Incredibly 'surreal' moment huge whale breaches next to Aussie jet skiers

Tahlia Robson, 18, had no idea the whales were there until they suddenly made their presence known. And she can't get the sound out of her head.

Sophie Coghill
·News Reporter
Updated ·2-min read
Source: Supplied/Storyful
Tahlia Robson, 18, was metres away from a whale as it breached the water near Evans Heads, NSW. Source: Supplied/Storyful

As whales migrate up the east coast of the country, many Aussies are being treated to close encounters with the mighty mammals. One lucky group of mates were literally almost blown away by how surreal their recent experience was while on the water.

Tahlia Robson, 18, was out on a jet ski near Evans Heads, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, and had no idea how close a pod of whales were travelling beneath her until she suddenly saw a big splash.

"We didn't go out searching for them, we were pretty close [to the shore]. I just happened to see this splash," she told Yahoo News. Before she knew it, Robson and her friends had large whales "popping up everywhere" around them – putting on a serious display.

Robson pulled her camera out as a whale "came up for a breath" and had no idea she was about to capture the "surreal" moment when a large whale breached high out of the water, only metres away from her.

"There was a lot of swearing going on... I couldn't believe it, I was squealing. We were all just hysterical and in shock," she said. "We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Such an unreal experience."

Two people on a jet ski in front of a whale breaching the water.
Robson described the moment the whale breached out of the water as completely 'surreal'. Source: TikTok

As the friends were perched on jet skis watching the whales swim beneath them, Robson admits she had no idea of the "confronting" sounds that the animals made.

"Once you see how big they are and the noise they make, it's quite confronting in a way... they grunt. We were like, 'Oh, we need to get away a little bit," she said.

Robson is often out on the water with friends and family but admits they were "pretty lucky" to experience what they did last week.

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