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  • All right, so youre in the middle ofthis is a charity event right? You were paddling to raise money for?

  • Breast cancer awareness and two foundations. The Keep A Breast Foundation and

  • It was actuallyIt was kind of my pep talk to my friend Angela who’s been battling breast cancer on and off for the last 11 and a half year

  • So this was mylet’s do this

  • Right, so youre an ex-pro surferYeah

  • So youre used to the water and youre used to seeing probably lots of things, but youre paddling, where is this, Catalina? Where were you?

  • I paddled from… -This is you? –That’s me in Tahiti. –Wow!

  • I wasn’t quite paddling. –What’s the largest wave you surfed?

  • That’s probably the largest wave I’ve surfed. –Which iswhat do you say that is?

  • I don’t know, about that big? I don’t know. Hahaha.

  • Youre that big and it’s that big, so about 6 inches, alright.

  • So, alright, so youre paddling here off of Catalina?

  • Yeah, there’s an island off of California called Catalina

  • How long have you been out there?

  • So I was a 40 mile paddle and I knew I had to get from point A to point B

  • It actually took me 9 hours and 1 minute and a few seconds to do it, so only 3 men have accomplished that feat before in the past

  • It’s typically a relay race, but I asked the race organizer, The Ocean Ohana Catalina Challenge if I can do it solo,

  • To race money and awareness for these two breast cancer foundation, and he saidsure, youre crazy but sure

  • Right, because no other woman had done it. Okay so how long have you been in the water before you came across Larry?

  • Well, I’m told there’s about a little over 3 hours, cause I didn’t want anybody on the boat telling how far I’d gone, how much farther I had to go

  • So there was a boat ahead of you or following you? –An escort boat, yeah

  • With my support crew, my sister Jenny and my friend Angela was on the boat, and our filmer Drew, and our boat captain Ray

  • So I saw their look on their faces and I had music in my ears. I have waterproof iPod case there

  • What were you listening to? –Everything fromyou are gonna ask me that question, aren’t you?

  • Well, I’m just curious what kind of music when you…– I went everything from worship music in the morning when the sun was coming up, which is beautiful

  • To Billy Jean, Michael Jackson, that was a good one to pound to and I’m embarrassed to say this, but I do love JT but I’m Bringing Sexy Back had a good beat to it

  • Good. Good. That’s great

  • Yeah

  • As slow as you can be, I’m bringing sexy back, yeah!

  • No way! I had a good beat to it

  • So then you see their face and what?

  • Look at my face in that photo. I’m not… I was stressed out

  • I saw their faces and then I kind of was scared to look back at what it was, cause I had a terrible fear of great white shark

  • I’ve never seen one in the wild yet and still don’t want to see one, but I’m like infatuated with them cause I’m so terrified

  • And so I saw their faces and I took one of my earphones out and I looked back, and I just see this giant whale coming out

  • Wow! –Yeah, it took my breath away

  • And I would ask you how big. You probably are gonna gothat big

  • No, no, no, no. My board is 14 feet and he was at least twice as big as my board so he was around 30 feet

  • And what kind of whale it this?

  • He, I actually haven’t seen this footage yet. These are minke whales. There’s only 500 to 600 of them off the westcoast of the United States

  • And there’s a minke whale expert Jon Stern and he’s been studying these animals for over 30 years

  • And he’s genuinely jealous of my encounter

  • Well, I can’t imagine…I was jet skiing in Bora Bora and this school of dolphins started swimming with me on the jet ski

  • And that was exciting. I can’t imagine what that feels like

  • But don’t you talk to whales? –Well, yeah I speak whale.

  • That’s what I thought! And I spoke with Larry but I couldn’t quite get the language down. Can you show me how to

  • It’s kinda hard. It’s hard on your throat.

  • Yeah. –I can’t do it right now, no

  • I see where youre going

  • So when you see the whale, what was it doing with you?

  • Oh my goodness. He was kind of getting in my way, like after awhile, it kind of got a little bit annoying

  • Cause I had a job to do, I had long ways to go

  • But he was playing. –He was all around, going under my board, both sides. He liked it when I was away from the boat

  • He’d come closer, he was blowing out big bubbles and I could smell his breath and it was so stinky and smelly

  • I was likeoh! Come on! Larry!”

  • But it was nerve-racking and I was having a hard time keeping my legs underneath me and breathing and everything

  • Did you feel like he was genuinely playing or did you every for a moment think he was gonna knock you over?

  • No, what I was thinking the whole time, I was working on this theory that there was something else down there

  • Like a great white shark, and he was trying to protect me from that shark

  • So the whole time I was really, you know, concentrating on that

  • And at one point, he kind of came up and I did see a big grey dorsal fin, he was on my right side

  • So when he was on my right side, I couldn’t see under the water and though it was a shark for sure

  • But what happened was he came up and then turned on his side so his tail went vertical and looked just like a shark tail

  • Wow! –It freaked me out.

  • That’s amazing he found you, though in justHow long did he stay with you?

  • Almost 2 hours. It was nuts. I felt like I was on a giant dog walk with a whale

  • He wanted like all my attention, like he kept just rolling over and it was crazy

  • I kept reminding myself this doesn’t just happen to anybody

  • I kept goingenjoy this moment, enjoy this moment

  • Absolutely, that’s…

  • That’s me being annoyed!

  • That’s amazing!

  • All right

  • That’s really incredible

  • You know what else has been incredible is… I had a celebrity friend of mine that was gonna help me get eyeballs on this before the day of the paddle

  • And he kinda didn’t come through, so when Larry showed up I said, “I don’t need so and so.

  • I got Larry the whale and he’s gonna help us get the money that were trying to raiseand he has. We got the front page of Yahoo

  • And in less than 24 hours we raised over 100,000 dollars and I’m just blown away. –Wow!

  • Blown away! –Because of the whale! –Cause of Larry!

  • I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for Larry

  • But I really feel like God played a huge role in this and he got up that morning at 4:15 and my sister and Angela and I prayed

  • And my sister prayed that God would just reveal his beauty in nature and beauty in the human body and that I can endure this trek

  • And so when Larry showed up, it wasn’t a huge surprise to me cause I knew God had orchestrated all of it

  • There would be some form of help. You know it’s more... why I believe in protecting our entire planet

  • And these creatures are so amazing and so smart

  • I mean youve seen how passionate I’m about stand-up paddle boarding and I wanted to give you a gift on behalf of all the stand-up paddling community

  • Cause were a tightened group and I wanted to give you something to participate in our wonderful sport

  • So this isn’t quite as big as the one that I have, but

  • Really? –It’s not as big. It’s a little smaller and we got a little paddle here for you.

  • Let me put this in my pool tonight. –Yeah! Youre gonna have try that out

  • I’m ready to go

  • And I want to offer you a chance that I can take you, Portia, and a couple of your friends whatever

  • And do a little lesson. Stand-up paddle board lesson

  • I’ll take you up on it. I promise, if Larry would come visit

  • Okay, I’ll work on Larry. I give him a call, but you gotta practice your whale

  • I will. My throat’s a little

All right, so youre in the middle ofthis is a charity event right? You were paddling to raise money for?

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