Kayakers escape unhurt after a humpback whale capsizes their kayak.

Two kayakers had a narrow escape when a humpback whale breached the water and landed within inches of their kayak, causing it to capsize and dumping the paddlers into the ocean in Monterey Bay, California.

The two paddlers managed to make it back safely to shore with the help of fellow kayakers. 

Video footage of the near miss was filmed by Larry Plants, a passenger on a whale watching trip organised by Sanctuary Cruises. In the footage a woman passenger can be heard shouting "The kayak! Where's the kayak?" another passenger replies "He knocked it over"  The two kayakers escaped without injury.

In an interview with Inside Edition . One of the kayakers, Wildlife film director Tom said "It was the most extraordinary thing to happen to me". He went on to say, "We were taken under the water by the whale, perhaps in the down-draft," he said. "I think it brushed against me while I was out of the kayak… Neither of us know how we weren’t ended there and then."

The incident was also witnessed by Captain Michael Sack of Sanctuary Cruises. He told local news station KSBW that the two kayakers were paddling through a large pod of feeding whales.

Captain Sack said, "the two were lucky to avoid a direct hit from the animal's massive body, as it could have proven fatal." Adding, "Kayak whale watching can be extremely dangerous," he wrote on his website. "And one should realize that humpback whales are wild animals and totally unpredictable. It’s a very uncontrolled environment out there." 

You can see further stories of kayakers "Close encounters with whales here