Alaskan paddleboarder recounts humpback whale encounter

This paddleboarder had an over-whale-ming encounter.

Dramatic photos captured the moment a massive humpback whale and a “puny” Alaska man came face-to-face in the Prince Williams Sound off the city of Whittier.

Anchorage resident Kevin Williams was seen last Thursday atop his paddle board mere yards from the fin of the whale as the imposing sea creature slowly approached.

One flick of the animal’s fin “or anything it does could be the end of my life,” Williams said this week.

“It’s just so massive,” he added. “You’re puny against this whale.”

The whale instead glided right under a terrified Williams, who went down to knees to better balance, which was also captured on camera.

Williams was out on the water with family and friends paddle boarding and kayaking when the group spotted the same whale earlier the day, but from a safe and comfortable distance. Even as the whale crept closer to the group, he thought they were close enough to the shoreline to avoid a confrontation.

Williams was also in the back, which he thought was the safest place to be.

Instead the whale dove underwater for 45 seconds before coming back to the surface.

“And it surfaced right in front of me, coming towards me,” Williams said. “Whoa! I love to see whales up close, but I’m on a paddleboard.”

When the whale went underwater again — and under Williams paddleboard, he could see the white of its belly as it slowly passed by. But the pectoral fin was still slightly sticking out of the water as Williams braced for the sea creature to possibly flip over as it swam beneath him.

A Juneau-based marine mammal specialist told the Anchorage Daily News the whales aren’t known for aggression toward people and even try to avoid them.

But expert Suzie Teerlink noted the encounter from Thursday was still dangerous and potentially deadly.

“There’s so much mass there that even, you know, a subtle swipe of the pectoral fin could really injure or kill a human,” she said.

Williams told the newspaper that he would “dream about seeing whales up close.”

“But not this close,” he quipped. “Not while on a paddleboard.”

With Post wires