Shark on my Head!!!

“You seem to be running towards adventure, particularly danger, in the same way everyone else runs away from it.” – an old sailor I talked to at a bar stemming from a conversation that started with me telling him about my day at work…which went something like this:

I rolled out of bed, bright and early as usual, walked the 45 seconds over to the beach, and went swimming. After I was nice and awake I returned home for breakfast and to slip on board shorts and a shirt that would be coming off again just as soon as I reached my wetsuit at work. We had an awesome morning of diving (a wreck and a reef) and then headed back out for another dive.

Around 15:00 Jeff told me the news I had been waiting to hear all week. “The shark dive is a go, switch out the tanks.” Our little boat took us on a rolly fifteen minute ride and before I knew it Jeff was explaining how we would be mooring. Most mooring balls (lines that are attached to the bottom that we attach ourselves to so our boat doesn’t drift while we dive) are either on the surface or just below. In this instance it is located below and usually one of the crew will free dive down with the rope and tie off (we like to make a big show of it for the customers but it really isn’t that big of a deal). The only difference with this mooring is that I got my scuba gear on and tied off to the underwater mooring, then had to tie another line from the moorings anchor line to another line on our boat. It’s a wee bit complicated and with the current takes a fair amount of concentration. That is key. Concentration. Which I did not have. At all. Why? Well, when I looked down 60ft there were six reef sharks, between four and eight feet long, circling below me. Now as some of you may know I was once had a paranoia of sharks. I’m over that now as they are such stunning creatures but they still leave me more then a little breathless. I was finally able to complete my task and got the customers in the water. We descended down and Jeff (suited up in chain mail) proceeded to start feeding the sharks tin pieces of fish.



The sharks that day, according to Jeff, were abnormally ballsy. At first they were passing within a few feet of us but soon they were brushing past and I could feel the sleek roughness of their skin. One came from behind me and glided over my head, I literally felt it, and when I looked up all I saw was that shadow they show in movies with glistening razor teeth. I was so excited that I turned breathless (aka underwater hyperventilation) and had to calm myself so I didn’t use up all my air. Another shark assumed that my camera was something tasty so took a hold of it and I had to almost shove him off. The only way I can think to describe them was as a pack of street dogs. Ones you need to keep your guard up around but not ones that send you jumping over fences to get away. They are used to Jeff’s presence and were incredible around him! They would go under his legs and through his arms. There was a small one that he was almost “holding” while feeding a piece of fish. It was a surreal experience.

And the coolest part? This is my life. We do 1-2 shark dives a week, conditions permitting.
I will be diving.
With sharks.
Every week.

…


AS MY JOB!
=D