I race small sailboats, and there’s a group of them that actively race on Monterrey Bay. A couple of friends had a whale, rather larger that an orca, surface below them.

They’re pretty high tech boats. Carbon fiber, Kevlar, nomex sandwich. Ripped the back of the boat off from the rudder.

One of the two guys was hanging off the side of the boat at the time (sounds strange,but normal), and so he suddenly found himself lying on a whale. Thought they had capsized. He said his first coherent thought was, “that’s not water?” Then promptly realized the barnacles on the whale were cutting through his 4mm wetsuit!

The whale dove and disappeared, none the wiser apparently. They got towed in by one of the safety boats.