Mako shark freediving

[PerformanceFreediving]

So I just wanted to share this really cool experience with other freedivers on here. We had a class out a couple weeks ago and we were drifting in about 600 feet of water off Fort Lauderdale. We had two lines set up- I was teaching on one and Ted was on another w/ his students. We were about to do some 50-foot warm ups when I saw a big animal circling down below our line. It came up a bit shallower and we saw it was a Mako!

It continued to hang out for about 5 minutes, I think it was curious as to what the heck we were doing, then it cruised off. We normally don't see many big animals out in the deep blue water like that so I thought I'd share. It was a unique experience, not just for our freediving students, but for Ted and me as well.

The only bad thing was that I'd forgotten to bring my camera!!

 

[Florida Scuba Divers]

Erin.... WOW a Mako.... that had to be an awesome sight to see. A camera would have been nice to have for sure. I hear of occasional sightings but they are rare in our waters. While taking my Level II training, we had a very large Sailfish circle below us. I am sure that is much more common though. Point is.... you never know what you may see in the deep. Very cool.... thanks for sharing.

 

[PerformanceFreediving]

Hey ScubaWorks,
It was nuts- the best part was that all of the students were cool as cucumbers. A sailfish sighting is pretty cool too! I've never seen that before. Although we do see some neat stuff- in Kona we've had dolphins circling w/in a few feet and underwater you can hear whales singing during certain times of year. Incredible. When did you do Level II training? We offer open line diving for freedivers certified w/ either us or Martin. Let me know if you're interested! We'd love to have you out. Maybe w/ our combined luck we'll get some more animal sightings!

 

[Florida Scuba Divers]

Hey Erin.... I took it with Martin in June of this year. What an amazing course. I went from 1:30 static to 5:03 and from 50 fsw to 95 fsw. I encourage everyone wanting to take freediving to the next level to take the course with Martin or Kurk. I will have to come down and hop on the float you guys sometime. Thanks for the invite. This has been an amazing year of sightings for us while on scuba.... 2 Mola Molas, 4 Leatherback Turtles, 2 Sawfish, several Hammerheads to mention a few. That is why I love being in the water..... you never know what you might see. Take care, John

 

[PerformanceFreediving]

Hey John,
Glad to hear you got so much out of the course. Shoot me an email when you want to come out and we'll get you on a line! Sounds like you've seen more than I have this year- that last time we had our students out we looked up to see the boat captain w/ fishing lines in the water (downcurrent from us mind you) and he said he saw a bunch of Tuna around. I guess maybe that's why the shark was hanging out...Ha- see you out on the water soon I hope.

 

[lemon]

Cool! I went snorkeling with a Mako just this past sunday. My HD video is here in case you want to relive your mako sighting! Such an incredible animal.

Avalon Banks Shark Expedition on Vimeo

 

[PerformanceFreediving]

Thanks for that! cool video