Eric Sterman was treated to an up close and personal look at a whale’s tail while foiling. Photo: Sterman//Screenshot
One of the greatest thrills a person can have in the ocean is a close encounter with a whale. Eric Sterman, a photographer and avid foiler from Hawaii, recently had a run in while downwinding on a foil — and he caught the whole thing on camera.
“I kind of saw something in the distance and I just happened to be rolling,” he told KHON2 News. “As I came up to it, I saw like a shadow, and then as the wave went by it just happened to throw its tail out… I think it was slapping all along, I just didn’t see it.”
Whales, as you’re no doubt aware, are big. Very big. Since they live under the surface of the ocean, though, the average person doesn’t ever really get a feel for how massive they can be. Even experienced ocean-goers like Sterman are floored by the sheer size of them.
“It’s crazy how massive whales are but they’re actually hard to spot while downwinding in choppy conditions,” he wrote on Instagram. “This guy scared me, I’m not gonna lie and the sound of it slapping its tail doesn’t do it justice. In person, it was crazy. Passing whales is actually super common but I just so happened to have camera rolling to capture this moment!”
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