I’m all for the adrenaline rush. So when someone on our trip to Hawaii asked if I wanted to swim with sharks, my brain brought up a vivid image from the movie Soul Surfer then immediately erased it so that my mouth could say, “Sure!” Our reasoning was that if a company is able to do this with tourists and is still running, then it has to be safe.
When it comes to Hollywood, sharks are often portrayed as terrorizing water monsters, and while we should definitely have a healthy fear of them (as they are animals), every shark that comes around you isn’t simply going to tear you to pieces. Our excursion guides made sure to explain this to us — sharks’ tendencies and how to be safe around them — as they drove the boat out into the middle of the ocean.
Upon nearing the snorkeling area, sharks heard the sound of the motor and surrounded the boat. Then once the motor was cut, they swam a little lower and we donned our flippers and snorkel headgear and hopped in the water with them. What an adventure!
As you take a look at the footage below, here are a few facts from the day’s events.
We booked with One Ocean Diving, and the company and its workers were great!
There were six of us snorkelers, two qualified “divers” (*one was a marine biologist) and one guide on the boat.
We were around about 36 sharks — Galapagos and sandbar.
On average, the sharks were about 20-40 feet below us (unless we dived down to get closer to them, which we all did.)
We spent 1 hour in the water snorkeling with them.
I LOVED IT, AND RECOMMEND THIS EXCURSION!