Watch This Paddleboarder Accidentally Crash Right Into a Humpback Whale

Whales: Are they giant sea monsters, giant mammals, or giant sentient bath toys? Maybe all three? Who's to say? The point is, they are real and large and running into one unexpectedly in the wild is unnerving. If you doubt this, check out a new video (shown above), in which a paddle-boarded quite literally runs (well, technically paddle-boards) straight into a whale, and then the rest of the pod of whales surfaces around him. 

This extremely surprised man is a 28-year-old German backpacker named Alex. He was paddling off the eastern coast of Australia and happened to have a GoPro running. That's lucky for us, as we now get to experience the joy of open water transforming into huge humpback whales. One of these leviathans comes up right under Alex's board but seems weirdly unbothered by it.

According to Travel & Leisure, the whales were probably mid-migration on their annual trip up the coast of Australia between June and August. They'll make their way back down in September.

So, this wasn't a full-on Moby-Dick situation, thankfully, but we imagine it wasn't the calmest moment of his life. 

h/t Travel & Leisure, Daily Mail 

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James Chrisman is a News Writer at Thrillist. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @james_chrisman2.