My Story: Steve Leonard - Sharks

Shropshire vet and popular TV presenter Steve Leonard offered his top writing tips

The BBC's My Story competition hopes to unearth the UK's most inspiring real life tales. The best stories will be broadcast on BBC One in 2010 and the winners will see their experiences published as paperback books.

The competition closes on 16 December. To take part, visit the website. You can enter online, or print off a postal form.

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Sharks

By Steve Leonard
Shropshire vet and TV presenter

When he isn't filming sharks Steve Leonard works as a vet in Whitchurch

We were in South Africa. I was about to undertake my first ever qualified dive. I had recently gained my basic dive qualification in Wales, in February, in the snow, in a cloudy reservoir. But now, the water was blue and clear and warm.

We dropped down to the sea bed and I was instantly wowed by the number of fish. I had only witnessed a farmer's welly and an abandoned Land Rover underwater in Wales.

However we were here for big fish, really big fish - sharks. Mark, my underwater buddy and shark expert had dived these waters all his life. I felt reassured and relaxed despite it all being very new.

Suddenly all the fish disappeared. Odd I thought. Then Mark is gesticulating animatedly over my shoulder.

Great white sharks can reach over six metres in length

I turned and was faced with a 4.5-5 metre great white shark. Far bigger than the bull sharks we were expecting, and the first great white Mark had encountered in the water outside a cage.

Adrenalin slammed into my system, making my heart leap into overdrive. The shark circled us slowly with obvious benign interest - this was no predatory attack.

Time slowed down exactly like it does in a car crash, but in reality the shark was with us for only a matter of seconds.

This was a freak encounter, no-one knew what to do but it highlighted the story we wanted to tell. Sharks rarely attack people, usually it's a case of mistaken identity. This shark just wanted to check us out and then disappear into the big blue.