Amber Allore had always told her husband Tommy she one day wanted to cage dive with a great white shark.

Wish granted, sans the cage.

The Stuart freedivers, along with friends Kristi Kartrude, Rodman Leas, Christian Daehler and Eric Shearouse, were surprised to find a great white shark swimming near one of their favorite spearfishing spots Sunday. The crew was aboard Shearouse's boat, Overdrawn. They are all friends through Florida Freedivers dive shop located in North Palm Beach.

While diving in 60-70 feet of water off Jupiter, Tommy Allore said the large shark made an appearance and stuck around long enough for him to get a couple of photos.

They were finishing up a drift at a local wreck where Daehler had just shot his first cobia with a speargun. As he battled it near the bottom, Allore said Kartrude saw the great white shark come in behind Daehler.

"I was near the surface and I heard her say, 'Is anybody seeing this?'" Tommy Allore said. "I looked down and saw this huge shark. I could tell right away from how thick it was, it was a great white."

Allore estimated it at being about 11-13 feet long. At one point, when he was able to get close to it, he could easily tell it was at least twice as long as he was.

He said the shark did not seem interested in the cobia, and was merely swimming slowly in big looping circles around the wreck. Allore had his GoPro camera mounted on his head, but really wanted to get his underwater camera for a couple of photos, since the visibility was fairly good.

"We had drifted off the spot and I wasn't able to get my camera, so we set up for another drift, half expecting the shark to be gone when we dropped back down," Allore said. "But when we got back in, the shark was still there."

Update:Massachusetts-based Twitter account identifies shark seen off Jupiter

Allore shouted to his wife, Amber, to jump in from the boat and swim his camera to him. He said she balked for a second.

"'You want to me to jump off the boat knowing there is a great white shark under us?'" Tommy said Amber asked him. Then, she did. And she got to see it, too.

Tommy swam down and tried to get close enough to snap a few photos. Mission accomplished.

It was the first time the Allores were able to swim with a great white shark, but not the first time they had swum with sharks. Tommy Allore said anyone who spearfishes in waters off Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties is used to interacting with sharks.

"You get to understand their body language," Tommy Allore said. "I've had bull sharks come in hot, and you learn how to fend them off. A lot of times, when they see you looking at them, they keep their distance. You just have to stay calm and be super chill when they're around."

More:Tracking Katharine the shark: Here's what OCEARCH has learned from her in five years

Allore has made trips to Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, the area famous for underwater shark dives with large tiger sharks, hammerheads and more. Allore has had large hammerheads and bull sharks come up during local dives. Two weeks ago, he and his friends saw a hammerhead shark struggling near the surface offshore and Allore jumped in in an attempt to see if it was tangled in fishing line. He guessed it may just have been exhausted from a fight with an angler.

Allore said the thought of a great white shark encounter actually entered his mind Friday when he saw a post from DayMaker charters' Capt. Patrick Price about one he saw sunning near the surface off St. Lucie Inlet.

"I went Saturday with some friends and we were near the same spot," he said. "When I told my wife where we were going she said, 'Don't ride a great white!'"

Sunday, they chose to go to Jupiter to find better visibility. Instead, they found a great white shark.

These freediving friends will never forget it, either. And the Allores can cross off "diving with a great white shark" from their bucket list.

Great white sharks

Distribution: Worldwide in tropical to cold temperate latitudes

Ecosystem/Habitat: Coastal to open ocean (pelagic)

Feeding habits: Aggressive predator

Length: Up to 20 feet

Weight: Up to 4,000 pounds

Conservation status: Vulnerable To Extinction

Source: Oceana