A scuba diver had a close encounter with two sharks on Sunday and managed to film some of the incredible run-in on a GoPro camera, according to Nine News.
Randy Fales, 68, had been diving along Satellite Beach, Florida, and had been swimming for about an hour when he came up to the surface. Fales could not see the boat he had dived off of, but he did see a shark, then another one.
“When I got on the surface, I got around and there wasn’t a boat in sight,” Fales said. “I picked up on a wave to see as far as I could and no boat.”
#Scuba diver finds himself stranded at #sea , circled by #shark https://t.co/WArmhClINr #boating
— Dennis Stemmle (@DennisStemmle) May 21, 2016
Fales has been scuba diving since 1980 and knew he had to stay calm and keep moving to get out alive. He first spotted one of the sharks swimming beneath him and managed to capture the footage on his GoPro.
“He came real close to me one time and when I kicked, I kicked his pectoral fin,” he said.
The experienced diver began to swim back away from the shark and in the direction of where he thought the boat or shore would be. After swimming for about an hour he saw a second shark near him but just kept on moving and trying to get the attention of passing boats.
Despite what sounds like a terrifying encounter to most people, Fales was not bothered by the close call at all and plans to get back in the water as soon as possible.
“It wasn’t really that scary of a situation…In fact, I’m hoping to be able to go diving this weekend,” he added.
Fales was eventually picked up a passing boat and reunited with his two daughters. Despite staying calm through the shark ordeal , he was rescued just in time. The shark, which he estimated to be “probably 6-8 feet” in length, got a little more aggressive each time it passed him, according to Florida Today.
“The longer I was on the surface, the bolder the shark became, and the closer it came so I was kind of watching the shark and also watching for boats around to see if I could signal one of the boats,” he said.
The prepared diver acted quickly when he finally saw a boat passing close-by and used his whistle to capture attention, as well as waving a makeshift flag he had made from from his high-visibility dive bag.
GoPro Captures Stranded Scuba Diver’s Shark Encounter https://t.co/boup9bfqQf via @Yahoo
— Kathy Dowsett (@kirkscubatweets) May 21, 2016
Fales and his daughters had been on a spearfishing trip near Sebastian Inlet in Brevard County when he became lost in the water so luckily he had the tools to create a makeshift flag.
“I used my dive bag as a kind of a flag to hook it on to my spear gun handle,” he said.
Fales had been trying to signal for help for an hour-and-a-half and was “trying not panic.” His daughters had tried to contact the Coast Guard and alert them that their father was missing, but worryingly, they were not able to get in touch due to poor signal.
Carleigh Fales, one of Randy Fales daughters, said that she and her sister were getting really worried about him when they discovered he was no longer attached to a line with a jug on it telling them where he was. The boat had disconnected from a weight due to wind and caused the boat to drift almost three miles without the women noticing they had left their dad behind.
“I got to the point where I was like, ‘Oh no, we’ve lost our dad,’ and then we can’t even get through to anyone and it was just kind of a scary feeling… I was just so happy then we saw them [the boat carrying her dad]. We were so relieved that these guys picked them up.”
The relieved scuba diver said in his 35-years of diving he had never encountered such a close call with sharks, but was undeterred and would get back into the water, according to Yahoo! .
https://youtu.be/ATNVJwwKr_0
[Photo via Youtube]