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Austin In The Ocean

By Austin Michael Jun 16, 2021 | 7:10 PM

I’m a scuba diver now! I’ve talked about how I love swimming in the ocean. Now, with Josh’s help, he was my awesome instructor, I can do it from the perspective of fish. I got certified while I was in Jamaica.

Coincidentally…….. weirdly coincidentally……… the same day I went out for my first dive, I ran across a story about Michael Packard. He’s a lobster diver who literally got swallowed by a whale the day before.

He went down to check his traps that morning. As he put it, he suddenly “felt this huge bump and everything went dark”. He thought he was dead because a large humpback whale was trying to swallow him. Obviously he survived. He thinks the whale spat him out because the air bubbles from his regulator annoyed the whale.

The regulator is the thing you stick in your mouth and breathe through. Thanks for teaching me that Josh!

Josh also taught me to always dive with a buddy. Michael Packard went solo…….. and a whale tried to eat him.

Anyway, Michael Packard swam away with only minor bruising.

His shipmate said he saw the whale surface and spit Michael Packard out. I keep getting a comical image, like from a movie in my head. It’s a medium distance shot with a whale’s mouth breaching the surface, it opens up, we hear a loud “yuck”, and then Mr. Packard comes flying out with a comical “aaahhh” as he flies a ways and then splashes safely near the boat.

I didn’t see any whales in Jamaica. I did see some dolphins while I was on a boat. They were all like, “Come swim with us. Hop on in!”. I think they just wanted my rum punch.