Book Review: Uncaged by Paul de Gelder

Paul de Gelder is one of the most recognizable stars of Shark Week every year. He's recognizable because he's the only one of the Shark Week regulars missing an arm and a leg from an encounter with a bull shark. Despite losing limbs and very nearly dying from an encounter with a shark, Paul has become wildly protective of sharks and often helps out with scientific and conservation efforts. How he got from food to friend is the subject of his memoir.

Paul's family moved around Australia constantly as he was growing up, and he became a stoner with few friends. Nearly homeless, and after an unsuccessful stint in an Australian rap band that once opened up for Snoop Dogg (!), he decided to join the military.

Paul first joined the infantry, and while disappointed he did not get to serve in Iraq (he mentions in the book that he didn't join the military just to train every day), he was part of the Australian forces sent to East Timor. East Timor is one of those names that sounds familiar but you just can't place why (again, on this side of the globe we were more concerned about Iraq and Afghanistan at the time, so it was kind of drowned out). Basically, Indonesia conquered the western half of Timor without any other country taking notice; however, when oil reserves were discovered off the coast of the eastern half, Australia suddenly decided they needed to step in and protect the sovereignty of the Timor government.

Paul had lifechanging experiences in East Timor, especially interacting with the people and seeing how such an impoverished population can learn to get by, but none of those experiences involved combat. Returning to Australia, he signed up to be a clearance diver, the Australian equivalent of a Navy SEAL. He passed the test and made the cut, then settled into a life of armed diving.

On one of his missions, Paul had to swim near the surface of Sydney Harbor. Paul does a good job of explaining why he was unsettled by this at the very start of the mission - that he was swimming alone through murky water with no way to see what was below him. As he was swimming he was attacked by a shark, which bit off his arm and savaged his leg. Paul goes into detail on what those seconds were like and gives you a sense of how terrifying it was.

Rushed to the hospital, Paul survived but down an arm. He also describes the depressing feeling of watching his leg wilt day by day until he knew it would need to be amputated. He had an extensive and brutal hospital stay, and was finally released to live a completely different life than the one he had been living.

One of the most surprising things to learn is that even down two limbs, Paul still believed he could be a clearance diver. Although the Australian navy promised him a job for life, he was very disappointed that they would not let him back into active duty. He did do a stint as a dive instructor for the training course, but soon left to pursue other options.

There were two unintended consequences of Paul's shark attack. First, as a survivor, he was asked by charities and hospitals to give talks on his experiences. Those talks went well enough that he started to be asked by corporations to give speeches and pep talks. Those talks paid very well - the main reason he left the navy is that they tried to curtail how many speeches he could give.

The second consequence is that he became a bit of a celebrity in Australia. Australian "60 Minutes" did a piece on him as soon as he came out of the hospital. As part of the piece, they asked him if he would feel comfortable cage-diving with sharks. He did, and during that dive noticed how remarkable sharks really were. He also played himself in a show about shark attack victims, and heard good feedback from the producers.

If you have no problem with public speaking and want to pursue a TV career, there's only one thing to do: move to LA! Paul moved to LA, only to find out that he had to start from the bottom once again. But, with iron-clad resolve, he started giving free talks at hospitals, prisons, shelters, etc., until he could work up to charging money once again. He also worked his TV connections to get spots on programs featuring conservation in general and sharks in particular.

Paul expresses his gratitude for the Discovery Channel for giving him assignments for Shark Week, but he pulls no punches; one chapter revolves around his disappointment and not being allowed to host a show on Nat Geo. Overall, though, he's grateful for what he does, and even defends the celebrity-focused programs on Shark Week, which he says tend to bring in more viewers and expose different audiences to shark conservation (although he does say he prefers the more scientific programs). Paul mentions his tight friendship with ABC (underwater cinematographer extraordinaire) and how lucky he was to meet people like Shaq and Will Smith in these specials.

The one I was really wondering about was the Mike Tyson special from Shark Week 2020, and luckily Paul devotes a whole chapter to it! If you watched that one, you might have noticed that there's a lot of visible seams, like it's tightly edited, and Mike doesn't seem engaged at all. From what Paul wrote, Mike was a great guy, but was clear to everyone that he was only in it for the money, and had a legitimate fear of sharks that made him want to be left alone many times. After Paul helped him with his first shark-diving experience, Mike had such a good time he talked about diving with great whites next. (Note: That special had in interstitial after the dive where Paul is telling Mike that he thinks Mike was able to conquer his fear of sharks and start appreciating their beauty, while Mike just nods along. That's one of the seams that had stuck with me - why was Paul telling Mike what Mike feels? Now we know - any time the producer would ask Mike why he was doing this, Mike's response was "So I can get paid, mutherf*cker!").

If you could distill turning lemons into lemonade as a person, it would be Paul de Gelder, someone who lost limbs to a shark and now works to protect them. He won't win a Nobel for his writing style (the book was especially clunky format-wise on my Kindle for some reason), but he's got a compelling story and is one of my favorites to look out for each summer. Recommended - seven out of ten hot dogs.