Amanda Beard Loves Sharks, Commercial Shark Diving

Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard posted the following Tweet on Monday morning (@ AmandaRayBeard): "Just went for a fun shark dive!"

Here's the company she went with - North Shore Shark Adventures.

Here's the NGO she's working with to save sharks, one PSA at a time:

That Travel Chick Joins Shark Diver 2010 - Part Four

That Travel Chick aka Fort Lauderdale's Amanda joined us at Guadalupe Island in 2010 for the ultimate shark encounter. This is Part Four in her ongoing series diving with great whites and Shark Diver.

Her travel series is a must read for budding shark fans worldwide:

Day 2 Diving with Great Whites with a Full BREACH!

Another day starts before the break of dawn. It’s nice getting up and relaxing a bit before they drop the cages in the water. I opted to do shark watch again so that I get extra time in the cages. I went light for breakfast again which is fine. The everything bagels are sooooo good.

I decided that there is never enough suit juice because it’s still a bitch getting into the wetsuit. I spend so much energy trying to get my ass in it. Tomorrow I’m just pouring it all out on myself. Hahaha… I am in the cage by 745am. Not as early as I like but still. Brian was in before me and came out just as I was going in. Nothing happened but the mackerel were plentiful. As soon as the first shift came in the sharks started coming around. I think they may like us. I was in the cage for 2.5 hours straight. I am pretty sure I turned into a human popsicle. I had major camera malfunctions though. My HD camera ended up getting water in it. Stupid lock. They always fail. And the trigger button was getting stuck on my camera case. So I would have to turn it off and aim and then turn on to take a pic. Sucked but did the job till I got out. We got to see quite a few sea lions and sharks together. 3 and 3. That was quite intense to tell you the truth. I wasn’t sure if a sea lion was going to get picked off or not. Did see him hunt and catch a few mackerel which was quite amazing. We all came out of that cage and was like OMG.. that was amazing. I quickly went for the hot water to warm up a bit till the next shift. I wanted as much time in the morning as possible as its when the viz and sharks are plentiful.

So as we are getting ready for the next shift a few of us are watching the sea lions play and frolic in the water, I look to the back of the boat and no more than 5’ away from the cage does a friggin great white shark breach. FULL OUT OF THE WATER BREACH! It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. This massive creature came up for no other reason than to show off for us. He came straight up, flattened out and dipped down his snout to do a semi-belly flop down. The few of us that saw us, were shouting, screaming, clapping and reliving the moment. Doug came up from the cage and was like OMG… did you see that. He actually got to see him rev up and gain speed to jump out. The rest were all busy looking the other direction at the sea lions. That moment right there was the icing on the cake. We have already exceeded all expectations of the trip by seeing more than the usual number of sharks and now we see a FULL ON BREACH. Yeah. Life is great right now. Of course the few of us are like ok well why don’t we just see a predation and add the cherry to the top. That would be quite amazing but the only killing we have seen are the seals getting mackerel or the damn seagulls getting our chum.

We go in for our last shift of the day and the water is getting a bit more murky and the waves are kicking us around a bit more but we still see a few sharks swimming around and now there are about 10 sea lions around us chasing after the mackerel and just playing and pissing of the sharks where they aren’t coming as close to us. However, one of the sea lions got so close to me that was able to reach out and touch him. That was pretty neat. I probably screwed up his feeding but I was happy.

Come out of the water and I am done for the day. Freezing my arse off and ready to bask in the sun. Which I did til the appetizers came out. It was pineapple, I had to move for that. I was chillin on the sun deck with my cell mates which seems to be a regular occurrence for the 3 of us to do. They are pretty awesome people. I am very happy that I get to share all these moments with them.

Appetizers are amazing. Dinner was the best I’ve had in a while. They grilled up some rib-eyes with a great marinade, cooked to my liking with asparagus and smashed potatoes. I couldn’t get enough but my stomach wouldn’t allow me to finish. Then they sang happy birthday to me and as a candle used a glow stick in my apple pie and ice cream. Best pre-birthday ever. Since we’ll be on the water tomorrow and probably barfing our brains out they figured they would celebrate tonight. I was very touched. This crew busts their ass and they are just great all around people.

The night of course ended out on the back decks with many laughs and stories and smoking. Followed by a B-movie night in the galley by Bruce Campbell. I watched some and it was hilarious. I gotta rent Army of Darkness now.

It’s been quite an amazing day. The best day of my life actually. I’ve seen everything I’ve ever wanted to and dreamed of since I was 7. I’m actually in tears just thinking about it because it’s just a feeling of accomplishment. I came on this trip hoping to find answers to something and I feel pretty damn complete in my life right now. Starting up a new business. Moving in a different direction. It’s all pretty damn scary but I know I can handle just about anything. I always have. It would be nice if it was handed to me but I probably wouldn’t appreciate as much. So I’ll work hard and accomplish my goal that I have set out and by this time next year I hope to be right here celebrating how far I have come. It’s in writing, I have to succeed.

Good night for now. Tomorrow is a brand new day of possibilities.

Sharks we saw Day 2:

1. Shredder
2. Ted
3. Arden grace
4. Cono
5. Russian
6. Chingey
7. Johnny
8. Rainbow
9. One not known as of yet

That Travel Chick Joins Shark Diver 2010 - Part Three

That Travel Chick aka Fort Lauderdale's Amanda joined us at Guadalupe Island in 2010 for the ultimate shark encounter. This is Part Three in her ongoing series diving with great whites and Shark Diver.

Her travel series is a must read for budding shark fans worldwide:

Day 1 of great white shark diving in Guadalupe Islands

I wake up before the butt crack of dawn. We have arrived at Guadalupe islands at 330am. I am up at 5am. I get to watch them put the cages in, the sun come up sorta and have a light breakfast of a bagel. I am anxious to get in the water but first we have to get our safety study course as well as tell us who our cell mates are and what rotation we are on.

My cell mates are Souxie, my roommate, and Brian Taylor who is in the Air Force. He is an airplane maintenance guy who is stationed in Korea and hopes to move back to the states with the next shift. I’m excited to have these 2 with me. The first shark sighting was at 733am. It’s very exciting to hear the crew yelling ‘SHAAAAAAAARK”…. Everyone runs to one side of the boat and then to the other to see him pop out. Our shift finally starts at 10am where we are on first rotation.. woohoo. SCORE. It normally starts at 8am but we had to get the dos and don’t of the cage and such. I’m last in and get a run down of what to do. They first of all weigh you down with at least 40lbs of weight since you want to sink not float, wear a 7mm suit with hoodies and booties. Water is still freaking cold with it all on.

We get in and almost instantly see a shark. We saw up to 4 at one time. A sea lion was literally playing TAG with the shark. Quite amusing. I guess element of surprise gig is up and they aren’t a meal know. It was quite funny to see them both interacting with each other. Lots of tuna which just made me want sushi. We had the sharks swimming so close to the cage. I even had a chance to stare down Jacques right into the eye and see his blue outer ring. Great whites have blue eyes. I never knew that. Maybe we are related. Hehehehe… I can be an apex predator. Well ok maybe not. The first time seeing a Great white I thought I would feel a bit scared but instead I felt peacefulness and calm. No adrenaline pumping. It was just breath-taking. They move so gracefully through the water and are cruising. Nothing menacing about them. They didn’t come up close to the cage till next time when Dottie was around as she was all up in the cage’s space. Jacques also was quite comfortable being around the cage. I only felt a little uncomfortable with the regulator. Luckily Martin, the dive master, was there to instruct me and give me a refresher. I am so used to snorkeling now.

The hour just seemed to fly by. It was terrific that we got to go in the first shift. Getting out with the massive amounts of weights was tricky but doable. The time out of the water was mostly spent on the sun deck passed out till you hear “15 minutes to next rotation”. We instantly jump up and head on down to try and squeeze into our wetsuits. I tend to put on suit juice so I can slide ride in. Each time we were in, we saw no less than 2 sharks. As the day went on the viz went down and so did the quantity of time the sharks spent with us. The water was freezing to me but as soon as those sharks start coming by and you lock eyes with them, all that rocking and freezing water in my suit goes away. It truly is the most amazing feeling I’ve ever had with an animal. It’s everything I could have dreamed of and more.

We even had the opportunity to see a sea lion that would frolic and even swim up next to the shark. It seemed to be a pretty decent size which means that it’s older and knows what it can and can’t get away with. It was really quite amazing to see it interact and somewhat harass him.

At the end of the day Martin takes in all the photos and helps identify all those that we have seen. Turns out we have seen 12. All of which he could identify easily. 2 of which hasn’t been seen since 2007 and 2008. It’s nice to know that they come back. Though not once did any of the sharks of a transmitter from the show The Great White Expedition which as it turns out has been going on since 2002. I did not know that.

Sharks we saw day 1:

1. Biteface #19
2. Shredder #13
3. Dottie #87 (dorsal tag)
4. Johnny #65
5. Arden grace #106
6. Jacques #46 (2 tags)
7. Ted #105 (partial back tail taken off)
8. Diablo #99
9. Geoff #74
10. Mau #76
11. Horizon #86 (small triangle on dorsal)(last appearance ’08)
12. Rainbow #25 (last appearance ’07)

That Travel Chick Joins Shark Diver 2010

That Travel Chick aka Fort Lauderdale's Amanda joined us at Guadalupe Island in 2010 for the ultimate shark encounter.

Her site series is a must read for budding shark fans worldwide:

Countdown to the Great White Shark dive

It all started when I was 7 years old. My pop-pop (grandpa) would take me to the beach every week to collect shells. Thats what you do when you grow up in south Florida. One day I came across a shark’s tooth. I asked my mom to take me to the library (no internet back then) to see what type of tooth it was. I quickly learned it was a Tiger Shark. Gorgeous creatures by the way. In no time, I came home with every shark book I could find to learn more. I became a bit obsessed with sharks. Not much has changed since then. I started to read more and more about Great Whites. As a kid, I had a big love of dinosaurs and of course the T-Rex was my favorite, so it wasn’t hard for me to quickly fall in love with both the Tiger and Great White shark.

Since then, I’ve had dreams of swimming with a Great White. More occasions then not, being told I’m out of my mind, crazy, nuts, stupid. You name it, I’ve been told I am. I am stubborn and never listen. I constantly in the ocean swimming with nurse sharks and touching them when people swim the other way. I can’t help it. I just love all sharks. The way the move is so beautiful and graceful and so powerful. They feel amazing and to feel their muscles as they move is even more breath-taking.

I’ve been wanting to do a Great White shark dive for years but the trip to South Africa or Australia is loooong. Being a Shark Week geek, I never miss an episode and have seen many taking place in Mexico at Guadalupe Islands. I did some research and came across Shark Diver among a few others. I ended up with Shark Diver because the owner, Patrick, was a lot of fun to chat with, actually takes action on helping save the sharks and his package is all-inclusive. I also saw them on Shark Week. I decided that this was the year. I wasn’t going to wait any longer. What better way then to go for my birthday. I couldn’t have thought of a better gift to myself.

Complete series post.

Image Christy Fisher