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!

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!

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!

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!

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’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!

Shew!!! Luke and I looked at each other, wiped the sweat from our brow after raising the mainsail, and wonder how any old guy could “get it up” there. And with that, Brain turned the wheel until the sails filled with wind, then cut the engines. Ahhh! Peace and quiet!!! No sounds but us gibbering and the sound of waves lapping the hulls. There’s something magical about being out at sea under full sails. We popped open our first beers and got ready to fish.

Brian had been to the USA a couple weeks before and had bought some brightly colored artificial lures to fish with. So we threw those on the lines and sat down with beer in hand for some “serious” fishin’. All of us being avid divers, we got right into telling diving stories from around the globe. We each drank and listened attentively to each’s stories. Finally I felt the urge to change at least of of the lines to an artificial bait/fresh bait combo.

Right as I about to get the line in to change it, Brian cut the wheel and the whole boat changed course on a dime. “Whoa!!!”, I yelled as I grabbed at the hand line going around the boat. “Don’t want to go overboard today, thanks.” They just sat there and laughed. Quickly, a memory of my father came to mind…him telling me, “Son, always have 2 points of contact when walking around a sailboat, when you can.” I had both feet on the deck, I thought that was enough. Oh no! So I quickly….just sat down. Luke passed me my tackle box and I started to prepare my bait.

I let out about 100 foot of line then put the lock on the reel. After joining my friends, I realized by beer was empty. time for a new one! I had no longer opened my beer and …click-click-click-click-click!!!!! “FISH ON!!!” Everyone instantly put down their beers and snapped into action. “Luke this one’s you Man!”, I yelled at him. Brian quickly turned the big catamaran into the wind slowing us down and turned on the engines. Luke reeled with all his might, but the fish never broke the surface. “She’s running deep”, I said, ” Must be a barracuda or wahoo.” I ran for the gaff and went down the stairs on the back side of the catamaran to get ready to bring in the fish. Luke kept tension on the line while I lowered the large hook of the gaff below the fish. And with a quick pull up, I clean lifted the barracuda onto the deck. Barracudas are known to be good eating fish, but we decide to let it go….we were looking for something BIGGER, tastier!

I put together another bait then let the line back out. We took up our place around the table on the back deck, still buzzing from the first fish. By this time, we were getting hungry so we pulled out the sandwiches and potato chips. I had no longer finished my sandwich when we heard…Clack-clack-claaaaaaaack!!! “Its a Big one!” I yelled. I had the rod and was pulling hard to keep the fish on. Then the line went dead. “She’s swimming towards us, power up and get to movin’!” The end of the rod was against my stomach and starting to hurt badly. Luke grabbed a fighting plate and strapped it around my belly. I slipped the end of the rod down into it and began a tug-a-war against a beautiful Dorado. It jumped clean out of the water numerous time giving us a clear view of what we had on the line. Our hearts raced!

This time Brian manned the gaff and jumped down into postion. After a couple attepmts to bring it in, the dorado was bouncing on the deck. “Quick, knock it out, before it knocks me out of the boat!”, Luke yelled. And with that, the fish was put to rest. “Let’s get another on!” I announced as I rigged up another bait. I had only let out a maybe 50 feet of line when I felt something in my finger tips where I was hold the rod. It was a strike from a fish. I knew that much. But he didn’t take the bait. I pulled the rod’s tip up and down about five time then BAM!!!! FISH ON!!!! I was reeling like crazy. I told Luke to put the fighting plate on him and for him to fight the fish. I was worn out from the first one. As soon as he was strapped in, I passed the rod to him.

“WOW!!! That fish is strong!”, Luke shouted. He worked the rod tip up and down reeling each time. After about 10 minutes the fish seemed to be tiring out. It got within 30 feet of the boat and just like that…..took off into the blue almost pulling Luke off the boat. “I don’t care if you loose the fish, just don’t loose the rod”, I reminded him. The fishing line went deep into the water then started heading to the other side of the boat. In a catamaran, that’s BAD. “Engine up, go to starboard”, I told Brian. As the fish swam towards the opposite side of the catamaran, Brian kept the boat doing circles. Finally, the fish tired out and Luke began to get it closer to the boat and where I was at. Just as I started to lower the gaff into the water, the big dorado started jumping out of the water like crazy as a last attempt not to become our dinner. To say the least…he lost. We ate well that night.

We continued fishing and conitued to catch fish. Right before sunset, we called it a day. Once back in the marina, we all pitched in to help clean up the boat and finish off the beers. We sat relcined back after a hard day’s work, reflecting on what an incredlible day we had. Luke dropped me off at my house saying he would call me before he was to go out. Later that night he called, waking me, saying “Man I’m destroyed from today, I’m not going anywhere but to bed. I told him, “Good idea, I am already in bed!” That next morning, both Luke and Brian called me already reminiscing about our previous day out at sea. We were still blown away by the awesome day we had had before.

Each year I guide folks to the marine park, Isla Holbox. It’s a day trip from Playa del Carmen where we go and actually snorkel for about 3 hours with the whale sharks and manta rays. On the way out to the area, there are generally pods of dolphins tagging along with us. It’s truly is a once in a lifetime trip to be had by all finding their selves here in the Yucatan between June and September. Whether you are 8 or 80 years old, this experience is for everyone who loves animals and adventure!!!

Be ready! Swimming with and next to whale sharks is not an easy task. We maneuver the boat just in front of the whale sharks so that they are coming right at us. . As they approach, 2 guests and I get in the water. They swim on one side and I swim on the other making video. Often I hold my breath and dive down under the animals to get a real feel for the enormous size of the whale sharks. After trying to keep up with them for a few minutes, we give that couple a break then the next couple come in. We rotate the groups of two in and out of the water, making sure EVERYONE gets their share of swimming next to the whale sharks.

As the midday sun heats up the Gulf of Mexico, the whale sharks take leave from the surface and head back into the cool, murky depths. We turn our boat towards Mexico and take off for the mainland. Everyone dozes lazily as we jet back. Even once back in the transport van, almost everyone passes out due to sheer exhaustion from swimming with the whale sharks. But one thing is for sure, we all return back to Playa with the memories of a wonderful at sea with the world’s largest fish, the whale shark!

Whale sharks are migratory animals that can only be seen in a few places around the world…and the Yucatan Peninsula is one of them. They follow plankton blooms, and in the summertime, the area between the Caribe and the Gulf form a huge plankton belt. This attracts all the plankton feeders like whale sharks, manta rays, eagle rays, and fish. Join us on a fun and sun-filled adventure that takes you face-to-face with with these majestic creatures!

Whale Shark Tour Information Here