Don’t let the peace­ful begin­ning fool you; this video fea­tures one of the most ter­ri­fy­ing encoun­ters imag­in­able. Patag­o­nia ambas­sador Kimi Wern­er recalls the moment when she encoun­tered a great white shark.

Most of us would hear the Jaws theme song pound­ing in our heads, and we’d fran­ti­cal­ly get out of the water. Not Wern­er, she does what only a pro­fes­sion­al can. She taps into her expe­ri­ence and makes a ratio­nal decision.

It’s just three feet away, but she reads the shark’s body lan­guage. Fins out, swim­ming slow­ly, the shark appears total­ly chill. So Wern­er does what seems sui­ci­dal; she swims toward it.

And for a moment, the fear­some myth of Jaws is forgotten.