“Bow-Riding”, Bernd Würsig2009 (biology)⁠:

This chapter focuses on the bow-riding behaviors of dolphins when they ride the bow pressure waves of boats. Dolphins probably have been bow-riding ever since swift vessels plied the seas, propelled by oar, sail, or very recently in the history of seafaring, motor.

The Greeks wrote of bow-riding in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Seas by what were most likely bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus), common (Delphinus delphis), and striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba). Bow-riding consists of dolphins, porpoises, and other smaller toothed whales (and occasionally sea lions and fur seals) positioning themselves in such a manner as to be lifted up and pushed forward by the circulating water generated to form a bow pressure wave of an advancing vessel.

Dolphins are exquisitely good at bow-riding, able to fine-tune their body posture and position so as to be propelled along entirely by the pressure wave, often with no tail (or fluke) beats needed. Bow-riders at the periphery of the pressure wave do need to beat their flukes, and so do bow-riders of a slowly moving vessel or one with a very sharp cutting instead of pushing bow.