Scuba, Snorkeling

I was certified in Scuba in St. John’s Virgin Islands in 1974 photo below of my certification and I have been diving all over the world from Bermuda to Bahamas,  Florida, Jamaica,  Virgin Islands, Belize, Hawaii,  Fiji, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand to name some,  plus I have Snorkeled all over the world as well.   Many of the Photos in this album have come from Dave Bowman that traveled together to Belize.  He had a smoking cool underwater camera.
The photos in Fiji, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand are all mine.  I have placed a few photos of Dave’s in the Virgin Islands just to give you a feel of what thoe places are like

Scuba Diving and Snorkeling:

 

I was enlightened to Scuba by the presence of Jacques Cousteau when he visited my elementary school way back when.  Then I became certified by Bob Nose in 1975 while living on St. John’s island for a month in the summer, one of the most pristine of all of the US Virgin Islands, 80% is a national park and back then there was almost nothing there.

I lived in the cabins at the Cinnamon Bay campground. Below are the cabins we stayed on in Ko Pi Pi way back in 1989. Very cool they were

Back then there was no bleaching disease, few travelers and the underwater was a pristine wonderland.  Since then I have dived in the waters of Bermuda, the Bahamas, Florida Keys, Hawaii, Fiji, The Great Barrier Reef, US Virgin Islands, Jamaica and Thailand. I have been diving at night, in caves and sinkholes and from beach and boat entry, mostly keeping it above 100 feet.

Scuba is a unique hobby and the warm blue waters are so inviting.  Below is the private lagoon in Ko Pi Pi and our hut was right behind the beautiful trees.  This picture is similar to all of the places we have been but this was so remote and beautiful.

When you slip into the water, it is pure liquid pleasure. It is peaceful and all consuming.  You enter a new world with a new way and a totally different realm.  It is another world of vibrant colors, unique plant, fish and animal life that for the most part exist without the need to surface for oxygen.  It is also a place of silence except for ones breathing.

Colors abound everywhere.

The corals (a living animal) can be blue, pink, green, purple, white, brown, red and they can be soft or razor sharp hard.  They take many shapes some forming structures like: brains (brain coral), trees, fans or blobs that branch out.  Some of these corals are poisonous and can sting the skin yet they are beautiful.  There are soft corals that blow with the movement of water and waves.

The animals are prevalent everywhere.  From Denison of the deep like: coral snakes, box jelly fish, stone and lionfish and sharks and cudas to those playful fish that will eat out of ones hand.  Their colors cover the spectrum and their size and shapes are to varied to note.

Some Stories

In St. John, back in 1974 it was the most beautiful colorful large garden of corals that I have ever been diving in. It was like floating through a forest in a dream where the colors were bright red, green, blue and purple, the forest was thick and allowed me to pass through tunnels of this hard coral.  Fish were abundant and came to play with me. On a night die there a blow fish rushed out of this protective cover and knocked my mask off. The moon was full and shone through the liquid pleasure.  It was special – no tourists

I was sailing a 45 Irwin through the Bahamas and diving along the way.  On day I shot some lobster and snapper when I became surrounded by a group of cudas, I left dinner for the Cudas and walked on water to the boat.

In Fiji the current was swift so we dived drifting with the boat.  The ocean was full of microscopic life, plankton was in bloom and it filled the sky the water.  A kaleidoscopic array of colors covered the reef and I never saw another boat or diver for the entire day.

In Thailand we dove off the Ko Pi Pi islands.  Imagine in the late afternoon, drifting into a dream state in bamboo huts on the waters edge where soft white sandy beaches lined the shore of a mountainous island that reached for the stars and those mountains were covered in a beautiful shroud of green vegetation.  Harmonious songs were delivered on the wind, lulling us to sleep, life was great. Then after the nap imagine stepping into warm liquid blue pleasure in a large sheltered cove where time had stopped.  The water was crystal clear, nothing was obstructed to the life below.  One of the finest dive trips ever – we floated on the Dharma River to a time forgotten never paddling just floating through time.

In Hawaii, we traveled through tunnels of lava.  We had flashlights and the colors inside the tunnels were as sharp as on the surface.  I dove into a cave and too sharks rushed out and knocked my mask off.  The eels were bright yellow with dark spots as compared t the green eels of the Atlantic.

In Bermuda we went wreck diving, very very cool