A FATHER and daughter were greeted by an unexpected guest on a study break in the surf at Redhead beach on Thursday afternoon.
Roy Elliott and his 17-year-old daughter Tully had headed out for a quick paddle when a massive whale emerged from the water just 50 metres away, the epic moment captured on camera by an onlooker.
Mr Elliott said the pair had gone for a paddle to burn off a bit of energy and look at the shark buoy, which appeared to have had the top cut off it.
"When we were paddling out we saw that whale breaching, it looked like it was a couple of hundred metres further out from the shark buoy," he said.
"We got out there and stopped to look for the whale and that's when that photo was taken, and it was a whole lot closer than we expected and we kind of thought, 'Jeez that's close' and high-tailed it out of there.
"After that it almost felt like it was following us."
Mr Elliott said when the whale emerged, it was about 50 metres from their boards, which was both incredible and intimidating.
"It was a whole lot scary, my daughter has had a lot of whale encounters but I haven't, and she was far more comfortable than I was," he said.
"Once you get over the initial fear of it, it was pretty awesome and an amazing experience.
"The fact that someone managed to capture that moment as well, that was pretty special."
The person behind the lens was Felicity-Mae Henderson, who took the incredible photo from Redhead bluff.
Ms Henderson shared the photo on Facebook, where it garnered hundreds of likes in just a few hours, and luckily managed to reach the Elliott's.
"I go up to the bluff nearly every afternoon, I was watching a whale slapping its tail for ages and then one started breaching right in front of me repeatedly, and it was amazing," she said.
"I didn't even get any pictures of that because I was that stunned, and then the paddle boarders were there and it breached right in front of them.
"They paddled back to shore really quickly."
Ms Henderson said she was stoked that her photo was able to reach the people in it.
"I popped it up there just in case, not thinking anyone would see it," she said.
"Then I got like hundreds of likes in a few hours and someone commented who knew the two people so I was glad they got to see it."
More than 40,000 whales started their epic journey north to warmer waters around May, this year.
Humpback whales start the long journey from southern ocean waters all the way down to the south polar ice shelf, where they feed on krill during the warmer months.
Now, they're headed north to their east coast breeding ground in the warm, tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef.
