Close Encounters

Few years back when I returned back to my home country (Lebanon) after a long residence abroad I thought of going scuba diving in the local waters. That was in the summer of 2001 and it was the most beautiful close encounter of my life. Below is that story.

I had a small ‘XPrience’ while scuba diving. Its a bit funny you might think but it was ‘X3Mly’ scary (for me at least).

Friday, was a day off for me and I was deeply in the mood for a scuba dive. So I checked around to look for the schedule of diving centers in and around Beirut and there was one particular dive schedule that attracted me the most, it said "X3M team diving at 3pm at Shark Point".

So I said to myself that 'X3M' is shitty since we don't have extreme stuff here in Lebanon, furthermore "Shark Point"? what the hell is that, we do not have sharks in the Mediterranean (or so I thought).

So at 1430 I was at the dive center, at 1500 I was all geared up and ready to go. By 1530 the boat reached the dive location and we were getting ready to go IN deep. I was having some second thoughts but the crystal clear water on that day and all this amazing Big Blue around was very tempting. Furthermore, there wasn't a single wave nor wind and the visibility underwater was amazing. You could say that ideal diving conditions were present on that day.

We were 10 divers and had to split into 2 groups of 5, group A and Group B (I was in group A. Theoretically!!). Group A was expected to go North while group B goes South.

We went down into the water and the current was strong that we had to keep our fins stroking all the time. By the time we reached -30m I realized that I was with the wrong group (North, South, who knows!), we were six divers and since I am the only clumsy (non-X3M member) in the team then it became obvious that I was the one in the wrong group. Anyway, my NEW team included the dive master, 2 Swedish guys and 2 Lebanese-Americans and all in X3M physical condition.

They started there swim to the assumed Shark location from -30m and I had to catch up. By the time they reached -50m I was still way behind them bitching about the X3M exhaustion that I was feeling all alone away from them (I am not known for my X3M athletic physique). Anyway, they all froze in the distance in front of me and I was able to catch up, but by the time I reached the guys I realized that none of them was moving, they were dead still. The reason was a 4.5 meter long SHARK which was no more than 2 meters away lying below us on the sea floor at -52m. FUCK! I was directly on top of it!!!!

I am not a marine biologist so I don't know to what species that thing belonged to, but I can tell you that I would not want something 6 times my size swimming next to me ever again. With all the fear building up in me I believe I turned white (fuck, I became all colors combined). I realized that I wasn't breathing anymore and I had to convince myself to start breathing again. It was the scariest moment I ever faced in my life, it was a near death XPrience guys, no kidding here. I was 2 meters away from a hell of a JAW.

The shark which was moving X3Mly slowly briefly opened his X3Mly big mouth and showed us his X3Mly sharp teeth and then made an X3M 180 degree turn toward us. At that time, I became very careful and I immediately put my hand on my diving knife. I was ready to cut my Swedish buddy and run away.

But the shark didn't really care about us, it was just swimming around with an X3Mly firm statement that we understood from the very beginning: "One bite, One man". So at that time we decided to start our ascent. Lucky for us (by ‘us’ I am excluding myself), at -25m of our ascent we met another X3Mly cute shark which measured around 3 meters only. Again, my hand on the knife I was ready to cut any diver next to me.

All went well eventually and we were back on the surface. I was the first one out of the water and on the boat and obviously I realized that never was I able to get on a boat that fast before. X3M team my ass, they will never see me again. Not because I was scared but because I was capable of cutting someone if we ever meet a shark again.

Joking aside, it was a great experience indeed. The shark is a magnificent creature. Furthermore, I would have never discovered my dark ‘murderish’ nature otherwise, no?