All in a days work.
By Pierre Louis Costes.
A few days ago, footage emerged on the socials of bodyboardings current avant-garde rider Pierre Louis Costes bravely risking life and limb to wrestle a creature of the deep back to safety in the salty brine.
Channelling his inner Jacques Cousteau, Pierre assisted two other local bodyboarders in shepherding a disoriented dolphin back to safety off the coast of Portugal. Pierre takes up the tale.
“We were surfing with friends late afternoon, literally right before dark. I was helping a friend photographer with a project, the waves were nothing special but the light was beautiful.
We were surfing that spot right near a pier and all of a sudden we heard screams from fishermens waving on the other side which is another beach.
I saw two bodyboarders paddling towards to climb the pier and I followed them. I think we all thought someone was drowning.
Turns out once we climbed on the pier, no one was drowning and the reason why the fishermens asked for help was because a dolphin had got stuck in the rocks. I am not an expert the consensus seemed to be he must been hunting and went after a fish and found himself unable to get out.
There was nothing heroic about what we did, literaly anyone would have done the same. These kind of situations where a wild animal need help happen all the time in Portugal or around the world. People always try to help when they can.
We decided to help him but it was a bit harder than expected, he was really stressed and panicked. He couldn’t turn around which we thought he would be doing with a bit of help. We had to carry him out of the rock zone where he was stuck and make sure he was swimming the right direction. Pretty crazy how he went so close to the shore, usually those dolphins swim in groups so he must been pretty unlucky. I have never seen a dolphin so close here in Portugal, it was definitely unexpected! I usually see some groups swimming further out but never have I had such a close encounter with one of those beautiful animals, let alone actually hold one in my arms.
In the end, we stayed for a while and he swam back out the sea without showing any troubles. He must have a few cuts from the rocks because all he was doing was hitting them back in fourth trying to swim free.
We all felt the day was worth it, the ocean doesn’t need us, we abuse it so much, but sometimes it gives us opportunities like this one to repay what we take from it”.
