Swimming with a Great White Shark

In my younger days, I was fortunate enough to scuba dive with an occasional nurse shark and once, with a reef shark.  But I’d never stumbled upon a great white shark.   Over the holidays, I finally had a chance to be with a great white.

Close encounter with a great white shark.

The shark was pretty friendly, but at one point, it came right for me as if it had other intentions.  I threw myself backwards to get out of its way.

Shark attacking me.

Luckily, it didn’t make contact.  But then it turned slowly and came back towards me as if intending to attack a second time. 

Shark coming back at me.

I was sweating it big time, but thankfully, at the last second, he veered away. 

Great white starting to veer away.

Okay, so the truth is that I didn’t really get to swim with a great white shark.  The shark is actually a helium-filled shark my dad got for Christmas.  This is my dad with his shark. 

Dad after telling his great white shark to "Sit" and "Stay."

Dad adjusted the shark’s weight by adding or subtracting little wads of putty kept inside the slide mechanism under the shark’s chin.  The slide mechanism controls the shark’s up and down movements.  The rear fin powers the shark around the room.  You can get your own at airswimmers.com.

We think Dad liked his shark pal, as did Norma and the kids.

Dad flying his shark.

Mark liked Dad’s shark, too. 

Mark showing he likes the shark, too.

Luckily, Mark got his own airswimmer shark from his buddy, Ken.  In fact, you might say we were swimming in sharks this Christmas.  Not literally though.  And that’s just as well.

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Aby
Aby
12 years ago

Ha! At first I thought, “Wow, she didn’t mention that she swam with a shark. That’s odd.” LOL
~ Aby

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