Surfer goes to head-to-head with pod of dolphins as he takes on gigantic Australian waves… and loses

Trent Sherborne was catching waves at his local beach in Kalbarri, Western Australia

Photographer Matt Hutton was lining up his last shot on the shore when a dolphin suddenly leaped from the ocean

What he captured is an incredibly rare picture of man and mammal sharing the same wave


When surfer Trent Sherbourne zipped up his wetsuit, grabbed his board and headed down to the secluded beach he was probably hoping to have the waves to himself.

So imagine his surprise when he found himself sharing the surf with a pod of dolphins who jumped out of the water right in front of him.

But even more incredible is that the moment was captured back on land by a self-taught photographer who was lining up his last shot of the day while experimenting with a new lens.

This stunning picture was capture by Matt Hutton who was just lining up the last shot of the day

Dolphins are known to share waves with humans but it is extremely rare for them to breach the surface and even rarer for the moment to be captured on film

Matt Hutton, 31, had been taking pictures of Trent when the local surfer was completely upstaged by dolphin racing him down the wave, before losing out to the speedy sea-mammal.



Amateur snapper Matt was travelling from Perth to his home in Wickham, Western Australia, in order to add pictures to his portfolio when he decided to stop in the small town of Kalbarri.

After asking locals for information he was told of a few good spots to go and take pictures of surfers but was advised that dolphin sightings were rare.

When he arrived at the beauty spot he found the rumours to be true as a few other photographers lined the shore training their hi-tech lenses on the ocean.

Luckily for Matt, he had bought a specialist lens of his own just a few days before and was determined to get some good shots.



He said: 'One photographer said that he had been there hundreds of times but only seen dolphins on a few occasions.



'I was getting some great photos of Trent Sherborne surfing this awesome wave, when a pod of dolphins decided to join him.



'On the first occasion I captured two dolphins sharing a wave with him and a few separate photos of just the dolphins by themselves.



But when Matt came to line up his last picture a dolphin leaped from the wave just in front of Trent, and after zooming in on his camera's LCD screen to check it was in focus, Matt fired off a frame.

Hutton said he was 'so lucky to have been at the right place and right time' as sightings of dolphins at the beach are uncommon

Losing out: Trent's surfing was completely eclipsed by the stunts of the camera-shy dolphins who shared the surf with him that day

What he captured is the incredibly rare moment a dolphin breached the surface while sharing a wave with a surfer. While the intelligent animals are known to swim with humans, surfing with them is rare, and even then they stay underwater most of the time.



Matt added: 'It really is a very rare shot and I was so lucky to have been at the right place and right time and in regards to the dolphin and the surfer, Trent said he knew it was him in the photo as it's not everyday you get to eyeball a Dolphin, so it was pretty close!'



'I have had so many people write kind emails, messages, comments etc and it has been a very humbling experience, it is simply the highlight of my small photography career.



'A few people think its photoshopped but I can assure you they're not!'

However, one surfer who fell foul of the usually friendly sea creatures was Troy Robinson, 43, whose arm was broken after clashing with a dolphin in July.

Robinson found himself surrounded by ten of the animals while paddling out to sea, and it quickly became apparent that there was not enough space for all of them on the same wave.

As he ducked and dived through the tangle he was suddenly hit, torpedo-like, by one of the animals which knocked him clean off his board and left him in immense pain.

The impact was so hard he had to have a plate inserted into his left forearm and it also punched a hole into his surfboard.



However he later joked that it would be a good story to tell his grandchildren, adding that it was 'better than it being a shark.'



