A Whangarei surfer has had an experience of a lifetime with Ocean Beach's famous dolphins.
Kevin Piper, a builder from Ocean Beach, had a close encounter with the marine mammals while surfing alone recently.
He says he saw a group of dolphins initially about 100 metres off shore from where he was surfing.
However, instead of carrying on their travels, about five dolphins came in closer, flapping their tails on the water.
They soon came right up to Kevin, where he was sitting on his surfboard.
"They came up to just over a metre away.
"I could just about reach out and touch them.
"They stuck their heads out of the water and just looked at me."
Kevin, who has been surfing with dolphins before, says they are usually playful and curious.
But he has never seen them so fascinated with a surfer or surfboard.
"When a wave came I said to one of the dolphins, 'come on let's catch this wave together'," he says.
He caught the wave and two dolphins caught it with him, one on each side.
As they came near to the heavy shorebreak, the first dolphin, followed by the second, ended the wave with a big jump in the air.
"People were standing on the beach saying 'wow' and taking photos. I couldn't believe it."
After sharing a wave, Kevin says the dolphins went on their way.
"It was so amazing. It made my day."
Dolphins at Ocean Beach are the focus of a BBC documentary drama after they herded a group of Whangarei Heads lifeguards together to protect them from a nearby shark.
Rob Howes, the patrol captain at the time, says he and three girls were going for a swim in October 2004, when the dolphins came out of no where and herded them together by splashing the water with their tails.
"They just kept circling us for quite some time," he says.
Rob says he did not know at the time that there was a shark nearby but had a feeling something was amiss.
"It lets you know how vulnerable you can be," he says.
Whangarei Head Volunteer Surf Lifesaving club president Rod Boswell says the event interested the BBC because there were so many witnesses and because the dolphins were acting differently to how they normally do around humans. He says dolphins are usually seen at Ocean Beach surfing the waves.
