Back in 2013, I did a shark diving trip to the Farallons, a ragged, desolate, achingly beautiful chain of islands 50 miles off the coast of San Francisco. It was a long and exciting day–as it turned out, the Farallons are one of the most incredible places I’ve ever seen.
Despite the fact that it’s supposed to be one of the sharkiest areas on earth, after 8 hours in and out of a cage, all I’d seen was jellyfish. I was extremely disappointed. After watching the video above, though, I’m not so sure about that disappointment–although that guy has a hell of a story to tell.
According to the video’s description, the whole thing was an accident. “What might appear to be an aggressive great white shark trying to attack the cage, this is not the case,” it says. “These awesome sharks are biting at large chunks of tuna tied to a rope. When a great white shark lunges and bites something, it is temporarily blinded. They also cannot swim backward. So this shark lunged at the bait, accidentally hit the side of the cage, was most likely confused and not able to swim backward, it thrust forward and broke the metal rail of the cage.”
And as for the diver with the greatest story ever? Well, he’s just fine. He’s a dive instructor with years of experience. Here’s what he did: “He ended up outside the bottom of the cage, looking down on two great white sharks. The diver … remained calm, and when the shark thrashed back outside the cage, he calmly swam back up and climbed out completely uninjured. The boat crew did an outstanding job, lifting the top of the cage, analyzing the frenzied situation, and the shark was out after a few long seconds.”
