Yahoo News Shark Divers Are Revealing Their Wildest Underwater Adventures, And This Is Pure Entertainment
As if diving wasn't already an exhilarating experience, you throw sharks into the mix and your adrenaline will be De-FIN-itely pumping!
These divers of /r/AskReddit revealed their craziest experiences with sharks:
1.A Diver Was Headbutted By A Shark
"I wear contacts so getting water in my mask is extra bad as I can't open my eyes underwater. Shortly after being told about a shark colliding with my friend from behind and removing his mask, I am pretty scared about this (not sharks in general) and see a shark heading for me. They are curious, they often shoulder-bump you as they turn at the last second. But she wasn't changing course. I stayed calm and still as long as I could and at the last second before she hit my mask I ducked. Except instead of ducking under I just headbutted her right in the nose. Everyone saw and thought it was the funniest thing ever. I may be the only person alive who headbutted an 11-foot shark in the nose but it was because I was scared she would take my goggles off."
2.A Diver Was Charged By A Tiger Shark
"Sounds like a tiger shark, one of my diving instructors had a scary as hell story about diving on a reef and having a large one charge her out of nowhere. She turned before it hit and it bumped her air tank as it veered to the side. Needless to say, she gtfo as soon as she could after that."
3.A Bullshark Stalked A Diver During A Night Dive
"I had a monster bull shark right underneath me on a safety stop on a night dive about 6 months back. Tried to get it on video but there was a lot of plankton in the water so you can't see much."
4.A Diver Was Bitten By A Mako Shark
"Whilst diving, I spotted a 3.5m Mako shark coming right at me. For those who are unaware, Makos are basically the cheetahs of the ocean, and they only have two speeds: Curious (harmless) and Lunch (very much harmful). This guy was in lunch mode. So I hovered, as I had been trained to do, as there would be no way for me to outmaneuver it or escape it. Nowadays, we dive with Shark Shields, which emit electronic pulses that freak the sharks out and keep them away, but back then, what we used was essentially a chainmail sleeve. The idea is that sharks hate the taste of metal, so if you give it your arm, it'll bite down, decide you're gross, and move along. So I wait, and it comes, and I did a perfect move to give the beastie my arm. Just before the crunch, however, it occurred to me that I had left my sleeve on my bed (mistake number 3). I had my kelp knife drawn, and stabbed it right as it bit me."
5.A Diver Ran Out Of Air And Was Surrounded By Sharks
"Our guide had us hold onto the rocks and wait to see who came by. While we were waiting a group of 10 reef sharks were circling above us while two lager Morey eels were popping their heads out a few feet away, opening their mouths and letting us know they meant business. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous and burning through my air at a rapid rate. Suddenly a group of a dozen hammerhead sharks came into view. We had not really discussed what we would do. The guide motioned for us to follow and the next thing I know we are swimming with the school of sharks. This only lasted a few minutes before they broke away from the group. We began to move into our safety stop zone where currents were pushing us in different directions when I suddenly ran out of air. You don't get much warning when suddenly there is nothing left. So here I am 15 feet or so underwater unable to reach my partner's secondary air being forced to surface when I should still be chilling."
6.A Diver Was Attacked When Looking For A Seahorse
"My biology teacher told us that she once was swimming in the south of the Philippines because she was trying to find an elusive sea horse and she went quite deep at night when they are more active and she got attacked by a shark and her team got out fast, the next day they found a turtle that was bitten in half — shell included. It was pretty big and it's supposedly the last time she went diving in that area"
7.Divers Were Nervous In The Murky Waters With Sharks
"Same. I think the creepy thing about seeing sharks in the Blue Hole is it's so murky you don't see the sharks until they get closer, and there's no bottom under you. It's not like when you see them when you have the reef around you. I just remember the dive master's girlfriend and I were holding onto him for dear life like he was going to protect us from the sharks. It was a scary, amazing experience."
8.A Daughter Almost Witnessed Her Dad Die
"Was diving with the sharks in Mall of America in Minneapolis. Instructors said to dive in and sink to the bottom. At the bottom, I saw my young daughter looking at me through the Plexiglas. I could see her say "Look that's my dad". Just then my regulator failed. I looked at the exit and there were too many sharks there. I switched to my second regulator and decided I should just stay on the bottom. Pretty gross to see your dad being eaten by sharks in Mall of America. I'm glad she did not have to see that. Thank god for my second regulator."
9.A Shark Bit A Divermaster's Fins
"As we're circling back to the boat, the sharks who have been standoffish but curious (as they usually are), come in and one does an inquisitive bite of the divemaster's fins. Never seen or heard of sharks getting this aggressive with divers, so the three of us damn near catapulted ourselves out of the water and cut the dive short. Have never been worried about sharks while diving until that moment. Normally, they're more afraid of you than you are of them. But not this time!"
10.A Shark And Human Both Startle Each Other
"I often dive off the NC coast and we have a wreck called the Aeolus. Its main attraction is a section of the wreck which some refer to as the 'shark lounge.' Some of the walls of the ship are gone, but there are still some support beams that hold up the ceiling. Basically, sharks can freely swim under this 'canopy' and catch some zzzs. So anytime you dive there you’ll pretty much always get to see some sand tigers. The last time I was on the wreck and before entering the 'lounge' I was floating off the side of the wreck, taking it all in and waiting for my buddy. When unbeknownst to me a thresher shark was swimming below me. (They are quite fascinating sharks they use their long tails to whip schools of fish in order to kill/stun them) Well, this thresher didn’t know I was there either because his dorsal fin and my fin brushed against one another. I don’t know who was more scared me or the shark. But he whipped his tail against the side of the wreck, which made a loud crack sound, and sped off in the other direction. Looking back it’s not so scary to me now, but when it happened my heart stopped."
11.Massive Bloodloss Led To A Tragic Death (Not By A Shark)
"This was a story I heard from my dad — He told me, there was once a group of three divers, and one of them brought a camera and wanted to take pictures. They were diving in warm tropical waters, so just a thin base layer and some beach pants were enough. This diver that brought the camera saw a nudibranch (a small, slug-like, very colorful creature), went down to take a look, and was floating just centimeters above the sea floor. Then suddenly, a large stingray emerged right under him, whipping its tail across which lashed his thigh to his chest, and the water turned red as blood bled out from his massive wound. As the two other friends were carrying their unconscious friend to the surface, one of them put his hand above his head resembling a fin, it was a sign for a shark. They pulled out their knives and hoped for the worst, as they waited and waited at 5m depth for their safety stop. Miraculously they all made it to the surface, but sadly the one struck by a stingray didn't make it out alive."
12.A Shark Was Lurking Around, Looking For A Friend
"I had a 10-foot sand tiger shark stare me down with her gnarly-looking teeth. She just kept getting closer and closer. She got right up to us and then just kinda hung out. She was a pretty sweet girl."
13.A Shark Led A Diver To A Dangerous Barracuda
"A couple years ago, I was diving off the coast of Stuart, FL with my dive camera, and I saw a black tip reef shark. I whipped out my camera, but the little guy was camera-shy and kept swimming away. I kept looking for him, and finally found him down off a little rock ledge, swimming with another reef shark. I got a cool picture of the two of them, and turned around....there was a shallow cave under the rock ledge, and I found myself face-to-face with one of the only creatures I'm actually scared of. My nose was about two feet from the nose of the single largest barracuda I've ever seen in my life, even to this day. I slowly backed away, no sudden movements, and got the hell out of there."
14.A Blacktip Shark Gets Nosey
"I had a shark chase me through the water and it was scary as hell. I was snorkeling in Turks and Caicos. I ended up far away from the group. A 6-foot black tip and I were literally feet from each other. He started looking at me right in the eye. I slowly backed away and he followed. I just kept backing up and he eventually stopped. I swam back to the boat yelling shark, got back on, and drank myself silly for the rest of the day."
15.A New Diver Witnessed A Dead Shark
"My worst experience was in the Philippines. I was just about to get my Open Water Diver certification. My instructor/partner and I wanted to check out a sunken ship far out in the ocean. It was about 25 meters deep. It all started out great. When we arrived at the ship, a big turtle came towards me which was very cool. We decided to dive into the driver's cabin of the boat. Unfortunately, it was very dark there and I did not have a flashlight. My diving instructor sent me in front of it and took out his. When he turned on the light I suddenly saw a shark in front of me, about 3 meters tall. I panicked and used up a lot of oxygen trying to swim out. My dive instructor calmed me down and pointed out that the shark was dead. Nevertheless, I decided not to swim into the wreck again."
16.A Diver Got Brushed By A Tiger Shark
"I was solo diving (not recommended) when I watched a dwarf angelfish get scared behind a rock. When I looked up, it was spooked by the passing shadow of a 12-foot tiger shark that showed up when I wasn't looking. Its pec fin brushed me as it passed"
17.A Fish Attack Was More Dangerous Than The Tiger Shark Nearby
"My boss told me this story. He went to Australia with his then-girlfriend and went diving. They were off some reef checking everything out, and their guide freaked out, looked at them, and basically said 'get to the boat NOW!' As they were going back to the boat there was a tiger shark (I think it was) headed straight for them. They all got on the boat safely but when my boss went below deck to see what was going on he found the guide with his entire arm in a pot of boiling water (at this point in the story he says 'I know it sounds insane but I swear it happened') Apparently the guide was swimming by the reef and was struck by a stone fish and that's why he told everyone to go up because he was poisoned. He didn’t even see the tiger shark coming straight for them. They went back to port and the guide was rushed to the hospital. Not sure what happened to the guide I assume he survived."
18.A Tiger Shark Rammed Into A Diver Who Was Working
"I’m a hard hat diver for the Navy. One of my first real working dives was changing out some zincs on a pipeline off the coast of Hawaii at about 130 feet. One of the benefits of wearing a helmet when you dive is the communication and the sense of security it gives you, kind of like armor. We also wear a bailout bottle on our back as a secondary air source. Well, we went down that morning and when you're descending in the water in Hawaii it’s not uncommon to see some small to medium sharks moving around in the water column. As some of you know sharks don’t have fingers, so if they are curious about you they can either ram you or bite you. My friend told me to watch out for tiger sharks because if one of those was in the area, it’s very dangerous as they are pretty aggressive. So we get to the bottom and I am working for about an hour when I feel like I just got speared from behind by an NFL linebacker. I immediately thought shark, but in my mind, I told myself to just close my eyes and I would pretend it didn’t happen. Well, that didn’t last more than a few seconds because I was shitting my pants. I turned around and scanned and swimming off in the other direction was one of the biggest tiger sharks I’ve ever seen to this day."
19.A Bull Shark Blazed Past A Diver
"Not me, but my friend went to dive in the sea and he told me this one horrific event happened — So basically, to keep the story short, he went diving to see some exotic fish and such. After swimming around underwater, suddenly all the fish started swimming away for cover fast. Then he turned and a huge bull shark just blitzed past him, nearly chomping his arm off, instead grabbing a big fish that was close to him. He immediately swam for the surface and didn't go diving for months."
20.A Tiger Shark Wounded A Man Who Was Cleaning A Submarine
"My dad's story — He lived in Hawaii for a few years before I was born and was hired on a millionaire's estate. One of his jobs was to clean a personal submarine at the end of every time it was used. He would have to get in the water and clean the bottom as well as make sure there was no damage. The reason the job was available was because two tiger sharks that lived under the dock attacked the last worker but my dad didn’t know this. At least not until he was cleaning the sub one night and had one bump the back of his head, waited for him to turn around, and then slapped him with his tail leaving sandpaper wounds on his face."
21.A Diver Had Their Fins Bitten By A Shark
"I was about to surface and only had 1.5m of visibility. As I was around a metre from the surface, I had my fins ripped off by a shark. It spun me in a full circle nearly and had a quarter of my fins remaining. We have a large population of Great White Sharks in my area and have never felt so small in the ocean before. Always take a good look around now before I head up."
22.A Long Decompression Stop With A Great White Shark Made Some Divers Nervous
"Not me but some of my fellow diver friends who are badass GUE members were doing a really deep dive off of the Channel Islands a few years back. They had to do a long decompression stop and a great white shark showed up. They were literally stuck there because you can't come up when you've gone so deep so they just had to hang out with the shark."
23.A Great White Shark Smashed Into A Sharkcage
"I went shark diving. We were told not to touch the cage and stay at the back of it, where it's facing the boat. Some woman was adjusting herself and touched the cage side that was facing the ocean. Three seconds after she moved her finger, a giant 7m great white smashed into the cage and bit it, then left. Water was a bit brown afterward..."
Would you get in the water with sharks after reading this post? Let me know in the comment section below!
