Nerves of steel...I wish!

At last it happened, something scared the shit out of me under water! I'm not the most experienced diver, but I've seen a few sharks so far and none of them made me even remotely nervous. Well, that changed.

It started of as a normal day, the sun was out and the visibility cleared up well, with 15 meters the reef looked beautiful. For the first two trips in the morning I was lead guide, which means I'm the one doing the tour with the customers and I had Jun with me as my safety diver at the back of the group. The first trip went smoothly, I showed my customers the reef, we played with the fish and everybody was happy. Halfway the second trip I was just walking from the first scenic spot to the next facing my customers (so walking backwards) when I felt a water wave hitting my back. I turned around and faced an enormous tail passing by which was attached to the biggest shark I've ever seen. Instantly my heartbeat raised and I turned to my first-time-under-water-asian customers whose faces went ashen. Trying to be excited I gave them the OK signal with a big smile but I was pissing myself. Instantly I stopped them and saw the shark disappearing over the reef moving everything and stirring sand up with its powerful tail which diminished the visibility over the reef to zero. As soon as it disappeared it made a big loop, this time heading straight towards us. I was absolutely shitting myself getting ready for impact but about 2 meters before us it changed direction and disappeared. I turned to my customers and got a shivering OK out of them before heading off to the ladder to get them out of the water as soon as possible. I've seen a few reefsharks in the area before which are small and cute and in no way harmful, but this was something completely different. After my description the crew thought it could've been a tigershark which is one of the more curious and unpredictable sharks out there. I'm not sure what it was, but it was huge and it scared the shit out of me. Luckily, we haven't seen it since. Being well aware of the bottle of fishfood in my jacket didn't make the experience any more comfortable.. This was the first time I was really nervous about a situation probably also because I didn't expect something like this to happen in 5 meter deep water..
But well, that's another experience, one I won't forget easily and I definitely think a bit less lightly about sharks now. Hopefully that's gonna make me a better diver..