Playful Seal Commandeers Surfer’s Board
A group of surfers in France were surprised recently when an attention seeking seal joined in with them, commandeering one of their boards and climbing all over them.
According to the Daily Mail, a camera mounted on one of the boards caught the interaction, which took place in Lacanau, France. Bertrand Chaussade and his friends were enjoying a normal morning surfing when the playful seal, nicknamed “You,” approached them. It didn’t take long for the friendly seal to make himself at home on top of Bertrand’s board.
Each time that Bertrand attempted to paddle out into the surf, the playful seal would pop up, attempting to climb on top of the board, or even the surfer himself. Several times, the seal sat on the board in front of Bertrand, blatantly seeking his attention.
As the Telegraph notes, Bertrand later detailed the encounter with the seal online.
“He played with us for the whole morning,” he recalled. “He would climb on my board, ask for strokes and push me over. It was like playing with a little dog — it was a very playful and loving animal. It was a beautiful encounter and a magical moment!”
Earlier this year, a pair of surfers in England recorded a similar encounter with a young seal. As the Inquisitr previously reported, surfers Matt Stanley and Andrew Flounder were in the water off Amble, Northumberland, when they encountered the seal. The duo also had cameras attached to their boards, which captured an hour of footage as the seal interacted with the surfers.
“It kept sliding off, but every time you caught a wave it would surf in on the white water,” Stanley related. “I admit we lost interest in the surfing for a bit. I’ve never seen a seal that close up, never mind one sitting on board. When we left it followed us, but the waves were not too bad so we went back in.”
At the time of the British encounter, a spokesperson for England’s Cornish Seal Sanctuary noted the animals’ preference for lying on surfboards, revealing that the institution even keeps several on hand for the seals to use. Observing that they are often friendly even in the wild, the spokesperson still warned surfers to be cautious when interacting with seals.
[Images: Newsflare via the Daily Mail]
