i keep a diary

a thing in 215 photos

scuba

appears with…
newest
scuba
Back on the surface!
thailand part six: koh phi phi
August 14, 2007
scuba
Passing the uninhabited, high cliffs of Phi Phi Don.
thailand part six: koh phi phi
August 14, 2007
scuba
About 45 minutes later, I was out of air and it was time to surface. Goodbye, feeshes!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
If you EVER get a chance to dive Grand Cayman, I highly recommend it. Simply incredible!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
OH HAI!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
As far as dives go, my last was pretty memorable. Didn't see any turtles, but we went through a bunch of crazy, twisty swimthroughs and I saw...
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
...a moray eel...
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
And I even got a chance to say goodbye to my friend the seal-faced pufferfish.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
...and ran into two more rock-lobsters sitting on their rock-lobstery shelf! They'd pretty much terrified me during my night dive, but this time around in the bright sunshine, they seemed almost friendly!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Last dive of vacation!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
And again, the water and visibility were perfect!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
"Coral? More like BORE-al!"
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Coral.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Here's a pic of my depth gauge at my max depth for the dive. Check out the bottom right corner - even though I'm 100' underwater (30 meters), the water temperature is still 87°F! How crazy is that? Anyway, right as we hit the 100' mark, we had a visit from a turtle who was curious about us!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Funny-looking flat fish!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
And here's the obligatory photo that you always have taken whenever you go diving with someone you know! (I love this photo!)
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Yellow feeeshes.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Yay, diving!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Getting ready to swim between two big coral mountains.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
And we're off to explore!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
...and made it to the bottom with no ear problems!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
It was another perfect, sunny day with great visibility and bath-like water temperature (85° water = no wetsuit!)
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
This dive was a lot deeper than the Stingray City dive, but Meredith used the rope to descend gradually and equalize her ears...
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Meredith ended up liking the Stingray City dive so much she decided to come along with me for a reef dive the next morning! Suited up!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Ready to meet some rays!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Meredith ended up liking the Stingray City dive so much she decided to come along with me for a reef dive the next morning! Suited up!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
In the drink! Mer getting ready to settle into the shallow sand of the Stingray City Dive site.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
...and I talked Meredith into trying scuba diving again! She had given it a shot during our accidental vacation to Jamaica, but had a lot trouble getting her ears to equalize - which is really painful - and so she was a little hesitant to try it again. But after I told her about the shallow dive at Stingray City where you get to pet, friendly, Muppety stingrays, she decided to give it another shot! Here she is suited up and about to dive in!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Barracuda!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Cactus-looking coral!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
While swimming around...
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
...I came across a huge sheet of siding from a house! Later our dive master explained that it was debris from a house that had been destroyed when Hurricane Ivan slammed into Grand Cayman in September of 2004.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
If you're not the kind of person that likes looking at pictures of stuff underwater, you are most likely hating this entry.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
You again?
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Spoooooky!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
...I almost swam directly into these two HUGE rock lobsters! "We pincha your face!"
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
I spent a lot of right above the ocean floor looking for hidden nooks and swim-throughs where there might be some sleeping turtles (Yes, turtles look for little hidden nooks to sleep underwater in!). I spotted what looked like a swim-through that went underneath a reef and just as I was about to go in head first...
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
This guy glided right under me and scared the shit out of me. Literally. As in I actually almost soiled my drawers underwater.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Coral.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
I've only done a few night dives! They're fun, but creepy. Being underwater is already kind of scary and intimidating, but when you're field of vision is reduced to the tiny, directional beam of your torch, it's even more scary. Here's a pufferfish I found and swam with for a while.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
We jumped in around 8:30. Check out the thousands of little creatures (Tiny shrimps? Krill?) that were swarming around my flashlight and I made my descent into the inky darkness! Spoooooky!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Even at night, with only a flashlight to illuminate, the visibility was great!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
This time I managed to get him on video! I love how he causally swims over to check me out before swimming away! (You'll probably also get a kick out of listening to me make noises into my regulator trying to get his turtle-attention underwater! Hahaha).
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
A whole bunch of them showed up together. Here's a vid of them all gliding on over and checking us out!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
After a few more passes, Meredith had gotten used to the stingrays and was feeding them and petting them like a seasoned pro! The creatures are so big and heavy (they must easily weigh 100+ lbs!) it takes a while to figure out how to feed them without getting knocked over when they get friendly and swim into you!
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
Here's a vid of Mer feeding one for the first time
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
scuba
Pufferfish again!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Entrance to a huge swim-through tunnel!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Down around a depth of 40 feet, the blood on my stingray wound looked black because red lightwaves aren't able to travel that far through the water!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Me!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Angelfish.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
More beautiful rocks (I took this one with a flash inside a swim-through tunnel).
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
More big silvery fish.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
More swim-throughs.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
We headed all the way back over to the south east side of the island and at 4pm we made our 3rd and final dive of the day. Going down!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Which is exactly what happened to me! Our divemaster had warned us that the suction was so strong that if we accidentally got our fingers sucked into the mouth, that we wouldn't be able to get them out! He then explained that if this should happen, you should just relax and that after a few seconds, the stingray would realize our fingers were non-edible and would stop the suction and then you can get your fingers out.

This is exactly what happened to me! Except that when my finger got sucked in, I felt his grindplates grind on my finger, thought "HOLY FUCK! This one's got TEETH!" and then panicked and ripped my hand out of it's mouth as hard as I could! The cut you see on my hand is from where the suction pulled the skin right off my finger! Crazy, right?
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Here's a closer view! On the boat, our divemaster explained to us that stingrays don't have teeth - instead they have two cartilaginous "grind plates" that they use to chew their food. When they smell something good, they can generate a ton of suction and they use it to suck the food up into their mouth!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
...you can stick out a finger or thumb and put it on their nose and lead them around. It's really funny. You can go around and and around and the stingray will stick right with your hand because it knows you've got some squid in there. Then, when you're ready, you open your hand as quick as you can and hold your hand flat so that when the stingray turns on the super-suction, your fingers don't get sucked up along with the squid!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
When our squid was all gone, homeboy even waved goodbye before swimming off!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
...and I pet his weird, squishy, muppety body. Nice, Stingray!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
It was a little scary, but I realized that it was totally my mistake and that the little guy hadn't meant to get a chunk of manflesh. He even came back over to say hi...
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
In order to feed a stingray, you put a little piece of squid in your hand and make a fist around it. When the stingray gets close to your fist....
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
The stingray's eyes are on top and it's mouth is all the way underneath. See his happy lil' muppet mouth peeking out? It totally looks like he's smiling!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Muppet of the sea!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
The rays showed up only a few minutes after we'd arrived on the bottom! Seeing them glide in together is one of the most memorable things I've ever seen. They're graceful and beautiful, but at the same time they're really alien and evil-looking and they have a stinger under their tail that can kill a person!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
But at the same time, they were clearly playful and interested in being fed - so I was able to swallow my fear and relax. (This was dive was on August 23rd. Just eleven days later Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray in a freak accident!)
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Back in the shallows killing time on my safety stop.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Moments like this are probably the closest a human can come to feeling like they've traveled to a totally alien world.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Closeup of some living coral.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Tube coral and branch coral.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Swimming down in a crevice separating two huge underwater mountains.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Looking up from between the two mountains at a depth of 110'!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
More coral.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
When you're down deep and you look up, the sun, which seems worlds away, shines down through the coral and it's unlike anything else in the world.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Circling around a mountain of coral (Big Blue on the left).
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
More coral.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Coral.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Max depth. Here's one of the guys I was diving with down around 100' hanging ten as he drifts out over the cliff's edge into The Big Blue.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
He seemed pretty curious about us. He swam a few circles around us (coming within touching-distance plenty of times)...
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
...and then slowly swam away.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
After our initial descent, we had our first visit from a turtle!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Heading back to the boat!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
We rounded the corner of a reef we were following, and we entered a pocket that was formed by the intersection of three huge underwater mountains and there was...
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Another school of yellow-tailed fish that I followed around during my safety stop.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
We just floated in there in awe letting them swim around us. I managed to snap this pic that I think does a good job showing off just how silvery and reflective they were. It was breathtaking.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
...a school of these huge, silver-scaled fish just hanging out in there.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
I hate to keep repeating myself, but these photos really don't even begin to convey what it looks like down there (because cameras are less sensitive to colors that your eyes). See how in the photo above, all of the coral is a drag, olive green? Well, here's a close up of the rocks taken with a flash that does a better job at showing what everything looks like while you're diving. Crazy, right?
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Puffer fish! I swam with this guy for a while. He didn't seem to mind me so I used the flash on my camera (which helped bring out some of the reds and oranges that weren't showing up on the camera using available light).
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
It was like diving in an aquarium!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
About an hour later, we were back under for our second dive. (Just like with a "safety stop" you have to rest between dives to give your body some time to aspirate extra nitrogen that's accumulated in your blood stream. If you have too much nitrogen in your blood and ascend quickly, you'll get decompression sickness - aka: "the bends"). The water visibility at the second dive spot was just as incredible as the first!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
I went for a leisure swim around the reef and snapped a bunch of photos.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Any time you do multiple dives in a day, your first dive is always the deepest. Since this was our second dive in a short period of time, we stayed relatively shallow. (The deeper you go, the more nitrogen your body absorbs with each breath).
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Here's the view of the boat as I came up at the end of my dive!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Yellow feeesh!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Back in the sandy shallows I snapped a few photos while doing my safety stop. (A safety stop is when you stay at a certain depth for a few minutes in order to aspirate some of the nitrogen in your bloodstream).
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Feeeeshes!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Feeeesh!
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Right around the edge of the cliff, we hit our max depth and started to slowly make our ascent back to the boat. Here's some pretty coral on the way back.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
The reef we were swimming along was relatively shallow, but at one point, we reached the edge of the reef and there's a cliff that drops 6,000 feet straight down! Here's the diver in front of me floating over the cliff's edge looking out into the oblivion that divers call "The Big Blue." Fucking insane.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
scuba
Check that visibility! You could see in all directions for what felt like miles! It was a transcendent experience.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006