Photo: Now Now Media // YouTube
Surf for any amount of time, and you’re bound to encounter a variety of critters. Dolphins, seals and pelicans are common sights, and the ever-present possibility of a shark encounter is never far from mind. A penguin in the lineup, however, still turns heads, though.
The incredible moment (below) comes courtesy of Alan Van Gysen, an African surf photojournalist who was featured in the latest YouTube video from Now Now Media. In it, he described a scene that sounds like something out of a movie (specifically the animated sleeper surf classic Surf’s Up).
“As a surfer, surfing the cape, you’re never far from wildlife,” he explained. “We were in the water, I was filming the surfers and this penguin just rocked up out of the blue.”
However, the bird was not content to remain a spectator. It proceeded to climb up on Van Gysen’s water housing, before making its way to other surfers in the lineup and hitching a ride onto their surfboards.
“It just seemed to be checking us out and seeing what we were up to, really,” continued Van Gysen. “Every time a set would come, it would actually almost utilize the ocean’s energy to kind of move in and out amongst the surfers. It really did look like the penguin was trying to surf with us.”
While it’s the sort of encounter many would dream of, it’s obviously not a good idea to go out and seek these kind of interactions with wild animals, something that Van Gysen was quick to note. “It just looked like it wanted company,” he explained. “None of the surfers actively tried to touch it or go near it.”