A stingray shocked three swimmers — with the ultimate photo bomb.
Snapped 5 Years Ago
The viral photo was snapped five years ago when three college sophomores at Texas Christian University went on a cruise that stopped at Stingray City Sandbar in the Cayman Islands.
After Sarah Bourland, Natalie Zaysoff and Kendall Harlan — from left to right in the photo — posed for a pleasant picture with a stingray, a tour guide surprised them by lifting the ray onto their backs.
“The stingray made a sucking sound,” Bourland told the Daily News. “He was trying to breath in water but all he got was air. We all freaked out and the photographer took the picture at the right moment. It was perfect!”
The sorority sisters had no idea the picture was taken at the time. But when the photographer showed it to them later, they thought, “We have to buy this!”
Ellen Didn’t Want It
Ever since, the trio has tried to get their photo on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
“That’s our goal. She has that clip where she shows funny photos,” Bourland said. “But they kept denying it so we gave up.”
Reddit And Viral
That’s when a friend from TCU put the photo on Reddit and it went viral.
When Bourland checked her phone on Tuesday morning, she had a deluge of missed phone calls and texts from friends and family about the image. That’s when she first learned about the photo’s popularity.
Later that week, when Bourland went to the school where she teaches in Fort Worth, her students started asking for her autograph.
Then the photo was featured on “Good Morning America.” “That’s when we thought,” Harlan told the Daily News, “if ‘Good Morning America’ can see it then maybe Ellen can see it… that is the goal of goals!”
“It’s really funny,” Harlan continued. “It’s not something you ever think you’ll be. You never think that your photograph will be that.”
The Women Keep In Contact, Partially Thanks to The Picture
The young women, now two years out of college, have been in contact nonstop since the photo became a hit.
“I’ve reached meme status in my life,” Bourland joked. “I mean, where do I go from here?”
The only place to go from here, it seems, would be “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
