Ian Ziering Reveals His Terrifying Face-To-Face Shark Encounter

 

When Sharknado 3 premieres on SyFy on July 22, we will once again see star Ian Ziering fend off Great Whites and a ton of other vicious sharks.

If Ian looks particularly skilled at making sure his character doesn’t get chomped right up, it might be because he once almost did! Sharing the near-death experience on the HollywoodLife podcast, Ian told the story of when he made the ill-fated decision to go shark diving in California and, in his words, “it was pretty damn scary.” Listen to what he had to say!

“I’ve done a steel cage dive,” Ian shared with us EXCLUSIVELY. “It was a mako shark– a good 10-foot shark. This thing came swimming at me and when he got close enough I could see that the teeth point at you and then they continue to go into the mouth.”
Okay, well, we thank you for painting a vivid picture Ian, but we are sufficiently horrified. And yet, he goes on. “When it bites, it just pulls you right in,” he continued. “I was in this cage– now this was not a part of Sharknado— I did a show called Beach Patrol many years ago. It was a reality show about safe waterways… and we did a shark dive and I was in the water for about an hour to an hour and a half, but I wasn’t deep. You only need to go under the surface… We threw a lot of stuff in the water to attract them, and they showed up.”
Well, that sure was nice of them to respond to their special invitation. And, for the future, remind us to RSVP with a big fat “nope” to that party.