Well I had some good luck because I only had to wait a little more than a year.
Yesterday at Edmonds my dive buddy were swimming in from a great dive when we surfaced only about 150 feet north of the jetty. After swimming toward the beach for a while we noticed that there was about 50 people lined up on the jetty all looking our direction, almost directly at us. A few seconds later, the exhalation of a whale blasted from the surface about 50 feet south of us, and the unmistakable barnacle covered back of a gray whale appear on the surface. Looking into the water I noticed a plume of kelp that had been kicked off the bottom by something BIG! This was my chance to see one, I watched the surface for ripples and swam into place where I thought it would be moving and sure enough out of the haze swam the largest animal I had ever seen, and it was hauling ass! It came directly at me, then pulled off to the side, coming within 5 feet or so, the rest of its length sliding past me. My buddy and I estimated the length at maybe 30-35 feet. Back at the surface we watched its ripples and exhalations as it swam around north of the jetty for several minutes. The other cool thing that there was a Dive Class in the water near us, and the whale surfaced very close to them, could you imagine their excitement?
While on the surface we saw it twice more, as it moved past underneath us. The whale was a midget compared to a full size adult. But still it was one of the greatest thrills of my life, and it occured on a pretty normal day, which is the reason I love diving, any day you can see something you may never see again.
