Mike Lane and his friend were out paddleboarding off Ocean Beach in San Francisco when they got some unexpected visitors – gray whales.
Mike Lane and his friend were out paddleboarding off Ocean Beach in San Francisco when they got some unexpected visitors - a pod of whales.
The paddleboarders captured the encounter on a GoPro camera, which shows them paddleboarding and taking selfies when giant gray whales appear right in front of them, playing in the water.
Toward the very end, there's a big splash when a whale bumps into the paddleboarders.
Thankfully, it was just a friendly nudge and everyone is safe.
Lane and his friend Jim Hernandez said they potted the whales near the Great Highway and Balboa.
"When we came around the point there were a lot of dolphins just kind of sitting in the water and they weren’t really moving," Hernandez said.
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The dolphins weren’t moving because there was something bigger just around the bend: Two giant gray whales and two baby whales.
"They were kind of playing with our path that we were taking into the beach, then they got in between us and the beach," Lane said. "In one of the shots you can see [a whale] five feet away from me and it comes out of nowhere. You can see the dorsal fin -- it splashes me down. I stood up and I looked at Jim and that's when it hit the underside of the board.”
When asked whether he was scared at any point during the encounter, Lane said, "No," but added that "It was frightening to have a whale hit the board and feel that impact."
Lane called Hernandez "the leader in this whale of an adventure."
The duo said they can't wait to go back into the ocean again.
Mike Lane, left, and Jim Hernandez at Ocean Beach on Wednesday.
