Has anyone gone Isla Guadalupe White Shark Cage Diving?

[airsucker]

My buddy and me just signed up for a White Shark dive adventure with Martin at SharkDiver.com. I'm curious if any of you have gone out with him/them on the M/V Horizon? We'll be going out this summer and I would love to hear from anyone who has been on this adventure to get some first hand insight.

[bluegillchow]

We did a cage-diving trip off of Isla de Guadalupe, but with Nautilus Explorer, so I can't comment on your vessel or specifics of your itinerary. I can say, however, that it was an amazing trip, and a definite highlight of my diving "career." The sharks are simply gorgeous, and Explorer did nothing to get them riled up or "performing" (I think they threw one tuna head in the water so there was an attractive smell, but that's all). It was really fascinating watching the various territorial displays and subtle interactions between the individual sharks. They just cruised around, seemingly a bit curious about us but not anywhere close to a Shark Week-esque frenzy of activity.

The worst part (for us) was the trip out; we were headed SW out of Ensanada, with a constant wind out of the north, and fairly heavy seas. 30-35 degrees of roll for a 26 hr trip does not make for a happy ship. On the plus side, I discovered that I really don't get seasick, and once we got to the island we were on the leeward side and everything was gorgeous.Be sure to take your Bonine, Dramamine, Whatever-ine.

Here's my Flickr album from the trip. I got a couple of decent shots with a silly little Nikon CoolPix point and shoot (after a few pointers from one of the crew; I particularly like the one of Shredder). If you're any kind of photographer you should be able to get some great photos. If you can't access them from my Facebook album I'll see if I can throw them up on this site somewhere.

[RayC2]

Interesting trip, also on the Nautilus Explorer so I can't comment on your charter. Watching them check out the bait you'll learn they are not the eating machine you see on Shark Week but you can see the wheels turning as they figure out how to get the bait away from the line handler by coming in up under the boat where he can't see them, taking the bait and then breaching to show him who's smarter.

[airsucker]

Excellent responses thanks! We have heard stories about "Shredder" and look forward to some eye contact. I'm curious what time of year you went when the seas were so rough on the outbound. Not fun at all on a small vessel. I have (until now) never been sea sick but that doesn't mean that I enjoy the lovely fragrance when others do get sea sick. I'm expecting a rather rough ride as we'll be sailing out of San Diego so the trip will take us a bit longer at 10 KPH. I'm going to have a look at Blue's Flickr pic snow. All input from anyone who's been there will be very well received. I can hardly wait!

[bluegillchow]

We went in early-to-mid September; the captain said it was pretty unusual weather, and the worst he'd actually ever seen.

[airsucker]

Always better to be prepared... Thanks again for sharing your experience.