This is a new sport. We don’t necessarily condone it, as it’s disrespectful to aquatic wildlife and puts participants at risk of becoming whale toys. But sometimes it’s played right. Here a surfer girl near Santa Cruz gets too close for comfort to a pair of “lunge feeding” humpbacks. Surfer girl nearly becomes a chew toy, dad on a kayak totally misses the show, and filmmaker Barb Roettger up-close whale watches like a pro, skillfully recording some of the most exhilirating whale watching footage ever uploaded to YouTube.