Great Pictures!! Brave paddle boarder. We saw a bunch of blue wales on our way out to Catalina middle of last month. I think they were in the same area. Nothing like being close to them on a kayak though.

Great photos!
 

Wow......proves how great our coast is! Thanks for sharing. That paddle boarder had a birds eye view.:eek:

You can't get closer than XYZ to them....
 

But they'll definitely get closer than XYZ to you.

:sifone:


-K

Thanks for the nice read and some great pics!

I missed out on all the whale action...hopefully, there will be another chance to see them.

Some of those pics are incredible and unbelievable. Those pics speaks for itself because not alot of people would believe how close you were. This will be one of those days that you will never forget. Congrats adventure seekers and thanks for sharing.:luxhello::notworthy::)

Wow...hard to choose which pic would be the best to frame they are all incredible...:you_rock:

The lad and I just sat here, staring. First time he got to see just how big they really are, having a kayaker and a SUP'er alongside gave him a new perspective.

Great photos!

Amazing pictures! Thanks for sharing!

They have this amazing awareness. Its pretty remarkable - or it seems that way to me as a diver.

The guy with the munched fin that came up, literally, right under me. As you can imagine, he drew quite a crowd. SUP's, Kayakers, a skiff, a sailboat, etc.

He was on the inside - so he was a "little one" (think 40 - 50 feet and not the 80+ foot monstah Claudette was next to) - this guy sunk down after logging a bit, then came back up, horizontal like a submarine, right in the middle of this crowd.

Didn't hit us, didn't splash us, didn't make a wave or even a wake - he very slowly came up, breathed a few times, and then fluked us off and disappeared.

The control, the awareness, the sheer mass these guys move around in the water is shocking. As water people, we kinda get it more than the average dry person.

I know I'll never forget it.

-Ken


PS: I thought I was done. Sorry

[rant on] Here's the thing. Life is about showing up. These guys were off of Redondo Beach, and in the vicinity for nearly two weeks. I got very lucky. I had that Friday off, and was heading up to the Mountains with my church for a thang. I stole away that morning and had an unforgettable paddle.

For the two weekends they were here, I never got out. I suck.

The thing is this: I got out. They were there, and I got out. I brought a nice camera and lens onto a strip of plastic, paddled a couple of miles off shore and got this.

The key is to recognize the extraordinary. In my lifetime we've never had blues this close. The grays, sure. But not these monstahs.

I am thrilled beyond words I was there. I didn't find the time, I MADE the time.

You gotta get in the game. This is why I love BWE. For all the cyber fishers out there, there is a very large number of real fishers out there, recognizing the extraordinary (like the WSB run this year... my gosh) and MAKING the time (not finding the time) to go fishing.

I love this place. [/rant]


-K

Ditto
 

Obviously your pictures are amazing, but the perspective is just incredible of the paddle boarder and the kayak in the foreground.

To me, these shots are just as good as the 'GW trailing the kayak' shot.

Have you submitted them to any magazines?

Thanks for sharing!

Bret

Well I need to say those those shots tell the story that you will have for a life time, I probably would have been a bit nervous that close but hey, we are in their living room so if they wantto come and say hi, well that's their deal, thanks for sharing some awesome, possibly once in a life time pictures, well done...b:luxhello:

The view from the waterline.
 

I'm the one that likes red so much. :)

Here's the deal: I wouldn't have been there, in that screaming red kayak, 4 miles off shore, with my most amazing and talented kayaking buddy, if it weren't for all of you here on BWE.

Seriously.

I'm at 36,000 feet, winging towards Seattle for 3 days of diving in Puget Sound, looking at these pictures posted on BWE.... thinking, "Not without you guys."

I was paddling a barge of a 'yak...just a horrible thing... until I paddled with Ken at LJS and experienced the worst boat envy in history.
Ken's boat: good (a real kayak.)
Chica's boat: bad. awful. hideous. slow. noisy.

The hunt for a better boat began... and Ken tipped me off to BWE immediately. "I know you don't fish, but there is NO WHERE on the web where you will learn more, from the real FHC kayakers of the west coast, than you will learn on BWE. These guys are the real deal."

So I went to school on what you all have to share.

PFD always on.
Hand-held bilge pump within reach.
Spare paddle packed at all times.
Marine radio, clipped to my PFD.. and know how to use it.
Vortex whistle attached to my PFD.
Real paddles.
Compass.
Water-proof lights in the dry-bag in case I'm stuck after dark.
Light-weight paddle leash, but never attached in the surf zone.

Ken and I talked about this stuff constantly.
You all do the most extraordinary stuff with simple gear and hard-won knowledge.
And you teach each other what each of you has learned.

So I changed nearly everything.
New boat, new paddles, PFD that fits, truckload of new skills, blah blah blah.

Suddenly I was heading farther off shore with realistic confidence.
Radio checks with the Harbor Master.
A plan in my head for fit-hitting-the-shan moments, if they should happen.

And I began having more fun than I could have imagined on top of the water.

So... when the Blue Whales appeared off shore, I was ready.
I saw the spouts from shore as I was running stairs, and I turned on a dime and raced home.

39 minutes later I was launching the 'yak, with all the safety gear assembled and stowed on autopilot, and I was blasting out of the harbor as fast as the Werners could shoot me.

Two days later, Ken and I bolted for the horizon and he shot all the amazing pictures posted here.


I would never have been able to be there without all that I learned here on BWE from all you generous FHC paddlers... and my amazing buddy.

"Thanks" doesn't begin to cover it.

~~~~~~
Claudette

Awesome, simply awesome! Wonderful pics and write-ups.

We finally saw our first blues this year, but that was on a tuna trip at least 50 miles offshore, and at a distance. Not quite the same as up close on a yak, which we've done with greys. A big difference indeed.

Jeeez Girl, that was an awesome adventure! I think you could submit this stuff to National Geographic. Even your writing is superb! Thank you for sharing.

GREAT PICTURES !~!!:you_rock:

yeah, great pictures from like a year ago:rolleyes:

Frank, again.....you must be extremely bored.

any info on the type of bait, rigs involved?

thanks for the bump on this one!

The best pics of anything floating on the water with the whales I've ever seen :cheers1:

Someone woke up a little sleepy this morning!:cheers:

Really nice pictures~~!!

I am truely awestruck by those amazing photos. Thank you very much for painting such a vivid narative to go with them. Makes me want to go out with my nikon now. Where could I get a waterproof case for my D50?