Video shows stunning close up of humpback whale’s out-of-water spin off Catalina Island

The humpback whale’s massive body propelled out of the water, spinning in the air and creating a huge splash as it landed just a few feet away from a small boat filled with people clutching cameras.

Two of those lucky passengers – Kendra Leak and Patrick Coyne – captured the leaping whale’s spectacular moment in a slow-motion video that’s wowing online viewers.

The amazing moment happened Sunday during a trip with Pacific Offshore Expeditions, a Newport Beach company that charters all-day excursions for small groups out at sea.

The inflatable boat with a dozen passengers was about 18 miles southwest of Newport Beach near Catalina when they came across a pod of four humpbacks. Humpbacks are known to head toward Mexico this time of year. Some years, they show up in the hundreds off Southern California’s coastline, but they’ve been hard to come by this year.

A day earlier, on Saturday, Oct. 23, the charter boat spotted nine humpbacks, so its captain knew exactly where to try the following day.

“It was pretty early in the trip and we spent most of the day with them,” Leak, a naturalist and Newport Beach resident, said.

She said the group was likely a “competition pod” made up of one female and the three frisky males vying for her attention.

The whales also had a pod of dolphins hanging out with them. The captain of the boat, Ryan Lawler, suggested waiting for the dolphins to pop back up because that’s likely where the humpbacks would appear.

So Leak, who usually brings her big DSLR camera but left it at home for this trip, took out her cellphone and set the video on slow-motion mode, just in time for the estimated 30-ton whale to make it’s big splash about 50 feet from the boat. Lawler said it was the closest a humpback has ever breached near the charter boat.

Another passenger, Torrance photographer Patrick Coyne, also got the moment on film, his version a bit more zoomed in and showing every drop of water on the massive mammal.

“Not only did we hang out with them for hours, but they also gave us a good amount of breaches, which is what I filmed in this clip,” Coyne wrote in a social media post. “Days like that on the water are truly special.”

Leak said the whale’s splash was so strong, the wake came over the side of the boat.

“I was stunned, looked down at my camera to make sure it was on,” she said. “My mouth was hanging open, we were all shouting for joy. I got totally lucky. It was a great moment, we were just stunned.”

Other charter boats in recent days have spotted humpbacks closer to the coast, including a two on Wednesday, Oct. 20, that were located by a Dana Wharf Whale Watching group.

“It’s a lovely return of humpbacks,” said Leak, who is also a board member and naturalist for the American Cetacean Society-Orange County chapter.

Now thanks to her video, Leak gets to relive the moment, in slow motion, over and over – and share it with other whale lovers online.

“I was so stunned it was actually happening and I was getting it on film,” she said. “I was trying to take in the moment, knowing I was going to be able to relive it later. Lots of people have shared it, it’s cool to show my view of that special moment being shared by so many people around the country and world.”