February 7, 2009
Day 1
We arrived at the Cancun International airport around 10:30 am. Once we cleared customs, we started looking for Chino, our dive guide and owner of Phantom Divers for this exploratory trip. He said he would be waiting for us outside in one of the pubs that sits outside the airport.

I had been hearing rumors about bull sharks migrating through Playa del Carmen, Mexico for the past 5 years, but I never followed up on any of the stories, until my good friend, Gerardo, of Dive Encounters in Mexico City told me about his wild adventures out there. We had been trading stories on some of our other shark adventures, then he told me about Playa and this insane bull shark action. He followed up the emails by sending me some images from his encounters, and then showed me a few video clips from his website. After several years of this, I decided that this had to be the real thing and worth investigating. So after several back and forth emails with Gerardo, and Chino; me and SDM staff shooter, Paul Spielvogel, hopped on a plane headed for Mexico.

My buddy Gerardo of Dive-encounters.com

Chino was waiting for us exactly where he said he would be, and after a brief and formal introduction, we loaded up the gear in his van and started out for our hour long trek to Playa. There is no better feeling then arriving somewhere and having a friendly face waiting for you to help you kick off a new adventure. Chino was everything I expected from someone who dives and feeds bull sharks everyday. He has a lust for life, and a passion for sharks, and is...just...plain...crazy. He is the kind of guy you enjoy spending time with, and with so much in common, we were instant friends. We traded stories on our experiences on feeding sharks. I have fed tigers and lemons sharks, but never bulls. Bulls have this nasty reputation, and feeding them is an art form. I was looking forward to seeing Chino at work.

Chino posing for a picture, in his usual calm style!

We talked all the way down to Playa, trading stories, and he told me about the bull shark action that they have been experiencing lately, and just got me all fired up for our first day of diving. He had counted 22 bull sharks on a dive they did 3 days earlier, and was talking about some new things he was trying out so that we could get better images. Once we arrived at Playa he took us to grab a quick meal at his wife's restaurant and then dropped us off at the hotel to rest and prep gear for our 9AM dive. How was I supposed to sleep knowing a pack of hungry bulls were less than a mile away waiting for me?

It was a dream come true!

Our first dive was early and it was a bit dark but here is a great shot of the group of bulls How about that to get your heart going?

I hit the sand and started looking around to count sharks. Without trying hard, I was able to count 10 bulls off to my right, and by the end of the dive we estimated betwen 15-18 bulls. I was completely blown away. I think the reality of this place had not totally sunk in. One of the first things I was looking for was to find out if these were males or females. All the sharks were females, some with old mating scars and some that had swollen bellies. This place has all the makings of becoming an 'All-Time' World class shark diving site. The first thoughts that came to my head was Walkers Cay in the Bahamas, and the infamous 'bull shark beach'.

Walkers had a healthy population of bull sharks just a stones throw from the shore and you could walk off their special built pier and jump in with a pack of bull sharks. Although Walkers was only 3-10 feet deep, and not 65 feet deep like in Playa. However with the population of bulls here it is an amazing dive, and compareable to Walkers in its prime.

I started shooting, focusing on individual sharks that were swimming directly for me, trying to capture as many sharks in one frame as possible. I love shots like that. Paul was shooting stills trying to find a place to shoot without getting sucked out by the currents. He would aim at one shark, but was easily distracted by the other sharks that continuously approached him, offering up better shots. We fired away till we were forced to surface. Once back on the boat, we laughed and traded stories; me and Paul praising Chino for showing us his sharks, and this amazing dive, we both agreed this was a great - great dive. Chino laughed, letting us know that we haven't seen anything yet!

Dive # 2 - Stuart Cove's shark feed on Steroids

Chino feeding the bulls

Feeding bulls is an art form...I cant wait to try this in 2010!

We dropped in for our second dive. This time Chino left the barrel on the boat and switched it out for a 5 gallon bucket filled with left over fish parts. (They get their fish from the local fishermen who normally throw those pieces away in the garbage, so they are doing a service to the environment by recycling.) The bulls knew that something was different about this dive and were moving around a lot faster, coming in closer and keeping a close eye on Chino. These are smart sharks and understand the difference between the two dives, and they behaved differently because of it. They understood the first dive was simply a swim around so they were more relaxed and not as worked up hanging around the bait barrel. This second dive however, they were much more amped up, because they knew they were going to be fed.

Traffic jam

It is impressive, scary and humbling when you have these large predatory sharks within inches of your frail body, knowing their notorious behaviour when they get worked up or confused. I have such a deep respect for all sharks and their lethal capabilities - but bulls just make you so much more respectful, and mindful of where you are and what your doing.

Once the feeding started everything went EPIC! Chino pulled out a piece of bait and when the bull moved in to grab it, he let it go. The bulls were pretty good at grabbing the bait, but every once in a while a remora or cobia would fly in, snatch it up and try to swim off with it. Of course it would then get chased down by the other small fish hanging around, and the tug of war would begin. The bulls knew that a piece of bait was floating around and would begin to spin in tight circles trying to find the bait before it got gobbled up. AND that is when the pucker factor kicked everything into overdrive.

The bulls would kick up the loose sand and cloud up everything in their area, making it hard to film, and even harder to see the sharks scrambling around looking for bait. Which is not a problem if your on the outskirts of the baitball watching it safely from a distance, but if your in the mud trying to get a close up shot of the action...well that's different!

shooting in the eye of the hurricane!, not always a safe place to be!

There were a few times when we had three photographers kneeling right next to the feeder, and the dust devil would start. One minute the shooters were all there, the next - Chino would look around and everyone was gone, leaving him alone in the madness. It was all good fun, no one was ever hurt or ever close to being hurt, as everyone had a healthy respect for these sharks and would give them space when they needed it.

The marina was shut down the following day due to bad weather, but opened up again for us on day 3, and we had a repeat of this EPIC bull shark dive on our last day of the trip. My hats off to Chino and his Phantom Diver's crew for their amazing job and their hospitality.

I have found a new home and I am returning next season to spend another season chasing sharks in Playa with my new friends...I hope you will join us!