I’m not entirely sure when it started for me, but I can say with certainty that diving with great whites has been on my mind for a very long time. Honestly, saying that it’s been on my mind is an understatement. It is something more. It’s visceral, nearly indescribable. To be in the water with an animal that is powerful yet graceful, ancient yet alive. I want to get close enough that I can see that it sees me. Recognition of one another. On the surface it may seem insane, but I’m no longer interested in what’s on the surface. I want a deeper connection. I suppose I could say that about life in general, maybe it has something to do with mid-life reflection, I don’t know. Ha ha! Every diver has an ultimate dive on their list, ask them about it and they could talk your ear off. For my hubby, it’s whale sharks. Each time I show him a photograph or video, I see a twinkle in his eye. He has that twinkle anyway, as most women could tell you, but when he talks about diving with whale sharks something in him ignites. I recognize it easily because I get it, I understand that little fire. For me, the ultimate dive is with the Great Whites.
A little over a month ago, Shark Diver posted on Facebook that they had a few openings for a trip this September. Trips to Isla Guadalupe can sell out a year in advance, so I was surprised. We had considered booking a trip in October of 2016, but when we weighed all of our options and checked our schedules, the decision was easy. Why wait? As hubby often says, “One of us could die tomorrow, lets go,” as macabre as that sounds, it’s true. I’ve followed the Shark Diver FB page for a few years as well as the owner, Martin Graf, on his blog. We feel confident traveling with Martin and his crew. Shark Diver is conservation focused with an impeccable safety record. Their Director of Communications, Cindy Michaels, is very detailed and helpful which I appreciate. The reactions we’ve received regarding this trip have been mixed. “YOU’RE CRAZY,” has been the numero uno response, but rest assured we have no misgivings about the fact that these are wild animals and deserve respect and some distance. My perspective is that we do crazy things on a daily basis (like trusting other drivers on the road), that involve more risk than the calculated venture of sliding into a cage to dive with great whites. My mother sighed in relief knowing that we would at least be in a cage, no open water diving. Not this time anyway!
The M/V Horizon will be our home for five days. From San Diego, it’s a 28 hour trip to Isla Guadalupe. If I’m nervous about anything, it’s that! Have Scopolamine, will travel! Ha ha. We leave San Diego and head towards Ensenada to go through Mexican customs then out to Guadalupe. Once we arrive at the island, we will have two and a half days of diving with the great whites, taking rotating shifts of one hour in the cages with one hour surface intervals. Shark Diver takes a maximum of 16 to 17 divers, so we will meet additional lunatics which is part of the fun! My understanding is that the cages go in around sunrise and stay in until just before sunset, allowing for up to 5+ hours of cage time each day and 2-3 hours on the last day before we start our journey back to San Diego.
Once on board the M/V Horizon we will disconnect in order to connect. There are no phones, no wifi, no TV. Sounds like heaven to me! This will be a hosted photo tour which means we have a professional photographer onboard that will teach us some tricks! There should be plenty of downtime to play with video clips and editing software. Well, so much for total disconnect. The next few posts will obviously be after we get back to San Diego. Hopefully by then I will have mastered Final Cut Pro and have some worthy video! Hubby will hopefully master the new Nikon we bought on eBay (got a sweet deal), and maybe I can master the art of writing a blog post as well. Still working on that as my draft folder would indicate.
The season at Isla Guadalupe runs from August to November, with younger male sharks showing up earlier and large females arriving around the beginning of October to November. Two weeks ago there was a video circulating the internet of Deep Blue, one of the largest Great Whites ever filmed. The video was taken at Guadalupe! We are hopeful that we get to meet her, but I’m not counting on it. It’s early in the season, but you never know. I’ve been following Shark Diver closely since the 2015 season started, they post details of each trip once they arrive at the dock. This season they have routinely encountered 18 to 30 individual great whites as well as whale sharks, orcas, dolphins, and turtles. Each trip is different and I have no idea what’s in store for us. All I know is that I’m ready! Hubby is ready!
Last October we had our first liveaboard experience sailing the Exumas on the Cat Pplau. I’m thankful we booked that trip as it has given us an indication of what’s to come. During that trip we had an incredible shark dive at the Austin Smith Wreck. The sharks were not hand fed, so they calmly did their thing. We have encountered caribbean reef sharks numerous times and they keep their distance for the most part, but are beautiful to watch. Our handful of experiences with reef sharks will pale in comparison I’m afraid. Maybe not, but as I sit here on my couch, I realize our living room rug is 11′ x 15′. This serves as a dose of reality. The great whites at Guadalupe average 12′-16′ with some topping 18′- 20′. If I recall, the largest reef shark we’ve seen is 7′ and that’s a big shark! I cannot quite grasp what we are in for.
One dive that we have done with regularity over the years is the fossil dive in Venice Beach, Fl. I cannot speak highly enough of the crew of the Hammerhead at Megalodon Charters/Florida West Scuba. I bring up the extinct Megalodon for comparison sake. We have had decent luck when diving in the fossil beds finding meg teeth, whale ear bones, and smaller shark teeth. Like most things in life, it takes practice. We have not found the elusive 6″ or 7″ tooth, but I was lucky enough to find a 3.5″ megalodon tooth in July of 2010. Hubby found a near perfect tooth just a bit smaller. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you can clearly scream underwater, trust me. When you find a large tooth you become an excited 5 year old. Anyone who says they don’t is a liar liar pants on fire! To find and hold in your hand what once belonged in the jaws of an ancient shark is very cool. To imagine the size of the animal it resided in is sobering. On average, scientific experts consider 1″ of a meg tooth to correspond with roughly 11′ of body length. My 3.5″ tooth represents a 39′ shark. That is hard to comprehend. This experience will give us an entirely new perspective!
While we are indulging our human desire to encounter these incredible animals, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that there is something of greater importance. Shark populations have been decimated worldwide due to overfishing for shark fins, culling due to fear, and bycatch. The estimates are different between species of sharks, but calculations show that 50% to 97% of the populations have decreased and some areas show regional extinctions. This is not because of natural causes. We need sharks. The more I learn about them, the more I get it. Sharks indicate a healthy reef system. It’s no mystery that removing or adding an animal to an ecosystem can have dire effects. Lion fish are an invasive species and they are currently wreaking havoc on the Caribbean because they have no known predators, in this case culling is a wonderful thing! I’ll save my thoughts on hunting and culling for another entry, they are probably not what you think. Like anything of importance, education it key! This experience is not based on wanting that perfect photo op to post on Facebook. It is to learn, to share, to educate, to decrease fear, and to increase understanding. Ultimately, to get that deeper connection.
If you are interested in any of the tour operators I mentioned above you can click the links to their websites below. I have a lofty goal of revisiting each trip here on the blog at some point to detail our experiences with them, but I cannot promise that it will be done anytime soon. Just know that I highly recommend all of them! My blog entries for this trip will likely serve as a built in review of Shark Diver. The great thing about the Shark Diver Great White trip is that you DO NOT have to be a certified diver to participate!
Well, I’m not sure what else to say other than if you’re reading this I want to thank you for following along! I’m looking forward to sharing what we learn!
See you on the other side!
Self Indulgent Sea 
Nice job! After reading I think you’re less crazy😄
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Thanks! It’s a learning process for sure!
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