Your Privacy Choices
A bull shark.
In one of the more unique marriage proposals, Michael Benson asked for his girlfriend’s hand while scuba diving with bull sharks off the coast of Mexico recently.
Despite the obvious distraction of having sharks swimming nearby, Ana Rawls said yes.
Benson was able to capture the whole moment on video, and it was clear Rawls along with the other divers were completely taken by surprise.
Because it was impossible for Benson to verbally ask Rawls to marry him while underwater, he resorted to popping the question in writing on a diving slate board, which he handed to his girlfriend.
“I started the plan months in advance when I convinced her to get scuba certified before we [went] to Mexico. She agreed and next thing we know we were in the YMCA pool. Two weeks later we were NAUI-certified scuba divers. We had no clue what we were doing and Mexico would be our first time diving. We did two dives before I had the guts to sign up for the Bull Shark dive,” he told Yahoo News via email.
The soon-to-be husband and wife are both shark lovers, especially Rawls, which prompted Benson to come up with the idea—although he still had some hesitation.
“All I could think about was floating with my feet dangling in the water with sharks circling below,” he wrote. “I most certainly did this in the name of love.
“I think being surrounded by sharks was the only thing on her mind,” he continued. “I will admit that it was pretty high in my thought patterns also. I could not see her facial reactions but she had no problem communicating her excitement. Nobody else had any clue either. When they saw the sign they all started shaking my hand. It was really cool.”
Benson said he was so nervous that his breathing began to quicken, making his oxygen run low.
“… and not to mention five 10-foot bull sharks circling me,” he wrote. “I thought I was going to ruin the dive because when the first person is out of air everyone must surface. I had to just relax and try not to use up my air.”
He waited until they surfaced to give her the ring, afraid the sparkle may attract a shark. Benson said they plan to get married in March.
Watch the video of the proposal below.
Image courtesy of Albert kok on Wikimedia Commons
The