Yahoo Finance Five-year-old boy's close call with snake - but can you see it?
A five-year-old Queensland sand surfer and his mother received the shock of their lives when a black snake lurched at the boy, seemingly from nowhere.
The boy’s mother Jodie Symons captured the close call on camera, which shows the pair screaming in terror over the reptile’s sudden appearance.
At the beginning of the clip, little Billy can be seen dragging his board to the top of the sand dunes at Sunrise Beach on the Sunshine Coast.
With his mum in position to record the pre-schooler’s dismount, Billy begins his trick with what his dad Derek later described as a “good stance,” before nature intervenes.
Out of nowhere, a black snake leaps onto Billy’s path, frightening the youngster as he tumbles on his descent, yelling: “Ahh! Snake!”
It takes a moment for Mrs Symons to realise what the fuss is about, but she soon joins her son in screaming before the video cuts.
After sharing the incredible video to his Facebook page on Tuesday, Derek Symons, Billy’s father, said the mishap was funny in hindsight, but his son was lucky the serpent wasn’t a deadly eastern brown.
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Mr Symons told Yahoo7 Billy was OK after his encounter with the serpent and added it was his fifth slide down the hill that day.
“It looked like the snake had maybe been sleeping there for a while,” he said.
“He had no bites but it was pretty freaky.”
Despite the mishap, Mr Symons said his little boy hadn’t been deterred from playing outside this winter and was bragging about his experience with his friends at kindergarten.
“The funny thing was he was at kindy this morning laughing about it and telling his friends how he surfed near a snake,” Mr Symons said.
“He also reckons he nailed the dismount.”
He told the Sunshine Coast Daily his wife grabbed Billy after the video cut and the snake slithered away. The father added Billy “freaked out” because the snake appearing happened really quickly as he was riding down the hill.
