Up close and personal

Hilo resident Kip Cline is no stranger to adventure. This is a guy who, spontaneously and without training, tackled Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on a bicycle.

And during the weekend, the 26-year-old Michigan native crossed yet another item off his bucket list — getting up close and personal with whales.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said.

The experience, he said, was even more amazing than he could have imagined.

Cline and a friend, Waimea resident Marvin Graham, were scuba diving south of Mahukona, shooting photos of coral approximately 200 yards offshore, when they turned around to find a pod of five humpback whales, including a young calf.

“When they show up, it’s just unbelievable,” Graham said.

It’s happened to him just twice in the last four years. The first time a mother and calf showed up near Kapaa Beach Park.

Last Saturday’s encounter, Graham said, was a perfect ending to a great day of diving, especially considering he found a whale barnacle in the sand earlier that morning.

“After that, to come up and see these whales right there, it was like, ‘Ah yea, now I know where it came from,’” he laughed.

Cline said he’s seen whales underwater once before, but at a distance. This was different as the massive mammals swam within several feet, circling around and underneath them.

“They just kind of do their thing,” he said. “They’re not like trying to run away. You’re just like a small little fish to them.”

For those having troubling imagining what it was like, Cline and Graham captured the experience on video. Visit www.hawaiitribuneherald.com to view the video.

“You definitely feel kind of small,” Cline said.

Asked if he was ever nervous, Cline laughed that he was far too excited for that.

“I think they were showing off,” he joked.

Every year, as many as 10,000 humpback whales return from their feeding grounds in Alaska to the warmer waters of Hawaii to mate and give birth. The 3,000 mile journey is often completed in as few as 36 days.