Heh. Sharks cool. Bit Teeth
I've always been fascinated by sharks as well. Just really cool, amazingly powerful beasts.
I've had the good fortune of diving with sharks already. Once intentionally, several times not so. In Australia (waaaaaaay back in 1988) I took my open water certification (PADI, NAUI purists can bite me). During that course we were told that seeing a shark is a very rare occurrence in open water and should be enjoyed, particularly at a reef where food is abundant and they are not likely to be overly aggressive. First dive down during certification we're all doing our little bouyancy exercises and oh, looky there, a little 6' black tip reef shark. Whoo, screw buoyancy, that's a frigging shark! It was just a fleeting glance and class resumed. The best part is the dive instructor was just as pumped as we were so nobody got grief over the exercises. This was at Bait Reef just off the Whitsunday Islands (Airlie Beach).
Drifted up the coast to Townsville and wanted to go on a couple of dives up there, but budget was rather restricted. Beer or diving? Beer one.
Over to the west coast for Christmas and went on a dive off one of the beaches to a small wreck and we saw a hammerhead out there. Most impressive, but just a little guy, about 10 feet in length. About a week later it was killed due to proximity to the swimming beach
Just after Christmas I blew some cash and went to the aquarium for a shark tank dive. There were grey nurse sharks, black tip and white tip reef sharks that we got to dive with and touch. Very cool but pretty much a huge adrenaline rush. They'd been fed and were fed while we were down there but touching them and realizing it could snap your hand off pretty quick is kind of humbling and exciting at the same time.
Just prior to leaving Australia I went back up to Airlie Beach and was fortunate to get paired up with a former Navy Seal as a dive partner. We did all sorts of things I would never otherwise do (swimming through small tunnels in the reef). We also went to a more advanced depth, about 85 feet (BTW, by then I had my advanced open water certificate so I was certified to do so) and saw three white tip reef sharks patrolling the depths of the reef (though it probably dropped off another couple of hundred feet).
FWIW I have my rescue diver certification now, though I'd consider it lapsed. I started my divemaster course as well but never finished. When the buglet is old enough to dive I'll get fired up again. For now all I use dive gear for is to clean my pool. No sharks in there
