matt shirvington Always ready to face new challenges.
and this sunrise The host did just that on Tuesday, when he faced his fear by swimming with sharks.
Watch the video above: Shirvo faces off against the marine hunter.
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Shirvo was joined by spectator Stephen Schwab at Sydney’s SeaLife, where the pair donned wetsuits and came face-to-face with local apex predators.
Shirvo couldn’t stop himself from laughing as the monsters passed right by him.
“It was really nice. The most remarkable thing is that you get all the training and you get the understanding of living up close to these animals. ‘You think man, this is so scary,’ he said.
“The sight of him coming straight at you with his teeth bared and a slightly sinister smile on his face was the scariest thing.
“As I’ve been there and if you’ve ever been to SeaLife or any aquarium, they have tunnels. People are passing through the tunnels. You can say hello to them. Wave to them.
“But I pointed out some sharks several times. The instructor will pull your hand down, ‘Don’t take your hand out.’ Sometimes, you know, over the years, they’ve hand-fed them.”
Shirvo said that Stephen was nervous at the beginning of the segment but was destroyed once he got into the water.
“Once you were down there and you got a better understanding of the diving and other things and they talked to you about it, it was really cool and beautiful.
“I loved it. Loved it.”
Shirvo regularly puts his body on the line for sunrise segments. In October, they tested several methods to avoid falling prey to magpies.
The breakfast show host rode his bike through Manly Vale in the city’s northern beaches during nesting season, testing four ways to avoid magpies.
Shirvo also adopted his own trick of using a handheld speaker playing magpie sounds while walking through the park.
Surprisingly, he was the one who did the trick and he managed to walk around the park without swooning.
“So cable ties, pounce! Eyes in the back of your head, pounce! Bird toys, pounce! How about this speaker with magpie noises? I was not misled at all,” Shirvo said.
