Been a Tad Sharky

They dropped down to one-hundred feet and alighted on a ledge. Neither planned to be at that depth for too long, but they wanted to take in the view. The great ocean expanded out in front and down below them in a subdued, stunning expanse. Sitting on the ledge, the filtered light suddenly became a bit dimmer, like when you are reading a book outside and a cloud drifts in front of the sun. All they saw next was the one eye and a massive form, swimming slowly by. It circled around and next came straight on at the pair, stopping, its snout less than two feet from them. Knowing at that depth their time and air was limited, they knew they must ascend. When the creature once again circled off, they turned and hugged a pinnacle all the way up. Neither had the nerve to look back, but they both knew somewhere, down below them, there remained an eighteen-foot great white shark.  

This was the experience of members of our dive community a couple weeks ago at Point Lobos. My first thought after hearing their story was, “Is that awesome or terrifying?” The part of me who knows that, at that depth and with that behavior, the divers probably were not in any real danger, is extremely jealous of such an amazing experience with such an ominous creature. The part of me who has that famous Discovery Channel video, of the great white shark leaping out of the water to crunch the baby seal, playing over and over in my head, is peeing my pants at the thought of an eighteen foot great white at Point Lobos. Now I am hoping if I am ever faced with that situation the logical me will take over, but who knows?

There have been a number of shark encounters in Santa Cruz County in the past few weeks. There was a great white sighted off of Seabright State Beach eating a seal, and a man may or may not (there are rumors the guy made it up) have been attacked by a shark at Manresa State Beach. Sharks are amazing creatures. Eating seals is what they do and it seems most shark attacks on humans are a case of mistaken identity. As divers we are less likely to be mistaken for a seal than a surfer. We also spend most of our time in the ocean at a depth which is not where great whites hunt. Either way, awesome or terrifying, or both, it’s unlikely most of us will ever encounter great white sharks unless we seek them out. I am no expert but, from what I have heard, the encounter at Point Lobos was strange behavior for these animals. The shark was probably just really curious as to what these weirdly-shaped bubble leakers were doing. He probably wrote about it in his blog . . .

The Swimmer Who Dives

Can you imagine swimming twenty-five miles? For perspective, that is eight-hundred and eighty laps in a standard swimming pool . . .  I think most of us would be intimidated at the prospect of swimming one mile, so twenty-five is both absolutely ludicrous and extremely impressive. Two people swam that distance in the past few weeks, one at the end of August and the other at the beginning of September. On August 26th Patti Bauernfeind swam from the harbor in Santa Cruz to San Carlos Beach in Monterey. She accomplished this feat in an amazing thirteen hours. On September 5th Kim Rutherford swam from Monterey to the Santa Cruz Harbor in a mind-blowing 22 hours. Both of these women completed the swim conforming to the English Channel Swimming Association rules, which meant neither wore a wetsuit and they had no physical contact with boats or other people for the entirety of the swim. When scuba diving in Monterey Bay we bundle up in a 7mm wetsuit or drysuit and sometimes come out a tad chilly after a forty-minute dive. Can you imagine being in the ocean for 13 to 22 hours with no wetsuit? These women are studs. They became the second and third to have ever completed this swim. Women have dominated the swim across the bay, being that no man has ever completed it within the English Channel Swimming Association rules.

Two members of Scuba Squad, who are both accomplished open water swimmers, spoke at August’s squad meeting. They made the point that open water swimming is helpful to scuba diving. Swimming ability is a benefit to scuba diving. The better swimmer you are the more enjoyable your diving experiences will be. The fitness associated with being a swimmer allows you to have better air consumption, which means longer bottom times. It also makes surface swims less painful, which means you can dive further from shore in the sometimes deeper and clearer water. Being an open water swimmer means you will be less tired at the end of a day of diving because you are exerting less effort per dive. These are all great perks. I think the point they made that resonated with me most being a diver who swims or a swimmer who dives is you are as familiar as one can be with the ocean and you are comfortable in that environment. In my experience, the more comfortable the person is in the water the better diver they will be. Diving is an equipment-heavy sport and there are multiple things you need to be aware of during a dive. The more important ones include monitoring your air supply and maintaining your buoyancy. If you are preoccupied with the anxiety that comes with not being comfortable in the water your ability to monitor your life support is dulled.  

As divers, I feel we have a greater appreciation for the two women who made the twenty-five mile swim than maybe someone who doesn’t frequent the bay. We know what the water is like, just at a different depth. We are all ocean enthusiasts and understand the thrill of accomplishing something amazing in the ocean.