June 17 05

There are many things the husband and i disagree on. many things. trust me.
but, there’s one major thing we both agree on – – – we are terrified of sharks. so, naturally, we are NOT a scuba diving kind of couple…we are barely a snorkling kind of couple (we went once, on our honeymoon, and most likely will NEVER go again).

I’m not a fan of the ocean, and prefer to spend my time at the pool, not the beach. it’s cleaner, and quite frankly, it’s much safer. there are NEVER sharks in the pool.

so, call us crazy for deciding to watch the movie Open Water last night at 11:30. A short summary, for those who haven’t heard of this movie. A couple goes out to scuba dive, and due to a faulty head count, gets stranded out in open water. they deal with exhaustion, dehydration, sea sickness, jellyfish stings, and SHARKS. ah!

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Apparently, the movie is loosely based on true events. In 1998 an American couple on vacation stopped off at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to dive. They were roughly the same age as the couple in the film, both experienced divers and
the mix-up happened in a similar way to that depicted in the film. They were
never found. Bits of their equipment were recovered and looked like they had
suffered from a shark attack. The Coroner’s inquest recorded death either by
drowning or by shark attack, and the skipper of the dive boat was tried for
manslaughter (although he was aquitted).

The beauty if this film is that it leaves you feeling the “What ifs” throughout the entire hour and a half. What if you were a tourist, out for a nice day of scuba diving? And what if your chartered boat inadvertently left you behind, miles from civilization, alone in shark-infested waters? What to do now? Try and swim? Wait there for the boat? What if you saw a shark? worse yet, what if you DIDN’T see a shark? What if you never got found?

It’s the Blair Witch Project of the ocean. and it chilled me to the core. and you bet your ass i won’t be snorkling again. ever.

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