A woman from Angus has described the “amazing” moment where a dolphin came within inches to her while paddling boarding at Carnoustie beach.
Pam Christie was paddling boarding on Carnoustie beach when a dolphin leaped in front of her board on Saturday afternoon.
The 47-year-old, who is a beginner at paddle boarding, couldn’t believe her luck after her husband, Graeme Christie, motioned to her that some dolphins were nearby while she was about 50 meters out to sea.
Pam said: “I was on the board and my husband was on the beach and he was sort of signalling to me and I thought he was trying to tell me a wave was coming.
“Other people starting gathering on the beach sort of looking so then i looked and I saw some dolphins.
“Then one of them came right into the bay, it seemed quite shallow waters that they were coming into and at first I thought: ‘oh my gosh, wow’.
“As you can see in the video, it disappeared and the next thing it comes right over in front of me.
“It came straight towards me and then it did that jump in front on me and I was just so shocked because it came so close.”
Pam’s husband, 50-year-old Graeme Christie who was watching the encounter unfold from the shore, managed to capture the perfect moment to show the dolphin leaping in the air on camera.
Pam added: “My husband was on the beach and happened to have his camera out and managed to grab a picture.
“It’s funny in the photo I look really calm and quite relaxed but I was quite a bit unnerved by it, you just have the adrenaline from it.
“It was quite incredible and I thought I’d post it on Facebook because it’s quite an amazing photograph to get when you’re just on Carnoustie beach.”
‘How lucky is that paddle boarder?’
Graeme said that a number of people on the beach began to join him in amazement while watching his wife and the dolphin.
“I just thought ‘wow’ and I was speaking to a few people on the beach who were watching and they were saying, ‘this is amazing how lucky is that paddle boarder?’ And I was like ‘well she’s pretty lucky but that’s my wife,” said Graeme.
“It was just really lucky, I’m no photographer by any means but I just took the picture in the right place and the right time and it really was a special moment.
“When I showed Pam the picture she was more amazed to see I’d managed to capture the moment that will probably stay with her.”