A WA junior surfing champion was lucky to escape serious injury after a dolphin launched out of the water and landed on him during a surf at Kalbarri.

Incredible footage shot by 13-year-old Jed Gradisen’s father Andrew shows the moment the surfer slid off his board a split second before the creature’s nose punctured a hole in the fibreglass surfboard.

Mr Gradisen was filming Jed and his older brother Ben three weeks ago when the close encounter happened.

“I was paddling back out. I saw them (a group of dolphins) coming. Oh my god, they were coming straight for me, so I tried to get out of the way and it jumped straight into me,” Jed, the WA under-14 state surfing champion, said.

“It dived out of the water and I just jumped off my board and tried to get out of the way.

“It jumped a long way so I guess I had a couple seconds to react.

“The dolphin landed on my shoulder and the back half of my body. The dolphin reacted, I think, really shocked — almost as shocked as I was.

“It’s nose went straight through my board, it must have hurt a bit. It was rustling around trying to get free (from the board).

“In my dreams I wouldn’t dream of anything like that. It was an accident, it (the dolphin) was just as amazed as I was.”

Jed, who is sponsored by surf label O’Neill and had been competing in a surfing contest in Geraldton the day before the dolphin encounter, was sore for the next few days but was otherwise uninjured.

His father Andrew was filming Jed’s brother Ben, the state under-16 surfing champion, ride a wave when the dolphin launched on to the youngster.

The Gracetown father said it was incredible Jed wasn’t badly injured.

Camera Icon Jed Gradisen after his close encounter with a dolphin. Credit: Supplied, stabmag.com

“A pod of about 10 or 12 dolphins had been jumping. I thought it would be cool to get a dolphin jumping out of the wave with Ben or Jed riding it,” Mr Gradisen said.

“Ben’s on the wave and I’m filming, and this dolphin launches and I’m looking through the viewfinder and I see a splash.

“I didn’t realise what had happened but I see a kerfuffle in the water, all the boys in group, and I’m thinking, ‘That’s weird’.

“Then one of boys holds up the board and I could see daylight through it. The dolphin jumped straight on him and put his nose through the board.

“The dolphin’s nose was caught in the board and it had to shake its head to get free. It was pretty wild.

“Jed was lucky. He rolled off the board just as it hit, so it was a glancing blow all the way up and down his body. He was sore for the next few days.

“It could have been a lot worse — that’s the first thing I thought. He’s damn lucky. It had that much force I’m surprised the board didn’t snap in half.”

Another Kalbarri local, renowned surfer Kirby Brown, previously suffered a broken leg when he, too, was accidentally struck by a dolphin during a surf.