degrees outside and the water was balmy.
There was hardly a cloud in sight. It felt serene. I caught two waves before going back to my van and getting my GoPro, clipping it to the pocket of my board shorts.
I then went back out into the water, past my friends. I caught the wind and headed about 300 metres off the coast, cruising over the waves. It’s much faster than surfing.
It feels euphoric, like flying. I was far out into the water, my mates a long distance away. I was getting ready to make a turn when I saw this dark shape come up in the water.
I knew it wasn’t a shark or a turtle. It was just too big. As soon as I saw it, I thought: “That’s a whale.
” My mind wen.