Scuba Stories and more

My First Panicked Student...

2010-07-22T13:31:00.002-07:00

Being a scuba instructor in a resort environment, many of the courses you teach are ‘Referrals’ which means the Open Water student took the first half of their course at a local dive shop near their home. They completed their book-work and learned to do skills in a swimming pool, and all they need to become certified divers is to review what they learned and then perform the required skills on 4 dives in Open Water. Sometimes the students come ready to dive, well prepared and well taught. Sometimes, however, referral instructors find themselves in interesting and potentially dangerous situations!

Keeping in mind that these Referral students have never been deeper underwater than the bottom of a swimming pool, the first Open Water dive at a resort is kept fairly shallow, with the skills portion and exploration portion not to exceed a depth of 40’. That is still plenty deep for injury to occur, should a student panic, so as an instructor you are always on the lookout for the telltale signs of diver stress. A diver who is constantly coming up with equipment issues when their equipment is working perfectly fine, for example, or one who talks incessantly – or not at all – can all be signs of diver stress.My very first Open Water Referral student was a young woman who had none of the signs of stress, passed her review brilliantly and seemed anxious to get out there and dive! At our resort there was about 100 yards of very shallow water to swim through before we got to the 20’ depth area where we would descend and perform the skills for the referral course. The whole time she was swimming, her eyes were glued underwater, looking at all the beautiful coral and colorful fish. This was a diver in the making!One of the most difficult skills for a brand new diver is simply descending. Breathing tends to be your enemy, as you are a little nervous, you over-breathe, keeping you lungs full of air and acting as a flotation device. The more you struggle, the more difficult it is to descend. My student had only minor trouble, and soon we were kneeling on the sand at a depth of 20’ performing skills. The skills went well, and our Open Water dives progressed right according to plan. The student wasn’t a natural diver and she had some trouble with her buoyancy, but that is common and we were working on it, and since she absolutely seemed to love the creatures, I knew she would make a good diver some day.And then, we reached the dive where the student must remove, replace and clear their water-filled mask. Even though an instructor watches their Open Water students extremely closely, this is a skill where an instructor must not only pay attention, but physically be close enough to subdue to student should they try and rush to the surface, as it is the most common point of panic during a scuba course. If a student has difficulty clearing their mask, their brain tells them they are in trouble and the first instinct is to hold their breath and race for the surface; the absolute last thing they should do!

Once you are an experienced diver, you realize that you are breathing through the regulator in your mouth; your air source is not compromised in the least by a little bit of water (or a lot of water) surrounding your nose and eyes. There is no need to panic. But for an inexperienced student, this can be a scary moment. After successfully removing and replacing her mask, my student struggled with the task of clearing and was not having success. The more she tried to empty her mask of water, the more water she let in. Her movements became more rapid, her body language screamed stress, and within a few seconds she went from an enthusiastic, average, calm student to a panicked person about to bolt for the surface, risking serious injury.As a new instructor, one never knows exactly how you’ll react to such an event, and my response was to instantly reach for her BCD with one hand to keep her on the sand, and for the nose of her mask with the other hand, to stop her – in her stressed-out state – from attempting to breathe through her water-covered nose. There wasn’t enough water in her mask to prevent her from opening her eyes, which she did. We stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, face to face with my fingers pinching her nose and my other hand securely wrapped around the strap of her BCD. In reality was only a minute or so, according to Jim, who was acting as my assistant for this course. During that time, I kept my eyes as calm as I could and kept them glued to hers; my goal was to get her to relax; then, we could ascend safely and practice the mask-clearing skill on a later dive. I watched as her expression slowly began to change from sheer terror; her eyes relaxed, her body stopped fighting against my grip, and after a few minutes she signaled that she was OK and I could remove my hand from her nose. She cleared her mask beautifully.With her no longer a threat to bolt, I removed my hand from her BCD and there we stayed, kneeling on the sand, for another couple of minutes, relaxing and breathing. I then signaled to ask whether she wanted to cut the dive short and return to the surface, but her response was to remain and complete the dive. It was a miraculous transformation. Where on our previous excursions she had trouble maintaining a consistent depth and was (as is common for a new diver) constantly adjusting the air in her BCD, on this dive she was completely relaxed, focused and neutrally buoyant. She looked like someone who had been diving for years; comfortable, aware and observant of the creatures we saw during the dive.

Back in the dive shop, and throughout the remainder of the Referral Course, my student couldn’t stop talking about her experience. She said it was something in my eyes that told her a story. At first, she thought my holding her down would drown her, but as she looked into my eyes, she saw she wasn’t drowning, that everything was OK and she was safe. I somehow calmed her down during a very stressful moment, and at that point, she said something ‘clicked’ in her. Whatever that might have been, it certainly had the effect of making her relax and start enjoying herself underwater – a great step toward becoming a good diver.Author Ellen Debboli is a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, Web Developer and owner of MagnetFotos, a company selling photo refrigerator magnets to scuba enthusiasts and tropical fish lovers world-wide!

IDC at 40

2010-07-22T13:31:00.001-07:00

Becoming a certified PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) Instructor takes a lot of time and commitment, and a fair amount of money. Beginning as an Open Water Diver, you work your way through the ranks, taking courses to become first an Advanced Open Water diver, then a Rescue Diver, and then a Divemaster before being allowed to take the IDC, or Instructor Development Course. The Divemaster course entails the most time, practice and book-work, and during that class you learn a lot about the physics of diving, the physiology, decompression theory and other subjects without such scientific names. If you do your homework, you also become a much better diver, honing your underwater skills to a level of mastery.

I remember the single event that got the ball rolling for us - got us to believe that becoming a dive professional was definitely something worth pursuing. It was Jim's 40th birthday, and for the weekend we rented a houseboat on Lake Amistad (Texas-Mexico border) with some friends. One of the party-goers was a newly certified diver getting deep for the first time since his certification.

We had heard interesting things about diving in Lake Amistad. Supposedly there are a couple of haciendas that were flooded to make the lake, and you can dive down to parts of them. Unfortunately, the water was low and we weren't sure where the haciendas were, so instead we selected an interesting-looking cliff and decided to dive along it. The visibility was zero, and although it always feels good to be underwater, Jim and I found ourselves holding onto each other to avoid getting lost in the murk. With Jim in the lead, me right there holding on and Steve behind, we occasionally caught glimpses of the wall, but mostly it was an exercise in 'what the hell are we doing this for?'

Most of the time, we couldn't see Steve at all, and that made Jim and I very nervous. As the more experienced divers, we felt responsible for his safety, although we had made a grand total of about 30 dives during the 4 years since we ourselves had become certified divers. That was the event that led us to think - gee, we really don't like the feeling of responsibility without the skills or knowledge required to actually BE responsible. We decided we would like to know a bit more about dive safety so we could feel competent to assist other divers in an emergency.

We still had frequent flyer miles left and a planned trip to Central America, so when time allowed the following April, off to Roatan we went to become Divemasters. While there, we had such a great time and met various people with whom we became good friends. After 5 weeks we returned to the States as much more competent divers, confident that we would at least not be useless in a dive emergency (although our Rescue course was an exercise in humility, but that's a story for another day). We continued to receive tempting emails from our new friends on Roatan about relocating permanently to the island. At the time, our situation was pretty flexible, and we thought living and working in the Caribbean for a while sounded like a great plan!

As a Divemaster, it is difficult to make a living, especially at that time in Roatan. Most of the larger resorts hired local Divemasters and most didn't make a living wage in any case. As instructors, however, the options became more reasonable and we wouldn't be stealing the jobs of the locals, since there were not enough local instructors to staff the existing dive shops and it was common practice to hire internationally. In July of 2002, just a year after our experience on Lake Amistad, we signed up for the Instructor Development Course with Underwater Phantaseas in Lakewood, CO.

First of all, the question is - what were we thinking? Wouldn't it have been a lot more fun to take the course and become instructors down in Roatan, where the water is warm and the air is even warmer? But no, we were anxious to get started, so start we did - in the murky waters of the Aurora Reservoir and Gravel Pond #2 and in the classroom and swimming pool of Underwater Phantaseas.

Jim was almost 41, and I was about to turn 39; we were not kids. And neither of us had been in school for a long, long time. PADI has very strict guidelines as to what must be taught during the Instructor course, primarily because the certification process is done not by your instructor but by PADI Examiners independent of any individual dive shop or area. Therefore, shops around the world must teach those things that are tested during the Instructor Examination (IE), a grueling 2-day event that includes re-testing on all the knowledge of physics, physiology, etc plus testing on your teaching skills and diving skills and rescue skills. Basically, during the Divemaster course we practiced scuba skills to get to the level where we had mastered them; things like taking your scuba gear off and on while underwater, sharing air between 2 people on a single regulator, removing, replacing and clearing your mask of water, neutral buoyancy, etc. The Instructor course takes it a step further and requires that those same skills not only be mastered, but be mastered to a level where you can demonstrate them meticulously with the goal of teaching them to others.

Classroom presentations are equally filled with details; each presentation should include at least one dive-related anecdote, should sell either dive travel, dive gear or continuing dive education, should cover the topic being taught in outline form but not over-teach, as most of the PADI courses are primarily designed for self-study. It isn't that the material was difficult - both Jim and I had been teaching various things for a long time and our newfound dive knowledge was fresh in our minds. But we both have our own style so following the PADI formula proved more difficult for us than it should have! We worked our way through the course along with 3 others - Dave, Storm and Liz - and finally it was time to put our newfound skills and knowledge to use during the IE.

In retrospect, it was not that difficult an examination, although it did encompass 2 days and include tests in Rescue skills, dive knowledge (the same information we were tested on during the Divemaster course), presentation and teaching skills, in-water teaching skills, the ability to observe mistakes in student divers, even when the visibility was so poor you couldn't see them, plus your own ability to demonstrate slowly, accurately and precisely those same skills.

During the Rescue test, one of the scenarios involves rescuing a person from the water who is not breathing. The rescue-breathing is simulated, of course, with you blowing air into your own hand instead of into the faux distressed diver's mouth. Each of the candidates took their turn and also played the victim for other candidates. Imagine my surprise (the examiner got a good chuckle too) when the candidate 'rescuing' me provided an actual rescue breath or two - so stressed out by the test his hand just didn't seem good enough!

We had just built up the stress and pressure so much in our heads that we made it more difficult on ourselves than it should have been! But after it was all over, there we were on the beach at Gravel Pond #2, newly certified 40-year-old PADI instructors ready to teach the world to dive!

The Day The Olympus Died

2010-07-22T13:30:00.001-07:00

It was an Olympus 4000, aged by anyone's standards in 2008 but still getting those wonderful shots and as comfortable as an old T-shirt with frayed edges around the neck and a hole where the pocket is sewed onto the cotton fabric over the left breast pocket. And it had seen many adventures, been to all corners of the world - Honduras, Montserrat, South Africa, Thailand, Panama, the US and Belize, to name but a few. It had taken photos from atop volcanoes, while suspended by rope rappelling from cliffs large and small, while zipping across the treetops on canopy tours and on grueling hikes when it outlasted and outperformed tired ankles and knees. It had performed when shooting from the windows of planes at 30,000 feet and it had performed just as well 130 feet beneath the waves. It had taken thousands of underwater photos; photos that became fridge magnets and photos that entertain friends and family and photos that were so bad they never even made it off the media card. It's underwater housing was held together with rubber bands and glued-on parts, and was missing the lever that made it simple to click for the shot. But still, it continued on.

Until that fateful day in Zanzibar, on a deep wall at 130 feet depth, when a reef shark made a sudden appearance, exciting the otherwise serene divers. As divers will do, at once they swam deeper, following the shark and hoping it would turn and make another pass - allow a great photo opportunity. It was already tempting fate at 130 feet, 30 feet deeper than the housing was rated to go, but alas, it had been there before - many, many times. And then there was the 'POP' and then came the flood, and suddenly, the Olympus 4000, faithful friend, trusty companion and frequently the only dive buddy invited along, was no more.

But Africa is considered by many to be a birthplace, and perhaps it has earned a new life there, in Zanzibar, with the hotel worker who eyed it's swamped, rusty countena

Diving With the Great Whites

2010-07-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

About The Great Whites...

Great white sharks are the largest predatory fish in the oceans of the world, sometimes exceeding 20’ in length and 5,000 pounds. They hang out in coastal waters where the temperatures are a bit chilly – between 55 degrees and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. They feed mostly on larger animals such as seals and sea lions, which would explain why they can frequently be seen in coastal waters. The Great White was popularized and villainized in the 70’s when the book and then the movie Jaws hit the big time. Jim and I and our good friend Gill were all in our formative years at the time, and I’m sure we all experienced some Jaws-spawned fear when dipping toes and other body parts in the ocean during the mid-seventies. Dyer Island, South Africa has one of the largest concentrations of great white sharks in the world, so it has become a major player in both the shark research and tourism arenas. When Gill, Jim and I found ourselves in South Africa at a time of year when the sharks are plentiful, we had to check it out for ourselves.

3AM - You're Kidding, Right?
The toughest aspect of the day was the waking up at 3 am part. Another friend, Sandra, a Cape Town local, had opted not to swim with the sharks, but she did offer to drive us to a local Cape Town hotel on the V&A Waterfront where we would meet up with a van to take us on the 2.5 hour trip to Gansbaii, the Great White Shark diving capital of the world (if you listen to their marketing)! The best part about the shuttle ride was that it was still dark and nobody had any trouble extending their sleep time. When the shuttle arrived in Gansbaii, we were offloaded into the facilities of White Shark Projects, one of about 8 different shark tour operators in the Bay.

Off To Dyer Island
Our orientation was great – breakfast awaited us, as did liability forms and a briefing by the captain on what we were about to experience. At daybreak we headed down to the boat, a catamaran-style vessel with space for about 20 passengers. We were the last passengers to board the boat, so our seats were on top of a storage chest used (we presume) for life vests. It was cramped in the back of the boat, fighting for space with the diver cage strapped on to the back and crates full of fish heads to be used to attract the sharks. Luckily it was a very quick 15 minute ride out to Dyer Island where the sharks congregate, and then we sat back and waited while the crew began to chum the water to draw in the great whites.

It can take a while to lure them in, and some days, they don’t appear at all. The Captain had made sure we thoroughly understood this, similar to the briefing given by game rangers when on safari in Africa - "These are wild animals and we have no control..." But we were lucky or the timing was right, and within 5 minutes, our first great white shark had arrived. We watched as the crew threw out a line with a large fish head at the end, and as the great white tried to snag the bait. The idea is NOT to feed the sharks, but sometimes they get lucky or just pay better attention than the crew, and fish heads are inadvertently, occasionally consumed.

Into The Cage, Humans
Once the sharks arrived, there was lots of oohing and ahing from the deck, cameras clicking, and then it was time to get divers into the cage, which was about 7 feet tall by 3 feet wide by 9 feet long. 5 divers could fit side by side in the cage at one time, even in their 7 mm wetsuits to try and combat the 59 degree water. BRRR! Jim was in the first group, and Gillian and I held off for the second group, opting to see what this was all about first.

This is not scuba diving; there are no tanks and not even snorkels. The ‘divers’ line up in the cage, with their heads above water, holding onto bars which are strategically placed to keep all human appendages INSIDE the cage. You are wearing weights, but the weights they put on us did nothing to sink us – given the thickness of the wetsuits, we were pretty positively buoyant – think human corks! The staff watches until a shark gets close to the cage, and then yells for the divers to ‘GO DOWN, GO DOWN’. We all hold our breath and push ourselves underwater, grabbing onto other inside bars placed down below the waterline. You stay underwater as long as the shark is around, or as long as your breath holds out, or as long as you can hold yourself down and fight your positive buoyancy. Amazingly, you seem to forget about the need to take a breath while watching these beautiful, efficient predators just inches from your face and other valuable soft tissue assets.

Gillian was positioned at the far end of the cage, and got the closest to the sharks. They would swim right up to the cage and then around it, past Gill and then on behind us where we couldn’t see them. Of course, this was less a result of their interest in us than it was a result of the crew dangling the bait directly in front of the cage, and then yanking it back over the top of our heads. At the end of the day, divers in the center of the cage probably had pretty oily hair from the fish guts that came in close contact. At one point, one of the sharks bit through a plastic fender that was inside the cage next to Gill (the job of the fender being to keep the cage afloat). We were all close enough to have reached out and touched the great whites if we had the inclination. WOW are they amazing creatures! We saw 5 different individual sharks, sometimes 3 at once in our field of vision, patrolling in front of the cage looking for fish head tidbits. Whether watching from the boat or from the cage, it is incredible to see the power and the speed. The largest of the sharks we saw was the same length as the cage – 9 feet long. The crew said they were young sharks; not juveniles but not yet fully grown.

Tea and Scones - How Civilized
After a couple of hours of taking turns in the cage, everyone had enough and it was time to head back to shore. We thanked (and tipped) the crew, had a lovely snack of tea and scones back at the shop, and bought DVD’s of the trip and souvenirs before the shuttle ride back to the V&A. The DVD was mailed to us a few weeks later in the US and came out amazing! For information, email: info@globaloceanservices.com.

It was a lovely adventure, an uneventful boat ride, and (especially since the 3 of us were quite clearly in the Jaws generation) an amazing thrill thrill to see great white sharks so close.

We Extend Our Sympathies
However, less than 2 weeks later, the same boat we were on was capsized when hit by a rogue, 18 foot tall wave. 3 of the tourists aboard, 2 of them American, were drowned after being trapped beneath the boat. Even though it was at the end of the day after the group had finished their cage diving, there was no trouble with the sharks still in the water. As soon as the boat capsized, several other shark dive vessels in the area were immediately there to assist pulling the divers out of the water. A real tragedy for the tourists, for the operation, and for the Gansbaai area! We extend our sympathies…

For additional information about our non-diving adventures in South Africa, Namibia and Zanzibar, check out our Travel and Adventure Blog.

Pigeon Cays - Out of the Way But Worth the Trip!

2010-07-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Camping Trip
Located to the East of Roatan in between Barbaretta and Guanaja are a very small group (3) of picturesque cays called the Pigeon Cays. I'm really not sure who owns them, but I have heard there used to be 4 cays there, prior to Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Now there are three.

They are gorgeous little palm-dotted sand bars in the middle of some crystal clear shallow sandy areas that just scream 'Caribbean'. They also are sand-fly free, and if you are familiar with the Bay Islands and many other Caribbean destinations, that makes them a good candidate for an outdoors sleepover. There is no development whatsoever on these cays and while dive shops very rarely take tourists there, fishermen do visit the Cays on a regular basis.

Subway and Voyager
During our second trip to Roatan, as newly arrived island residents, we worked with and dove with Subway Watersports a lot. Subway's plan this day was to take a group of customers for a dive/camping trip out to the Cays and show off their newly acquired boat - Voyager.

Voyager had been a drug-running boat in a previous life with a previous owner, and with the dual 200 HP engines Patrick and Gillian had subsequently equipped her with, she still had the potential to fly. I'm sure she was 'on the radar' and a boat of interest for passing DEA or police vessels, being one of the fastest boats on the island. In fact, recently (2007), solely because of her past history, even though Patrick had completely re-outfitted her as a dive boat (he had to remove a few hidden compartments to do this) Voyager was seized by the Honduran government as a drug boat. Subsequently she was returned to her owners, and then seized again when the ownership paperwork requirements mysteriously changed overnight. Eventually, Subway got her back and she remains a great dive boat. But the whole thing was a nightmare, so it’s a story for another place and time…

After some serious shopping and packing, we were ready to head out to the Cays, along with several tourists, Subway owners Gillian and Patrick, fellow instructor and Subway employee Merritt, and good friend Sandra.

Hanging Out on Pigeon Cays
Highlights of the trip were the gourmet meal prepared over the fire by Jim, the bonfire with adult beverages that night, and the amazing scenery on the boat ride there. Our first dive was on Morat Wall, a pristine spot rarely visited by Roatan divers since it's so far off the beaten path. We were able to do some beautiful shallow diving just offshore from the Cay as well, where we saw a nurse shark, (although he was pretty camera-shy).

Most of us had brought sleeping bags, but no tents, and although it was true there were no sand flies on Pigeon Cays, there were small crabs, flies and other creepy-crawlies about. Patrick had the foresight to bring along a hammock, which he hung between two palm trees. The rest of us were up at the crack of dawn, but Patrick slept blissfully on…

The trip back to Roatan was even better, with dolphins bow-riding along with Voyager. We wanted to stop and dive at Hole in the Wall, a great little-known Roatan dive site near the Cow and Calf rocks offshore from Port Royal. Merritt had been there before, but there was no buoy marking the site. She thought she could remember from above and underwater landmarks, and although it looked questionable for a little while, she did a great job and found the entrance to the really amazing swim-through - another out of the way dive spot known mostly to Roatan locals.

We also found a few pica pica - sea lice - on the way back, and our necks were decorated with the characteristic red welts for days afterward. It was a small price to pay for an amazing adventure, and a very successful excursion! If you visit Roatan, ask your dive operator about a day trip to Pigeon Cays. It's a great place to 'get away from it all' even though you're already on a tropical island getting away from it all!

For more information about our adventures on Roatan, check out our Bay Islands information on http://thisdoesntsuck.com - our personal travel website.

Whale Sharks at Gladden Spit, Belize

2010-07-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

For months, our friend Tim (photo and video pro) had been reading about an amazing event that happens off the coast of Placencia, Belize each year. In a protected national marine park, called Gladden Spit, hundreds of thousands of fish (dozens of different species) come annually in March, April and May to spawn. The whale sharks follow to feast on the eggs released by the snapper, grouper, tuna and other species.

We had snorkeled with whale sharks in Roatan and Utila, but our encounters were generally at the surface with a single shark. Dive shop websites from Placencia displayed video of underwater encounters with 3, 4 and even 5 huge sharks at once, all in the midst of gigantic fish balls filled with spawn. The whole thing looked and sounded unbelievably exciting. Tim had been in touch with the owner of one of the local dive shops, Seahorse Divers, and was intent on being there to film this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Logistics
It was all we talked about on Roatan at Happy Hour for several months leading up to the trip. The group was set – Tim & Barbie, Jim & I, Gillian, Patrick, and Mike & Sandra. On an island where most of the expatriate population is made up of retirees, this group of 8 was a bit different; for one thing, we all had jobs.

Between us, to go away for just 5 days, we had to make arrangements to cover 7 businesses which we either owned or ran, find pet sitters for 8 dogs and 7 cats we owned or looked after, and locate house sitters for 3 of our 5 households. This was a major endeavor. Finding able, willing and responsible bodies to fill all those positions is difficult on a small Caribbean island known sometimes as ‘A sunny place for shady people’. Responsible house and pet sitters were especially hard to find since Gillian, Jim and I were usually the ones asked to house or pet-sit on the East End of Roatan.

In our case, we had to have someone to cover the shop who was also a dive instructor. To be sure we had someone responsible and capable, we imported our friend Ross Hartman, from Colorado, and one of Gillian’s more mature and responsible former dive slaves (a term of endearment for the many divemaster candidates on Roatan) who was still on the island, Robbie Tilley. Ross doubled as house sitter for Mike and Sandra and pet sitter for their 2 dogs and 1 cat. This was NOT an easy logistical trip.

Planes, Boats and Automobiles
Actually getting to Placencia is another matter. As the crow flies it is less than 150 miles from Roatan to Placencia. If you are not taking your own boat (we did consider taking Gillian & Patrick’s boat Voyager but decided against it) transportation can be challenging. We could have flown – from Roatan to La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula to Belize City to Placencia – but the layovers were long and the flights unreasonably priced and the planes very small.

Instead, we opted for the planes-automobiles-boats route. We flew from Roatan to La Ceiba to San Pedro, then piled into a mini-bus taxi to Puerto Cortez, where we caught a ferry to Placencia. Along the way we encountered a 2-hour delay before we left Roatan, a little mishap where Patrick didn’t notice that the picture on the rest room door was wearing a dress (oops), 2 of 3 engines on the ferry failing during the trip, a long wait for immigration and customs at both ends, and a long frightening pause when Sandra was called into the immigration office to verify her visa. All in all, pretty standard stuff for a trip through Central America. We all had a great laugh over the photo on Patrick’s passport – circa mid 80’s Flock of Seagulls haircut… Wish I had gotten the photo!

Not Quite What We Were Led To Believe…
Brian, the owner of the dive shop in Belize, had led us to believe that we were coming during the height of the spawning, when whale sharks would be abundant and the spawn would be a frenzy of fish activity. But as we familiarized ourselves with the shop and the staff, it became abundantly clear that we had arrived at the tail end of the season, and the staff really had no expectation of seeing any sharks during this week.

In addition, we learned that they really don’t let divers in the water during the actual spawning, except for professional film crews and researchers, as it can be dangerous. We were disappointed, to say the least, and not just a little angry with Brian of Seahorse Divers for misleading Tim as he had. We were also not happy when, after being told the shop staff would 'take care' of our gear, we returned for our second day of diving to find our still wet gear in a smelly heap on the floor of the shop. NOT COOL!

Combat Diving
The diving was listed on Sea Horse’s web site as for ‘Advanced Divers Only’ and we discovered why on our first day out. The reef at Gladden Spit in Belize is a 2-hour boat ride from the dock, although most of it is a relaxing ride through turquoise blue water past dozens of small lush tropical islands and cays – very picturesque. But once you go through the cut in the reef and are in open-ocean, the sea gets very angry and the little dive boat tossed about violently. We had been instructed to gear up behind the cut, while still in calm water. There was no way to get into wet suits and tanks without getting hurt otherwise. We had also been given the dive briefing in advance.

Getting in and out of the boat in high seas was akin to combat diving, but once you were in the water, it was nothing but blue. Unlike the walls of Roatan teeming with life, we were set to dive in the deep blue, where we could see the bottom sometimes, but never clearly. Mostly, it was just blue, all around us. And all those spawning fish inciting whale shark feeding frenzies? - gone the way of the dodo.

In 3 scheduled days of diving, we saw 1 pathetic fish ball, 1 silky shark following the group (not everyone saw this, but Jim and I did), lots of jellyfish, but mostly, each other. Even Brian cut out for the season after our first day, leaving us to dive with his staff, a dive master who clearly thought this was pointless and didn’t realize that for us poor dive professionals, this trip was a major expense and a major event.

Redeeming Value
The first day out, we were treated to one whale shark sighting – at the surface, between dives. We all jumped in and snorkeled with it, and Brian pretended to feed it by repeatedly slapping his hands on the surface to create the illusion of spawn in the water. Whale shark sightings are always amazing, and this was no different; we spent a lot of time swimming around watching the incredible shark.

But you must understand that we were lucky enough at the time to live on an island where whale sharks frequent the waters. We had all snorkeled with whale sharks before. The allure of this trip was supposed to be the underwater encounters on scuba with multiple whale sharks… OK, so you’re thinking – spoiled dive professionals. And you are right, no doubt. That first day was the most exciting, between the whale shark and Sandra losing her lunch on Mike’s head and the combat diving, we had an eventful day.

Recommendations
Placencia is a cool little village and has plenty of funky, laid-back accommodations. It also has a very posh, upscale resort owned by Francis Ford Coppola which has a very nice restaurant. Any diving worth going for is a long boat ride away, so if you are going just for the diving, we'd recommend that you skip Placencia and go someplace where the reef is closer. If you are going for the spawning and associated whale sharks, you will probably have much better luck if you go early in the season - think March or early April. And I'm sure there are good dive shops in the area, but we can not, in good conscience, recommend Seahorse Divers. Sorry Brian - next time, be honest!

Like the whale shark photos? You can own them as a scuba diving fridge magnet - check out all our whale shark and other sea creature magnets.

Divemaster Internship Opportunity!

2010-07-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

What brought us to the Bay Islands of Honduras in the first place? On a trip to Thailand, we found ourselves on a dive boat in the middle of the National Marine Park near the island of Koh Pha Ngan. We were in the middle of a year off from the corporate world (a year that stretched into about 8, but that's another story) and we were scuba diving for the first time in about 2 years. A young woman on our boat, Laura, was telling us stories about what a wonderful time she had on the island of Utila, off the coast of mainland Honduras. She told us about quaint locals and beautiful sunsets and parties and great diving. At the time (January, 2001) she said the Bay Islands had some of the least expensive diving available in the entire Caribbean. Laura had recently completed a Divemaster Internship at one of the many scuba shops on the small island of Utila. When, as a 'Divemaster', she was unable to assemble her scuba gear properly and required help from us, 2 lowly Open Water divers, we wondered if perhaps there wasn't a reason why the training was cheap...

We did think becoming a Divemaster sounded like a great idea to pursue during our year off (who knows - perhaps a new career?), even though we'd never heard of Utila. So when we returned from Thailand, we started our research, and found out that there are some great shops with stellar reputations there. There were also a few, at the time, with some not-so-stellar reputations. While researching the opportunities in Utila, we also found information about the island of Roatan. Coincidentally, friends of ours had booked a trip to CoCo View Resort for a week, so we decided that perhaps Roatan was a better alternative - it would allow us to spend time with our friends during the first couple of weeks, it was a bigger island with more to explore, and the photos we saw of the island itself looked truly tropical.

None of the shops had an Internship program per se, and although our first choice was CoCo View, we were on a very tight accommodation budget and couldn't afford to stay there for a whole month, even though as all-inclusive scuba resorts go, they are among the most affordable in the world. Instead we spent our month staying at a lovely guest house (which is about to be sold and possibly will no longer be a guest house, so I won't give you the link in case it disappears in a month) and getting our dive training at Subway Watersports, another of Roatan's most well-regarded scuba shops. The difference between most shops on Roatan vs Subway and Dockside Dive Center, the shop at CoCo View, is more than just geography. Neither are located in the crowded, touristy West End, so as a visitor you get to see a lot more of the island. We found both shops to be extremely friendly, where you are treated more like an old friend and less like a number. In fact, we made wonderful friends at both shops and still correspond with them now, over 5 years since we first visited the island. The class sizes are generally smaller at both shops, meaning more personal attention. And although Subway is now physically located at 2 resorts on the North shore, both shops offer diving on the less-travelled, I think more beautiful south shore of Roatan.

More importantly, both shops have fantastic, affordable Divemaster Internship programs. In 2002, CoCo View didn't have any internship-type lodging options, but now for interns they provide a nice house with 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen and a lovely setting just minutes from the resort. Subway also offers nice shared intern accommodations. At either place, you will be immersed in what it is like to work in the dive industry. If you're new to scuba diving, or have taken a class or two, you just can't imagine how beneficial it is to your own diving skills to be able to dive every day. And it's not just the quantity of diving that is important; when you have the opportunity to dive someplace for more than just a week or two, you stop looking for 'the big stuff' and are treated to a whole new world. It is suddenly OK to spend 20 minutes in one place, watching the comings and goings at a cleaning station, or the behavior of a school of tang. Instead of following the crowd, you find joy in kneeling in a sandy patch practicing skills with a buddy. And if you've ever wondered what it's like to 'get away from it all' and work on a tropical island, scuba diving for a living - well, there is no better way to get a feel for it than to just DO IT!

What a way to spend a month!

Perfectly Neutral Buoyancy - You CAN Do It!

2010-07-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

For many scuba divers, especially newer divers, the state of neutral buoyancy is a difficult one to achieve. There is so much going on underwater, between managing your equipment, following the directions of the divemaster, and trying to look around at all the amazing things you're swimming past, your buoyancy is probably the last thing you're thinking about as you cruise along the reef. But the secret is, if you make neutral buoyancy your first priority (once you have done your safety check, of course) all those other things will become as easy as - well - breathing!

Step One - Weight Yourself Properly
During Open Water dive courses, it is a common practice for instructors to give students more weight than they actually need. This isn't because they don't like you and want to see you struggle. It is because student divers tend to be nervous and over-breathe, making them more positively buoyant. They also are not proficient yet with techniques to remove air from BCD's, nor are they experts in a proper, controlled descent. So the extra weight makes it easier for the students to get down to the bottom of the pool or open water site, and to stay on the bottom so they can concentrate on performing the necessary skills to pass the Open Water course and become a safe recreational diver.

The downside of this practice is that the students don't realize they are being overweighted, so when they go out on their first dive post-certification, they check their log books and see how much weight they wore in their course, and that's where they start! I can't tell you how many times I've asked a 100 pound diver how much weight they want and been told '16 pounds' - YIKES!!

Why is proper weighting so important? Physics...

Neutral buoyancy is a state you can achieve when the weight you wear, the air in your BCD, the air in your tank, and your current depth combine to weight you perfectly. To see whether you have achieved it, stay still in the water - no kicking - and breathe in and out, normally but deeply. If you are neutrally buoyant, you will remain within a few inches of your starting depth - no floating up and no sinking to the bottom.

If you have too little weight on, or too much air in your BCD, you will start to float upward. As you ascend, the air in your BCD expands, meaning you will float upward at an increasing rate. If you don't remove the air from your BCD, as you know from your basic Open Water course, this is a very dangerous practice which can cause serious injury and even be fatal.

So, if you have too much weight on, isn't that safer? NO. Think about it... The more weight you have on (over what you actually need) the more air you need to add to your BCD to keep you from sinking. The more air in your BCD to start with, the more there is to expand as you ascend, which puts you in danger of a runaway ascent!

If you are overweighted, you will constantly have to adjust the air in your BCD throughout the dive as the depth changes just to stay in control. This is no fun!

How do I know when I'm correctly weighted?

It takes practice, and usually the help of a buddy or dive professional. You've heard about the weighting test and probably tried it. While at the surface, with a full tank of air, let all the air out of your BCD and hold a normal breath. If properly weighted, you should float at about eye-level at the surface. And then they add in the sentence about 'add a couple of pounds to compensate for the air you use during the dive'. We propose another, similar test, done at the end of the dive.

Weight yourself as you normally would for a dive.

During your safety stop, let all the air out of your BCD. Breathe normally and see what happens. Are you staying in place, not moving too much up or down? Or are you sinking quickly? During a safety stop, with all the air out of your BCD, the goal is to stay neutral or sink extremely slowly; you're at the end of your dive, so it is the lightest your tank will be. If you are sinking at this point, you are overweighted!

Depending on how quickly you were sinking, try the next dive with proportionally fewer weights, and continue the test at the end of the dive until you achieve the goal - neutral buoyancy during your safety stop.

Step Two: Breathing
Now that you are properly weighted, you may find it a bit more difficult to descend initially, until you have done it a few times. The key is in relaxation and breathing. At the surface, remove all the air from your BCD and breathe all the way out. Relax your body, and visualize your descent. Because you have less weight on than you are used to, you may not descend as quickly as you have in the past - this is OK. In fact, it's better than OK; it's the proper way to control your descent. Once you reach your cruising depth, stop moving and breathe deeply, but normally. Are you sinking? Floating up? When properly weighted at the beginning of a dive, the correct answer is - you should be sinking, but at a very slow pace. Put a bit of air in your BCD and repeat the test until you do not sink and do not float. You are now neutrally buoyant. Remember - NO KICKING or sculling during this test!

As you move along the reef, notice you no longer have to keep adjusting the air in your BCD; often, because there is so little air in your BCD when properly weighted to begin with, you won't have to adjust it for most of the dive. The air in your lungs will be enough to compensate for minor changes in depth. You can stop using your BCD as an elevator to help you go up and down!

How can I use just my breathing to go up and down? Picture yourself on a dive at 70 feet depth, swimming around a coral formation. You see something you think could be an anemone shrimp, but it's about 5 feet deeper than you are. Instead of letting air out of your BCD, try this instead:

Breathe all the way out. DO NOT hold your breath, and DO NOT skip-breathe. Simply empty your lungs of air.

Now, breathe in, but not a full breath - fill your lungs only halfway.

Then, breathe out again. When neutrally buoyant, these subtle changes in breathing will cause you to descend, slowly and controlled.

When you have descended the 5 feet you need to see the shrimp, breathe normally again.

To return to your former depth, do the opposite - breathe all the way in - fill your lungs - and then, exhale, but only halfway. Take another breath, all the way in, and then halfway out, until you have ascended to your desired depth. Breathe normally once again.

Step Three - Enjoy the Dive!
As with any skill, neutral buoyancy takes practice. Take some time during every dive to practice keeping still; diving is as much about relaxing and taking time to watch the behavior of the tiniest cleaner shrimp, delicate seahorses and neck crabs as it is about swimming to get a better glimpse of the manta ray or the reef shark.

Practice your breathing. Make a conscious effort NOT to adjust the air in your BCD to move up and down, but rather to do it via breathing. You will find you are using less air, expending less energy, seeing more, feeling less weighted down with equipment, and generally enjoying your diving experience so much more.

The Strangest Dolphins I've Ever Seen...

2010-07-22T13:16:00.001-07:00

Remember, this story is NOT about whale sharks...

The largest fish in the ocean, whale sharks are also extremely passive and gentle. They grow to over 50’ and are covered with spots, and if you are calm enough or they are hungry enough, they really don’t care if you hang around and swim and photograph them while they eat. Whale sharks are found throughout the world during various times of the year, but the waters close to Utila, off the coast of Honduras, in Central America, are home to whale sharks almost year-round. Seeing one of these amazing creatures from a distance is a thrill, and swimming with them is an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

During our three years as dive instructors on the island of Roatan, we learned a lot about whale sharks. Because Roatan is so close to Utila, on occasion when work and weather allowed, we would head out to hunt for whale sharks (to shoot with cameras, of course). The most memorable of these occasions was a day trip with Tim and Barb Blanton (photo pros at CoCo View Resort) on their little diesel boat, called ‘Good to Go’. ‘Good to Go’ hadn’t been in running order for quite a while before we started working at Dockside Dive Center in the fall of 2003, but within a few months Tim and Barb (a great mechanic) had found the time and the parts and the ambition, and she was, well, good to go…

To find a whale shark in the waters off Honduras, there are a couple of tell-tale signs. One is sea birds acting in a frenzied manner, diving and hanging around a specific area. Once you get closer to the area, sometimes you will see the other tell-tale sign, a ‘fish boil’. This is a large school of small fish swimming close to the surface, breaking the surface which makes the water appear to ‘boil’. These fish boils are actually the small fish trying to escape being food for bigger fish that are chasing them. Whale sharks eat krill, plankton and tiny squid, among other really small food, which means they need a whole lot of this tiny food in order to grow to their extraordinary 50’ + size. If you are lucky and in the right place at the right time, you will eventually see a huge mouth in the center of the fish boil – belonging, or course, to a whale shark.

After returning from our excursion filled with the adrenaline from this awesome encounter, we jumped on the internet hoping to find out what we had just seen. Digital photos in hand, we compared our photos to the reference material available for various dolphin species. The size and behavior suggested large dolphin, and physically they sort-of resembled small pilot whales. We learned nothing conclusive. Coincidentally, the next day a marine biologist working with Anthony’s Key Resort stopped by the shop and we were describing to her the marine mammals we had encountered. Later that day we emailed her some of the photos we had taken. The consensus of the experts she shared our photos with? We had encountered (and swam very close to) the naturally rare Pygmy Killer Whale, an extremely aggressive species that can not be kept in captivity, as they have been known to kill dolphins, pilot whales, and even each other. And we put Barbie in the water, by herself, with these crazy creatures! Sorry Barbie! Truly an amazing adventure though… If you'd like to see more photos of our curious encounter, you can find Jim's photos at our Roatan Pygmy Killer Whale story or at our scuba diving magnet site.

Since the initial encounter, we have shown our photos to other experts, and we generally don't get the same answer twice as to what it was that we saw. In any case, we still get to look at our beautiful pgymy killer whale fridge magnet every day and remember how we put our friend Barb in a potentially dangerous situation!

About j&e of MagnetFotos

2010-07-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

Jim is a graphic artist, photographer, web developer and PADI master scuba diver trainer. Ellen is a writer, web & database programmer, and also a PADI master scuba diver trainer. Jim and Ellen are partners in life and in business; they are co-owners of Digistuff, LLC.

They make their home in Datil, NM but have done a lot of traveling and a fair amount of diving. You can read more about them at their personal website, This Doesn't Suck. If you are interested in their professional abilities, there are 2 different sites you can visit. First is our web development and SEO site, and second is our custom refrigerator magnet site.

Happy Diving!

Welcome to Scuba Stories!

2010-07-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Scuba Stories, our first blog. Technically, we've had sort of a homemade travel and adventure blog for years, but thought we would try this format out too - less programming and more time for stories. Thank you for visiting!