In the GoPro footage Mr Breen screams in terror as the giant mammal leaps from the water and lands on him.

‘I saw the head come out, then I saw the body come out and then I saw the whole thing above me,’ Mr Breen told Seven News.

The GoPro captures a few seconds of turbulence then shows Mr Breen climbing back on his board while the young whale’s tail can be seen receding in the distance.

Mr Breen looks shocked but otherwise unscathed.

‘I just got hit by a whale,’ he shouts in the video.

After being struck, the whale became caught in his leg rope.

‘It probably dragged me 20 or 30 feet under, to be honest,’ he said.

‘I thought it was all over, then I felt my leash break and I thought, “Thank god” and came up to the top.’

He said he could feel the whale’s skin against his.

‘It was a big calf, if it had barnacles I would have been ripped apart because the whale’s body was beside me the whole time,’ Mr Breen said.

After watching the freak accident unfold as he was filming. Mr Nettlebank immediately rang triple-0.

He said the lucky escape wasn’t going to deter him from going out wing foiling again because nothing could stop him being out in the ocean.