This is one topic you likely thought you’d NEVER see on my site, given all the times I’ve talked about my biggest foe. Luckily, I have acquaintances even braver than I to make up for my lack of courage in some arenas. This guest blog is courtesy of Richard Luck, my sister Kari’s boyfriend whom she met aboard University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea voyage. I’m not going to lie, even posting this video made my heart pound in my throat!
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What could have easily been the last morning of my young life started early with a 6am pick up from the ship. Our group of 12 met our guide as we disembarked and jumped into a large church van plastered with shark diving stickers. The two-hour drive to the dive site was beautiful. Thirty minutes north of Cape Town, the highway veered over a small mountain range. As we passed over the mountains, we were able to enjoy a breath-taking sunrise overlooking all of Cape Town. The rest of the drive consisted of stunning mountain scenery on both sides with vineyards nestled in between and the occasional view of a beach in the distance. Our conversation along the way focused on two things: What would happen if the cage broke and who we would want to be in there when it happened.
When we arrived, we were welcomed by the rest of the staff. They invited us into a house which they had turned into their office. We walked upstairs and were pleased to see they had a feast waiting for us. We ate eggs, ham, toast and cereal as we passed papers around signing our life away. We then proceeded to the dock where we jumped on our boat, The White Shark. It was a 20-minute rough ride out to the dive sight. I’m not sure if it was the excitement or the nerves, but we all screamed the whole way there as our boat crashed through the waves. When we arrived, one of our guides dropped the cage overboard and strapped it to the side of the boat. The other guide gave us the instructions for the dive. We were going to have only masks on. He told us that we would float with our heads above the water until he spotted a shark, at that point he would yell, “divers, down!” and we would submerge ourselves for as long as we could holding our breath. As we began trying on wet suits, our guides were throwing out chum and stringing a tuna head for bait. Before we knew it, we were being yelled at to jump in the cage.
Begrudgingly, I was in the first group. Six of us piled on top of each other trying to get into the cage with a shark circling only feet away in freezing cold water. Quite the scene. Once we were settled, our guide threw the tuna head out and began to slowly drag it toward the cage. Within 30 seconds, we heard our first “divers, down!” We pushed ourselves under with our hands clinging to the metal cage. Literally five feet in front of us was an 11-foot great white shark gliding gracefully through the water. It graciously bumped the bait several times, left it, and then came back for another pass. We were all surprised at how peaceful, massive and beautiful the animal actually was. The peacefulness quickly went away.
It had been several minutes since we last saw the shark disappear into the murky green water. We were all floating when unexpectedly our guide once again yelled, “divers, down!” This time the shark came out of nowhere at full speed. The guide quickly jerked the tuna until it was resting again the cage. The shark came at the cage with its mouth open. It really was just like in the movies. It chomped on the tuna with its head out of the water and belly slamming repetitively against the cage for a solid 20 seconds. It was one of the more exhilarating 20 seconds of my life, for sure. When it ripped away, we all came up for air gasping for breath. The next five minutes were filled with screaming and high fives. (Editor’s Note: That would be Richard’s squeals of “This is awesome!” heard throughout the video.)
Great White Shark Cage Diving from Camels & Chocolate on Vimeo.
We spent a total of four hours at the dive site with each of us taking multiple dips in the cage. We had two more intense shark encounters, such as the first one, and saw five other great whites. When our time was up, we ripped the wet suits off, and had a soggy ham and cheese sandwich that couldn’t have tasted better after the hours of slurping up salt water.
When we got back to the office, we all bought a shark diving T-shirt to prove we had be down “Shark Alley.” We then said our thank yous (for surviving) and farewells and headed back to Cape Town. Ten minutes into the drive we were all passed out. The day couldn’t have gone any better.
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Know Before You Go: The majority of cage diving operations in South Africa are clustered around the town of Gansbaii, but offer day trips from Cape Town for around $95 (most have booths at the V&A Waterfront). Dives depend on the weather and ocean currents. I’ve known many a shark fiend who has gotten all the way to Gansbaii only to find the waves to strong or sea too windy, and they were sent boo-hooing right back to Cape Town (four hours round trip). So choose your day wisely (aka check the weather forecast in advance).
Can’t wait to do this! Awesome video!
Wow, what a kick! So glad they had a great time. At first I thought YOU went on the dive, but I KNEW that couldn’t be right!
I’m surprised the bait man let the sharks get the tuna. I could be wrong, but I thought there might be some kind of licensing regulation in South Africa against allowing white sharks to get the bait, because of concern that it will make them associate boats with food. (At very least, I’m pretty sure this is an ethical restriction that a lot of tour operators agree to self-impose. That’s what ours told us in November.)
Anyway, if somebody’s not keen to go on a tour where they feed Great Whites, they can ask tour operators about it in advance. But I’d encourage people to go if they’re inclined and are not prone to crippling seasickness, AHEM. It’s a fascinating experience.
I’ve been looking forward to more Semester at Sea posts!!! I went cage diving with the white sharks at Gansbaii while on Semester at Sea too (Fall 2004), and it really is about as thrilling and incredible of an experience as it gets. When we were on the boat heading out to the dive site, the boat captain casually mentioned to us that we ought to evenly distribute our weight around the boat so that the boat wouldn’t have the chance to topple over… you know, in the shark-infested waters! That’s when I knew this was for real. It’s pretty unbelievable to be face-to-face with a great white. The next day I went skydiving in Cape Town and the day after that I turned 20. So, needless to say my adventures in Cape Town while on SAS were pretty memorable. Thanks for some sweet memories on a Monday morning at work.
That looks terrifying, and probably really thrilling, too. Maybe I’ll consider it…
Wow, that was exhilerating! I Do Not have the desire to dive with sharks either. But was glad to go along.
While near Cape Town I met a young woman just finishing up her Dive Master’s certificate and on her way to work in Mozambique. She wants to specialize in shark dives and Loves the Great Whites.
Thanks for sharing Richard’s story. He’s more than AllRight!
Oh wow, I’d love to do this. I’m a huge marine biology fan, and I’ve always had a thing for sharks. Amazing!
YES. This post just totally made my morning. I’M SO DOING THIS. And screaming the entire time, I’m sure.
NO WAY JOSE! This really freaked me out, just seeing the video. I think you were very sage (and still super brave) to have stayed in the boat
SO wanted to do this in Hawaii! Brando wasn’t too excited about it one way or the other – he just didn’t care. Next time I’m doing it on my own!
I did this too in South Africa (I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes at that statement by now)! It was exhilarating and amazing – I yakked because of the horrendous rolling waves, but I wasn’t alone (I think maybe 7 of the 20 people did). Glad to see Richard enjoyed it
Sounds exactly like my experience!!! Made me want to do it again–one of the BEST experiences ever! I just wish I had had such cute guys on my trip too, haha.
Hm, not sure how I feel. I am at once fascinated by them, thinking I would want to do it for the chance to see them up close. But just not sure that it’s okay to associate humans with chum like that. Something tells me no (especially as a diver!!). But wow, what an amazing looking fish. Thanks for sharing, Richard!
What a beautiful–and terrifying–animal and experience. But I think I agree with Terry on this one. We looked into it a bit when we were in South Africa, and though findings are not comprehensive, we found a lot of negative information about chumming the waters in order to facilitate encounters between people and sharks. For purely selfish reasons I don’t want Great Whites to start associating people with food. In regards to the future of the sharks, it also seems unwise to encourage them to get close to people as that’s how they usually end up getting killed. On the other hand, I guess, as with zoos, personal encounters can lean to greater advocacy and interest in protection. Regardless, thanks for sharing the video. Amazing to see how powerful these sharks are.
Reading all the SAS posts really makes me wish I was back in college and I could have such a once in a lifetime experience.
I can’t stop watching that video! That’s insane!
I’ve never really thought about this before, but I’m pretty sure I’m afraid of fish. No, really. It’s the lack of facial expression/animation. They even creep me out a little bit at the aquarium. Aquariums scare me a little. There. I said it.
How incredible! This is definitely on my bucket list… I’ve always been fascinated by the ocean. Can’t wait for the SAS post! It’s really something I’m VERY interested in and hope to be able to do it soon! Thanks for sharing!
How incredible!
looks like you’re all having a lot of fun!
Wow…. I so wanted to watch, but I am such a baby I had to stop! ha
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I went shark cage diving a few months ago. There were a lot of us on the boat. Way more than 12 and my hired wetsuit had a large hole in the crotch area.