I may have missed a post on this. Could you walk me through from start to finish on your experience with these dives. They say you have 2 different tanks to dive in. I am wanting to get a few friends and if I cant I would like to join you guys sometime. I do have all the contact info for the MOA, but would like to hear more about your experiences. Anybody ever been bit? How long are you actually in the water. And are those white poles incase they bite. I am not worried, but the girlfriend is!
Thanks for the time
I dove last winter with my wife and a couple of friends. It was a good experience. They walk you down to a lounge like area at the top of the tanks and you drop your gear. They give you a quick tour around the top of the tanks to let you know what all they have. You then suit up in your gear and walk over to the fresh water tank holding your fins. In the water they lead you through a lap around the tank to point out things to watch out for and then you have the rest of about 25-30 minutes as I recall to swim around as you like. They have a little bucket of worms to feed the fish, which causes them to get close enough you can actually pet them. I had fun interacting with our friends and family in the tube. After the first dive you head back to the tables where they offer you snacks and drinks as they discuss how the shark dive is going to go. There are 4-5 corners of the tank that they shift between. My understanding was that the sharks don't specifically see a white stick but they see some impediment in front of them and it's enough to make them change direction. You can either sit alongside/behind the trainers to watch the sharks or you can sift through the rock for teeth. Wherever you are, the trainers are always between you and the sharks so I never really felt in danger. I think they explained to us that the sharks were well fed and had no reason to want to attack us. Again, I think you're in the water for about 25-30 minutes. Over all it was a fun experience.
The idea behind the black & white stick is that the sharks see contrast really well. If a shark (Sandtiger or Brown are the only ones they "block") looks like they're going to enter they group the wave it to create a "wall" & the shark will turn away. (in theory of course!) In all my years there, no diver has ever been bitten!
Thanks very much, looking forward to it. Leave the Girlfriend at home? :
Bring her along! It's a fun couple of dives.
we just did this in Dec. freshwater tank was about a half hour, shark tank was 40 minutes. they pretty much keep the sharks away from the divers with the PVC sticks, so I just concentrated on looking for teeth after I got tired of watching the sharks get herded. I grabbed 32 teeth - pulled off a glove and just kept putting them in there - took a while after we got out of the tank to get them all pulled out of the glove though! I'd suggest a small mesh bag instead. I meant to grab something else, but the bags I had handy were either too big size-wise, or pretty big mesh. (I posted a teeth collection pic in my gallery)
feeding the sturgeon was kind of the highlight, along with interacting with the friends in the tube! we still need to get together with everyone and trade photos so we get shots both from in the tank and in the tube!
I've got a ton of photos and some movies for you guys. Perhaps we should setup a happy hour for later this month and share.
I wholeheartedly agree Matt, Mike has a copy of my pics but I have a disc for everyone else, let me know when, theres a few good pics of you and Christy. Terry