If You Want Giant Mantas Try the Socorro Islands

The Socorro Islands offer some of the most interesting diving for pelagic life that I've seen to date. After a twenty-four boat ride on the luxurious Solomar V out of Cabo San Lucas, we were ready to dive!

It was one of the most difficult, yet interesting crossings I've ever made. Anything that wasn't tied down hit the deck, things flew off the bulkheads, the big coffee pot that was bungeed securely to the floor came loose, filled with coffee and went crashing down the stairwell toward our rooms. Have you ever spent the night flying out of your bed, hitting the ceiling all night long?  You did if you were on this voyage. I'm told this was a pretty typical crossing.

You had to love it, particularly if you like cold coffee feet in the morning rather than a fresh brewed cup.  It was actually kind of fun. 

The water was in the low to mid sixties, requiring appropriate density wet suit or dry suit.  At depth there were a number of hammerheads, unusually skittish.  There were more Mantas available on a single dive than could be shot with a role of film.  Total bummer digital cameras hadn't been on the market at this time.  Six and seven would circle a diver at a time like they were coming in for a landing at an airport.  

It was absolutely a tremendous experience.  Ironically, nobody got seasick, but then people that do would be well advised to avoid this adventure.  The crew, the boat, and the food were fabulous.

Napoleon Wrasse in Palau

I've had the pleasure of feeding these critters at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA. I fed the fish there for a year and gave talks to the little children while underwater.  I usually fed them with tongs because they have very big front teeth, and will come up to you disinterested and in the blink of an eye get the squid and your finger too. Make that I always used tongs after the first introduction. 

I've also seen them in the open water during shark feeding when they will get up in the middle of frenzied sharks and think nothing of pulling food from a sharks mouth.  Interestingly they seem to have no interest in divers, and as this video demonstrates will chomp on pieces of coral and turn it to sand.  This was the first video I ever attempted with my new Sea & Sea 1G underwater housed camera.  It is a 10 MP camera for still shots and does an adequate job for the novice videographer.

As in members of the wrasse family, these fish change sex from female to male over time.  They become sexually mature at 5 to 7 years and can live at least 30 years.  Juviniles and females are red -orange and red-orange to white. Males are green-blue and grow very large. One unconfirmed report tells of a male that was 7.75 feet and weighed 420 lbs.  I've photographed a diver with one that was at least 5 foot in length.  Return to home page.

Talk About Being in the Right Business!

Why in the world would you want to own a boat with gas prices continually rising?  In the current market, buying  a diesel powered boat, or even gasoline powered one are making people stop and think a bit.  On our dive trips we are constantly being hammered with an additional $100.00 fuel surcharge added to the price of the trip.  

Leave it to my buddy Poet.  He is in the business of selling what he calls rocket launchers, made of stainless steel, they are actually rod holders for sport fishing boats.  For the guys that participate in this sport, money isn't really an issue, so they are either buying new ones to dress up their boats for resale, or going to Poet's models that won't rust.  It's a sign of the times that on recent shipments to Israel and Ireland he couldn't call his product a rocket launcher.  Maybe he should consider diversification into the in home mortar business. HA!  Return to home page

In Australia it's Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

  

When we dove with him the crew and the boats,  the Paradise Sport, and Super Sport provided us with 10 days of diving adventure.  It appears now that they also offer a seven night 450 mile Coral Sea Safari including some of the best dive sites on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea.

The new 7 night package offers dives at spectacular Challenger Bay, diver size fish at Cod's Hole, wall dives in gin clear water, exciting shark diving at the Scuba Zoo, exploration of Lizard Island, Cod Wall outer edge big fish dive and all the prime Ribbon Reef Sites.  All of these locations represent underwater Heaven for the novice to expert underwater photographer.

His boats are luxurious catamarans suitable for adverse weather conditions. The meals and snacks were amazing. On our voyage we had an Aussie Special Forces cook. He had been sent to some of the greatest cooking schools in Europe. Needless to say, every meal was a gourmet treat.   Have you ever had a hot towel put on your head, while a crew member was shoving a brownie in you mouth while you were still in your gear getting a tank fill?  On a shallow dive on one of the numerous bommies this is normal treatment by and outstandingly trained and motivated crew. Return to Home Page:

Diving The Bahamas? Don't Miss Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas

Feeding Sharks is totallly exhilarating

experience. The staff at Stewart Coves,

to my knowledge, is the only place that

offers a program to become a Shark

Awareness Instructor, as well as, a shark

feeder. 

This program provides the Instructor

with the ability and knowledge to safely lead

a shark dive. Yep, thats me in the middle,

got plunked in the head a couple times,

but for a thrilling adventure this can't be beat!

                                                                  

Stewart and Michael Cove along with Stewart's Brother Graham, have put together a dive operation that offer's the best Shark Feeding opportunity for photographers I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy. They offer a Shark Awareness Certification through PADI and a Special one for Instructors to become Shark Awareness Instructors. I've experience the absolute, rush, and high as I've observed these beautiful creatures take their food in a safe controlled environment.

Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas is Nassau's leading full service dive resort. Originally opened in 1978, the operation has grown to a fleet of seven dive vessels, with five of the boats over 40 feet in length. Located on the southwest side of New Providence Island, Stuart Cove's is in the ideal physical location to take advantage of the diverse underwater geological formations. As such, dive sites are available for divers with no experience all the way up to expert-level dives including four new shipwrecks we have helped place in the last two years.


A wide spectrum of diving activities is available. Holiday travelers who have never gone diving before will enjoy the 3-hour "Learn To Dive Program". In this program guests will be introduced to the equipment used in the sport of diving in a swimming pool, receive an introduction into the basics of diving theory, and then complete their first ocean dive. All of this is done under the supervision of a professional dive instructor who is working exclusively with a small group of guests.

Experienced divers can participate in up to 5 dives a day. Two dives are offered in the morning, with two additional dives in the afternoon. An optional night dive is available on selected evenings as well. Dive sites encompass steep vertical walls that plummet to 6,000 feet of depth, shallow tropical reefs, 13 different locations containing ship or airplane wrecks, and numerous locations that were used as underwater movie sets for feature films.

The feature activities at Stuart Cove's for our divers are our "adventure dives". These consist of our Shark Adventure and Wall Flying Adventure programs. The Shark Adventure program is a 2-tank dive trip that takes divers on an underwater encounter with Caribbean Reef Sharks. On the first dive divers participate in a "free swim" with the sharks along a beautiful wall. On the second dive, the group forms up in a semi-circle on the 50-foot bottom and watch while a professional shark feeder enters the water with a box of bait. Upon reaching the bottom, the feeder begins feeding the sharks with the aid of a pole spear. To say the sharks come close to the divers is an understatement - they are everywhere!

Our Wall Flying adventure is equally fun. In this program divers utilize a fleet of underwater scooters to explore the expanses of underwater walls formed by the Tongue-of-the-Ocean trench that runs 120 miles long and 24 miles wide. Diving as a group - divers utilize the scooters to travel at speeds up to 2.5 knots underwater. During a typical Wall Fly divers cover roughly 2 miles underwater. During this time the support boat follows the divers bubbles and picks them up as they surface. Return to Home Page

We Live in a Very Strange World

Some people are afraid to learn to scuba dive.  It's interesting that over two thirds of the world is covered with water.  The really crazy stuff happens on land.  With over two thousand dives, I've never seen a shark carrying bombs, machine guns, or rocket launchers.  Underwater is where you find, joy and serenity.  Click on the string above for a Global Incident map that changes ever 300 seconds.  It may be useful in planning dive trips, as areas around the world are becoming more dangerous than swimming with sharks. Return to home page.

Palau Has Got To Be Close to the Top

The Rock Islands of Palau, offer some of the most diverse diving conditions, as well as, sea life, of any place in the world.

Several signature dives include the Blue Corner, (with others listed below) where the currents can be found ripping. During these times, grab your reef hook and prepare to fly like a kite. These are the times when you will see a greater diversity of shark species.

Dive operations I've used are the Aggressor, and Peter Hughes. Enough has been written about both operations to know that you will get excellent food, great dive masters, and excellent accommodations. Recently I stayed at Cliffside and used Neco Marine. A land based diver operation, they offered a more diverse selection of dive sites than the live-aboard experience. Neco Marine, an excellent operation, let our dive travel co-coordinator Joe Liburdi, pick and choose the sites that we knew would love.

These included diving, Peleliu Express, Orange and Pink Beach, Peleliu Wall, New Drop Off, Blue Corner and Blue Holes, Turtle Cove, Jelly Fish Lake, Clam City, and virtually all the Maru Class Ships sunk during WWII. How cold I forget the sea plane and Devil Fish City, a cleaning station for Manta Rays, Ulong Channel famous for the T.V. Program Survivor.

Palau is truly an underwater photographer's and diver's paradise.

The soft corals are back in abundance. Everyone enjoyed this trip.

At the end of it, we said as we always say, " Joe and Cara, this was the best trip ever" Myself, as an underwater photographer, I prefer the live aboard experience. No boat rides to the dive site, and you are traveling to the next location at night, and are usually the first there. Four to five dives per day are available on a live aboard. Return to Home Page

Is It Dived or Dove

One day while I was talking to a friend about diving, I used the word dove.  I said yesterday I dove on a wreck.  An English teacher over heard me and said, you dived on a wreck.  I gave her a strange look and asked her if she drove her car to the airport or had she drived it?  Well according to Webster's Dictionary, both are correct.  You can dived while I will have dove!:-) Return to Home Page

What Do these Beautiful Poppies Have to do with Tropical Travel?

As the Internet has evolved, so will my Website. Interior decorators and Office Managers are requesting more frameable photographic imagery for their offices and homes.

I did have the opportunity to see fields of white poppies growing in the central highlands of Chang Mai province in Thailand.  Interpol was on a sweep cutting them down. Those beautiful white poppies were grown to produce opium a staple and export item for the tribes in that area.

With that in mind we will be featuring images from above the deep blue to offer a greater selection for our clientèle to choose. The image above is from Ann Zander, her work is beautiful and will soon be featured on the pages of this site. Return to Home Page

Where's The Best Place I Ever Dove? Could it be Fiji?

That is virtually an impossible question to answer. There are so many to choose from, the conditions change from time to time. I"ll attempt to answer that, don't know if it's possible.       I'll bet you have your favorite, please feel free to comment and tell us why.

I think I know, but a number of places come to mind.  So, let'sstart with Fiji.  Fiji is is an Archipelago made up of over 330 islands I must enjoy it, I've been there six times.

I've stayed at three different resorts, but The Marlin Bay Resort, now called the Beqa Lagoon Resort, pronounced "Benga" stands out as one of the top dive locations, dive operations, facilities, with food and accomidation among the places I've ventured.  

The food at Beqa Lagoon Resort, is beyond description, it's 5 star all the way, the service is not to be believed.  The bures, (pronounced booray) (huts) where we sleep are full accommodations, with Fijian furnishings, hot showers, and air conditioning.  The water is safe to drink from the tap.  The Fijian people are all about hospitality and service. The service is mixed in with friendship.  They have a custom, once they are introduced, they NEVER forget your name.  

Bequa is also known as the "fire walk island". Local natives put on shows during the week with traditional dances, and the fire walkers do just that every trip.

I have to say on my second trip there, two years following the first trip, while I was getting off the little boat, I was greeted by Francis, who said, "Bula Jim, where's Midge"? Can you imagine going some place "where everybody knows your name"  I thought I was at Cheers, and started looking around for Cliff and Norm. A natural opening for beer, Fiji Bitters is just what the doctor ordered.  So in a nutshell let's just call the Fijian people some of the happiest, most content people on the planet, especially those that work at Beqaa Lagoon Resort. 

The dive operation over ten years has always been superb, great boats, great dive masters, with eyes like  smart bombs, able to locate just what you want for your photography.  For me, the thing that really hit me about diving Fiji, were the soft corals and abundant sea life. 

For the novice or serious photographer the soft corals, are brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows, with sea fans galore.  On any given dive you are apt to see anemone fish, blue ribbon eels, schooling barracuda, colorful damsels, goat fish, butterfly fish, popcorn shrimp, all manner of little critters for macro photography, and sharks. The water is warm and the visibility is always in the area of one hundred feet.  Bring a 3mm wet suit.  

Did I just say sharks?  You don't want to miss the "Big Fish Feed".   How often does a diver have the opportunity to see schooling bull sharks, lemon sharks, and a Tiger shark in the same day? This is a dive you don't want to miss.  

Several dive spots stand out in my memory. E.T. because you actually feel as though you are out of this word, Carpet Cove, where you will find a very nice in tact wreck, Shark's Reef, Ceasar's Rock, Joe's Best, all with amazing soft corals, fans and abundant sea life. Don't miss Frigates in Blue water the pelagics are always out there.  

Add all this to the fact that you can fly non stop on Air Pacific in about twelve hours from LAX and you are set for a great dive vacation.  

The new owners have added Jacuzzis to the bures in front, a new infinity pool, and built more bures surrounded by koi ponds.  The place is just beautiful.  One visit and you will understand why it is called the "Honeymoon Resort".

For the non-diver, there is plenty of sun, rare humidity, tropical breezes, a hammock in front of your bure.  Whether you lay out by the pool, tour the local villages, hike to the waterfall, or go kayaking or snorkeling the non-diver will have plenty to enjoy.  Don't forget a massage, then grab a book and get into your hammock. Did somebody say relaxing?

English is taught in the schools, but a few words you will want to know are Bula, hello, Vinaka, thank you, and of course bure for house.  On my last visit Bulo who runs the office and her husband John invited me into their bure for tea and cakes.  I hadn't seen John in 5 years, and he yelled out to me, "Bula Jim, come in"  What a place.  If you are a serious diver, you don't want to miss Fiji. If you are a non-diver and want to be pampered, the Beqa Lagoon Resort is an excellent choice for your vacation. Return to Home Page  

So What's the Story on the Much Valued Palau Storyboards?

Storyboards were introduced into Palau by a Japanese artist during the Japanese Occupation of Palau and adapted by the the islanders to record their own traditions.

The stories that are told on Palau storyboards are usually old Palauan legends or alternatively legends from different islands especially Yap, Federated States of Micronesia.

The people of Palau have long been both good story tellers and skillful in woodcarving. As a result, the practice of telling stories stories or legends though wood carvings is a natural extension.

The storyboards themselves can be made from several good hard woods that are grown in Palau. The first of these is ironwood, or dort as it's known in the Palauan language. This is the preferred kind of wood as it is both strong and long lasting. If ironwood cannot be obtained either because it is not available or too expensive, imported woods are occasionally used for story boards.

The construction of the storyboard may take some weeks to complete depending upon its size. In some cases, wood carvers have been known to produce poor quality work in order to meet the increasing demand from tourists, visitors and collectors to Palau.

When the construction of the story board is complete, it will be finished by painting it with different colors or alternatively it will be treated so that the wood retains it's natural colors. Tourists tend to prefer the painted board however the storyboards that retain the natural shades of wood appear most attractive. (This is what I own in my personal collection,) With these the wood is finished using black or brown shoe polish which causes it to shine and retain the true shades and grains of the wood.

Palau Correction and Rehabilitation Division Jail in Koror

Although it is unorthodox, the Palau Jail is considered an attraction that one should not miss. While in jail the inmates are taught the skills of storyboard carving. The Jail has a storyboard shop were the inmates are allowed to carve these works of art and sell them to tourists. This tradition started when the convicted murders and master carver Barris Sylvester was an inmate at the jail. While serving his time he developed what has come to be know as the "jail school" of storyboards. Unlike the painted, two-dimensional carvings, the jail school storyboards were unpainted and three-dimensional, with multiple layers.

On my many visits to Palau, I've seen the jail collection grow from one wall, to three rooms. Prices and quality vary. If price is not an issue, then you seek a Master carver's work . Pieces of lesser quality can range from 60-250 USD. The Master carver's work will sell for above $300 into the thousands of dollar range depending upon three-dimensional quality and size. My personal collection of storyboards are all Master carver's work.

In my experience, the best quality, service and shipping is found at Islander Arts and Crafts.

Tell them Jim sent you! They have a selection of storyboards, and island art that are of the highest quality, storyboards by Master carvers only and very reasonable prices. Return to Home Page

Let's Talk About Roatan, in Honduras

Honduras' Bay Islands are made up of Roatan, Barbareta, Guanaja, and Cayos Cochinos. It is very typical Caribbean type diving with loads of sponges, and big Angel Fish, Groupers, Mantas, Brittle Stars, and Parrot Fish. This is a great place for divers who are beginners or intermediate in skill level. Advanced photographers will be probably underwhelmed.

While diving Roatan, one of the most popular resorts is Anthony's Key Resort on Sandy Beach. It is a full service resort and also is home for the Island's Chamber. Excellent food, and amenities abound.

While we visited and dove Roatan we chose to stay at The Inn of The Last Resort at Sandy Harbour. Not anywhere as upscale as AKR, but up on a rocky area where it's guests are less frequently attacked by the savage "no see ems" at dawn and dusk. The Inn of The Last Resort, so named because it is situated on the far end of the island. This is a perfect place for a dive club or a large group of people traveling together. The food was excellent, served family style and all you can eat.

Where ever you choose to stay, be sure to bring plenty of mosquito repellent with DEET.

The dive operation, and dive boats were top notch. This would be an excellent place to use enriched air, Nitrox as there are many swim troughs that have reverse profiles. You spend your time going up and down in little tunnels. The week before they had a large pod of Orcas and the pictures and video to prove it. We had a great time at the Inn of the Last Resort. Return to Home Page