mike black
Registered
Its been seven years sense my first Tiger Beach trip. I was a newly hired cook aboard the MV Shear Water, working for Jim Abernethy, and although Jim and I no longer work together I did learne a lot from him. When I was hired Jim asked me how I felt about sharks, the truth was I was scared of them and had no intentions of making a career out of diving with them. I played it cool and was happy to hear that my job was to cook and diving was optional.
Day one Dive one:
It was fantastic, it was actually the first time I dove in the Bahamas and the crystal clear water along with the gorgeous reef was enough to make any diver happy. The only problem for me at the time is that there were sharks every where. I listened closely to Jim’s extremely long and scary briefing, which could be summed up with something he repeated several times, "The job of the shark is to eat the dead, dying, diseased, and the dumb!"
Reef sharks were referred to as small sharks, because if one bit you, you would probably be OK. The last thing I wanted was to get bit by any shark, so I did exactly as I was told, and upon entering the water,it was exactly as I was told it would be. The sharks continued to do what they were doing they swam all around and the strobes fired, as the guests set up shot after shot. We had all learned in the briefing that eye contact, could be used as a deterrent and I was amazed at how true this was. The reef sharks would swim toward me, I would keep them in my peripheral until they got close and thenI would just look at them and they would veer away. It was so cool, I felt like I had just discovered a super power I never knew I had. The first dive was a huge success for me, I had been on my first shark dive and I felt a sense of accomplishment like I had conquered a life long fear, one of the only things the ocean had that scared me, "thank you Peter Benchley". And here I was diving with them. Wow.
Day one Dive Two:
We moved the boat to a shallower site it was a sandy area with a large chain from an old ship, the site is called the chain, "pretty creative". With in ten minutes we had several Lemon Sharks at the back of the boat. I was looking at these things thinking "OH MY God", they were quite a bit bigger than the reef shark, and they have these teeth that are snarly and pointy. Some of the guests were discussing a shot that they wanted, it was a topside shot, this meant it would be from the boat. I was told to get some bait, which was then tied to a fishing pole and slapped against the surface of the water. The lemon sharks were like a pack of hungry crocodiles they were snapping and biting with lightning speed as one of the crew splashed the dead fish at the surface. It was really fun and later I saw some of the pictures, I could not believe what these photographers were able to capture.
Then after half an hour of slapping the snapper, one of the guests said lets get in. This seemed like a horrible idea and was the furthest thought from my mind as I had just seen what these sharks were doing to that poor snapper, but they suited up and proceeded to enter the water. After I watched one group return to the boat with all of their bits and pieces I decided I would give it a shot. The lemon sharks Behaved in a similar manor to the reef sharks, except they were a little more bold, maybe it has to do with their size, the eye contact thing worked but not as effectively. At one point I saw a ten foot lemon shark swim in between one of the divers legs. We were told the lemon shark was also considered to be a small shark and an accidental bite although rare would most likely be fixable right there on the boat. I finished my dive and back on the boat I felt so good about myself. I knew for the rest of my life my comfort level in the ocean would be so much more, maybe the Jaws music would even stop playing when I was by myself swimming at the beach.
Day one was not even over and this had already been the experience of a life time. I felt like I had already pushed my luck enough for one day and I would have been happy just to be able to say I had done what I had done. I did not need to prove anything else to myself I knew that I was cured of my fear of sharks for ever.
Then Emma showed up. Emma is a fourteen foot Tiger Shark. From the boat you could see this enormous black figure slowly swimming along the bottom. I had heard every body talk about the Tiger sharks and Emma and how they all wished for an encounter with this fish. I really thought they were all just talking, I imagined the second a tiger shark showed up they would have a change of heart.
Well, I was wrong, these people actually kicked it into high gear and there were fights over whose group was going first, I just watched wide eyed like, this is such a bad idea. I felt like I was watching people make life threatening decisions and there I was burdened with the job of helping them pull the trigger. I had a moment where there was a moral conflict, If I help this person into the water and they get eaten by a tiger shark which is pretty much what the majority of the world expects the outcome to be, then how am I going to feel. I kind of stepped back and watched building my defense, "your honor I had no part of influencing these people to dive with a tiger shark, I agree with you they are nuts!" I felt a sense of guilt by association, I was scared for these people, I mean the tiger shark is the trash can of the sea, they find license plates and coke cans and the famous suit of armour in these things! An hour passed and divers began to shuffle back on to the boat, not only were they OK but they seemed extremely happy. I thought the whole boat was crazy, I was expecting before the day was done that someone would offer me a cup of Kool-Aid, “Hey, drink this at midnight were all doing it”.
And then they did it was peer pressure, "you should get in" they said, "its amazing" "Emma is such a sweet heart" What does that even mean? a sweet heart! Jim came up and he said "you gotta get in" at this point there were 5 guests back on the boat, they were recharging strobes, downloading images, and excitedly discussing their most recent dive, oh and badgering me to treat my self to this once in a life time experience. I heard myself say "Yeah I'll get in" then the voice of reason yelled at me, "no you wont these people are f#$%ing crazy you will not get in make an excuse" "I am just going to start dinner first" My inner voice was so proud and happy, "good work that will buy you some time and then you can flake later perfect" what I was not ready for was Jim to say "No no don’t worry about dinner get in its amazing." My inner thought panicked as I agreed,"what are you doing" "were stuck were drinking the Kool Aid" "Oh no" I began to gear up, Jim was just switching tanks and he would be back in the water in five minutes. OK I was ready, not really but I was doing it, I layed on the back of the boat looking down into the shark infested water and when Emma swam away I entered. I shot down to the bottom with the idea of posting up next to one of the guests with a very large camera. Before I could even get to him Emma had turned around and was headed right at me. She swam so slow but her direction was evident a straight line toward me, and there was no doubt I was about to have my first encounter with a very large tiger shark. It felt like forever, she was swimming so slow, I could feel the sweat beading up on my fore head inside of my mask, the suspense would kill me before she would. Finally she reached me and our showdown had begun. She came within an arms reach of me I extended my arm and prepared my 3/4 inch PVC pipe that had been given to me for protection. I planted the pipe into the sand and put it between her and I, she cocked her head a little bit and looked at me with one eye while she proceeded to circle me slowly. I was to terrified to even appreciate her beauty. She continued to circle me two and a half times, which felt like an eternity, and then she swam off. As soon as she made it far enough away from me that I felt like I could make it to the boat before she could make it to me, I did an emergency assent and was back on the boat quicker than ever. My total dive time was 3 minutes. Jim looked at me confused and said "did you forget something" I must have shot him a look that explained what I was thinking because he then asked "were you not comfortable" was I not comfortable hu, are most people comfortable, I thought, what a stupid question and to it I replied,"Let me tell you a little bit about how comfortable I was on that dive. "I was about as comfortable as having a 250 pound rottweiler sniff my balls, so no to answer your question I would say that I was not comfortable." Every one Laughed and although it took several dives before I was even close to what I would call comfortable, I have grown to love the sharks and love having close encounters with them, especially the Tigers. Sometimes life makes its own path, and its funny to think that now, 7 years later, I am hosting trips to tiger beach and the one introducing new divers to large sharks. Please visit www.Jawsom.com to learn more and contact Mike Black or Jamin Martinelli.
Day one Dive one:
It was fantastic, it was actually the first time I dove in the Bahamas and the crystal clear water along with the gorgeous reef was enough to make any diver happy. The only problem for me at the time is that there were sharks every where. I listened closely to Jim’s extremely long and scary briefing, which could be summed up with something he repeated several times, "The job of the shark is to eat the dead, dying, diseased, and the dumb!"
Reef sharks were referred to as small sharks, because if one bit you, you would probably be OK. The last thing I wanted was to get bit by any shark, so I did exactly as I was told, and upon entering the water,it was exactly as I was told it would be. The sharks continued to do what they were doing they swam all around and the strobes fired, as the guests set up shot after shot. We had all learned in the briefing that eye contact, could be used as a deterrent and I was amazed at how true this was. The reef sharks would swim toward me, I would keep them in my peripheral until they got close and thenI would just look at them and they would veer away. It was so cool, I felt like I had just discovered a super power I never knew I had. The first dive was a huge success for me, I had been on my first shark dive and I felt a sense of accomplishment like I had conquered a life long fear, one of the only things the ocean had that scared me, "thank you Peter Benchley". And here I was diving with them. Wow.
Day one Dive Two:
We moved the boat to a shallower site it was a sandy area with a large chain from an old ship, the site is called the chain, "pretty creative". With in ten minutes we had several Lemon Sharks at the back of the boat. I was looking at these things thinking "OH MY God", they were quite a bit bigger than the reef shark, and they have these teeth that are snarly and pointy. Some of the guests were discussing a shot that they wanted, it was a topside shot, this meant it would be from the boat. I was told to get some bait, which was then tied to a fishing pole and slapped against the surface of the water. The lemon sharks were like a pack of hungry crocodiles they were snapping and biting with lightning speed as one of the crew splashed the dead fish at the surface. It was really fun and later I saw some of the pictures, I could not believe what these photographers were able to capture.
Then after half an hour of slapping the snapper, one of the guests said lets get in. This seemed like a horrible idea and was the furthest thought from my mind as I had just seen what these sharks were doing to that poor snapper, but they suited up and proceeded to enter the water. After I watched one group return to the boat with all of their bits and pieces I decided I would give it a shot. The lemon sharks Behaved in a similar manor to the reef sharks, except they were a little more bold, maybe it has to do with their size, the eye contact thing worked but not as effectively. At one point I saw a ten foot lemon shark swim in between one of the divers legs. We were told the lemon shark was also considered to be a small shark and an accidental bite although rare would most likely be fixable right there on the boat. I finished my dive and back on the boat I felt so good about myself. I knew for the rest of my life my comfort level in the ocean would be so much more, maybe the Jaws music would even stop playing when I was by myself swimming at the beach.
Day one was not even over and this had already been the experience of a life time. I felt like I had already pushed my luck enough for one day and I would have been happy just to be able to say I had done what I had done. I did not need to prove anything else to myself I knew that I was cured of my fear of sharks for ever.
Then Emma showed up. Emma is a fourteen foot Tiger Shark. From the boat you could see this enormous black figure slowly swimming along the bottom. I had heard every body talk about the Tiger sharks and Emma and how they all wished for an encounter with this fish. I really thought they were all just talking, I imagined the second a tiger shark showed up they would have a change of heart.
Well, I was wrong, these people actually kicked it into high gear and there were fights over whose group was going first, I just watched wide eyed like, this is such a bad idea. I felt like I was watching people make life threatening decisions and there I was burdened with the job of helping them pull the trigger. I had a moment where there was a moral conflict, If I help this person into the water and they get eaten by a tiger shark which is pretty much what the majority of the world expects the outcome to be, then how am I going to feel. I kind of stepped back and watched building my defense, "your honor I had no part of influencing these people to dive with a tiger shark, I agree with you they are nuts!" I felt a sense of guilt by association, I was scared for these people, I mean the tiger shark is the trash can of the sea, they find license plates and coke cans and the famous suit of armour in these things! An hour passed and divers began to shuffle back on to the boat, not only were they OK but they seemed extremely happy. I thought the whole boat was crazy, I was expecting before the day was done that someone would offer me a cup of Kool-Aid, “Hey, drink this at midnight were all doing it”.
And then they did it was peer pressure, "you should get in" they said, "its amazing" "Emma is such a sweet heart" What does that even mean? a sweet heart! Jim came up and he said "you gotta get in" at this point there were 5 guests back on the boat, they were recharging strobes, downloading images, and excitedly discussing their most recent dive, oh and badgering me to treat my self to this once in a life time experience. I heard myself say "Yeah I'll get in" then the voice of reason yelled at me, "no you wont these people are f#$%ing crazy you will not get in make an excuse" "I am just going to start dinner first" My inner voice was so proud and happy, "good work that will buy you some time and then you can flake later perfect" what I was not ready for was Jim to say "No no don’t worry about dinner get in its amazing." My inner thought panicked as I agreed,"what are you doing" "were stuck were drinking the Kool Aid" "Oh no" I began to gear up, Jim was just switching tanks and he would be back in the water in five minutes. OK I was ready, not really but I was doing it, I layed on the back of the boat looking down into the shark infested water and when Emma swam away I entered. I shot down to the bottom with the idea of posting up next to one of the guests with a very large camera. Before I could even get to him Emma had turned around and was headed right at me. She swam so slow but her direction was evident a straight line toward me, and there was no doubt I was about to have my first encounter with a very large tiger shark. It felt like forever, she was swimming so slow, I could feel the sweat beading up on my fore head inside of my mask, the suspense would kill me before she would. Finally she reached me and our showdown had begun. She came within an arms reach of me I extended my arm and prepared my 3/4 inch PVC pipe that had been given to me for protection. I planted the pipe into the sand and put it between her and I, she cocked her head a little bit and looked at me with one eye while she proceeded to circle me slowly. I was to terrified to even appreciate her beauty. She continued to circle me two and a half times, which felt like an eternity, and then she swam off. As soon as she made it far enough away from me that I felt like I could make it to the boat before she could make it to me, I did an emergency assent and was back on the boat quicker than ever. My total dive time was 3 minutes. Jim looked at me confused and said "did you forget something" I must have shot him a look that explained what I was thinking because he then asked "were you not comfortable" was I not comfortable hu, are most people comfortable, I thought, what a stupid question and to it I replied,"Let me tell you a little bit about how comfortable I was on that dive. "I was about as comfortable as having a 250 pound rottweiler sniff my balls, so no to answer your question I would say that I was not comfortable." Every one Laughed and although it took several dives before I was even close to what I would call comfortable, I have grown to love the sharks and love having close encounters with them, especially the Tigers. Sometimes life makes its own path, and its funny to think that now, 7 years later, I am hosting trips to tiger beach and the one introducing new divers to large sharks. Please visit www.Jawsom.com to learn more and contact Mike Black or Jamin Martinelli.
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