xiSkiGuy
Contributor
A guided 200' dive with customers on single AL80s? Genius! 
YouTube - Jennifer, Julio, and Sean run into a Hammerhead shark!
Fantasea Dive News
Priceless is what they had to say about it on TDS: The Deco Stop
YouTube - Jennifer, Julio, and Sean run into a Hammerhead shark!
Fantasea Dive News
Fantasea Dive News:I slowily turned back around to continue the search of really why we were here…to find Bull sharks. At this depth you are constantly monitering your depth and the repunitve deco stops that are incurred for being at that depth. Sinking still, I was 185ft. and looking at :10 (min.) worth of not being able to surface right away. And then there it was! The giant dark shape way head in the distance and heading towards us. I knew it all to well. I had been “sneaking up” on shark for years.I instinctivey flipped on the camera and just like always she began recording. I held my breath and drifted DOWNWARD toward the shark just inches off the bottom. With visibility in exess of 100ft. I could clearly make out a hammerhead shark coming towards me. I held the camera steady and flipped my head over my shoulder to check my divers. There they were and heading downward towards me and the shark. My divers are in good position and now I can drift up next to the big fella! This great hammerhead was moving against the current over the wall as if it were a flat bottom, swining his head from side to side using it like a metal detector detecting unknowing or injured prey. Now I’m a big guy, 6ft 6 inches tall, then add 2ft of fins and 2ft more for my arms outstrected with my video camera, I am about 10ft long in the water…and this big shark made me feel small. REAL small. I guesstimate he was about 14-15 feet long. As he passed I churned my fins against the current keeping up with him for a short ways. As I made time against the current, I searched for a hand-hold to anchor onto. I grabbed for a rock with my left hand and kept the camera on the hammerhead. After he swam past me, he made his way past Julio, Jennifer, and Sean. I released my hand-hold and began to make my way up into shallower water. I glanced at my computer and the max depth reading was at 199ft. I was side by side with a Great hammerhead at almost 200ft! WooHoo! Now back to realtiy…finish the required safety stops and surface safely. 157ft and leveling off…At this point we had been at depth for about :20 and had :17 of required off-gassing stops (and I don’t mean fartting) before we could even get out of the water. As we drifted up the wall to the lip, I could easily imagine the waves crashing against a huge stoney wall from 100’s of millions of years ago. It’s such a beautiful sight when you are in crystal clear waters. And warm! Today I had done all this in my board shorts and a thin neopreme top. But I could feel the colder waters when I was around 200ft coming up from the abyss. For sure later around New Years I’ll definitley need a full wetsuit.
I snapped out of my deep thought, to move up to the next depth level for more off-gassing. I noticed Jennifer running low on air. She moved over to share with me. She secure the air source but seemed to have difficulty breathing with it. But just like a pro, she swapped back to her tank and swam over to Sean. She seemed to breathe easier from his double tank and stayed with him up the the last :03 of our off-gassing( deco stops). Once on the surface, everyone roared with excitement and energy from the dive. We had made the dive in search Bull sharks and had run into big hammerhead…How awesome?! Back in the boat, I told my fellow “shark hunters” that you can pay to dive where they bait the sharks in and it’s dangerous to the guest divers. But to see one out here in the wild just swim up outta the blue…well that’s priceless!
Priceless is what they had to say about it on TDS: The Deco Stop
