Not sure I'd consider it bravery, Sam... maybe a bit of stupidity. Since four groups of divers had already encountered it without incident, I felt reasonably comfortable going in.
Definitely sounds like it wasn't in a "feeding freeze" then. Having just been out at Guadalupe Island two weeks ago, I was struck by how they just seemed to glide along while hardly moving their tails. There was the occasional deliberate lunge at the throw baits, but definitely not a "frenzy." I
almost wanted to trade the cage, hookah, and weight harness for a tank and fins ... but given how many times they managed to get close unobserved even in that gorgeous 100'+ viz, it was safer to keep hands and feet inside the ride at all times.
Spearfishing in great white territory...too rich for my blood! My California dive trip was on Truth Aquatic's boat the Vision; really enjoyed it. One dive stuck in my memory as what felt like one of the dumbest dives I've ever done, though it probably wasn't. We anchored off Santa Barbara Island, and if anyone wanted to do a night dive, well, pool's open. I went in the water whenever others did, and a guy and his sister (I think) were going in. Ended up being a roughly 32 minute cold dive looking around not far from the boat.
But I was told we were in the area of the 'rookery.' And over the years I'd somehow come by the idea shark attack was more a risk evenings, when light levels got low, and this was in the dark. So my big, chubby self in a black wetsuit and hood (looking like a plump, tasty sea lion) was down under around a sea lion rookery in the dark in a region with great whites.
Probably not unduly hazardous, but it felt like a stupid thing to do.
Richard.
I and a few other grad students did go spearfishing at SBI and SNI. Never saw a GDGW, but we had one funny incident on what I think was my second trip out to SBI. We were approaching Sutil Island down at the south end in the boat, getting ready to drop one grad student and her undergrad assistant in to bag CA sheepheads. As we're crossing over there are sealions jumping all around the boat; there was a moment when one sealion came up, looked at us, and went back under.
We all went back to our tasks, there was a perfectly timed comedic double-take, and all five of us looked at each other.
"Was that sealion missing the back end?" Sure enough, we all agreed that where the back flippers should have been there was ragged meat - not bleeding, but definitely relatively fresh.
To the gals' credit, they still got in the water and got their fish. On our way out we came around the east side of the island and I dropped in without a tank to check the shallows for calico bass. I think going to and from the boat there was a rooster tail coming off my snorkel.
