Tim Roberts is dwarved by the whale shark he’s swimming with in the waters off Australia.
Swimming with whale sharks can’t be too bad an experience. For some, it ranks above skydiving, great white cage diving and safaris.
“Not a bad way to spend your 21st,” he declares in a deep Australian accent, still half asleep yet surprisingly well spoken. It doesn’t take long to get a smile from Tim Roberts, pearly whites gleaming from brim to brim. His persona was that of friend over foe as we conversed over pleasantries and he opened up.
“It’s unpredictable; I didn’t know what to expect – a gigantic animal nine-metres long,” Roberts said. The fact that he knew the whale shark was practically harmless didn’t exactly calm the nerves. Not that it should, an open sea swim off the coast of Western Australia is not advisable, as it’s one of the most shark-prone places on the planet.
Roberts explained how a surreal – yet thankfully not serious – incident that was playing on the back of his mind, “I was bitten by a shark when I was younger, so I’m kind of scared of open water,” he said. An ankle wound from a far from mature young shark wasn’t enough to put him off, but he has the scar as a reminder.
“You have to swim fast to keep up with it. They’re so big you don’t realise the speed they travelling at, they make it look so easy!” he said
It becomes clear early in our interview Roberts is as ordinary as you or me. Where he stands out from the crowd is with a creative and innovative aura and an unrivalled passion and desire to see the world and experience life. “I like to enjoy nature, but I’m not a hippy. I enjoy little adventures and really want to take up an extreme sport – something dangerous,” he says.
He is the first to admit that after starting his third university degree early in 2012, he would have further down the academic path. The 21 year-old former public school boy has constantly postponed a life of academia to fulfil a passion for travelling and the occasional adrenaline rush.
“It came up behind me at one point, I turned around and its metre-wide mouth shot past me, 30 centimetres away – that was pretty exhilarating,” he says.
The thought of exhilaration, however, left Roberts mulling over his not-quite-as-close encounter with a Tiger Shark.
“The instructors had to perform the emergency procedure. Luckily, they scared it off whilst the rest of us huddled in a big group…because they will kill you,” he said. “Gracious but deadly.”
Tim Roberts swimming with a shark.
