(people shriek)

- We became friends with a family of wild dolphins.

- [Nat] And this is their story.

- Hey, I'm Mark.

- I'm Nat.

- And this is Zyzz.

- We're a group of friends who surf subwing

and, really, we try to get out there

and appreciate these beautiful-by-nature islands

as much as we possible can.

Turks and Caicos pretty much has consistent flat water

the entire year 'round.

- So, we don't tend to get any surf-able waves here

so, luckily, we've got these amazing boats

that kick up huge waves

for our guests, for ourselves, and-

- [Nat] And that's kind of become our favorite spot.

- I think about three, four years ago,

we were out filming.

We'd actually brought me dog along as well.

We were kicking up the waves.

Zyzz was out and about in the water.

This wild dolphin just came right up to us,

started playing around the boat.

Turns out this dolphin's name is Jojo.

He's been swimming around the islands of Providenciales

for the last 40 or so years.

Everybody has an incredible story interacting with him,

locals, tourists, the lot.

He's definitely a bit of an adrenaline junkie.

One of his favorite activities to do is to surf.

Just as we love surfing, he loves catching that wave.

Sadly, he doesn't get the opportunity to ocean surf,

so we kind of had a bit of a mutual agreement

where we kick up a wave and he'll come and join us

and we both share the wave together.

- He'll come up in front of the boat

and he'll actually lift his tail out of the water

and give a nice big old slap

just before the boat reaches him

almost to say like, "Yeah, let's go."

- He gets pumped up as soon as anyone on the boat

starts cheering, screaming, shouting.

When we get excited when he's around,

he definitely starts surfacing more,

jumps a little bit higher.

He really kind of thrives on that excitement

that he hears from other people.

(people shriek)

- [Off Camera] Oh my God!

Get that?

- So, Jojo has actually been known occasionally

to protect humans from sharks,

so he's kind of-

Sharks aren't dangerous, but occasionally I guess

maybe if there's an object in the water,

maybe he might think that a human is a little uncertain

around the shark

and he's definitely been known to put himself

in between the human and the shark

and try and scare the shark off.

So, Zyzz is a true water dog.

He really kind of suited the lifestyle here

and just loves getting in the water

whenever he gets the chance.

Jojo's specifically been known to make lifelong friends

with a lot of different dogs through the years

and we have a feeling that when the dog's out in the water,

the dolphin tends to kind of seek him out.

The first few times that they met,

they kind of really kicked it off

and whenever Zyzz is out on the boat now

and the dolphins are around,

he's straight in.

The dolphins get super excited.

They'll just start swimming around

and he'll just follow them and tail them around.

They'll turn, he'll turn,

and they just like to follow each other

in a little dolphin train, almost.

It's amazing to watch.

Jojo's got a little baby, Dreamer,

who is super friendly just like Jojo

and he's slowly starting to teach her to surf as well.

He's teaching her that humans can be friends.

She's really picked up off him

and she really gets stoked as well.

- You can pick up bits of coral.

She'll come and grab it, swim around with it.

It'll go over part of her fin almost like she's carrying it.

And it just becomes this incredible game

that you're playing with a little dolphin.

It's amazing.

- Bo is Dreamer's mum, Jojo's- I guess- dolphin wife.

She is always alongside Dreamer.

You'll never see Dreamer by herself.

You'll always see Bo looking after Dreamer.

Jojo occasionally cruises around by himself

but Bo is always looking after Dreamer.

We've built up a relationship now with Dreamer

where Bo trusts us

and what she'll do is she'll leave baby Dreamer with us

and she'll go off fishing and go and do her little thing

and then she'll come back, pick Dreamer up,

and she'll take her away.

- Bo is more reserved.

Jojo is definitely a thrill-seeker.

Maybe they have different parenting ideas. We don't know.

So, they tried to implement a dolphinarium

down here several years ago.

It was actually on Grand Turk

where all the cruise industry comes in.

So, all the big cruise ships go to that island.

They were proposing to put a dolphinarium

up in one of the creeks on the island.

It got massive backlash. Nobody wanted it to happen.

Part of the whole campaign that came from that

was we had these stickers which said,

"Jojo says no to captivity,"

and you'd be hard-pressed to go around this island

and not see that on the back of someone's car here.

We love dolphins being in the wild.

They swim up to 60 miles a day on average.

What's a dolphin gonna do in a little pool?

It's not right and, thankfully,

people down here had the right visions and they stopped it.

- Jojo's definitely an ambassador

to really stop this whole captivity thing.

Every interaction that we have with him

is totally on his terms

and that's how every interaction with a dolphin should be.

They've actually named him a national treasure

and it's now illegal to harm him in any sort of way.

He proves that dolphins wanna play with humans,

that they can be friendly,

that they can give these amazing memories to everybody

without having to be forced to do so

and it's amazing to watch.

(upbeat music)