It was 2004, the dawn of digital photography, and I was conflicted about whether to shoot film or digital. I had brought housings for both cameras with me to Thailand. Carrying two housings on a dive was ponderous, but I could manage it if I didn’t take two sets of strobes. My solution was to rig both housings with wet connectors called EO pigtails, which went into the regular sync socket, allowing me to connect and disconnect my strobes underwater.
When I dive in an unfamiliar area, I tell the dive operator I want to start at their best spot — the site with everything. If I get bored with that, maybe I’ll try other sites. If you came to my home turf on the Kona Coast of Hawaiʻi Island and asked me for the site that has everything, I would send you to Ripoff Reef.
As I drove west past Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on my way to a photo shoot, I watched in disbelief as the temperature gauge in my vehicle rose from 64°F (18°C) to 113°F (45°C). I thought something was wrong with my gauge, but a local radio station reported the same temperature. British Columbia had record-high temperatures throughout the province that week in June 2021.
I had dived in Makako Bay, Hawai’i, many times over many years without seeing a single knobby sea star. The first time I encountered one, however, it wasn’t just one, but more than a hundred of them together. They were all gone a day later, and I haven’t seen one since.
Strength training can benefit divers, who need strength to wear and transport heavy gear. Other benefits include greater bone density, increased metabolism, and cardiovascular strength.
After getting my dive certification in 1992, I was instantaneously addicted. Being young, obsessed, and convinced of my immortality, I was not the most conservative diver, but I had no issues with decompression sickness (DCS) for my first decade of diving.
What diver isn’t enchanted by an octopus, especially a beguiling beauty with the reputation of an assassin? Even though we searched for legendary blue-ringed octopuses across their territorial waters of the Asia-Pacific, it took five years before we made our first sighting in Lembeh Strait.
