Jifa made it!! Yeaaahhhh!!

Da old Wolf playing with an Aliwal Shoal tiger lady.
Photo: Jean-Francois Avenier

Click on image to enlarge

Two years ago, Jifa, aka Jean-Francois Avenier, seemed to have serious eardrum problems. As he could not equalize the pressure, he had to stay at the surface all the time - which greatly limited his photography.

Now, with silicone earcaps attached to his mask, and some expert advice from top freediver William Winram, Jifa finally managed to go down to 7-8 meters - and take real underwater photographs, not underwater images shot slightly below the surface.

He sent me the above picture with a laconic comment: "Better than nothing".

C'mon, Jifa, I know that despite being a hard-core Parisian you are modest, but you don't have to be that modest...

I think this is a fantastic shot!

What pleases me even more about this pic is that you took it with your good ol' Nikonos V, soul bro!!

Sharks, the Wolf, and press lies....

What could have been an informative article about sharks turned into a rather sensationalistic piece of commercial journalism.

Read article

Unfortunately, I was somewhat naive believing that what I said in the interview would help the cause of educating people about sharks. I had no previous experience with the press but as Rudy Socha put it: "Wolf, look at the bright side, at 66 it was time for you to lose your virginity..."

Thus, I read for the first time in my life, mouth wide open, that I "survived 50 years of swimming with sharks", then I saw myself in a photograph surrounded by 30 "tiger sharks", and a minor, rather irrelevant accident (the bite of a shark I clearly provoked) became the centerpiece of the article.

OK, I understand newspapers need some hype to get their readers' attention. However, reporters should always stick to the truth, no matter what. There is a blatant lie in the article that I find intolerable: The "Daily Mail" states that I am 67 years old - that is simply not true; I am only 66 years and 10 months old.... :-)