“Scared the Hell Out”: Baby Seal Gave Once-In-A-Lifetime Experience to Two Surfers in 2014

In surfing news, back in 2014, a strange yet adorable story made it to the newspapers. On a Sunday noon, Matthew Stanley and his friend Andrew Flounders were out surfing in the open waters. The two were surfing off Amble, on the North Sea coast of Northumberland, England. That is when they got a surprise of a lifetime. What initially scared them was when Flounders felt a nudge in his foot from beneath the water. However, it was something less threatening and more adorable.

When Matthew Stanley was on his surfboard, deep into the ocean, an adorable creature crept up on it. It makes sense since the ocean is home to several marine mammals. The surfers stayed with the creature for quite some time before departing.

How did those two surfers come across the baby seal?

Matthew Stanley and Andrew Flounders had only surfed for 45 minutes when a baby seal paid them a visit. Stanley said, “Me and my friend Andrew Flounders were out enjoying some summer waves when this little guy came along and scared the hell out of Andy because we didn’t know what it was! It nudged his foot from underneath”. The seal boarded itself upon the surfboard and didn’t want to leave.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Stanley and Flounder, since they had never seen a seal up close in the water. Although their surfing excursion took a different turn, they were more than happy to play with the seal for an hour or so. After that, they decided to head home, leaving the creature in the ocean. But the seal wanted to have more fun.

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The cute little fella followed the surfers, but found it difficult to stay on their boards for long. Stanley and Flounders finally went home after ensuring the seal was safe. Stanley said, “When we got home, Andy rang the local marine wildlife authority to make them aware of what occurred just in case the seal was unwell…He didn’t seem unwell when he was surfing in like a pro”. The authorities explained that this kind of occurrence does happen quite often. Sea Lions have previously been seen to surf giant waves as well.

A spokesperson for the Cornish Seal Sanctuary at Gweek said to BBC, “We have surfboards here which the seals like to lie on. They can be very friendly so something like this can happen even in the wild, but we would still advise people not to touch them”. That’s because any seemingly harmless, adorable creature can also turn aggressive if they feel threatened. Several dangerous creatures lurk underwater, and in one such instance in 2016, an American surfer’s calf was stripped after a crocodile bit it several times.

Luckily, that baby seal looked like it only wanted to play.

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