With three knots of wind, a rising tide and minimal cloud coverage, I eagerly walked out into the shallow waters of Bimini, Bahamas in search of adventure. Just 20ft out and snap, the handle of my underwater camera housing broke in two. My face must have told the story as I looked up at my dive buddy; I couldn’t continue the dive with one handle. But I also couldn’t resist the insane conditions we were both gazing at. My heavy Nikon/Nauticam combo with a GoPro strapped to the top and now only one handle wasn’t an ideal setup to freedive with, but as most divers know, the heart is a hard one to beat. Onwards we walked into the water.

Within minutes I realized it was the right decision and I did my best to block out the paranoia that my damaged housing would flood. With 25+ meters of visibility and little to no current, we were greeted with a beautiful array of marine life, including a bold and curious loggerhead turtle. We were immersed in the moment and appreciated every second.

Conditions were dreamy; however, I was on a mission to find eagle rays in a popular feeding spot. I absolutely love all marine life, especially eagle rays, but the reason I regularly venture to this location was in the hopes of seeing a great hammerhead hunting on its preferred prey; a ray, tarpon or similar. After five years visiting this spot, I’d never seen a hammerhead there but with the abundance of life I figured fate would someday bring us all together. Thirty minutes into the dive I spotted a single eagle ray, calmly swimming by. I almost ignored the ray as it was solo, however to my total surprise (and overwhelmed delight) I spotted a hammerhead behind it.

I stopped breathing in excitement and then froze, hoping the shark wouldn’t be startled by our presence. The hammer ignored the ray and swam directly towards us. I took a breath and descended down to the sand to await its arrival. As the hammer moved in I realized the size of the shark approaching, possibly 13ft? She was female, “of course she was,” I thought. In Bimini, 80% of the hammerheads are, but she was different and certainly special. She was the largest hammerhead I’d ever shared the water with and she had heaps of confidence and personality. My mind was racing with excitement, but that’s when I noticed something on her back, her pecs, her sides? “Are those, mating scars?” I thought to myself, my mind was running overtime. To my knowledge, no great hammerhead had ever been documented with mating scars before this moment and all I had to do was push the shutter— while holding my breath and balancing my entire camera on the palm of my hand! I resurfaced, screamed at the top of my lungs and high-fived my buddy! The moment was truly off the scale. Not only did we encounter a great hammerhead naturally, we saw one with somewhat fresh mating scars and I captured perhaps, a world first photo.

With adrenaline fueling our bodies and me cradling my camera like an injured pet, we slowly made our way back to shore— you can imagine the conversation on the walk home. For a dive that almost didn’t happen, it’s now in the ranking for best dive of my life.

Source: Sport Diver