In lieu of our shark/alligator discussion from last week, I thought y’all might get a kick out of this story. Happened at the Suncoast Tri in St. Pete, FL, Saturday. Anyone else there? Pretty funny story. Made me feel like an idiot.
As I was warming up just before the swim start, I saw a large silver fin rise from the water about 100 yards from me, and it stayed above the water for a moment before submerging. One thought: Shark! All the dolphins I’ve seen (those off the north Florida Atlantic shores) usually don’t keep their fins up very long, and this fin wasn’t shaped like a dolphin’s – more angular and pointed. And it was a large fin, which meant that the creature to which it was attached was large. The Discovery Channel in me said, “Check it out!” So I started swimming towards it. Then the sensible side of me uttered four words inside my head: “Chuck Anderson. Bull shark.” I did a 180 and headed back towards the shore. Fast. As I was swimming to the relative safety of land, I took some solace in the fact that I was in a group of several hundred people. Then I looked over my shoulder. No group – there was no one between the shark and me. I swam faster. Once safely on the shore, I pondered what to do. The swim start was only minutes away. As I stared intently at the water in the vicinity of the shark, it surfaced again, this time going in the opposite direction – towards the swim buoys. When I saw the fin, I started laughing. It was, in fact, a dolphin. This time, when it came up, its back came out of the water as well, and I could get a better look at the profile of its fin. I felt like a moron (not exactly a new feeling for me), and I just started laughing. I had let a dolphin run me out of the water.
I’ve spent a lifetime reading about sharks, snakes, crocodiles, alligators and creatures like that. I’ve always been fascinated with these animals, and one thing I’ve always wanted do is swim with sharks. But I got a lesson in reality Saturday, and the reality is this: It’s all farts and giggles when you’re talking about sharks, alligators, etc., on an internet forum or 100 miles from the water in south Georgia. But when you come face to face (or think you’ve come face to face with one), it’s a different story. All that machismo goes out the window and it’s all about self-preservation.
Funny story. Interesting lesson. I still want to swim with sharks, but not as bad as I did last week!
“one thing I’ve always wanted do is swim with sharks.”
This was a great story. Swimming with sharks is an experience that you’ll never forget. There are a number of shark dives in the Caribbean. The best one I’ve done is in Santa Lucia, Cuba. It’s too bad that Americans aren’t allowed to visit Cuba because the diving there really is great and unlike popular dive spots the Caymans or Cozumel, it’s not flooded with cattle boats full of divers. The reefs are still quite virgin and haven’t been damaged by over development, etc as in Florida. The dive we did in Cuba was at about 95 ft. and were were surrounded by a half dozen 10 ft. long bull sharks. They swam to within a few feet of us, back and forth, looking us over. It’s an experience my wife and I will always remember. To tell the truth, at the time my heart was in my throat. We did the shark dive twice and the first time I was so nervous/terrified that I forgot to take photos with my u/w camera.
I actually really want to dive with dolphins in the wild. That’s something that I haven’t done yet.
RP - funny story. you have more cajones that I do. having lived in FL most on my life, much of it on the coast, the reality is that we are swimming with sharks and gators every day, but just don’t know it. i used to see a shark almost weekly when i surfed. for the most part they are not aggressive toward humans (bull sharks being the obvious exception). case in point: i’m at PCB for IMF, went swimming that a.m., came back the hotel to let my son play in the shore, and within 10 minutes saw a reasonably sized shark within 25 feet of shore. never a pleasant sight when your child is sharing the water in such close promixity to something twice his size. while highly unlikely to go after a 6 foot man, a 3 foot child is another story (at least my gut tells me that). The exact same thing happened to me several months ago while I was at Hilton Head. Saw a 4 footer right on the surf where my son was “boogey- boarding”. The bottom line is that I’m not worried about them in my case, if I follow some sensible rules (never swim alone, at dusk, get out when bait fish came nearby, etc.), but if my son is in the surf, I am within 10 feet of him at all times.
One of the best dives I have done was in the pacific island of Palau on a 50-100 foot deep dive over a 1,000 + foot drop-off. About 30 sharks all around. Amazing and freaky at the same time. But I felt more secure at 100 feet below than I did when I reached the surface.
A young 13 year-old lost her left arm here (actually Kauai) 2 weeks ago while surfing…