My face is in the water, I'm breathing up, my intentions are pointed down to a reef about 30 meters down below the ocean. I was focusing on a nice coral head to make a drop on, when I had my sixth sense heightened and then I had a big tiger shark swim right underneath me. She was a big female and didn't bite me, obviously. She was studying the scene and swam right underneath me. She was wider than I was, it could easily fit me in its mouth with one bite. I swam over to my boat as I wanted to get my chum and flashers out of the water. So as I got everything out of the water, i took my camera out and she started to make her way back up to the surface with her intention set specifically on me.
So, with my experience, I dove down, almost playing chicken with the shark. We were going head on head with each other and 9 times out of 10, they're gonna swim right up to you and then they're gonna veer off at the last second, because they're gonna see how confident that you are in the water, which is what I did. With this head-on-head situation I got some great footage, some great photos and I got to get some photos of really detailed parts of this shark. It was just an incredible experience. She accepted me and I accepted her and she knew that I was a fellow predator in the water.
The next day I got a photo from one of my best buddies, Phil Cothran, who had some photos of a tiger shark that he sent me and he let me know that I swam with her five years ago almost to that day. I don't know if she remembered me, I doubt it, I didn't remember her. Comparing the two photos within that five year time, she has some new scars on her and I have some new scars on me, she's still hunting in the same area, I'm still hunting in the same area and she's just a beautiful creature in the water.