We love animal encounters with stand up paddle boards. There’s just something really cool about being able to stand up and see right down into the water, not only does it allow you to see far more than usual, you’re also silent and can’t really harm anything.

The Shoalwater Islands Marine Park is located 50 kilometres south of Perth, adjacent to the City of Rockingham and covers an area of approximately 6658 hectares. Home to a colony of Australian Sea Lions, the area is full of marine wildlife and an incredible place to stand up paddle, kiteboard or windsurf. One session here and you’re almost guaranteed to find something swimming around underneath you, but in this case, one special little Sea Lion got very close to a group of stand up paddlers in a lesson.

It’s amazing how similar Sea lions are to puppies, they swim around randomly, sniff at things on the floor, find and play with toys (in this case a fish) and put their noses right up close to have a look at stuff. This little guy is having a great time, and thanks to Drew Malcom, we get to see it all.

He was out giving a stand up paddling lesson in the marine park, when this guy showed up. According to Drew the sea lion spent around 20 minutes with the paddlers, playing around under the boards and splashing them playfully. It’s a wonder the new paddlers managed to stay on their boards with all that going on (they are on their knees though). After he’d had his fun, the little seal swam away from the stand up paddlers into the deep blue…

Check it out, and if you’re ever around the Rockingham area in WA, go and check this place out because it’s probably one of the best stand up paddling locations in Australia.

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