WATCH: Stand-up paddleboarder videos orca whales swimming under him

The Daily Oklahoman ^ | 1-21-15 | The Daily Oklahoman

[Osage Orange]

Paddle boarder Rich German, of Laguna Beach, Calif., heard tell of a pod of orcas in the area earlier this month and took to the waters himself in hopes of an encounter.

He got his wish, along with some incredible footage of a pod of five killer whales interacting with him.

"I always had this dream, and that was to see orcas," German said. The video below documents his dream come true.

[Ge0ffrey]

Those are KILLER whales.

[Vendome]

So awesome...

Hate

Him

Forever

I should try that in Monterey next season.

[Begin]

The paddleboarder was mistaken. It was just Michael Moore in a wetsuit.

[raybbr]

Fifty fifty chance he gets tired for harassing the whales.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Were they being playful, or sizing him up as lunch?

[Osage Orange]

Yep!!

[bubbacluck]

That was exciting. But had the “Killer” Orcas been even a bit hungry, even for a midday snack, he would have been eaten, I think.

[Osage Orange]

Pretty cool....I’m thinking.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Fifty fifty chance he gets tired for harassing the whales.

I was going to say the same thing.

If that last one had touched his board that's what the indictment would have read.

[Osage Orange]

I don't think so....

Not their prey...........

Fact is....I might have jumped in the water to get better pic's.

[Tax-chick]

I might have jumped in the water to get better pic's.

Am I in your will?

[rlmorel]

I would feel a lot safer with a pod of orcas swimming under my board than I would with a ten foot shark.

I have always thought orcas are completely intelligent enough to know that messing around with humans can only cause trouble for them, so...they generally don't. Otherwise, we would be toast.

I could be wrong, but orca attacks outside of a tank are pretty rare indeed.

In this video I saw a few years ago Penguin Escapes Pod of Killer Whales, the penguin seems to stand on the edge of the boat taunting the whales, who just swim away, seemingly knowing it isn't worth the trouble messing with inflatable boats of humans, even though they could easily do so.

[gorush]

Neat! We encountered them around the San Juan Islands often back when we lived aboard. Also many a Porpoise that looks just like them only miniature...Dahl’s Porpoise or something like that.

[rlmorel]

That was my Photoshop above when I first saw that video...this was at the end of the video (not clickable, just a screenshot!)

[Boogieman]

Killer whales have never been known to attack humans.

[Osage Orange]

Doubt he'd get tired though.......

FWIW-

[rlmorel]

Except in captivity!

When Shackleton and his men were stranded in Antarctica, they were unnerved by the Orcas who “spyglassed” them by sticking their heads out of the water to view them.

He mentioned the holes in the ice where large chunks that looked like they must have weighed tons were scattered in every direction where orcas had punched through the ice looking for prey.

[Osage Orange]

False Killer Whales?

[Boogieman]

Orcas in the wild don’t attack humans. Sometimes they even help them by driving off sharks and such.