“There was definitely a storm brewing, and I knew we both had to own our actions“

This is a story that cannot go untold. One of the days of outing, I asked Stein Magne Hoff – a teacher of fishing in the local seamen school, who doubles as the local guide for adventure fishing – if I could tag along when he went out to collect his long-line, set along the axis between Borgundfjord and the ocean, in view of the island of Godøy. The depth there is several hundred meters and the tidal currents strong, and – on that day – there seemed to be an ongoing argument between the tide and the wind. Once I jumped in the water the tide pulled me instantly away, while the wind earnestly pushed the boat in the opposite direction, so I had to work my fins with as much honesty as I could muster just to keep the right distance for the lens I was using (a gloriously rare 18 mm lens from Nikon). There was definitely a storm brewing, and I knew we both had to own our actions, as Stein Magne was manning the boat alone and there was no way to help or support each other.

It was all, to be honest, a bit of frantic fun. At some point I started noticing that, as the line was being retrieved, some of the large cod were cut in half and yelled above the wind above the noise of the winch “What’s that?” and he yelled back “Shark!”. And I swam faster.