Dive Review of
Great White Adventures in
Mexico (Western)/Guadalupe Island

Worldwide.

Dive Conditions

Stay inside the cage.  

Everything we needed.  A boat of 16 professional and advanced amateur
photographers filming white sharks.  There were probably 50 cameras on
board, and the crew was good at identifying and passing down your next rig,
while rinsing and putting away your spent camera.  

Overall Rating

Guadalupe Island, 100+ miles off the Pacific coast of Mexico, and about
200+ miles south of San Diego holds several world records for spearfishing
- primarily large tuna.  However, it has also been the site of several
shark attacks on spearfishermen.

Our boat was organized by Mauricio Handler, an UWP out of the Carribean,
and several of his colleagues.  The level of photography knowledge was very
high, and learning was contagious.  The tour operator was Lawrence Groth,
owner of Great White Adventures.  The boat was the Searcher; a long range
fishing boat out of San Diego.

This was a spectacular trip.  Nothing but white sharks.  Up close and in
your face - touching distance from the cage, but really not advised. 
Sharks ranged from 8' to 14'.  Not one dive was made without multiple
sightings.  

The boat is 95' long, and while we were in cages off the transom, we could
clearly see the anchor line off the bow.  Excellent visibility, although
with their countershading, the sharks could get to within 50'~75' of us
before they were spotted.  Divers rotated through the cages; one hour in,
one hour out.  By noon of the 2nd day, people began to spend more time in
the salon, so cage space freed up and we ended up getting a lot of time in
the water.

One thing Lawrence has done differently than the other operators is to
develop a 3rd cage, a deep cage.  This cage is 4'x4'x 8' deep.  It is
lowered 20' under the boat, and you are free to stand on top of the cage
and film the sharks as they pass (very closely) overhead, to your side and
beneath you.  Only one diver and the safety diver at a time in the deep
cage, oriented back-to-back, both keeping a sharp lookout for curious
sharks.  There were plenty.

Lawrence has been doing this for a few years, and it is obvious that he is
well prepared.  Plenty of tuna in the hold for bait, plenty of food and
beer for us.  He even has an underwater speaker blasting tunes out
underwater to pass the time.  The sharks appear to be more interested in
classic rock and come in closer.

Highlight of the trip was being in the deep cage with my safety diver,
Scott Davis (one of the great white researchers that occasionally shows up
on Discovery channel during Shark Week) and having 8 large white sharks
swimming right around us as we stood on top of the cage filming everything.
 Even Scott agreed that was pretty hairy.

This trip is a must do again & again.  Guadalupe is the premier white
shark destination in the world, bar none. 

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