Swimming With Sharks! in La Jolla, California

Today I am posting about SHARKS! I’m not sure when it happened, but I am obsessed with sharks. I am totally fascinated by them. I am the crazy person that wants to go diving with Great Whites and swim on top of Whale Sharks. Since I can’t exactly do that right now, I am going to tell you about the time I swam with Leopard Sharks in La Jolla, California.

In July 2012 I was on a vacation with my mom in California and as we were perusing Groupon for things to do, Swimming With The Sharks came up. We were staying in LA, but have a special love for San Diego and made the trek the next day. I love driving in California on the PCA. I don’t care about the traffic, I just know that I am in California and the traffic eases my mind. Anyways, I’m supposed to be talking about Sharks.

So we finally make it to the address listed on the Groupon voucher, and it leads us to a house. Well needless to say, somebody didn’t have a Leopard Shark as their pet and the address listed was wrong. We parked and walked to the beach, but nobody had a clue what we were talking about. Let me just mention I may have been more frustrated if La Jolla hadn’t had some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Beautiful blue water, white sand, and Sharks, what more do you need? Finally we found a lifeguard that was willing to help us, he made a bunch of calls and figured out that we needed to go to a beach a mile away. We were running a little late for our scheduled tour but finally made it.

As a lot of people know, California water is freezing. All. The. Time. I have been in every month from March-September and no matter what, its bone chilling cold. Thankfully we were supplied with wet suits. As we were waiting for everyone else from the tour to get ready, we noticed a guy bleeding on the beach. Come to find out a Stingray went right into his foot, and left a large hole. We didn’t realize we would be swimming with Stingrays as well!

We were warned to be careful of the Rays while going into the water, and shuffle our feet in the flippers. Luckily, we made it in alive. At this point I was getting really nervous, I know Leopard Sharks aren’t known for snacking on humans, but what if the day I was swimming with them, was the day they would start. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. The Leopard Sharks would even let you touch them, if you were a fast swimmer. There were SO many of them, it was unbelievable. It’s crazy to be swimming and turn around to a shark in your face, but also one of the coolest experiences ever. Another great memory with my mom for the books!

I highly recommend looking into swimming with the sharks if you find yourself in La Jolla one day. There is also some pretty great shopping 🙂