Windsurfer gets destroyed by whale in San Francisco Bay in Crazy Video
There’s just nothing like going out to sea, riding the wind on your windsurfing board (or whatever it’s called) and becoming one with the sea. Just you and the sparkling waves as you sail along, seemingly at Poseidon’s will. Then all that majesty is derailed because a whale decided to take a breath right in front of you.
Wait… what?
Believe it or not, that’s exactly what happened to a windsurfer in San Francisco Bay a few days ago. Windsurfer, Eric Kramer, was rocket powered by his board when a gray whale appeared in his path. Even crazier, someone just filmed the entire event as it unfolded.
WATCH: Windsurfer gets flattened by whale in San Francisco Bay
Kramer had already slowed down after seeing whales nearby, but the animal appeared directly in his path anyway. Both survived, which is not always the case when windsurfers collide with surface whales. Although the events are not necessarily connected, there has been a spate of unexplained gray whale deaths in the San Francisco Bay area recently, with at least one of the deaths being caused by some sort of human craft.
Gray whales have appeared in San Francisco Bay earlier than usual this year, part of a migration from Baja California to Arctic feeding grounds. At the same time, the bay is full of ferries, cargo ships and leisure traffic. According to marine experts talking with SFGateit is a narrow, busy corridor where large animals and fast-moving vessels are forced into the same confined space. Unfortunately, collisions are inevitable.
Gray whale populations have fallen by more than half since 2016, according to The Guardian. They have fallen from around 27,000 to less than 13,000, with many of the whales showing signs of malnutrition. Their reproductive rates have also plummeted. During the 2025 migration, only 85 mother-calf pairs were recorded off the coast of central California, the lowest ever recorded. Last year there were 21 gray whale deaths, the highest in 25 years.
All of this can be attributed to dwindling Arctic food supplies, driven by climate change. This little lesson in gray whale migration may seem detached from the story of a windsurfer colliding with a gray whale, but that’s actually exactly why the gray whale was there in the first place. The whales are adapting to a changing world, redirecting their migration patterns and lingering in places like San Francisco Bay. The bay happened to be busy, filled with people like Kramer who have no intention of hurting these creatures. But when there is so much overlap in a relatively small piece of ocean, man and whale are bound to collide.
