Sometimes sea kayaking with orca whales involves backing into a bed of bull kelp and letting them come to you.  On this day, we were backed into a kelp bed awaiting L pod on a hot summer day.  The tide was rushing out directly in front of us like a river, and, since the whales were coming from the south, we knew they would be fighting against the ebb.  This is a good thing because they move more slowly against a strong tide, especially when they have calves along who are not yet strong swimmers.  This guarantees that we get more time to observe them.

The pod was strung out over a couple of miles, and we sat back for an hour and watched wild orcas breach, lobtail, spyhop and porpoise directly in front of us.  The last two whales were a mom and her calf obviously having a hard time keeping up with their group.  The calf(perhaps six months old) was barely making headway against the tide, but you could see that it was chafing for it’s independence when it would leave mom and swim off on it’s own.  As they approached our vantage point in the kelp, the youngster veered away from mom to explore on it’s own.  Surfacing just in front of our bows and unaware of us, the lone calf surfaced, blew and suddenly saw us.  The unexpected sight of us in our bright kayaks was too much, and the youngster dove , and , even without the hydrophones, we could hear it under the water yelping for it’s mother.  Sure enough, a protective six ton guardian suddenly surfaced next to the calf with a loud explosion of breath and escorted  her child safely along the edge of the kelp bed to rejoin the rest of the pod.

We had enjoyed an extraordinary visit from a pod of orca whales and especially from a mother orca and her calf!

Kayaking with orca whales in the San Juan Islands is an amazing experience.  One summer day in July and years ago, my group encountered a pod of orcas.  We saw them coming, so rafted up by moving together side by side.  Immediately to our left, a bull orca surfaced with an explosive blow heading directly for us.  I was on the left side of the “raft”.  Both the bull orca and I realized right away that the submerging six foot dorsal fin of the whale was not going to clear my boat.  I could see the whale try to adjust his course, but to no avail.  A collision looked imminent.

At the last second, the orca turned onto it’s right side allowing it’s dorsal fin to run under our kayaks horizontally just a few feet beneath us.  As it passed below my kayak, I looked over the side of my boat and saw the whales eye staring straight up at me.  For a split second, we held each other’s gaze.   With a powerful flip of it’s fluke, the ten ton orca literally disappeared from beneath us with an unbelievable display of speed.  The water from the fluke’s thrust  boiled to the surface to our left and the whale was gone.

We had enjoyed the thrill of sea kayaking with orca whales in their environment: the waters of the San Juan Islands!

This is the second in a series of my Top Ten Best Orca Encounters of All Time:

Sea kayaking in the San Juan Islands of Washington State can also mean sea kayaking with orca whales!  This July three day trip was no exception to that rule.  We were moving up the coast of San Juan Island in prime whale territory.  Suddenly a  mile ahead I spied a dorsal fin(bull orcas have a six foot high black, triangular dorsal fin that is often very visible for some distance).  The lone whale was acting erratically, as it would hang at the surface then disappear for long moments , then reappear, then disappear – all in the same area. 

By the time we paddled near it’s last location, there was no sign of the ten-ton mammal.  We decided to move on, as we had some miles to go that day.  I, however, hung back from the group a bit to check out the situation.  The day was warm and sunny, and the water was glassy calm.  As I glanced back to my right, I saw a large, rainbow-colored king salmon no more than a paddle-length away from my stern swimming slowly to the surface and barely moving.  This is not a common sight, and I immediately realized what was happening.  The bull orca had been hunting this large fish(30″ long), and, as orca often do when they hunt, made sport of the chase.  This fish was exhausted, and had come to the surface for much needed oxygen and rest.  As the fish swam slowly away from me, I began to backpaddle to keep it near.  Suddenly in the deep blue abyss below the salmon, I noticed a small white spot appear…..then grow, then grow some more!  In a split second, I realized that this was the bull orca rushing upward toward the salmon and me(orca whales have white bellies, throats and patches behind their dorsal fins)!  This whale surged upward at incredible speed, came up under the salmon and, with mouth gaping wide, snapped up that salmon in it’s jaws.  It’s charge brought it’s entire body out of the water a few feet from my kayak, and I could see the king salmon’s body hanging out of both sides of the whale’s mouth.  When the breaching whale landed, it’s splash hit me in the right side of my head like a power washer’s spray.  The whale then sank slowly into the dark blue waters and disappeared from sight.  I did not see it again.

As I rejoined my astonished group, I realized what had just happened.  The whale had been hunting the salmon when we first spotted it up ahead.  By the time we arrived in the area, the salmon was out of gas, the hunter was biding his time below, and, when I got too close to the fish, the orca below had decided that it was time to claim it’s hard-earned prey in dramatic fashion.  We had all just witnessed the incredible and humbling display of power and grace of an orca whale in the wild!   Bon appetit!

With the long winter ahead, it is important to stay in good physical condition for sea kayaking in the San Juan Islands.  Really, spring/summer 2011 will be here before we know it, and it is actually easier to maintain muscle tone and strength/stamina through the winter than try to get it back all at once in May!

I workout six days a week.  I swim a hard mile three days a week and play ping pong the other three days.  Don’t laugh!  I have been playing serious table tennis for three years now, and feel it is the greatest sport on earth!   A one hour session is a complete workout.  My ping pong buddy and I slam, dink, lob, dive and lunge and, after sixty minutes, are very tired and sweaty.  Before each session, I also do a series of three sets of each of the following weights/machines: lat pull-downs, push-ups, dips, chin-ups,  seated deltoid press, seated row pulls.  Of course, yoga, martial arts, rock climbing and anything that works the upper body and abs is good too!

This weekly regimen keeps me ready to paddle year-round, and it is fun!   Get ready for your San Juan Island sea kayaking trip in 2011 now!

Over the past thirty years of guiding sea kayaking tours in the San Juan Islands, my groups have had hundreds of encounters with orca whales from our sea kayaks.  This the first in a series describing my Top Ten Orca Whale Encounters of All Time:

We were paddling north along the west side when a group of about ten orca whales came up from the south.  We pulled over and enjoyed watching them go by.  After they had passed, we resumed our course.  As we paddled, we could see their dorsal fins a couple of hundred yards ahead and hear their explosive breaths.  Unbeknownst to us, two female orcas dove and came back toward us underwater.  Suddenly ahead of us they both spyhopped a few feet apart(this is when the head, neck and part of the body of the whale jut out of the water in a stationary position).  The first kayak in our group(two teenage girls) tried to stop but by the time they did, they had nudged gently up against the two whales – one six ton orca adjacent to each cockpit.  Time stood still!  The girl in the front cockpit had the foresight to reach out and run her hand down the side of the female orca twice.  She would later recount that the whale’s side was not slimy but firm, and, that each time she touched it’s side, the whale shivered!  After just a few seconds, both whales fell away from the kayak and submerged.  We had all just experienced a most incredible encounter of paddling with orcas in the wild!

My 30th season of guiding sea kayaking tours in the San Juan Islands is safely concluded!  If you would like to see what we were up to last summer, please go to my Best Photos of 2010 gallery.  It contains pics of some exciting orca whale encounters, beautiful sea kayak sailing action and will give you a glimpse of what a kayak trip with San Juan Kayak Expeditions is like.  Enjoy!

Check out three videos from a trip last summer on our Facebook page.