Just For Fun! - My Shark Cage

[rockhead01]

Just for fun I thought I'd share some of my husband and I's adventures. Yes we have a shark cage. Yes we really go in it, and yes we see sharks! Here are some of the pics from our trips and below is a link to SeaRay Living Magazine who did a magazine article on our adventures.

 

See Page #42

SeaRay Living Magazine Article

 

 

[reef keeper]

nice!!! have you ever seen a great white up close like that?

[Bio-Reef]

Looks fun!!

[crx2ner]

I am so incredibly jealous... my GF thinks im insane i want to do this so bad!

 

Little hard to do it in kansas though.

[StevieT]

Wimps

[rockhead01]

Wimps

 

Lets see you get in the water with 8 gallons of blood and chum in the murky north Atlantic! =)

[Pickle010]

Lets see you get in the water with 8 gallons of blood and chum in the murky north Atlantic! =)

 

 

You've ovbiously never seen Stevie - he'd put any chhum bucket to shame.

[rockhead01]

nice!!! have you ever seen a great white up close like that?

 

We saw a 14 ft GW last June. Swam right up to the boat. We watched in awe as it checked us out than swam away. We haven't got to see Mr. Whitey from the cage..yet..

 

 

 

You've ovbiously never seen Stevie - he'd put any chhum bucket to shame.

 

Hey Stevie, Wanna go on a boat ride?

[reef keeper]

always wanted to see one from a boat or cage must have been awesome!

[Meengineer0128]

Just for fun I thought I'd share some of my husband and I's adventures. Yes we have a shark cage. Yes we really go in it, and yes we see sharks! Here are some of the pics from our trips and below is a link to SeaRay Living Magazine who did a magazine article on our adventures.

 

See Page #42

SeaRay Living Magazine Article

 

 

Screw GW's. I dove in the open (with a guide of course) with them off Queensland with my father two years ago. Now that tiger shark..... Those guys scare the #### out of me. I hear more horror stories about those guys than I do about GW's

[reef keeper]

Got pics?

[Rem]

Thats awesome

[Jake42393]

omg more!!!

[Meengineer0128]

Got pics?

 

My old man has them on a CD somewhere. It was 300$ US a person, included tank, skins, a spear (I'm not kidding you) and a hour long pre-dive seminar. The photographer charged an additional 80$ U.S. for 10 pictures (kinda a rip off, but they wouldn't allow us to bring our own camera's). Once you were in the water..... Well, lets just say GW's look A LOT bigger than on the discovery channel. We stayed together (about 10 of us including the dive master and the photographer) in a tight circle. If one of the whites came too close, the dive master would swim out a little and confront it (this guy had HUGE balls) with this little spear, lol. We spent about 30 min in the water until the dive master thought they looked like they were getting a little aggressive and we got back on the boat. Honestly, the closest one came was problably 10 yards or so. They really didn't seem all that interested in us except for a couple that just came to see what the big deal was about. Def. one of the best experiences I ever had (though the next day we did a dive on the GBR which is def. a close second). My next trip I am hoping to do is to Fiji.

[reef keeper]

nice!! snorkling on the reef sounds fun. im jealous!!!

[rocko52286]

Gotta do this

[hurricanefan1281]

wish i could do that. i've only swam with nurse sharks...

[Jake42393]

<-- dolphins haha and i fed some tropical fish with a fish in my mouth.

[Haberdasher]

Nice pics

 

Isn't that a tiger shark?

[lasongo]

+10000000 Rockhead

 

I've never dove with Tigers (that I was aware of at least but I head down to Isla Guadalupe in Mexico about once a year to visit their White breathren.

 

I'm sorry to probably instigate a flame war, but I'm calling BS on all those people claiming to have free-dove with Great Whites. In order for dive operators to work they are required to carry personal injury insurance (not dive insurance or DAN, there is a difference). Yes, that is the law in South Africa, Australia, Mexico, US, etc... NO insurance company will underwrite an operation that knowingly puts people in that position, and hence their respective governments will not issue them a dive operators license. It is a very regulated industry. Same principle applies to safaris, the guides can get insurance, but you aren't allowed to leave the cars when lions are around.

 

Also, I've personally searched around for free-diving operations with Great Whites and they don't exist. The only guys that were willing to consider it were in South Africa and it was all "under the table" and they wanted significantly more than USD$1,000 per person.

 

Don't say it was a long time ago, people only began challenging the notion of free-diving with Great Whites in the mid-1990s, namely Ron & Valerie Taylor and Andre Hartmann.

 

If a 10ft+ Great White or Tiger decides to attack, a speargun, a dive knife, even a bang stick will usually do nothing. Unless you happen to be able to flip around on top of its head and deliver a precise blow to the brain, possibly the gills or a sensitive part of the snout. Of course if it is in attack-mode and you are that close its probably too late anyway.

 

Again, not trying to piss anyone off, but just deter people from doing something stupid like purposefully jumping in the water around say Dyer Island or the Farallons with the intention of seeking out a shark.

 

I'm not trying to piss people off, but just trying to prevent people from thinking they can rent a boat and just go out and jump in the water with a Tiger, Bull or White Shark. That being said, if you get a chance to see a Great White, Tiger or Bull shark from a cage, do it, they are incredible and it's a humbling experience.

 

Rockhead, I'm so jealous of you, I have to plan weeks in advance, you get to leave early from work and do it, haha.

[rockhead01]

Nice pics

 

Isn't that a tiger shark?

 

Yep a beautiful female tiger about 7ft long and 200lbs

[rockhead01]

+10000000 Rockhead

 

I've never dove with Tigers (that I was aware of at least but I head down to Isla Guadalupe in Mexico about once a year to visit their White breathren.

 

I'm sorry to probably instigate a flame war, but I'm calling BS on all those people claiming to have free-dove with Great Whites. In order for dive operators to work they are required to carry personal injury insurance (not dive insurance or DAN, there is a difference). Yes, that is the law in South Africa, Australia, Mexico, US, etc... NO insurance company will underwrite an operation that knowingly puts people in that position, and hence their respective governments will not issue them a dive operators license. It is a very regulated industry. Same principle applies to safaris, the guides can get insurance, but you aren't allowed to leave the cars when lions are around.

 

Also, I've personally searched around for free-diving operations with Great Whites and they don't exist. The only guys that were willing to consider it were in South Africa and it was all "under the table" and they wanted significantly more than USD$1,000 per person.

 

Don't say it was a long time ago, people only began challenging the notion of free-diving with Great Whites in the mid-1990s, namely Ron & Valerie Taylor and Andre Hartmann.

 

If a 10ft+ Great White or Tiger decides to attack, a speargun, a dive knife, even a bang stick will usually do nothing. Unless you happen to be able to flip around on top of its head and deliver a precise blow to the brain, possibly the gills or a sensitive part of the snout. Of course if it is in attack-mode and you are that close its probably too late anyway.

 

Again, not trying to piss anyone off, but just deter people from doing something stupid like purposefully jumping in the water around say Dyer Island or the Farallons with the intention of seeking out a shark.

 

I'm not trying to piss people off, but just trying to prevent people from thinking they can rent a boat and just go out and jump in the water with a Tiger, Bull or White Shark. That being said, if you get a chance to see a Great White, Tiger or Bull shark from a cage, do it, they are incredible and it's a humbling experience.

 

Rockhead, I'm so jealous of you, I have to plan weeks in advance, you get to leave early from work and do it, haha.

 

I'm jealous that you have been to Guadelupe. I want to go really bad. It's on my list. Our last vacation was to the Amazon, which was incredible but I'm really itching to go diving!

 

I too have looked hard for an operator to free dive with whites. I have heard of places doing it, but not something you can really find out about until your on location. Want to free dive with tigers too! Our next trip hopefully is to go to Costa Rica and dive with bulls. No cage.

 

I'd love to see pics!

[Weetabix7]

Really cool article, thanks for sharing Roxy.

:thumbs up:

[Meengineer0128]

+10000000 Rockhead

 

I've never dove with Tigers (that I was aware of at least but I head down to Isla Guadalupe in Mexico about once a year to visit their White breathren.

 

I'm sorry to probably instigate a flame war, but I'm calling BS on all those people claiming to have free-dove with Great Whites. In order for dive operators to work they are required to carry personal injury insurance (not dive insurance or DAN, there is a difference). Yes, that is the law in South Africa, Australia, Mexico, US, etc... NO insurance company will underwrite an operation that knowingly puts people in that position, and hence their respective governments will not issue them a dive operators license. It is a very regulated industry. Same principle applies to safaris, the guides can get insurance, but you aren't allowed to leave the cars when lions are around.

 

Also, I've personally searched around for free-diving operations with Great Whites and they don't exist. The only guys that were willing to consider it were in South Africa and it was all "under the table" and they wanted significantly more than USD$1,000 per person.

 

Don't say it was a long time ago, people only began challenging the notion of free-diving with Great Whites in the mid-1990s, namely Ron & Valerie Taylor and Andre Hartmann.

 

If a 10ft+ Great White or Tiger decides to attack, a speargun, a dive knife, even a bang stick will usually do nothing. Unless you happen to be able to flip around on top of its head and deliver a precise blow to the brain, possibly the gills or a sensitive part of the snout. Of course if it is in attack-mode and you are that close its probably too late anyway.

 

Again, not trying to piss anyone off, but just deter people from doing something stupid like purposefully jumping in the water around say Dyer Island or the Farallons with the intention of seeking out a shark.

 

I'm not trying to piss people off, but just trying to prevent people from thinking they can rent a boat and just go out and jump in the water with a Tiger, Bull or White Shark. That being said, if you get a chance to see a Great White, Tiger or Bull shark from a cage, do it, they are incredible and it's a humbling experience.

 

Rockhead, I'm so jealous of you, I have to plan weeks in advance, you get to leave early from work and do it, haha.

 

 

Ha, well you kind of do piss people off when you call them a liar. You need to travel a little farther outside of North America my friend. Rockhead is correct. The place that took my father and I diving was a local shop in queensland that we happend upon while we were there on a week long GBR dive. Some people forget that the internet is not the best way to find things outside of the US. I have two friends who have done numerous free dives with GW's in south Africa (actually a growing trend) for far less than 1000$. ANY SHARK can attack at any time. GW's, Tigers, bulls, and oceanic white tips just have more fatal attacks than any other shark. IT DOES NOT MEAN THEY WILL ATTACK YOU. I agree, people should not just go diving with GW's because I shared an experience. I have been diving for almost 10 years now. I take 3 week long trips a year to either the barrier reef off Belize, the GBR off queensland, or even Florida (though my upcoming trip may be affected by this whole oil spill). I have dove in the red sea and the med. Please do not be so naive to think that just because you can't find a spot on the internet means it does not exist. I would say 80% of the best dives I have ever been on were local finds while I was on another diving trip.

 

 

That said, I have always wanted to dive off Isle Guadalupe. I hear that they don't even need to make splashes in the water to get whites to come around. As far as Tigers, I was diving in off the bahamas with a buddy of mine, and we saw a tiger swimming around. They are awesome, but to me, much more scary than a GW. When it came into our area, lots of the fish took off (as did we). I agree, no dive knife is going to stop that guy!!!!!

[rockhead01]

I'm glad to see so many shark enthusiasts! I love sharks, my favorite are tigers.

 

Not sure if I mention this, but we do this in New Jersey. Jersey has lots of sharks!