The Sunday of Labor Day weekend we were down in San Diego specifically to go snorkeling with leopard sharks with Jamie and Zack and the rest of the Haugens…
Snorkeling. With. Leopard. Sharks.
Check out this blog post by photographer Chris Keeney for photos and video.
Some of my friends at work were a bit concerned for our safety. They thought that I would get cornered by the sharks and they’d gang up on me in their attack.
Never you fear. We survived unscathed.
Early(ish) Sunday morning we caravaned to La Jolla Shores, rented snorkeling equipment and found some (not terrible) parking.
There is a small cement walkway down to the beach between a hotel and a home …. and as soon as we got there we noticed that the tide was high – all the way up to the building.
Literally.
No sandy beach to relax, no sandy beach to leave your towel/camera/water bottle/etc.
The hotel has a restaurant RIGHT on the beach and luckily had a wide window ledge with room for the towels/camera/etc.
I was feeling a bit sick that weekend, so I opted not to go snorkeling …. instead I stood in the shade with Jay, talked, laughed, people-watched, took photos and babysat everyone’s stuff … .
It was a good morning …
Andrew in his rented gear, heading out:
(look at this gorgeous house, with the room jutting out OVER the water!)
It is just as well that I didn’t rent equipment and go snorkeling, because they weren’t really able to see anything. The movement of the waves gave several people motion sickness …. and the water was pretty choppy and cloudy so no one saw any sharks.
Andrew did see a ray, though … a couple feet across he said . …. He told me that he wanted to pet it but then thought that maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.
And of course, everyone had to tell him that is how Steve Irwin died (kind of).
Andrew did tell me later that it was the ray that stole his snorkeling gear.
Yup, Andrew lost his rented gear. On his way back in, a wave hit him in just the right way to pull his mask and such off and away.
He looked fruitlessly for awhile but finally gave up….
For those who don’t know, Michael Haugen is a maniac. Sunday morning he got up before everyone and went on a 34 mile bike ride (*only* 34 miles. He originally planned on 40). … then, once we got there and realized sharks would be hard to find, Michael went for a swim. He says all the way over to those cliffs (that look like they are inaccessible any other way). He told me he snorkeled there a bit and tried to catch fish with his hands.
Maniac.
Then he swam back.
Even though we didn’t see any sharks, it was still a great morning in San Diego.
And the good news is the sharks are supposed to do this every year! We might try to buy ourselves some snorkel gear and go back next year or the year after …
View the gallery and purchase prints: 2009.09.06 Snorkeling with sharks – La Jolla Shores