It’s always fun to meet friends who travel together. Russia-born, Alex and his friend Peter came down to visit us from the USA to try some diving here. Alex had his license and proved to be a great diver. Peter, however, did not have a license, so he took the PADI open water course with us. After a couple days, we had Peter diving like a fish! On the 3rd day of the course, I promised them something special for Peter’s last 2 check-out dives. We would be going to Tortugas reef in search of not only turtles, but a massive school of tarpon that frequent the reef in the summer.

We had planned to do a free descent down to 50ft and begin our search. The current pushed along nicely through the clear water. We passed numerous turltes and a couple morays, then out of the blue…here they come! About 300 tarpon between 3-5 ft long weighing between 30-100lbs! I scanned the faces of my divers and they were all smiling from ear to ear. Guess they were having some fun! After we passed through the school, we burned off the rest of the air from the tank then started up to the safety stop level. Once back on the boat, they talked incessantly about the animals we had encountered. The second dive we made over Barracude reef. This is a reef shaped like a hand and is loaded with bright corals, fish, and some turltes as well. As we crossed the sandy patch heading to the next “finger” I noticed what looked like a 1 inch small piece of coral floating just inches from my mask. My eyes focused and I realixed it was a baby seahorse riding the current to the next bit of coral. I cupped my hand gently around him to show Alex and Peter. Alex snapped off some foos and then I hekpd the lil bugger over to the reef safe and sound. That had made my day! We continued on til we got tabout the end of the dive and then we had Peter remove his mask and replace it…which was the only skill he was a bit worried about. We all kneeled down on the sand and let him go for it. He nailed it! We all applauded him and lifted up off the sand to continue diving.

Once back on the boat we all congratulated Peter for finsihing the course and now being “part of the Gang”. He wasn’t no longer a guppy, but a full-fledged dolphin. I could see that Alex and Peter’s friendship had just taken a new turn….and that Alex would be dragging his buddy to a whole new set of diving destinations, which isn’t that what some of diving is about?…Travelling, making new friends, and creating memories with the ones you already have!

I always enjoy every year when May rolls around. The big fish move in to feed and the excitement is incredible! This year we’ve had sail fish, blue, black and white marlin as well as the tasty mahi-mahi, also know as dorado here in Mexico, all on the line. I have had half and full day trips this year, all yielding anywhere from 5 -7 fish. We also have been catching the usual reef runners like barracuda and wahoo. I recently had a couple friends from Boulder, Colorado along with a friend from Mahahaul out on the boat for morning fishing. In the morning we started out catching a couple barracuda, and later in the morning we ran into a school of dorados. At one time we had three dorados on the lines, but we only landed one. The other two crossed their lines and got off. Ugh! Total catch for the day was 3 barracuda and 2 dorado.

On another full day trip with two couples from Breckenridge, Colorado, we had caught three barracuda in the morning. Around noon we pulled inside a barrier reef inside Punta Maroma to enjoy our Java Joes sandwiches and do a little snorkelling. Once the group had tuckered out from swimming around the reef we decided to get back in the boat throw out the lines and this time land a big one! As we motored out to sea Miguel, the captain, and I noticed that all the other fishing boats went in for the day. About that time we noticed a frigit sailing about 500 feet over the cantil wall not far from us. We sped the boat up and slowed down as we began to circle underneath the frigit and within minutes we had two dorados on the lines. Now a funny thing, on the trip one of the girls, Jessica, had never been in a boat, never been in the ocean, and certainly had never caught a fish… but today was her lucky day. As she reeled in her dorado the other dorado got off the line. Jessicas dorado broke the water and we saw that it was a bull dorado, meaning BIG. Just as she was about to tire out from reeling in the fish, I took hold of the line lead the dorado near the boat and with one swoop gaffed it and brought it into the boat. Jessica’s first fish ever was a bull dorado weighting 55 - 60 lbs.!!! Way to go Jessica…girls can fish!

I realize that I am blessed with the gift of being able to help people to enjoy the ocean and all the life under it almost every week with folks like Glenn. And when I have some one like Glenn from Canada who had never even seen the ocean approach me and want to try diving…I got as excited as he! He explained to me that he could swim, not very good, but still wanted to breathe underwater and swim with the fish.

We went over some of the basics about diving then loaded the boat to go to our practice some skills. We head north to a bay inside a barrier reef where we could practice what we had talked about back on shore. He, like most people, was a little nervous. But after a few minutes of just breathing from the regulator he calmed down and began to trust in his equipment. We went through the skills needed to make the dive. I could see his confidence building with each skill he mastered. Once I felt he was ready for the dive, we loaded up the boat and headed out to the reef.

“Ya hay alguien a la muerre” the captain said…informing me that there was already somebody on the permanant line attached to the reef.

“Drop the hook! I told him, and he moved the boat over sand for me to drop and set the anchor. I helped gear up Glenn, did his buddy check and jumped into my equipment with a flash. “OK once you hit the water swim up to the front of the boat to the anchor rope, we’ll go down there”, I instructed Glenn. And here’s the count down…Three - Two - One and GO! and with each count down, Glenn’s eyes got bigger and bigger!

Splash!!! We popped up and swam towards the anchor rope. “You ready?” I asked. His head bobbed up and down and I proceeded to let the air out of his jacket. As we slowly went underwater, he watched me and everytime I equalized he did as well all the way to the sandy bottom in 20ft. of water Once on the bottom I added just a little air to his jacket making him weightless and we were off to explore the reef.

We glided up and over the reef. Glenn was loving it! I saw a HUGE shcool of grunts hanging over the reef so I swam him right for them! Glenn held out his hands like a kid in a candy store reaching for that unreacheable candy. The fish slowly parted the way for our friend Glenn just slipping out of his reach by inches. Then as faith has it for the super lucky intro divers, we had a spotted eagle ray passing by. As soon as I saw it, I started waving my arms up and down. Glenn probably thought I had lost it, until he saw the rather large ray passing by!

After about 35 minutes down Glenn had started running low on air so we proceeded up to the surface. Now, for some one who had never even been in a boat on the ocean much less swim or dive in it, he was just blown away. Throughout the training he had not smiled hardly at all taking it all very seriously, but now Glenn had a HUGE smile across his face. “That was the best thing ever!” He told me. I told him, “If that dive didn’t hook you to the sport, nothing will!

Jan and Erik visit Playa every year for months at a time. They had listened to the tales of local divers all too much. Finally, they decided to take the plunge and try scuba diving with a Discover Scuba Diving course with me. Upon arriving at the beach at 8:30, we got their equipment together then sat down at a table on the beach to go over some physics of diving as well as some skills that would be need to complete their open water dive. Before I got started “lecturing” about diving I asked them had they tried snorkelling or diving. They had tried snorkelling and had even dove down 15+ feet. “Great”, I said! This meant that they had equalized their ears to be able to get down to the bottom when they were snorkelling. So I got to teaching them the PADI flip chart.

They took to the theory just fine so off we went to the confined water. Now…Erik originally had alot of reservations and Jan was gung-ho about…but in the water with all the equipment on, it was a different story. After about 1 hour in the water practicing skills, we loaded up the boat and off we went. In the confined water, Jan had displayed less then enthusiastic feeling about continuing to dive. Although she confessed she had never felt claustrophobia, she had today. And didn’t like one bit.

We decided to dive the Jardines reef which was about 5 minutes away. Once there, we got moored up and ready to go. Erik was putting on his weight belt and fins, getting ready to put on the scuba unit, when I noticed Jan just sitting there. I sat down beside her and asked if whe was alright. She wasn’t. And she wasn’t going to dive either..I could see that. She said she just wanted to snorkel above us while we dove. Well…if there’s anything I have learned about women and diving…give them what they want. So I suited up, and me and Jan rolled into the water.

We drifted slowly down to about 20 feet and started drifting with the current. Amazingly enough, Erik was so perfectly weighted he hardly had to add air to his BCD jacket. We crept up next to the ledge that the reef sits on and started to explore. I found an octopus straight away tucked into a hole. We continued on to find a small golden ray buried under the sand not meters away. The dive itself lasted about 40 minutes, which for a beginner is quite long. And boy did we find the critters! Lobsters, crabs, morays everwhere, huge schools of horse-eyed jacks, porkfish, grunts and snappers. After the safety stop, we surfaced right at the boat.

Erik was a natural straight away. He knew and his smile didn’t lie. He had the most anxiety in the beginning and at the end of the day turned out to enjoy it immensely. Jan on the other hand may be sticking to snorkelling only in the future. It just goes to show…you just never know if your going to like being under the sea until you do it!

Rob, a commercial diver from Nova Scotia, has joined me for a couple months of diving and hangin’ out. He’s seen just about everything we got around here. But today was a special day for him. He got to join four long-time local pros for a day of spearfishing and shark watching. Straight out from our shop we hovered right over the beginning of the wall of el Canti’l. El Cantil is the name of the trench between Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, mainland Mexico.

We suited up, did our final buddy checks and were off with a splash! We each plumetted down to the wall’s lip sitting in 100′ of water. Rob stayed next to Alberto, 25 year pro here, and I went a little deeper with Miguel, 12 year local pro. We hit 130′ and before I knew it, Miguel had shot a 17 kg. (35lbs) Mullet Snapper. We swam at that depth for a couple minutes. I look around behind me and sure enough there were 2 Bull sharks right behind us and catching up quick! We head up to find that both Alberto and his friend Antonio had speared fish and now had 3 bullsharks swimming within feet of them. Rob had no spear and was just observing everything going on around him. I had a camera and was clicking away like crazy (although no pics came out). I was more concerned with the multipying numbers of Bull sharks ranging from 8-12 foot! At my last count in sight there were 8. That’s just about enough I thought! If my mouth could have dropped open without me losing my reg, it would of hit the floor! And they weren’t shy about what they wanted….the spearfishermen’s catch.

At 15 feet, we all leveled off for our safety stop. All the while sharks were passing around us, behind, and coming up from out of the abyss to see what we had. And what we had were three Mexican spearfishermen (with fish) and one amazed and petrified Canadian and American. After a few minutes of just watching them go by we made our way up to the surface. It was actually peaceful seeing them move about with such grace and power. At no point did any of the sharks ever come close enough to take the fish from the spearfishermen. But they said it has happened…and I believe them!

We finally made it up to the surface and look down and all we saw was sharks passing under us and and getting closer! I looked around and …no boat. Uh what….that’s right…no B-O-A-T. Ok mister longtime professionals…what to do…well we planned to leg it back to shore. Luckily, it was only a couple hundred yards away. So off we go…heads down and swim keepin’ a close eye on the sharks below. At one point we were in only 15 foot of water and still had a 10 footer pass under us. A boat passed by saying he would go inform our captain of our location. The current had changed direction and we had ended up in a completely different place. It happens sometimes with changing currents, not often, but it does happen. However, we were prepared and all inflated our surface marking bouys to alert boats of our place in the water until our boat could collect us. After a few minutes, the Lil Kitty dive boat appeared….Thank God!

We readily threw our equipment into the boat after swimming a few minutes. In seconds, we were back to the beach for beer drinkin’ and tales at the bar of our great diving adventure. Boy, you should have seen their eyes when we told the size of the sharks we had just encountered. The size of saucers I tell ya!

After only a few weeks of being back in Boston, Amanda wrote me letting me know she was coming back for more diving. I couldn’t wait. I knew that we had barely touched the surface of the diving in this area on her first visit down. This trip would mean walls, wreck, and cenotes!

As time passed drawing nearer to her second arrival date, she was diving in the cold waters of the Atlantic near her home. She had written me telling of how she had done in an underwater pumpkin carving contest. Little did she know that she was experiencing the same fun I had had as a teenage kid. Me, my brother, and parents would head up to Bluewater Park in Pelham, Alabama, for this underwater pumpkin carving contest. I believe they still do it today there. But it was so much fun trying to carve a pumpkin underwater. It didn’t bother me one bit that I was knee deep in mud trying not to cut off a finger while carving my pumpkin with one of those “far too big” dive knives….I was havin’ a good ole time! Well, to say the least I could totally relate to Amanda’s new passion for diving…regardless of the conditions she was havin fun
! I also knew that between that type of diving and the diving she was and would be doing do here with me…she would become a very good diver, very quickly.

As the the date approached, Amanda had somehow recieved or purchased all her own equipment. Regulator, wetsuits, BCD…you name she had it! Good O’le Boys over at Scuba Toys hooked her up on alot of it. I was interested to see what internet-order dive equipment looked like.

Finally the day arrived. I finished off my ham sandwhich and headed over to meet Amanda at La Rana Hotel. She was supposed to be in around 1pm and we’re would be gettin’ wet by 1:30pm. The cab driver pulled up at precisely 1:10, which by Mexican standards is excellent punctuality! I helped get her checked in and showed her to her room. I left her to get settled in and went to see my buddy Jez who is the manager. Not minutes had passed and out she bounced ready to go!

We walked down to the beach where I had the boat prepped and ready to head out. As we took out and assembled her “newly broken-in” dive equipment (which was all quality stuff), we talked about some of her diving that she had done while she was away. After considering her past experience here and her more recent diving past there in colder, murkier waters, I decided to take us to Moc-che’ Wall. This is a spectacular wall dive which is the beginning shallower section of a series of three. Top of the wall in 70′ and bottoms out in sand at 90-95. The viz averages 100ft around it and gets frequent pelagic visitors.

We all did our final buddy-checks then did a back-roll into the warm, beautiful, turquoise waters of the Caribbean for another trip beneath the sea. Amanda had brought a new camera and housing, but decided not to bring it on her first dive. I whole-heartedly agreed with her, saying that having fairly new equipment out here in a completely different diving environment then what you were in…well you may not want to carry the camera too. I really just wanted to check out her diving technique and see how she had progressed in becoming a better diver. And boy was I impressed!

It was Amanda and I as dive buddies. We driftred down going with the current, letting the beams of sun rays guide us to the top of the wall. As we neared the wall, I rolled over to watch what Amanda would do now that we had sank 65′ and were just 10′ off the oceans floor and moving at a speed that was definitely crusin’. She repsonded precisely by adding air direclty to the jacket slowing then halting her descent. She tirmmed out perfect and began to approach the wall with skill. We ran just over the lip of the wall like Cessnas flying over the lip of the Grand Canyon. I went inverted, as to get another aspect of the wall. As I hung upside down and motionless letting the reef (world) drift by, I saw Amanda trying her hand at the “inverted manuever”. She found it quite easy. As we drifted together upside down watching the wall pass by, I remembered what she had said on the boat about her fins being “light”. Now I knew what she meant.

We went back upright then kicked out a bit away from the wall. After about 30 mintues of acrobatics and just plain havin’ fun, it was time to head up to the safety stop. We monitored our computers as not not to go up too fast and then leveled off at 15′. Amanda, right on cue, released the air from the BCD and leveled off on a dime! What a huge difference from the first time I had ever dove with her. She wasn’t a guppy anymore…she was just one of the dolphins now!

I arrived at the beach with coffee in hand at 8:30 promptly to find as perfect of conditions as one could ask for. I was having a young lady from Boston named Amanda join me for a few days of diving. Our scheduled time to meet was 9:00. As time passed I began to wonder if she would show. Amanda had been staying in Cancun while doing her PADI open water course. Once finished, she had planned on checking out some of the other diving here in Playa del Carmen. And was she ever impressed! She got to see sea turtles from a whole new perspective.

After preparing equipment, I had found myself in a conversation in Spanish with the local spearfisherman. These guys are like 4 foot nothin’ tall, and hold their breath going from 40-130 ft. deep, spearing their catch. Today’s harvest included all barracudas and one grouper. They stood there very proud! I must say, I was impressed. You won’t catch me holding my breath and diving down to 140 feet of seawater. They took their leave and disappeared down the 2nd Street. No longer had they left my sight and a blonde young lady appeared walking down the hill towards us and the beach. I knew straight away that was our girl.

Amanda was enthusiastic and was ready to get going. I checked her card and log book and we were off. We headed south towards one of our premiere dive sites, Tortugas Reef. This is an ideal dive site for beginner to advanced because of the way the bottom slopes gently from 45 ft- 90 ft. Once at the site, it was go-time! Amanda put her fins on and I helped her into the equipment. I sat back and watched her buckle and clip everything. This is one way I indirectly assess someone’s “state” before making the dive. Once she was in her equipment, I went back over it to make sure all was ready to make the dive. I donned my equipment then slammed on my fins and was ready to go.

-Three

-Two

-One

Splaaashhh!

We both bobbed right up to the surface and checked our equipment again. I signalled all was a go, and we deflated our jackets. As we drifted towards the bottom, you could already see to condions underwater were going to be as good under as on the surface…Gorgeous! 50ft between us and the bottom and we could easily see everything. As we neard the bottom, I spun around to make sure she was adding air to the jacket to make her weightless. And right on cue, she was filling the jacket and cruising over a lush bottom in pure weightlessness. For the first ten minutes I kept a real close eye on here. Once I felt comfortable with her diving ability, I began to lead over the good sections of the reef. We slid across the current down the slope to about the 70 ft. range. Here is an area packed with nooks, crevices and over hangs, which provide a home to an outstanding number of animals.

I flipped around to check on Amanda’s air. She was smiling happily and signed her pressure to me and we continued diving. We had came across a few turtles and all was going good when up in the distance I saw a school of….something. As we drifted closer I could see it was a massive school Atlantic Spadefish. I motioned for Amanda to get lower to the ground and hold onto a rock so we could watch the massive school of triangular fish. The spadefish swarmed all around between us and a couple other divers. We could see the big groups of divers from the cattle boats up the slope. But the dive guides had their hands full and obviously could not dare be bothered with swimming their group down a bit.

After a couple minutes there we released our hand-hold and continued drifting along the ledge. We ran into a big green moray and a few more turltes before heading up to the safety stop area. We floated along just under the surface off-gassing, then proceed to make our way to the surface. Amanda was amazed! She couldn’t believe how close you could get to the feeding turtles. I bounced into the boat and helped her out of her equipment so she could get in. Once she boarded the boat, I told her sit down….for a lil’ chat. She sat there waiting and wondering what opinions was of her new diving skills and training. I gave her two thumbs and up…” You did real good!” She just grinned real big and said “So we on for tomorrow?”

Jake was 15 years old and could not believe that today he and his father would try scuba diving for the first time. I jumped right into simple physics by asking Jake’s opinion about what would happen to a balloon if I filled it up at the surface and pushed it down to 30 feet. He quickly responded that it would get smaller. I knew this kid was on the level and would be a natural. Most kids are. They just do not have the inherent fear that breathing underwater is dangerous. I have found that we as adults tend to believe that scuba is technical, that it’s dangerous, and it’s dark down there. Kids on the other hand have grown up watching shows on NG or Discovery that glamourize diving and make it look simple. And it is!

Jake’s father, Ken, was just as keen on picking up the essentials for the intro class they were in. Once I felt all was covered, it was time for the pool. Jake was more than helpful. It reminded me of a time in 1981 when I went through my Junior open water course. Excited and asborbing everything like sponge. We got in the water and started with operation of the equipment from within the equipment, then sank down to start our skills training. After about an hour, I had Ken and Jake kicking around, and clearing mask like nobody’s business!

I checked my watch and discovered that we still had some time before the morning boat was back. I asked Jake if he had had enough or wanted to play around in the pool a little longer. And in a split second he said “sure!” and dove back into the pool. Right as it hit 11 AM I got Ken and Jake out of the pool and took them down to the beach where my boat leaves from. An absolutley perfect day! Waveless surface conditions and visibilty at about 50 ft.

I helped Miguelito, our captain, set the anchor and then began to help Ken and a very anxiously Jake, get ready. After I had checked all their equipment (buddy-checks) we were set to do our “James Bond-style” entry (back-roll).These two were bright-eyed and all smiles as they both looked over their shoulders into the blue-turquoise water of the Caribbean Sea. And with that, the countdown began….

-Three
-Two
-One
—GO!!–

And with that, I launched two new adventures into the sea. Just like clockwork, they bobbed right up and smiled.

“Swim to the anchor rope!” I directed them. and they turned and both swam towrads the front of the boat. Now my turn…slam on the fins…slam on the mask…and go! …oh yeah, regulator. No problem…don’t need it. And all at once, we were together at the anchor rope. I checked to make sure all was still in place, then instructed them to realease the air from their jackets and start their descent. I pulled my way down the rope backwards as to keep eye on my new little dolphins. They did so good. With each hand hold down the rope, they equalized their ears as they were taught. Once on the bottom, Jake and Ken adjusted to the weightless environment quite easily. Neutral buoyancy was achieved, they trimmed out and the tour began.

We swam over and under and around the reef, exploring the octopus’ garden like there was no tomorrow. I made a “OK” hand signal to Jake and he responded with “ok” signs on both hands. He was loving it! I think we all were. Anytime you can see that many fish, that many different type of corals, all on a shallow dive, you can’t go wrong. After about 50 minutes, we actually finished the reef section and came up. We hit the surface and without me even telling them, they began to fill up the jackets with air and start chatting away like a couple of old experienced divers. I could tell that this moment, this instant, had brought a father and son even that much closer. I took great pride knowing that I had helped them experience this monent. Some days, you just can’t beat!

Join me, Sharky, Mitch and all the gang as we hunker down for Hurricane Dean. As it passed Jamaica, it turned southwards where the eye hit land at about Mahahual. As far as what we got, it was nothing more than some rain, lightning, and some wind.

A we prepared for their last day in the water diving, I watched Tim and Julia get ready. Tim and his daughter, Julia, had been diving on and off all week, and was not looking forward to returning to their home state of Pennsylvania. They had seen the Tortugas reef, the shipwreck, and even snorkelled with whale sharks, but today they would be taking on one of Playa’s most challenging dives….Los Arcos or “the Arches”.
Los Arcos was known to be a deep dive going down to about 115 feet with two swim-thru tunnels or archways. I had seen my two divers all week diving like fish, so I knew they were ready for this. There are 2 things Los Arcos is know for: GREAT scenery and fast currents. As the boat moved over the reef, and I slammed my face in the water to check the current’s speed. “Whoa!” It was going to be a helluva ride! I motioned for Tim and Julia to sit up on the edge of the boat for entry. Once they were in place, I quickly donned my equipment and sat opposite my new diving buddies.
” All right, here we go…3-2-1…GO!!!” And with that, I bobbed up to see the boat pull away and there sat Tim and Julia. I looked down to the 100 foot level and could see our wall. “OK, lets get the party started!”, I exclaimed while hold up a thumbs-down sign. We all let out the air from our buoyancy jackets and begin to sink feet first. About 20 feet down I went belly-flat and drifted with the stream of the current. I rolled over to see with divers drifting comfortably down to depth. At the top of the wall, in 85 feet, and motioned for all to level off. Tim and Julia responded accordingly by adding air to their jackets to slow them from sinking further down. Weightlessness achieved!
We cruised the wall for about ten minutes. The visiblity was spectacular! About 125 feet in every direction. As the wall of Los Arcos snaked along, we took cover out of the current when possible to get a good look at the reef. As Tim swam over to check his daughter’s air supple, I quickly surveyed our position on the wall. The first arch was just ahead. Tim flashed fingers to me indicating their air supple. He was met with another “thumbs down” hand sign. And with that, I exhaled deeply and let myself sink towards the bottom.
We cruised over the bottom at 115 feet depth. The large pinnacle, which houses the two arches, was covered up in fish schooling around the large rock. Imagine staring up at a large rock formation with fish flying around it. Amazing sight! The current kept pushing us toward the rock formation. Just as it looked as though I was going to run right into it, I pivoted 90 degrees to the right and bolted through a rock tunnel. As I entered, I saw a massive grouper almost blocking the entry to the swim-thru. I knew the divers behind me were in for a surprise. As I made it through the tunnel, I turned to check the progress of Tim and Julia. Julia was the first through. She exited the tunnel with her hands held up wide apart and eyes buggng out of her mask. I knew she had seen the big fish! Once Tim had made it out, I motioned for them to look back over their left shoulder up the back side of the pinnacle. Their view was filled with 50 or 60 very large fishorsed-eyed jacks mixed with broadside jacks swimming nose into the current just inches away from the rock.
I checked our air and time again and led them to the second arch, the largest arch. Once we passed through the arch we drifted up to shallower water preparing to off-gas on our safety stop. Once at the 15 foot safety stop level, we adjusted our jackets again and hung there, weightless, staring at each other. I could already read through their masks what their first words would be once we broke the surface….”What a GREAT dive!!!” Once on the surface, I turned to the father/daughter couple and said, ” Now that’s what diving is all about!”