Look at this amazing picture:



Not me in this, but I have ridden with whales around. One one surfaced very near from me when I was taking a quick pause in the water after botching a jibe.

Very nice shot fred.
We have them in our waters at the moment and it is always great to have them around.
One thought has been bothering me though, is that big predators like to hang around them sepcially when small whales are around.
Had a go pro on my helmet a while back and got in wrecklessly close to film, but instead of switching on I switched the camera off.
I can still feel the adrenaline from that episode and have the images etched in my mind.
Nico

Yep, but that shot is probably fake, it's been around for some time and someone has shown the same one without a whale.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2374369&start=0

I met a blue whale in open sea!
Check out the video on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz6FQ8TS-Ew&feature=plcp

yeah that doesnt look very deep judging by the colour . whale too big to be in there , i'd say fake . but i'd love to kite with whales or even dolphins. its amazing sailing with dolphins and whales i can only imagine how close you must feel kiting with them

scary, not sure how I would react since even when meeting a seal I get a bit panicky

Had a whale surface right in front of me with her calf while I was kiting....Scared the cr@p out of me (massive)but amazing to see, left with goose bumps all over....Seals another story, shark dinner jumping around your feet!

For sure it could be fake, but I've seen a full grown humpback in 25 feet of water.

A few years ago paddle surfing in the OBX a humpback was working the shoals of fish down the shallows with the sweep into the groins where they would bunch up and he/she could get a decent mouthfull. Ive posted the shot on here before and am eternally gratefull to a friend Allison who cought so much of it with her lense. The whole episode lasted about 45 min with the whale doing at least 4 passes. We stopped surfing and just sat out the back watching for it and it would surface every 3-5 min. When it turned around not more than 30m from us the water roiled like a moving river. When the bait ball pushed right through us and little silver fish started flipping and flopping around on the surface between the three of us, it sent chills up the spine! That whale was pretty close and Im sure got a good sonar view or our dangly legs. One of the greatest nature encounters of my life.

regardless of authenticity,
its still a great pic.

we definitely play in the same places
so
no reason why such an event should not occur.
and
all the thoughts and emotions it conjures up are real enough.
-bill

No not the same IMO. It is a fake pic, and a situation that never happened. I think it is not the same as if it was real.