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A woman and her family were surfing off the coast when they witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, a playful manatee swimming up and grabbing hold of her son's surfboard.
Lisa Blais told WKMG-TV that she and her family were surfing off the Fort Pierce Inlet in St. Lucie County when they first saw 2 manatees nearby. She explained that her sons, "Evan and Logan were out surfing when two manatees appeared. It was a relatively calm day, and the water was clear."
She said this went on for about 10 minutes, with the manatees swimming around the boys, "despite their efforts to avoid them."
Blais posted a video of the amazing encounter to Facebook, which her husband filmed on their GoPro camera, showing one of the manatees swimming up to Evan and placing its flipper right on his surfboard, seemingly grabbing hold of it.
"Evan was definitely scared in the beginning -- he thought it was a shark," Blais recalled. "I think he was a little intimidated by how big the manatee was and how it grabbed his board. Evan thinks he just wanted to surf, too."