I had a few new articles come out recently. You can read about my peaceful trip to the Galapagos Islands during the Pandemic on X-Ray Magazine and check out the Contributors’ Picks “Showing Scale” for some up close views of fish scales. Download the whole issue for free here.
Over at Dive Log Australia is a fun piece on the amazing Sea Lions of the Galapagos.
I’ve had a lot of airplane time in the past few months and had gathered some great new books from DEMA, Diving Talks and Boston Sea Rovers. Here are my latest recommendations:
A Diver’s Guide to the World by Carrie Miller and Chris Taylor
I’m a little bias because I have several images in this book, but even beyond that, it’s a lovely book. The amazing Carrie Miller and Chris Taylor spent a year traveling and diving and they go through location by location talking about the diving and the other exciting things you can find in the location. It gave me all sorts of nostalgia for trips of my past as I read about their visits to places I have been…and a few new places were added to the never-ending bucket list. Its a great gift for divers, wanderlusters or even just for yourself.
Between the Devil and the Deep by Mark Cowan and Martin Robson
This is probably the most exciting diving book I’ve read since Shadow Divers (also an excellent read). It’s the true story of what technical divers fear most - the bends. In Martin Robson’s case, he knew he had it before he got to the surface. Would you be able to go back down to try and save yourself? It tells the story of the dive, the epic rescue, the doctor who saved his life and mixed within is one of the best historical reports of diving research throughout history and how little we still know.
Dangerous Shallows: In Search of the Ghost Ships of Cape Cod by Eric Takakjian and Randall Peffer
Wreck divers will love this one. The stories of several of the many wrecks off Cape Cod and how they were found. It will make you want to go dive them all.
Dolphin Way - Rise of the Guardians by Mark Caney
At Diving Talks, in Portugal, I met Mark Caney and learned about this fun read. You’ll never think of dolphins the same after a glimpse in to the civilization of the dolphins.
I woke up the other morning and decided I hated my website, so I mostly started over. The blog remains mostly intact, but forgive me for some of the formatting being a bit off. I tried to fix what I could. Feel free to let me know what you think of the site overall.
I’ve been working on what has turned out to be a very long-term project on islands no one’s heard of. In an effort to wipe the pandemic-dust off the project, here’s a bit on one of the islands. Nauru. Published in Perspective Travel.
Cave diving is one of my new favorite things to do and a few months ago Ikelite let me try out the Nikon Z7ii mirrorless camera. I love my D850 but in the super low-light situations (shall we call it dark inside a cave?), I was struggling to get images with sharp focus and without grain. The Z7ii was a pro and I was pretty amazed by the difference. I also tried it out in the Red Sea and getting used to the autofocus was a bit of a struggle, so I’d still like my D850 for fast moving fish, but for the caves - mirrorless - all the way. I wrote some reviews on the camera and also Ikelite’s awesome new DS230 strobes. Click on the Images to go to the full article.
Continuing with the Mexico cenotes and caves, here is an “Iconic Dive Site” article from Dive Photo Guide (click on the photo to see the whole article) as well as a review on the Z7ii on DPG.
It’s been awhile.
I learned how the cave dive - and omg - taking photos in caves is hard. But super challenging and fun. I can’t wait to go back. I wrote an article about my trial and errors on DPG.
In the latest X-Ray Magazine I have an article on the Whalesharks of Isla Mujeres and a section in their Contributor’s Picks on the identifying spots of manta rays.
Recently, I got to write about my beloved Airplane Graveyard in Kwajalein and some of the fabulous Cenotes in the Yucatan on Scuba Diver Magazine.
And I have a new a set of Kraken Hydra 8000s and tried them out in some caves and in the Red Sea. I love them - review here.
I was a diver for 17 years before I made it to Cozumel. Isn’t that crazy? I heard about how lovely it was for years and finally this summer I started a bit of a Mexico expedition there. Diving with Salty Endeavors I found the reef to be lovely and I liked the constant drift diving which made me feel like I was just lazily taking it all in. I also unknowingly got a photo of baby toadfish and now I will search for them always. My article is in the new X-Ray Magazine issue which you can download for free. Also check out the Contributor’s “Favorite Portraits” I have images of a turtle from Yap being cleaned by scarlet shrimp.
Next up was a few days in Isla Mujeres snorkeling with the whale sharks. The largest fish in the sea congregates in this area from June to September each year. Read how to do it over at Scuba Diving.
Then it was off to cave country where I fell in love with cavern diving and can’t wait to go back and get cave certified. Diver let me go on and on about mystical and mythical these underwater enchanted forests are. I can’t wait to go back.
I also recently did a little piece Truk Lagoon for Asian Pacific Boating Magazine. I still cannot wait to get back there to the M/V Odyssey.
I’m so excited for a new article tech diving some of the Key Largo, Florida wrecks. You can read the whole article over at Scuba Diving Magazine.
I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Bill and Nadine Beard about starting the dive industry in Costa Rica 50 years ago for the latest issue of DIVER. I think about some of the chaos I've experienced working in places like Chuuk or PNG currently and cannot even imagine the struggles (and amazing rewards) of showing up to a country where you have to bring your own dive tanks 50 years ago. Not to mention I've added more dives to my bucket list - diving during an eclipse and in a volcano crater lake. This was so much fun (and also challenging as I haven't really done many interviews in the past).
Download the whole issue (still available for free):
Ancient mariners would confuse dugongs and manatees with mermaids…want to hear more? Scuba Magazine published my story on Real Life Mermaids.
The dates for the Saba trip have been confirmed for December 4-11th, 2021. Only a few spots are left, but join me for some beautiful diving on an amazing island. Send me a message for the full details.
