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THE DEEP BLUE — Sometimes we think of dolphins as angelic creatures that somehow love humankind so much they seek us out to save us.
A theory of “divine dolphins” feels like an easy thing to believe because we’ve all heard stories about dolphins saving shipwrecked men from drowning and saving sea swimmers from shark attacks. We humans seem to feel so connected to our aquatic friends that we also pay hundreds of dollars to have close encounters with dolphins.
The man in this featured video didn’t pay for his close encounter, but he may have paid to stop it from happening if he could have foreseen his future.
Andrew Hill went out for a paddle when he saw a pod of dolphins — an experience he’s used to.
“Eight or nine of them decided to catch that wave and surf straight at me, which has happened lots of times in the past to me, and generally they just take off to one side, left or right,” he told 7News Perth.
But that’s not what happened this April.
Instead, a dolphin pops out of the water and full-body crashes into Hill, sending him into the drink. But never fear, he quickly regains his board to recover from the shock. Hill said that he was winded after his unexpected body slam from a dolphin, but he was no more injured than with any hit he’s taken on the rugby pitch (gotta love Australians).
Luckily for the internet, the incident was captured by Instagram user @lubricatedsurf, who was waiting to film some surfers that morning. It’s a case of two people in the right place, but only one of them was there at the right time.
