In September 2010, a pod of blue whales made an unprecedented appearance off the coast of Southern California in the Santa Monica Bay. The whales stayed around for a few weeks feeding on krill, which is the exclusive diet of blue whales. This year at about the exact same time the whales made a return appearance. My wife Susie and I ventured out on our kayaks for five consecutive weekends hoping to view this magnificent creature. On a typical day, we would launch our kayaks at 7:00a.m.and paddle out up to five miles off shore. Each experience offered something special. One day we were surrounded by thousands of common dolphins and playful sea lions joined us on another occasion. The whales however had cast a magical spell on us and we had a deep yearning to be in their presence. This culminated on October 8th, 2011 when we captured the video posted at YouTube. On that day we paddled out five miles and saw no signs of any whales. We hung out for about an hour, looking and listening while eating our lunch– still no signs of whales. We thought the whales had left for the season, and we started paddling in. That’s when I heard a whale breathe behind me. I turned the kayak around, turned my camera on and started paddling in the direction where I thought I heard the whale. That’s when the whale lunge fed right next to my kayak. It was a million to one shot to have this happen AND capture it on film. After this we started seeing more and more whales. Two different whales surfaced approaching my kayak, which provided me the opportunity to ease into the water and capture some underwater footage. While the close encounters on the surface were heart pounding and exciting, I found being with the whale underwater was very peaceful and spiritual. We ended up not getting back until 5:00 that night. The video contains the best clips from an entire day on the water. Susie had some close encounters as well, but I was the only one shooting video. We feel blessed and extremely fortunate to have this incredible experience. It ended up being our most remarkable day AND we came so close to paddling in early and missing it all! YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVtw94PJ8XA or: