iStockphoto / Alessandro De Maddalena
- A teenage diver was lucky he didn’t end up in a ‘Florida Man’ headline after diving down and touching a Great White Shark in the Sunshine State
- The teen diver captured surreal footage of touching the Great White before it swam off
- Read more Sharks stories here
‘Diving with great white sharks’ is something that’s on millions of people’s bucket lists worldwide. But that involves a protective diving cage 99.99% of the time. I’ve never met a single person who was like ‘you know what I really want to do in life? Go dive unprotected with great whites and then grab one by the tail if it gets close enough!’
It takes a wild spirit to grab a shark like the diver in the footage below. In fact, this teen diver is fortunate he didn’t end up in a full-blown ‘Florida Man’ headline after he grabbed a Great White Shark that was spotted during the dive.
This truly wild encounter with a great white shark took place last month (March) in Martin County, Florida which is just north of Palm Beach Gardens. Great Whites aren’t strangers to those Floridian waters this time of year when the Northern Atlantic is still frigid off Cape Cod. But it’s not often you ever see or hear of anyone seeing a docile great white like this AND THEN touching it.
Teen Diver In Florida Casually Grabs A Great White Shark’s Tail
This video actually shows two great white sharks. Snorkeler Nick Bailey shared that he spotted the first shark on March 25th and filmed it swimming right at him. Then the next day he was snorkeling and spotted another white shark and dove down to touch the shark’s tail.
That diver, Nick Bailey, described this encounter as “the craziest moment of my life!” which seems about right. I’m having trouble imagining many moments in life that would be crazier than touching a great white’s tail when you were swimming outside of a shark cage.
Speaking of shark cages…
A second great white shark encounter has also gone viral recently. This video is 100% a nightmare scenario for anyone who is scared of sharks.
In this clip, the diver is inside of a protective cage and the great white shark is engaging in all-out feeding frenzy. It was presumably lured in by a diving company throwing chum into the water so divers could see these sharks up close. What the diver certainly didn’t expect though is the great white to ram the cage incredibly hard and come within a few inches of the diver.
If you enjoyed those two videos, be sure to check out this one where a great white EXPLODES out of the water behind a fishing boat in New Zealand.
How common are attacks by Great White Sharks?
Globally, there are only 5 to 10 great white shark ‘attacks’ per year, or what ends up being classified as an attack. They are INCREDIBLY rare and truly not something that 99.9999% of the global population should ever worry about when swimming in the ocean.
With that said, always use caution when swimming if there are lots of fish in the water or low light conditions (dusk or dawn). Using good judgment is always advisable.