Watch: Surfer Launches Synchronized Air with Breaching Whale

Dashel Pierson
·2 min read

When it comes to marine life, surfers have front row seats to the show.

Dolphins, seals, sea lions, fish, sea turtles, stingrays, crustaceans, and yes, sharks.

But whales, on the other hand, are somewhat more elusive than the rest. Whales are big. They need more space. So, a whale sighting is quite rare – even for surfers.

Brianna Cope, Hawaiian pro surfer, recently had that rare opportunity to surf with a whale while in South Africa – in fact, she was practically photobombed by the blubber.

While attempting an air, Cope launched off the lip, and in the background, a whale slapped its tail against the water in harmony with the manuever.

Cope captioned the clip:

“Just me & a friend🐳🐋 Mother Nature is AMAZING🤯 there are so many reasons why the ocean is my favorite place.. this is one of them🥰🫶 South Africa I miss you!🇿🇦”

Further clarifying on the clip, Cope wrote:

“Last year is South Africa! One of my favorite moments surfing.”

And:

“This is once in a lifetime I think.”

Once more:

“Fingers crossed it happens again!!”

When she’s not surfing with whales, Cope most famously appeared on the reality TV show, The Ultimate Surfer. The show took place at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch, pitting young competitors against each other at the manmade wavepool, for a chance to compete on the World Surf League’s Championship Tour. Cope finished runner-up to Tia Blanco.

The show, which aired on ABC, was canceled after one season.

Elsewhere, she appeared on Amazon Prime’s Surf Girls Hawaii, a miniseries following the next generation of native Hawaiian female surfers competing for glory.

But, by the looks of it, Cope’s career highlight (so far) might just be synchronized surfing with a whale. Not many surfers have that one on their résumé.

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