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

It was actually…It 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 my “let’s do this”

Right, so you’re an ex-pro surfer –Yeah

So you’re used to the water and you’re used to seeing probably lots of things, but you’re 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 is… what do you say that is?

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

You’re that big and it’s that big, so about 6 inches, alright.

So, alright, so you’re 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 said “sure, you’re 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 from… you 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 go “that 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 you’re 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 like “oh! 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 just… How 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 going “enjoy 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 we’re trying to raise” and 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 you’ve 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 we’re 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! You’re 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…