{"id":467218,"date":"2026-05-04T01:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467218\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T01:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T01:42:11","slug":"i-got-slapped-by-a-turtle-diver-shares-underwater-wild-encounter-says-this-was-getting-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/467218\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I got slapped by a turtle&#8217;: Diver shares underwater wild encounter, says &#8216;This was getting crazy&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not everyday that you get \u2018slapped\u2019 by a turtle. Wait, what?<\/p>\n<p>Travel creator Christopher Chang recently shared a video on Instagram captioned &#8216;I got slapped by a turtle,&#8217; wherein he actually gets one.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It started out as a normal dive. Then this turtle came out of nowhere. Normally, you see a turtle and he just kind of cruises and then does his own thing,&#8221; explained Chang.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But this guy was different. No matter where I went, I would look around, and I just kept seeing him in the distance. When you&#8217;re spending time with a creature in the wild in his natural environment, you&#8217;re not just observing, you&#8217;re feeling. You can feel their energy and kind of sense their vibe. And this guy&#8217;s energy was weird.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He kept coming straight at me, staring at me, almost like he wanted something from me. Over the years, I&#8217;ve had hundreds of turtle encounters, but never anything like this. This was getting crazy. He kept getting more and more comfortable around me and just swimming,&#8221; said Chang.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s obsessed with me. After getting slapped. I decided to call it and wave the boat. I don&#8217;t know what would have happened if I stayed in the water with him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" style=\"background:#fff;border:0;border-radius:3px;box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,.15);margin:1px;max-width:540px;min-width:326px;padding:0;width:calc(100% - 2px)\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DXp0SoKE7eV\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\"\/>\n<p><strong>Netizens react:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A user joked, &#8220;He was like shut up. You make a lot of noise in someone else&#8217;s home.&#8221; Another wrote, &#8220;He&#8217;s taking the video without Mr turtle&#8217;s consent he has every right to do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A third commented: &#8220;Happened to me, I was watching and staying like 20 feet back in Kauai in snorkelling, and another one popped up right on me. I stayed still, and it came up and dapped me up, I swear to god.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A fourth said: &#8220;I got slammed in the back of the head by a small stingray when he jumped up on my surfboard as I was paddling out Hurt like hell, I thought I was hit with a frisbee hard until he jumped up again on my back and flopped around I realized what it was.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not everyday that you get \u2018slapped\u2019 by a turtle. Wait, what? Travel creator Christopher Chang recently shared&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[205149,205150,205151,205152,205153,205154,205155,205156,205157,18,19,17,133,110845,461],"class_list":["post-467218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-christopherchang","tag-natureiswild","tag-oceancreatures","tag-oceanlife","tag-scubadiving","tag-traveladventures","tag-turtleencounter","tag-unusualanimalencounters","tag-wildlifediving","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-seaturtle","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116513770450618937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}