00:00We were down there shooting for about three days and on the second day I
00:03reached out to Robbie's of Isla Morada, which is a great place to stop if you're
00:07ever down in the Keys. You can go out back and feed hundreds of giant tarpon,
00:11there's great food, there's a shopping area, it's just a really awesome place to
00:15check out.
00:22When I contacted Robbie's they set us up with a private boat tour with Captain
00:26Brian of Satisfaction Charters and he's just an awesome guy, super educated,
00:31showed us everything we could need to know out on the water. While we were out
00:34there he gave us information on the lobster season, spearfishing, a little bit
00:39of everything. He took us out to a place called Alligator Lighthouse and this was
00:44one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. And once you got
00:47under the lighthouse and you stayed there for a second, all the fish would
00:51come back around and then you would just do a full 360 and there was nothing but
00:54just walls of fish. It was unreal, you couldn't even see through them.
01:01When we got back to the boat I told the captain, hey I saw a couple barracudas
01:05out there, where can we find some bigger ones? About five minutes away there's a
01:09couple buoys and it's a deeper channel marker about 35 feet. As soon as we pull
01:13up I look over the side and there's two giant barracuda. As I'm putting my gear
01:17on I hear Captain Brian yell shark and I look over and I see a huge dorsal fin
01:22cutting through the water and it's a solid 10-foot hammerhead shark. All I
01:26could think is I've got to get this shot. So me and Jimmy slide in the water, I
01:30tapped him and was like yo we're gonna stay together, watch each other, let's go.
01:34We got about 30 feet away from the boat and three barracuda came our way. Two
01:39went towards Jimmy and one broke off towards my direction and tried to get
01:43close enough to the barracuda to get a good shot. So once I was about 15 maybe
01:4620 feet down I caught a shadow in the corner of my left eye and I looked over
01:51and boom there was a huge hammerhead shark. When I first saw him I had my
01:57GoPro on my left hand and I had my iPhone inside of my hit case on my right
02:01so I took a picture. I knew it went off but I couldn't tell if I had gotten it
02:09or not. I just kept filming and as he came at me the first time I wasn't
02:14really nervous you know I had seen so many videos of sharks just checking
02:18people out and I knew he was wondering what I was and what I was doing in the
02:22water. He was moving a little fast for my liking it was just he was a little jerky
02:28in his movements and the second time he came he was going under me and that time
02:33my concern was I didn't want to kick him in the face or hit him with my fins
02:39because I've got these Ocean Pro you know three and a half foot long blade
02:42fins and if one of those hit him I don't want to antagonize him. I kind of tucked
02:47my knees up a little bit and as he goes under me I didn't even realize until I
02:51got home and watched the footage how close he was to my feet.
02:59As he went under me he watched me and then he did this wide turn and then he
03:04popped around real quick and what I didn't like about the last approach he
03:09did he was coming more up at me the first time he came inside the second
03:13time he went under me and this time he's coming up in an angle and I really didn't
03:16like that because I was like okay he's gonna bite me and if you look in the
03:19film he actually opens his mouth a little bit you can see his teeth as he's
03:23coming up I'm like what should I do should I hit him I didn't know if I was
03:26about to get the best shot ever or just get a shot of me being attacked by a shark.
03:31He had already checked me out twice and for him to come back a third time it
03:34really made me feel like he was sizing me up. He kept doing his little nods off
03:38to the right and I was afraid that one of those was just gonna turn into a bite
03:40and I had my arm out like this and my GoPro behind it because if I got bit
03:44anywhere I would want it to be in the arm if he gets you in the leg and into
03:47your arteries you're pretty much screwed and as the shark came up on the last
03:52sweep he was looking at me my mind was racing and the shark is just sitting
03:57there looking at me thinking and as he comes by he just gently brushes me with
04:01this side fin on the leg and then he swims off and it was just unreal.
04:15As the boat comes up I get on the boat and then I remember Jimmy's still in the
04:20water so I look back and get one more shot and the shark is swimming around
04:25Jimmy and on his camera it actually shows the shark passing him and coming
04:30back two or three times so it was definitely very interested in us and
04:36we're lucky. In the end nobody got hurt and I got one of the most incredible
04:41shots but most importantly one of the craziest and most unbelievable
04:47experiences I've ever had in my life.
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