So I was out kayak surfing with some friends on Saturday at South Beach, Newport and EJ looks north and says, “Hey, look, there’s a whale”- and points to something about 50 meters North of us. For a moment I was worried EJ was mistaken and I considered the possibily of a shark – it is shark season after all, and we were surfing close to an estuary, at sunset, with tonnes of plankton around- but then I saw the whale spout and was reassured. The next thing i know the whale is swimming towards us. I begin to paddle as quick as I can to the beach- as much as i like surfing, I really dont like being reminded (up close and personal) that when I surf I am a tourist in the land of charismatic (and non-charismatic) marine macrofauna. I look back and the whale is swimming in mine and EJ’s direction before changing and headed towards Gary. I heard Gary shout somethng like’ thats crazy’ as the whale swam directly under his boat and bumped him. How awesome and scary!
I’m pretty sure that it was grey whale as I know that the grey whales tend to come close to shore, tho usually a little earlier in the year. I didnt see a large dorsal fin- just a small little nubbin- ruling out the possibility of an Orca. Whatever it was, Gary’s prescise words were “If that never happens to me again, it’ll be okay with me!”. Not many people can say they saw a friend get bumped by a whale- about 20 meters from them…I’ve heard swimming with dolphins is soothing, but i think kayak surfing with whales is a little different- at least for me.
I guess the whale saw us having so much fun kayak surfing that he just wanted in on the action, and who can blame him!