Kiteboarder surfing in Bay Area hits unexpected speed bump: a humpback whale

A kiteboarder hit an unexpected speed bump when he bounced off a humpback whale twice while surfing recently in the San Francisco Bay.

As luck would have it, Andrei Grigoriev recorded the encounter and posted a video on his Facebook page last month. On a Wednesday — or hump day.

“The whale appeared to hit me twice,� he wrote. “First drifted underneath, scaring the hell out of me, then made a turn and in 15 seconds came back on high speed, splashing fountains and rolling. These guys r playing it hard.�

The video shows Grigoriev, clad in a black wet suit, riding a kiteboard near Crissy Field beach when he suddenly glides across something.

Grigoriev appears to be stunned and places his left hand over his mouth.

Seconds later, a whale emerges below the surface of the ocean.

As Grigoriev skids over the giant mammal's body, it splashes him with water.

At this point, it was too late. There was no way Grigoriev could avoid the whale.

Grigoriev seems shocked even as he manages to maintain his grip on the kitesurfing apparatus.

In an interview with the Australian morning show “Sunrise,� Grigoriev said he didn’t realize he had struck the whale the first time.

“But the second time, yeah, I realized that probably was a whale ’cause something big came out of the water,� he told the morning show.

The encounter hasn’t deterred Grigoriev from the ocean or kitesurfing.

“I wasn’t that scared because we all know that whales are not sharks,� he told the morning show.

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