Proving Killer Whales Aren't As Dangerous As We Think

Apparently there's a place in northern Norway where you can swim with killer whales. Yeah, you heard that right. Today I'm on a mission to find out how, is it safe and see if we can do it completely by ourselves. What happens when you take your own inflatable boat into the stormy fjords of Norway to swim with the apex predator of the ocean. A week prior to what you just saw, I was in my office when I got a message from a friend, the crazy Welshman. And he said, Hi buddy, planning a last minute dash up to Chervoy for the whales and orcas. Gonna take my little boat up there and get in and swim with them. You in? And I said, swim with orcas? And he said, yeah, have a think and let me know. So I thought about it and I mean, I really thought about it. And a day or so later, I was three quarters of the way through my morning tea when I decided to say two words I still can't believe I said, I'm in. A week later, I would quite literally be in. But before that, I had quite a lot of preparation to do. The first thing on the list was to find someone crazy enough to join. The person that very quickly came to mind was my mate, Andrea, who was one of the crew that agreed to spend eight days hiking through the plains of Venezuela through crocodiles and anacondas last year. So I thought he might be down. I was right. He said, Holy ****, let's do it. Are we safe? It was at this point I began to seriously ask this question myself. Killer whales. Watch this video of an orca taking down a great white shark. So I've been doing some research and other than the headlines and the fact that they are basically the apex predators of the ocean, orcas are meant to be really friendly. And other than in captivity, they have never been recorded to have killed a human being. Never been recorded. Andrea and I, despite being petrified, knew one thing. If we caught one of us being eaten by an orca on film, this video would do very, very well. So I continued with the to-do list. Chervoy, our orca oasis is in the Arctic Circle, which is cool, as in freezing cool. And the water in these temperatures requires wetsuits or even sometimes drysuits. Wetsuits come in a mix of thicknesses to create more of an insulation barrier between you and the water. And in this scenario, we need the thickest you can get. So I've been doing this photography thing for about 11 years now, so I'm pretty dialed down with kit. But the one thing that I do need is some waterproofing. So I've got this Gutek case from Nanlite that's hopefully going to keep all the kit super waterproof. What are we looking for? A blue van. A blue van? Yeah, a big blue van. Oh, that guy. Hello, mate. Hi, how's it going? How are you doing? Here's the spot. Right, let's go. Yep. Yes, you want to use my little tripod? All right, today's the big day. It's currently eight o'clock. So we're putting soapy water inside the suit to make it easier to slip on. The glove is a massive difference. Just rub it on the arms. This is very, very memorable. It is a stunning morning this morning. This is the first time we've seen it. We then packed the car with the kit and took the half frozen boat down to be inflated. This was our first time doing this, and due to it being minus seven degrees Celsius, it took us an hour and a half as the boat was so stiff. We were already behind. We're going to need this today, boys. We're going to get a lot of water going in the boat. It's like, yeah, it's totally normal. I always have loads of water in the boat. That's why we dry bagged everything. We were like, yeah, yeah, all right. At this time of year in the Arctic Circle, the sun doesn't rise, and it's only light for around two hours. So time was ticking. But the conditions couldn't have been better. Big male fin has been spotted. I don't even know what to grab. And here they were. While droning, we had a few technical issues on the boat, and one of the housings was leaking. So on day one, only pool could get in. And with the setting sun, he only had time to get one shot. But boy, was it worth it. At this moment, and it was all I needed to make it my mission to get in with the orcas before the end of the trip. It was going to be a fight with the coming weather front, but we were ready. What an epic day, though. Holy ----. OK, so today is second day. Yesterday didn't quite go as planned, but this is the second day. It's meant to be stormy today. We're just kind of going to go and give it a try. Fingers crossed. And hopefully we see some whales. It snowed pretty heavily the night before, and there were weather warnings spreading throughout the country. Day two wasn't looking good. Next tennis is going to be pretty bumpy. Very splashy. Oh, he said that well. I was really freaking out. So I was getting pretty massive. So we're going to head back, I think. On our way back in, the storm arrived and it got dark quick. After a check of the weather and swells for the next day, we decided packing the boats away would be the safe thing to do just in case things got worse. We all put our waterproofs on and put in a hard grind to get everything packed away before the storm escalated. So we got the boat in. We are now a night before the big day. We've got all our setup just here. Our kit was sorted by nine, ready for the four a.m. wake up call. We did some research that night and the weather charts were telling us there was a small sheltered fjord two hours drive from our accommodation that might be safe enough for us to get out on the boat, giving us our final chance to swim with the whales. We found the beach for our takeoff using Google Maps and got in the car to go the next morning. All right. Yeah. Let's get it. We have arrived at the fjord. At this point, we were so used to the cold. We got dressed into our wetsuits in the snow. We've managed to get all of the pieces in a lot quicker than the other day. This area is beautiful. So we got the boat in the water. Nice little challenge this morning. All right. I think we saw one. There's a boat that went over there in that direction. We may have seen a blow hole or whatever you call it. So we're on our way into the corner of the fjord. It's time to see some whales. Let's go. To get to the whales, we had to take the boat all the way to the edge of the fjord, leaving the calm waters and entering the ocean where the swell reached around two meters. The water splashed up, flooding the floor of the boat, completely soaking us. We spent the next 30 minutes riding around in the rough water looking until something popped up. I got suited up, snorkel on, and it was game time. And now it was Andrea's turn. The experience was beautiful, but it was also scary as the fjord was over 400 meters deep and it was nothing but the deep blue. You had no idea what was below you and the whales could be anywhere. And in the blink of an eye, with all this preparation, it was gone again. This experience was once in a lifetime. And while we were riding back to the car in the cold, I had a moment to reflect. There were so many moments along the journey where we were sitting soaking wet in minus 10 degrees celsius with snow and wind whipping against our faces. And at first we'd say to each other things like, never again, this just is nothing. And then we get through it and look back. And one by one that adversity started to become what we woke up for, what we were looking forward to experiencing. And looking back now after doing what we set out to, the discomfort and the adventure made the experience all the more sweet. So, here's to next year and whales, we're coming for you.