An Alaskan man had a remarkably close encounter with a humpback whale while paddleboarding in Prince William Sound. Kevin Williams of Anchorage described the breathtaking experience, which was captured on camera by his companions. A week after the event, Williams recounted the awe-inspiring moment when the massive creature surfaced directly in front of him, then gracefully glided beneath his board.

“It’s just so massive. You’re puny against this whale,” Williams remarked, emphasizing the sheer size of the adult humpback. Adult female humpbacks can reach lengths of 49 feet and weigh up to 70,000 pounds, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Williams admitted that anyone who wouldn't be scared in such a situation would be foolish.

“If you have a whale that doesn’t know you were there and is that close, that’s not a good situation,” he explained. Even a slight movement of the whale's fin could have had dire consequences. Williams was paddleboarding with his son, Brian, and some friends near Whittier, about 60 miles southeast of Anchorage. They had initially spotted the whale in the two-mile-wide fjord.

Williams' friends were about 200 feet ahead of him when the whale began to approach them. Since they were closer to the shore, he assumed the whale would turn back. He believed his position at the rear of the group offered the most safety. The whale submerged for approximately 45 seconds, a longer dive than Williams had previously observed. “And it surfaced right in front of me, coming towards me,” he recounted. “Whoa! I love to see whales up close, but I'm on a paddleboard.”

As the whale descended again, turning slightly, Williams could see its white underbelly moving just three feet below the surface. The whale's pectoral fin extended a few feet out of the water, and Williams worried that the whale might roll over as it swam beneath him, or that he might lose his balance and fall onto the whale. “If I fell down, you know, my feet could have easily been on that whale,” he said.

To maintain his balance, Williams knelt on his board as the whale passed underneath. Remarkably, there was minimal disturbance, and he didn't even get wet. Williams acknowledged that it’s unusual for people to be injured by whales. Undeterred by the experience, Williams planned another paddleboarding trip later that day. “I’ll never stop, and this is once in a lifetime,” he said.