I can relate to any heart rate and deep breaths you might have required to calm down after that
.
A few years ago, while fishing in 20 feet (at the most) off of Doheny Beach, I had a full grown grey whale surface for air between Julie and myself. The noise of the blow hole scared the sh*t out of me, but the closeness of his fin was just as unnerving. It almost touched my kayak and could have easily been touched with my paddle.
We love seeing whales, osprey and all sort of other critters while fishing from the kayaks (or boats). But, we're all for a minimum viewing of at least 15 yards when it comes to whales.