Utila, Honduras -- Whale Shark Experience pt.2

Allow me to set the stage for this next story as there are many factors that come in to play, without which you wont be able to share (at the very least, in some small part) in the feelings of those on the boat at the time. If you ever been deep sea fishing you know what its like to sit still or to putter around on the water in your boat for long periods of time with no real or tangible outcome. Now as a diver hearing stories over dinner of miscellaneous undersea spectacles as veiwed by those expereienced divers with decades of years spent traveling and seeing creatures that would amaze you - it should come as no real surprise that the epic Whale Shark is sort of akin to that of the Unicorn or something that is oft raved about and seldom seen by many, even those with hours upon hours of bottom-time logged. We spent about 20 or minutes watching the birds actually - I'll tell you why: here is how this all works, the birds circle the area from above, watching the shadows in the water herd the bait fish together into something called a 'boil' (these fast moving shadows being the Tuna), the Tuna are kind of like the sheepdogs of the ocean, the Tuna, working together and numbering sometimes in the hundreds, push the bait fish to the surface so they are trapped against the air with nowhere to go for escape, the whale shark follows the tuna (allowing them to do all the hard work) to the concentration of its dinner, once the bait fish or shrimp get close enough to the surface the birds actually dive down into the water (all the way down to 80+ feet deep, using their wings to move the water) to get at the fish - even with tuna and a huge whale shark in the area! Then the shark just comes in for the small fish and shrimps and all the tuna jump out of the way right before the shark eats a huge gulp of the bait ball. So we watch the birds and all of a sudden the fish hit the surface and theres all this splashing around and the birds are going crazy and now we know where to jump in - I guess that makes us crazy too huh...ah well, its fun!

They say they are large as a school bus underwater, that as they slowly pass by you and can almost count foot after foot between the head and dorsal fin and then count again from the fin to the tail. They say that if the tail hits you, it can knock a 300 pound man unconsious instantly. They say that in comparison the size of a man is so miniscule that if you can hang on to the fin of the fish, it wont even feel you hanging onto it. The fish could swallow you 100% effortlessly in its mouth which when opened is larger than the diameter of a dinner table that sits 6 people. But yet, the diet of the fish consists completely of shrimps and bait fish that are no bigger than your pinkie finger; in fact if it swallows anything larger that something that size it will actually expel it voluntarily. For its size it is the most gentle animal in the ocean, actual whales are the only other creature in the sea that can compare to its size and weight and girth and a whale is by nature and instinct a much more aggressive and territorial animal which obviously makes it quite a bit more dangerous for a person to be in the water with the latter as opposed to the former.

I think when you look at what it eats and, in relation to its size, how gentle and easy going its nature is that God has kind of struck a balance within this animal that would be the reverse of what many might think, certainly the reverse of what I would think. This thing is the biggest fish in the sea, literally, but yet it has no rows and rows of razor sharp teeth, no real aggression towards man, no real aggression towards any other sharks or inhabitants of its home turf. Also, God created it to feed wholly on a fish that is so small that even a man would have to eat over a pound to get full - this thing has to eat TONS of them per day. This means that it must travel l-o-n-g distances to find them (how does the fish know how to find them in the vast ocean?), then it has to get them grouped together (how does it get them in a tightly packed bunch to feed when it moves to slowly?), the shrimps have to mate AND reproduce AND grow to maturity at such a fast rate in order to not have their numbers wiped out by the sharks AND also to have enough around to feed the sharks seemingly endless hunger (think of the biggest guy you know and imagine how much food it takes to sate him at dinner time..then multiply that by a factor of 6 to 800 times). Now try to tell me that God is not amazing, try to tell me that God is not an ongoing part of this world, that He doesnt take extreme interest in even the smallest things (remember that these fish live and eat and die in a world that for the most part +95% of all people in all of history have not seen or experienced first hand)...why such a high level of detail and complexity for this particular chain in the eco-system that also no humans would ever know about? I find the ocean to house a plethora of mysteries like this, I find them over and over each time I go under to explore some more. See, there is another tangent for you! Tangents are my bread and butter...ok moving on...

So the dive boat is setup in such a way that there are two rows of air tanks and the rows of divers sit facing each other before the dive begins, well when you are searching for whale sharks the divers don their snorkel (not scuba) gear and sit on the little bench behind the tanks facing out to the ocean on each side (see pic). Then you hang onto the railing behind your back and dangle your legs and fins just above the water as the captain slowly positions the boat at the best spot to view the fish. So eventually the engines are cut and the OK is given to enter the water, as you can imagine the fall from 3 or 4 feet over the water will cause a bit of a splash and when 25 people jump at the same time from both sides of the boat the splash is pretty big and can serve to scare the fish away as sudden quicks movement and white water are signs of danger in the animal world. Well it happened exactly this way and after I entered the water and the bubbles cleared some I could see the 25 foot long giant in the water vertically under the boat. Talk about seeing it at an odd angle, it was opening and closing its mouth against the white hull of the boat as though it was trying to nurse its mother or something. When we all jumped in we actually jumped in all around it and surely surprised the heck out of the poor guy. He started moving away below us, at a fairly good 'clip', moving to the other side of the boat actually and toward open water. Now I go the gym 2 to 3 times per week and I really wanted to see this fish (we came to Honduras particularly to see this guy) so I came up, took a big gulp of air and dove down, swimming under the hull of the boat and down to about 15 feet under the surface following the shark. I was kicking those fins as hard as I could, rapidly using up that gulp of air! I began to acend and took another breath while still maintaining my fast fin kicks, I probably followed him (or her) for 60 feet before the giant began to slow a bit. It was kind of funny to notice how this thing was leisurely swimming along using only a gentle tail kick and yet it was gaining on me and I was kicking as hard as I could. Boy, I felt like a fish out of water (sorry for that horrible pun). At this point, I must have been well over 150 feet from the boat, alone, with this behemoth in probably about 2,000+ feet of open water. The fish slowed and actually came to a bit of a halt in the water about 20 feet below me, I stopped kicking and laid there over it watching and breathing easy. I was doing all I could to take it all in. After a few minutes together just looking at each other, the fish stirred slowly to the left so a second after it I matched its movement, it slowed again and then moved its enormous head to the right, so again I kicked twice to my right, I kicked horizonally in the water so I wouldnt make much sound or splash as I certainly didnt want to scare the beast off. It stopped again, but soon started moving again, just a slow back and forth of the tail so I was able to keep up quite effortlessly. Taking a small breath a went under a bit to gauge its comfort level with my proximity and sure enough it descended some as I came down a bit too. Obviously it was a bit timid after such a sudden exposure with a bunch of people. Back to the surface I went and the fish rose slightly as I distanced myself from it again...seemed like it was OK with 15-20 feet between us but not any less. My ear broke the surface at that moment and I could hear the dive boat moving over toward us; knowing the noise would certainly prompt the fish to move away, either deeper or laterally, I took a big breath and dove straight down hoping to get to touch the giant before they plucked me from the water. The fish was waiting for me to do this I think for as soon as I reached 5 feet under it had already started moving down into deeper water, I again kicked hard anyways but couldnt catch it, I probably went down maybe 35-40 feet and it was a good ways below me so I bid my friend adu and came up again slowly to meet the boat as it got nearer to me. This experience was the second of two sightings we had of two different fish. The Captain told us that this guy was the bigger of the two, measuring about 25 feet long (making him/her a juvenile, not having even reached adulthood yet). The first one we saw was a baby at about 15 feet long - that viewing was only about 5 seconds long as it moved past the boat and all of us snorkelers quite fast diving down at the same time. Obviously I was much happier with my one-on-one experience described above.

Oh, all I had at the time was one of those crap-quality plastic Walmart underwater cameras so the pix above that are super grainy were taken with that thing. At least they are some sort of memento of our time there seeing such an amazing animal! Hopefully not the last time we see it too! Hope you enjoyed that story!

Utila, Honduras -- Whale Shark Experience pt.1

I haven’t looked over my dive log lately and that, perhaps, is why I am finding it a bit difficult to remember any further big 'eyebrow raising' experiences we had while in the South Pacific (though I am sure there were many more that can be shared...more later possibly); none the less, I thought it prudent to mention another great experience I had the pleasure of enjoying somewhat recently. That being our contact (not physical contact of course) with 2 whale sharks in Honduran waters. Here we go:

A full week of diving around the island had passed by and with a single week remaining and to date no sights of a whale shark yet we were slowly becoming increasingly disillusioned about the prospect of finding one. I am sure this same feeling has been felt by hundreds and thousands of avid divers throughout the last 30+ years of recreational (and professional/commercial) oceanic exploration! This tense, uncertain feeling in the pit of our collective stomachs was not without some reprieves at different times though; let me explain: after the first morning dive we were puttering around the area during our surface interval watching the surrounding water for 'boils' of bait fish driven to the surface by predators below as this is the tell-tale method of finding anything of note in such a vast empty ocean. Off to starboard about 150 feet in front of the boat we see just such a boil; hoping a whale shark is below, a wave of excitement washes over those on board. As we slowly close in on the boil we are treated to something entirely different: a ~5 foot long striped marlin we see snapping up those baitfish as a morning snack with much enthusiasm! The water was so clear and since the marlins depth was not more than 2 feet under at any moment, we could not help but see the full coloration of this sides as well as the slight wave action of his color changes from purple to blue to red to dark green while he was feeding. This is done as another way to confuse and disorient his prey at the moment before they are eaten. Kind of brutal, I know, but so wild and still amazingly perfect in its balance too. That fact I feel is undeniable. It was a true pleasure to see such an amazing predator in the wilds of nature, his place in the world. Yet another event of which I am humbled to have witnessed.

On another day, we had a joy of spending our surface interval snorkeling with a pod of wild dolphins numbering approximately 50-65 members. We saw them coming towards us a short way off our bow and we all quickly suited up in snorkels, masks & fins to meet them in the water as they approached us. I entered the water and as fast as I could I moved far away from the rest of the crowd and floated there in the water by myself waiting for our looming contact. I even tried to make some high pitched dolphin-like sounds as I waited for them. Most likely to no avail at all but at the time it felt like the right thing to do to at least alert them that I was there (hoping them would come to investigate me closer). As I lay there, my back barely breaking the surface as the ocean gently jostles be back and forth a bit my eyes are locked in their direction as I keep my head just under the surface. Times passes slowly and the anticipation grows so I pop up to check on the distance to see where their dorsal fins are breaking the surface and if they are still oncoming toward my position in relation to the boat and the other divers. They are, I am right in their path. After that confirmation, my head quickly goes back under and I watch even more intently for them. Finally, I see some faint movements in the water, 25+ dark shapes moving up and down approaching me; with my heart beating faster now I cannot help making a few more high pitched dolphins sounds like you hear on the Discovery Channel (please don’t laugh too hard). They come into full view and seem to slow a bit as they see me in person. I had heard a few chirps and beeps from them as they use their sonar ability to map out the path in front of them so I already knew that they knew exactly where I was already. I laid in the water largely motionless as the pod parted to the left and right around me, giving me a birth of about 15 feet. My head darting around quickly now, trying to take it all in I noticed a few, maybe 8 to 9 members, from the next little group coming toward me diving to pass by me from below, not to be outdone I take a large breath and dive straight down to try to meet them in our mystical underwater nexus. I kick hard to gain the depth I think I will need to have a good look-see. Keeping my eyes on the group I see a head look up toward me as an extension of the downward kick, at this point I am 5 feet away, and can clearly see all the markings and some scars on their backs as they pass below me (indeed ocean life is a tough life). They pass below me as others pass me on either side and as the pod slowly goes by in its entirety I am left knowing fully how unsuited for this place I am as a man but yet connected and deeply moved to see this sight and for even a few excellent moments to have been a part of their pod, as the weakest link most certainly but I like to think of my presence as a part none the less. Go ahead, call me crazy… :)

Ok, so I don’t think I will be getting to the actual story of the whale sharks in this post, but that is kind of my style isn’t it?!?! We will save that for next time and I promise I will get right into it then. I will leave you with a final story about yet another dolphin experience we had on the exact opposite side of the island during a surface interval during our first week of diving there in Utila. As ocean experiences go, I am sure the word 'risqué' doesn’t usually factor in much at all, but what we saw while on the boat was, for lack of a better term quite 'risqué' indeed. We notice some splashing and movement at the surface about 200 feet off the port side of the boat, almost directly abeam of us and our Captain 'Waggy' (Wagner) starts to move us over in that direction as we can investigate closer. I am looking intently now and can see flashes of white and dark blue/grey very near the surface. I start to wonder if it is sharks feeding or fighting with other sharks or dolphins or something. As we close in it becomes much more obvious: what we are seeing is dolphins mating, hence the white underbelly coloration as the females turn over for the males. Upon seeing this, the Dive Masters start to tell us some random facts about this topic: that dolphins don’t just mate for procreation but rather for the propagation of close feelings of community & togetherness, that a female will mate with multiple males at the same time and that males will mate with each other also - this being more for the maintaining of that strong connection within the pod (to keep the pod in close 'emotional' contact if you will). I found these facts very surprising as you could probably imagine, ESPECIALLY...no surprise here...the last one I just shared with you! None the less, some of us requested permission to enter the water in snorkel gear to observe more closely the activity we were having some trouble viewing from the surface, as the immense glare from the sun was difficult to see through, even with sun glasses on. We were promptly told "No" with the following reason: during mating and feeding times, dolphins many times take on a much different 'persona' than that of what most humans associate with them. This is much like your family dog being fun loving and gentle to your children but when eating his food in his bowl, that same dog may snap or growl a bit at those same kids when they approach him at that time. One Dive Master told us a story of how a snorkeler was actually rammed by a couple dolphins after entering the water close-by while some in the pod were mating. He was rammed so hard that their hard snouts tore his skin and broke a few ribs to boot. For sure, a recreational diver doesn’t need to hear more than a couple stories similar to this one to start thinking "maybe I'll stay on the boat this time!!" What a thought!
Ok I think that's all for now. See you next time.

Fiji, South Pacific pt.4

Apart from the occasional large sized reef fish or pelagic, i found Fiji to consist more of smaller sized life, mostly found on the bottom, nestled between the sharp rocks and hard corals which litter the sea floor. From the hundreds if not millions of varieties of small gelatin-ish nudibranchs (yes thats the actual name for them) to the massive red, grey & yellow starfish to the hundreds of sea cucumbers and all the little fish that live on the sand in small nooks, their coloring perfectly blending them in with their surroundings, shades of ivory, greens, browns, blacks, tans, etc,...where you can only see them when you get close and they flinch - darting back into their den. hope you saw them then, cuz you'll have to wait motionlessly for another few minutes for them to emerge again!

The starfish were by far the largest i had seen in all of my H2O experience. they were so thick! some were over 2.5 inches thick in the middle with shorter, fatter, stubbier arms protruding outwards. These are called 'Cushion Stars'. Most Caribbean starfish are much flatter but with much longer thinner arms extending out, making them look more like a persons hand than a roadside traffic cone. Truly a neat difference to see. I still like to put a starfish on my open hand and leave it for a few seconds to feel it start to stick. I feel like if i leave it for too long, when i pull it off it will take some skin with it, though of course this hasnt happened yet!

Why not, ill do a paragraph on sea cucumbers...the turds of the deep. we were able to see actually 3 types of these guys while in Fiji! The first 2 types looked basically the same with slight coloration differences while the third one looked so drastically different that i was too timid to pick it up (not that anyone should just go around touching random, possibly poisonous, marine life). Colors were white one light green for the first one, and more of a banded white and dark green/grey for the second (i believe the dive master called this a Tiger Cucumber, which i think is funny cuz to me you cant get much farther from a real tiger than a peice of poop that hardly moves on the ocean floor..but anways...) and the last was by far the most 'floral' of the group with bright red 'fingers' all over a dark purple on the body. Mr. Red and Purple has me so perplexed that i really didnt want to touch as so many ocean creatures that are brightly colored are highly venomous! You will have to check out my FB page for some pictures of what i am talking about in this post. Ok, thats all for now. more to follow!

Fiji, South Pacific pt.3

My posts are becoming more and more spaced out...guess i havent been in too much of a writing mood lately. Perhaps due to a case of 'mainland depression' coupled with a sense of 'soon-to-be-unemployed-itis'. I have had weighty things on my mind. Poor me. Ok onto the meat of the post:

I think it is really sort of difficult to classify the experience with the Pacific because of a few different things: cold water, local hospitality, island climate, accomodation quality, time of year, wildlife. A diver who is simply out of his/her element regarding the items listed in the preceeding sentence, in my opinion, cannot give a real valuation to a trip to an environment as it compares to a diving experience elsewhere in the Pacific or in the Caribbean/Atlantic; its apples and oranges as I see it.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, including me, and their rating of the time they had at any certain place should carry some weight but my point is that a divers dislike of certain aspects of a trip to a new place should in some sense be taken with a grain of salt. It would be terrible to rate a resort or ocean locale poorly due to unfamiliarity. If I dont like the cold water, OK, but I need to remember that the Pacific is...well...cold (colder than the Caribbean on any day), even during their summer months! Its just the way it is. Therefore, it has to be asked: is it a negative? Well, if someone desires to be a part of an experience with the abundance of life that calls the Peaceful Sea home, then you have to live with a wetsuit of at least 3 mil (4 to 7 mil is better). I thought it was important to make that distinction before moving on in my description of our time at Wananavu.

A description of the northwestern coast of Viti Levu in the winter season (September) and the daily trip out to the Bligh Waters absolutely would not be complete without some words on the boat ride out through those 'choppy' seas. As I write this, my brain struggles to think of an analogy fitting enough to give the reader some sense of what it was like. Ok here goes - lets say you have a metal lawn chair, like one found in someones back yard maybe, ok so if you were to stand up and hold the chair behind you then jump up as high as you can and instead of landing on your feet, land in a sitting position instead. The jarring SLAM of your bottom onto the metal seat will give you some idea of the experience. Of course, to get the full affect, imagine a slam like that every 2 - 9 seconds for the hour long trip each way. Yikes! My family really does those extreme adventure type vacations that most people probably arent into as much as I am.

One great benefit of a dive trip in cold water is ~usually~ a higher degree of underwater visibilty. I think we enjoyed this to some extent at least while trying to search out sleeping blacktip reef sharks sleeping on the sandy bottom of the ocean as we passed by them. We did manage to find more than a few during our hours amongst the fishies; I hope to post some video of that to my Facebook page one of these days.

I think in large degree, and I have probably said this before, the oceans topography out there was just as impressive as the vast quantity and vivid colors of its marine residents. The amount of caves, overhangs, gradual to sheer drops from the vibrant lively shallows down into the dreary grayscale largely lifeless depths of the abyss, random depressions and narrow tunnels in the ocean bottom or in the vertical face of the rock walls, the sandy 'rivers' that seem to be carved at random through the pastures of hard corals of all sorts of colors and textures, dotted with bright jello-soft anenomes in various shades and blendings of reds, oranges, greens and yellows all waving in the gentle back-and-forth ebb-and-flow of the oceans morning 'breeze'. Needless to say, I am and have forever been trapped, captivated and absolutely addicted to the awe that such sights inspire. I truly experience God, and the immense creative ability of Jesus Christ in the making of His planet, in almost no other way than being in the ocean or in nature of some kind.

Fiji, South Pacific pt.2

After that brunch we, Brad & I, moved on to our Bure (another name for Cabin) which was a short walk down the path toward the beach. We enjoyed it very much as it had a decidedly rustic look and feel to it as they designed it with hardwoods a-plenty. The beds were very comfortable and the patio was great too, though it would have been nice to have a more unobstructed view of the ocean from there (too many palm trees in the way). I enjoyed sitting out there smoking my pipe, feeling the breeze from open water and listening to the sea birds chirp at each other! The pool had a small but fairly tall waterfall and some boulders afixed in the pool at the shallow end, I brought a few books to read through and it was great to sit by the pool and read with the waterfall in the background. The locals were nicer to us than I was prepared for and alot of fun as well! The amount of down-time or re-covery time that you have after diving allows for alot of relaxation even though for many, it all may be needed after fighting and swimming against the ocean current for the better part of 45 minutes twice or more per day.

Fiji, South Pacific

It has surely been a while since my last post and I am wondering if I am disciplined enough to even be a 'blogger' in any sense of the word. Alas, I am here and I’m a typing none the less! We all went to Fiji last month for 2 weeks and it surely was something amazing to experience! Quite a big change from our many times in the warm and sometimes seemingly lifeless Caribbean. The flight from LAX was ~11 hours to Nadi, Fiji (Viti Levu); that, after a 6 hour flight from BWI. Some locals pronounce Nadi as Nandi, but either way is acceptable over there. The flight was the longest I have ever been on personally and it was a somewhat rough thing to handle as I am a 230 lb 6"2' strapping adult male, one who doesn’t exactly fit into tight spaces all that easily (a fact that has also slowed any purchase of exotic Italian sports cars as well...that fact and the money issue of course). Both flights to and fro were not full and we were able to expand our 'jurisdictions' to a few seats to allow for some leg room; this fact helped immensely in my surviving of the long journey.
Dram Bula to You, Adi's & Rati's!
Fiji is an island chain made up of over 322 separate islands, some large some small, some inhabited some isolated from civilization and therefore open to any and all solitary explorers (oh what fun that would be!). As I said earlier, we landed in Nadi, on the western coast of the big island called Viti Levu which means simply "Big Fiji". I found it interesting to note that Fiji is only a 3 hour flight from Brisbane, Australia. It was neat and also kind of sad to be so close to Aussie country and yet know that we wouldn’t be able to check the place out on this trip. As I have heard many times on cable "I have the travel bug" and indeed I do too! From Nadi we took a 2.5 hour long taxi ride to the Resort located on the northwestern corner of Viti Levu outside a town called Rakiraki. During the taxi ride, I spoke with our driver, Sai, for some time while we trucked through his beautiful home. I noted the range of terrains the big island boasted, everything from sandy and rocky coastline, to marsh and mangrove swamps, to open gently rolling plains and finally up to some fairly intimidating mountains which run along the spine of the Big Viti. I will be adding pictures to my facebook site sometime when I get around to it but alas for many of you, FB shrinks the pix to a smaller size with lower resolution so you might not get to fully appreciate the landscape as I was able to. For those of you not familiar with the 'rules' and procedures having to do with driving on an island, either in the Caribbean or in the South Pacific (as I came to discover that nothing really changes from island to island, no matter where it is located), I find it important to note that the concepts of #1) Lanes & #2) speed limits & #3) turn signals really do not apply accept when driving past the local police station and/or the local courthouse building(s). I, being a die hard fan of any and all fast + aggressive driving and road racing...no matter the type of auto being piloted, was thoroughly enjoying Sai's fast and jerky avoidance of the plethora of car-swallowing potholes located or should I say littered along the roads there, both highways and the smaller streets but the same could not necessarily be said for those in the back of the van (I was riding shotgun with Sai in the left-hand seat; yes, the steering column was on the right side of the van). I looked back at different times to find everyone holding some kind of handle to steady themselves as we bounced down the road. It really is cool to see how no one really gets hurt while passing through so many intersections with no stop lights or stop signs for that matter. Americans are so different, in a bad/worse way to boot!
So after a full 2.5 hours we arrived at "Wananavu Resort", the driveway to which was probably the bumpiest 1000 yards I’ve ever been over. It was a 'gravel' side road, but this gravel was mostly the size of large grapefruits (or slightly bigger) and as the van's tire passed over you could see them shoot off to the grassy shoulder as the weight of the van pushed down and bucked them out of the path of the next tire.
We got there and were greeted with a late breakfast on the patio with the sun shining brightly and the ocean breeze welcoming us all to paradise. That moment is one I always look forward to anxiously as the point where I can exhale fully and truly be at peace and certifiably AWAY from my mainland-troubles. The view of the lush, tree covered Malake Island from across the narrow channel was great. Given its proximity, the cloud cover would never get too thick so as to cover our view unless there was a rainstorm right over us. Even then, the ocean trade winds blow the weather systems along so strongly that a rain rarely lasts longer than a couple hours at most. Did I say I love the islands more than almost anything? God truly knew what He was doing when he had that idea!I haven’t really reached a stopping point yet but I’ve been writing for a while so ill pause here, no worries though, there will be more to come soon.

Turks & Caicos Islands (1999) part 2:

Since the Turks & Caicos Islands are a chain of 28+ individual islands, some inhabited, some not, (total land mass of ~240 sq. mi.) we stayed on Providenciales aka “Provo”, which is the capital and most populous city of the British Territory. This location was also the most easily accessible place to stay. Located 575 miles southeast of Miami, the Turks & Caicos Islands are a British Commonwealth Colony that was first populated by the Lucayan or Arawak Indians.

The diving operation and the crew at Dive Provo (http://www.diveprovo.com/) was just great, they were very laid back, not rushing us, not barking orders at us or talking down at all. It made for a very leisurely first dive. In fact they were all very excited for us and shared our enthusiasm for the beginning of our sport diving career.

My brother and I are growing a bit tired of clinging to the bow rail with enough tenacity to stay put as the boat bounces and pitches across the breakers much like a rag doll. We’ve been watching the yellow mooring buoy on the horizon appear and disappear as the waves tease us with glimpses of our future. It has grown closer and closer to the boat over the last few minutes as Brad and I keep looking at each other and chuckling anxiously (and nervously) as neither of us is sure of what exactly we will experience in the next 30 minutes. We hear the Captain kill the motor as we coast up to the buoy; the dive master (DM) comes to the bow to loop the tie line on the mooring as a soft anchor so we can begin the dive. They weren’t going to start us out on a drift dive, which is certainly for the best.

We suit up in our gear, though no wetsuit for me or brad, only our swim trunks, as the water was nice and warm and felt great…even at 100’ under! Just a little cooler than bathwater! Standing on the stern of the boat with my fins hanging over the edge staring down into the blue was such a harrowing experience! The DM came up behind me and gave me a small shove in a joking way to get me to get off the boat and stop holding up the line of those wanting off the boat that were behind me. I just needed a minute to collect my thoughts before I took the big plunge! Closing my eyes, taking a big breath and holding my mask on my face I jump in and am greeted with that feeling of the instant cold of the water hitting your skin just like you get at the pool. I never like that shiver. That feeling subsides and I pop to the surface to give my OK to the boat captain and then descend with the rest of our group. Getting used to the increased pressure on my ears (due to the weight of the water above my head) was somewhat difficult to get past and when I found out that if you are sick at all or if you drank too much the night before it is much harder to clear/equalize the pressure in your ears. The view once the bubbles flash past the mask reveals another world and the feeling of being above the ‘ground’ like a bird is really second to none. Many of my questions were answered …in the first few seconds…about why so many people love this sport. Watching animal behavior, both between themselves and with you, is very interesting and almost hypnotic at times. I have had to consciously check my air supply when at depth because I just didn’t want to look away from some little fish many a time since this first dive. Swimming leisurely over the reef, it being a few feet under me, as I watch the refracted sunlight hitting the coral and making shadows around the many mini-caves and rock/coral over-hangs where the fish congregate when a predator comes by (or anything large really) was great and very relaxing! Its true that I would later find out that some dives are just physical work, there is nothing relaxing about them, usually due to a strong current, either at the surface and a constant current pushing you from shallow depth to deep depth…ive been in a few of those and they are probably the toughest thing I’ve ever had to handle. It is incredible to feel the energy of the ocean moving against you and to realize that it could be this strong for a long long time….like weeks or more.

So right when I am about to jump in, the captain says “say hi to Elvis when you’re down there”. Turns out that Elvis is the resident Barracuda, clocking in at about 3 feet long with a big mouth of large teeth. I jump in, turn around, look under the boat and there he is, staring right at me. It was awesome! The larger fish, including the Barracuda’s enjoy the shade that the hull of the boat provides as a needed break from the tropical sun. Some may be surprised to know that many fish actually get darker more, vibrant colors as their skin/scales are ‘tanned’ by the sun, much like our skin. Coloration on a young fish will be more light but as they age and their time in the water-refracted, intensified sun light will change their colors. The Cuda like so many other fish, pass water over their gills by opening and closing their mouth all the time so to some people the teeth look really threatening but in reality the animal is just breathing. They are however very attracted to shiny things so you could become a target if you have a necklace or rings on while underwater; and a small Cuda could take your finger off before you even knew it was missing…their teeth are super sharp! But most usually, they are a lot more scared of you than vice versa. Anywho, it was super cool to see Elvis the massive Cuda.

We also saw, quite unusually, a small reef shark and a sea turtle on that very same dive. The DM would later tell us that he has never seen that much stuff in a single dive ever in his 25 year diving career. What a time we had, but we were told not to think it will always be that way! So many people think a shark will attack them as soon as it sees them, but you are more likely to get struck by lighting twice than attacked by a shark, statistically speaking. All in all a really great first dive and an excellent way to set the stage for our lives in the ocean.