On October 8th, along Hawaii’s North Shore, there were 3 big events I attended. One being my cousin’s wedding, the second being my older brother’s birthday and the third… swimming with sharks hours before my cousin’s wedding.
Island View Hawaii is a family owned business out of Haleiwa and I highly recommend trying it out.
Once our boat reached the location for where the sharks would be at, there were shark fins and tails breaching the surface of the water right next to the boat. Up until that moment, I wasn’t too nervous, but once I saw the sharks in the water that I was about to get into, my nerves came to. The water was really choppy which also did not help to calm our nerves.
“You’ve got to get in there now or else you’ll psyche yourself out,” is what they would tell us… and they were right. I was pretty scared on the boat, but once in the water and floating around with the sharks swimming right below us, I somehow ended up feeling calm. It was surreal feeling that calm with sharks 4-5 feet away from me.
The water was still choppy and waves were splashing into my snorkel, but each time I got to get my head under water and seeing them swim by, they were majestic. I never thought I could think of a shark as being “beautiful,” but seeing them swim freely around us, down into the deep, and back up again, there was something beautiful about just seeing nature in “nature.” No cages, no food baiting, we were just visiting their domain.
