pink
05-30-2009, 01:43 PM
For my DBF'S 20th birthday all he wanted to do was to swim with the sharks at our local aquarium. I'm not a thrill seeker but he was so keen on doing it that I agreed.
We arrived at the Atlantis Marine World aquarium in New York at 10 am and signed our lives away on a liabilty waiver with a very nice employee named Adam. He was a marine biologist and his love was for sharks.
Another nice family joined in, although only the mother and daughter were swimming that day. They flew all the way from Texas just to go do this!
Adam took us through the tunnel with the sharks and told us a little about each of the animals in the tank which consisted of three different types of sharks, a large turtle who overgrew his home at the Mall of America and a variety of fish.
DBF and I were up first, they took us behind the scenes at the aqarium and suited us up in our wet suites. Let me tell you those things feel TIGHT when you first put them on, I felt like I was short for air but after awhile we got used to it.
After we got dressed we walked up to the cage and were met by at least one hundred patrons of the aquarium gawking at us from the security point.
We met our diving instructor, Gilda and she strapped on our diving masks which allowed us to breath underwear without the air tank attached to us and also allowed for underwater communication between Gilda, DBF and Adam who stayed above water.
The started to lower the tank half way and I had a little panic attack but it quickly faded. The lowered us deeper and it was AMAZING. I still can't believe I was literally inches away from real sharks.
One of the sharks, the biggest one no less decided that he didn't like us in the tank so he circled us and then head butted where I was standing, kind of scary, the whole tank shook but nothing else scary happened after that.
DBF and I had a great time waving to the kids watching from under the water. We were under for a half hour and then it was over, I could have stayed under all day.
We loved it so much I'm considering going back for my birthday and we are both planning on getting our diving licenses.
:mickey:
We arrived at the Atlantis Marine World aquarium in New York at 10 am and signed our lives away on a liabilty waiver with a very nice employee named Adam. He was a marine biologist and his love was for sharks.
Another nice family joined in, although only the mother and daughter were swimming that day. They flew all the way from Texas just to go do this!
Adam took us through the tunnel with the sharks and told us a little about each of the animals in the tank which consisted of three different types of sharks, a large turtle who overgrew his home at the Mall of America and a variety of fish.
DBF and I were up first, they took us behind the scenes at the aqarium and suited us up in our wet suites. Let me tell you those things feel TIGHT when you first put them on, I felt like I was short for air but after awhile we got used to it.
After we got dressed we walked up to the cage and were met by at least one hundred patrons of the aquarium gawking at us from the security point.
We met our diving instructor, Gilda and she strapped on our diving masks which allowed us to breath underwear without the air tank attached to us and also allowed for underwater communication between Gilda, DBF and Adam who stayed above water.
The started to lower the tank half way and I had a little panic attack but it quickly faded. The lowered us deeper and it was AMAZING. I still can't believe I was literally inches away from real sharks.
One of the sharks, the biggest one no less decided that he didn't like us in the tank so he circled us and then head butted where I was standing, kind of scary, the whole tank shook but nothing else scary happened after that.
DBF and I had a great time waving to the kids watching from under the water. We were under for a half hour and then it was over, I could have stayed under all day.
We loved it so much I'm considering going back for my birthday and we are both planning on getting our diving licenses.
:mickey: