I recently tried a neat activity that has gained a lot of traction in recent years both in Cayman and in the Caribbean. The activity is Paddleboarding.
If you are not familiar with it, Paddleboarding is essentially a large board (like a surf board but i’d say 30% bigger) and where you are standing and have one paddle in your hands. Anyway, I like to try new things so here is my review of this activity!
First : Here are the boards. I estimate these boards to be 10ft long by 2.5ft wide, so they are quite big. Read: They are nice and stable for standing on in water.
Once the board is in the water, getting up is quite easy. In fact it was much easier than I thought! Once on it, you then get on your knees. Then with the paddle in both hands and flat across the board, at a right angle, you “stand up”. The board is wide that it is actually very stable.
Here is a picture (NOT of me – just a random picture I found on the Internet) of what this whole thing looks like. As you can see, its wide and stable. Anyway, if you fall it is not from high up and in nice warm water 🙂
I was stable enough to take a selfie!
So here I went exploring Seven Mile Beach – 200-300ft off shore. I was really neat to have a new perspective. I have walked SMB so many times, that it was nice to see it in a different way.
The water in this day was absolutely calm and of course crystal clear.
As I said … a different perspective. This is, as many of you know, the famous Grand Cayman Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
So, what is the conclusion? Its a lot of fun and quite easy to do. For the record I did not fall a single time I was out (I did 1h worth). If you are on Seven Mile Beach and feel like doing an easy (its not tiring at all) and different activity, I highly recommend giving Paddleboarding a try.
Note : this is my 300th post 🙂
Ok, there was no shark attack or the likes in Cayman. Relax.
I was recently in the Bahamas on a business trip and got there a day early to participate in an activity I have wanted to do for a very long time : a shark dive. This dive, which takes place in +-30ft of water is where sharks get fed. By sharks I mean 20-25 full size Caribbean Reef Sharks. Think of this as Stingray City on steroids.
Ok, here we go! So the setup is as follows. All the divers assemble at the bottom in a circle formation. There are rocks which make out the circle. Each diver holds on to a rock between their legs. We all have additional weights (more than on a “normal dive” so that we don’t have a tendency to float up at any time. Once we are all in position, the guy with the food (which is what attracts the sharks) enters the water and the show begins. At the peak there were around 20 or so large sharks, at least one nurse shark, a few large Groupers and of course numerous small fish hanging around.
Here is one coming within maybe 5ft of me.
This one ever close. What a majestic animal!
This fellow passed directly above me ; got a good view of his mouth.
Of course had to do a “selfie”. This one was quite well timed 🙂
At the end of the feeding, we were told we could check for teeth. Sharks apparently lose lots of teeth when they eat. I found a few and kept them as souvenirs. As you can see we were in the water quite a while since my hands were starting to get quite wrinkled.
Here is a 2-minute video of the ordeal! Note around 1:36 the camera jerks all of a sudden. A shark ran into me (no joke). The guy feeding was quite close so they were all swimming around close to me. I’ll admit …was not afraid one bit. I was an awesome experience and sharks are gorgeous creatures. They had zero interest in the divers, only the food. Once the food was all eaten, they lost interest and left. All-in-all, this was a fabulous experience, but definitely not for everyone! Julie thought I was nuts when I signed up 🙂