Surf's up! Playful dolphins put pros to shame as they ride the waves during prestigious surfing competition in South Africa

 

These playful dolphins stole the show when they gatecrashed one of the world's top surfing competitions to ride the waves themselves.

The animals turned up as global surfing legends descended on Jeffreys Bay, South Africa, for the latest stop on the Association of Surfing Professionals world tour.

The 12-day J-Bay Open saw surfers compete for dominance off the shores of the Eastern Cape, famous for its dramatic waves and large numbers of bottlenose dolphins. 

But things took a surprise twist when a school of almost a dozen dolphins set out to show they were the undisputed kings of the sea in these images captured by 62-year-old Stan Blumberg.

'Two surfers were in the water at the time when a few pods of dolphins swam past and a few surfed the waves as they usually do, without breaking the surface,' he said - then they broke through and put on their show.

He added: 'In my 62 years of living at the coast, I have surfed, scuba dived, been a ...more