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We weren't in the water for more than 10 seconds, having just dropped in off San Benedicto, one of the islands in Baja California's Sea of Cortez, when suddenly - right there in front of me - I saw the largest whale shark I had ever seen.
It was over 30 feet long, looked well-fed and had dozens of fish clinging to its skin, waiting to eat the remains of whatever the whale shark missed. As this giant of the deep slowly swam by, I got several pictures until it disappeared into the blue. But just when I thought the "show" was over, it headed back toward us for an encore, with about a dozen dolphins trailing behind, as if they were clowns in this underwater circus.
It was a good thing our dive leader signaled for us to swim back way we came - there were two more whale sharks awaiting us at a pinnacle. It was overwhelming.
This was the kind of big animal action we were often treated to on a weeklong adventure aboard the Rocio Del Mar, a stellar liveaboard vessel whose home port is Puerto Penasco.
I'd always dreamed of having encounters with whale sharks and giant mantas and now I - and a great group of people from all walks of life, from around the world - were diving the dream.
Savvy divers call the Socorros "the Galapagos Islands of Mexico" and even their patience - is tested on journeys there. It's a 24-hour sail from port to reach them and it takes just about that long to get your sea legs.
That allows plenty of time for the ship's captain and crew to brief lucky passengers about the wildlife they may encounter, depending on the time of year -- giant manta rays and several shark species, including whale sharks, hammerheads, white-tips, black-tips, Galapagos and tigers. The full day trip also allows voyagers time to relax in the ship's air-conditioned rooms, some furnished with queen size beds, private bathrooms with showers and amenities like a TV room and sun deck and eat some of the marvelous Mexican cuisine prepared by the supremely skilled chef.
Most of the diving we did was from inflatable boats called pangas and the ship also has a great prep area for diving. The tanks are high so that you only have to back into them standing up. What a great way to put on and take off your BCD with the tank. We were also given specific station numbers. Right next to each other and there was plenty of space to put away your fins, mask, and other diving necessities.
When we plunged back into the waters at another terrific site, the Boiler - so named for spots that look like boiling water, caused by the release of pressure deep below, the vis was very clear, and there was an abundance of sea life that I had not noticed before. This side of the pinnacle was like a big flat wall with these little ledges and wholes for creatures to hide in. The colors were amazing. I saw at least four large moray eels, dozens of lobsters, some fighting, or mating. There were fish everywhere, sharks, tuna, and jacks. It was like we walked into a fish condo and they were having a street party!
And it was here, on the last dive of the last dive day, where I saw what I was waiting for - giant mantas. Two suddenly came out to play and danced in front of us. Although we would have been happy with just the whale shark encounters, interfacing with the mantas was icing on the cake.
Warren Sims - Dive Travel Specialist, Scuba Travel Ventures
Quick! How many newlywed couples can you name in the diving community who also own dive shops and are dive travel specialists? Few if any, right?
Leave it to Scuba Travel Ventures to find two lovebirds like Rod and Liz Tuttle, who tied the knot last fall. They not only own The Dive Shack, in El Cajon, Calif., but they’ve also come on board with STV as our newest dive travel specialists.
“Since we started working with STV, we’ve had customers we haven’t seen in a while,” Rod says. “And they’ve come back and helped bring previous customers back as well.”
Fiji, Bonaire, Roatan and Cozumel have so far been the most popular destinations for Rod’s and Liz’s clients. Through their work at STV, the couple helps divers live out their undersea dreams.
“We love making sure people fulfill their bucket lists and making sure they have a great time on their dive trips,” Rod says. “Doing the planning for them relieves them of the pressure of putting together the logistics.”
Liz says joining the STV team has relieved the couple of the burden of feeling as if they have to be walking dive encyclopedias for the clients. “Working with STV, we have a network of other agents now, that we can share information with,” Liz says. “They can give our clients information if we're not familiar with specific resorts and help us with answers we might not know.”
The pair first met five years ago in the store, which Rod started “because there were no dive shops in the eastern part of San Diego County and I was tired of going all the way down to the beach shops to get service and get air fills.”
Liz signed up for an Open Water class – guess who her instructor was? – and after she earned her Divemaster cert, the couple’s friendship bloomed into a romance. What sparked it? “I kept bugging her,” Rod says, dryly.
The two really hit it off after they discovered they shared a mutual passion for travel.
“I like to go around the world and experience cultures and see the people,” says Liz, a Connecticut native who before joining the dive industry worked as a soil technician for an engineering firm. “I love to experience culture, food and artwork.”
Years ago in the Mexican city and state of Oaxaca, she experienced all three by visiting rural villages, collecting locally made black pottery and wooden figurines and snacking on a delicacy few Americans have ever heard of or tried.
“I learned to eat chapulines,” she said.
In English, that Spanish word means – brace yourselves – “grasshoppers.”
“People bake and sauté them in garlic and lime until they’re crispy,” says Liz, who admits she first ate a few after a friend she was traveling with dared her. “It’s like eating potato chips. But the hairs on their legs were scratching our throats as we ate them. We learned from the kids in a village that the secret to avoiding that is pulling off the legs off as you eat them.”
Rod, who worked for an electronics manufacturing company before starting the Dive Shack, said most of his traveling and living abroad before starting the Dive Shack was through his service in the United States Air Force. While he was stationed in Holland, he literally got a kick from his lifetime passion, soccer.
“I played for a Belgian club team,” says Rod, who grew up in Southern California’s Imperial Valley.
“I grew up watching the San Diego Sockers in the old North American Soccer League and I got to play defense for the team in Belgium. I was also in Holland during a World Cup and it was spectacular watching the games with the locals. Here at home I even still play in an ‘old man’s league.’”
Diving and arranging dive travel packages for their STV clients, though, keep them both young at heart. They say they’re enjoying making the transition from organizing only group trips to setting them up for individuals.
“If you do just groups trips, independent divers are unable, due to timing or other factors, to join the group,” Rod says. “By working with individuals now, we can help them fulfill their desires and needs to have some great dive travel experiences.”
Liz and Rod still enjoy leading group dive trips and are planning to host a trip a year from now to Palau and Chuuk (Truk).
Until then, she and Rod are happily fielding calls and emails from STV clients, asking them where their next dive trip should be.
“I get excited when people ask me, ‘where should I go?’” Liz says. “I enjoy opening those doors for them.”
I just returned from a fantastic dive trip to Isla del Coco, better known as Cocos Island. It has been known as a shark lover's Mecca, not only for the variety of sharks but the sheer numbers. What most people go for of course is the chance of seeing schooling hammerhead sharks. We were not disappointed but more on that in a moment.
What prevents many people from visiting Cocos is the challenging crossing from the mainland. Cocos is located about 350 miles southwest of Costa Rica and the only way to get there is a 36 hour crossing by liveaboard boat. The crossing does have its advantages - getting over any jet lag, unhurried camera and gear setup, and getting to know your fellow divers. It can be a little rough at times but usually the sea is acceptably smooth. The big payoff though is the opportunity to dive in one of the most spectacular destinations on earth.
We spent almost two weeks on Sea Hunter, one of the three boats in the Undersea Hunter Group. She is a very comfortable boat - air conditioned cabins and interior spaces, decent sized dive deck, and great accommodations for photographers. Each shooter has his own station, with shelves and more AC plugs for charging batteries than any boat I have ever been on. They offer 110 and 220 voltages to accommodate anyone.
All diving is done from the two tenders. Your gear stays on the tender for the duration of the diving. No changing tanks, moving regulators, etc. When the bell rings, you get your dive briefing, grab your camera and board the tender.
The main salon is very comfortable. There are always snacks and drinks available and the boat has a vast DVD movie collection (great for long crossings!). They have a large HDTV with every imaginable plug to connect computers, cameras, memory sticks, etc.
The meals are all served buffet-style. After 30 liveaboard trips, I have experienced good and not-so-good food. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Sea Hunter's food was great. There were always plenty of choices and lots of variety. The dining room seats 20 guests and is very comfortable.
Enough about the boat. What you really want to know - does the diving live up to the hype? Without a doubt it does! Cocos has just about every big animal you could ask for. Schooling hammerheads, huge Galapagos sharks, white tip sharks too numerous to count. I never dreamed I would admit this, but I actually stopped photographing white tips after three days or so, because they were on every dive and in such great numbers.
We had enormous marbled rays (some almost 2 meters in diameter), schooling eagle rays, mantas, dolphins, several species of eels, turtles, large schools of jacks and bait fish. There were plenty of interesting reef and bottom fish (including red-lipped batfish). There were not too many shots of them though, since the DSLR shooters stayed committed to big animals and wide angle lenses.
One of the highlights of the trip was when a family of orcas escorted our panga to the dive site. Papa, mama, and baby orca surfaced numerous times all around the boat. As we prepared to roll in, mama glided under the boat, maybe one meter below the surface. We rolled in asap but no doubt the commotion convinced the protective parents to escort junior out of view. To be that close, even if it wasn't underwater, was a thrill of a lifetime.
Diving in Cocos is challenging. There is almost always light to moderate current, cool water, and often there is reduced visibility due to particulate matter in the water. But these are the exact conditions that bring in the sharks. An advanced diving certificate or higher is recommended. Gloves and full wetsuits are almost mandatory due to sharp barnacles and other "pointy" things on the rocks. There is very little coral in Cocos so there is no fear of damaging anything by holding on - it's a matter of hiding in the rocks to convince the hammerheads to come in close.
Cocos and Costa Rica offer other fantastic photo ops. There is a large colony of red-footed booby birds on the island while frigates and other sea birds are also commonly seen. The birds are unafraid of man and allow a very close approach without being alarmed. On the mainland, there are numerous tours you can take to view wildlife. On our transfer from the port of Puntarenas back to San Jose, we saw tons of rare parrots, iguanas, and some giant American crocodiles. Yes, there are some rivers you definitely do not want to walk along the shore of!
Cocos is a very special place. Like many protected habitats, it is threatened by illegal fishing. The authorities do their best with very limited resources to keep the fishermen at bay but it is a struggle. If you are interested in finding out about ways to help, please contact me and I can steer you in the right direction.
Cocos is an underwater photographer's dream. Even if you are not a shooter, it is definitely a destination that should be on every diver's bucket list. If you do decide to visit, feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. To view a 3 minute clip of outrageous nighttime shark feeding activity, click here to go to my YouTube posting. Additional photos will be posted soon on my website at www.wildlifeimaging.com.
Until next time,
Randy
We’d been officially warned.
Liz, our dive guide with the dive operator Aqua Center, aboard its boat, the Fun Fisher II, let me and the other handful of divers know in her briefing that our morning dive at Islas Catalinas – a series of rocky outcroppings off of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast – would provide “whatever nature wants to give us.”
At a sand bank in about 55 feet of water, Mother Nature gave us a special gift: Ten – count ‘em, 10! – white-tip reef sharks. We’re talking more sharks than we could point underwater digital cameras at. My heart surged with excitement as I lay on the sandy bottom, observing, as the sharks appeared to be taking turns between resting and swimming in oval patterns around their group, as if on a reconnaissance patrol. I was silently congratulating myself for picking out my lucky orange swimming trunks to wear on this dive.
Las Islas Catalinas are located near Playa Flamingo, a sleepy coastal resort village that’s about a 90-minute, 45-mile drive southwest of Liberia, Costa Rica’s second largest city and the location of the closest international airport. The lovely Playa Flamingo Beach Resort & Spa, centrally situated in the village, but also just steps away from the beach, was an ideal location for fun.
On this beautiful, balmy morning, we were diving a site called Catalina East, where pelagics and tropical fish show up to sample the tasty nutrients coating and swirling among the rocks. In these waters, coral is rare, but the wildlife is abundant. Before crashing the white-tip party, we were treated to the awe-inspiring sights of three spotted eagle rays and several traffic jams of topical fish.
Islas Catalinas aren’t the only standout dive sites here. Dirty Rock featured a quartet of graceful spotted eagle rays all hunting for food, a jewel moray poking its head out of its home, an octopus hiding among the rocks and a school of king angelfish in session.
Out of the water, there’s no shortage of adventure, including hiking, zip-lining and other activities. Bill Beard’s Costa Rica lined up a refreshing run for me on the rapids of the Rio Colorado, in an inflatable kayak. With neighboring Nicaragua only a two-hour drive north, I asked a Bill Beard’s guide if he could somehow make a day trip there happen. He worked his magic and soon I was enjoying more natural wonders: the rugged Masaya Volcano, and the idyllic islets of Lake Nicaragua.
Whether I was on the surface or under the sea on this trip, whether in Costa Rica or Nicaragua, Mother Nature was generous in her giving.
Gil Griffin, Editor - Scuba Travel Ventures
It's a recent Saturday afternoon and Randy Osgerby had just surfaced from his latest dive travel and underwater photography adventure – an adrenaline-charged live-aboard romp on the Sea Hunter, in the waters surrounding Cocos Island, Costa Rica.
“It was fantastic,” Randy says, in a telephone chat from his Grapevine, Tex. home. “We saw just about everything that was advertised – hammerheads, white-tips and Galapagos sharks. Of course we saw the usual turtles, eels and marbled rays. And a family of orcas passed right underneath our boat.”
Randy, with just over a year under his belt with STV, is one of the newest additions to the dive travel team. But he also is the most accomplished STV agent at his master craft – underwater photography, which he has been doing for decades.
“My preferences are predators and marine mammals,” Randy says. I enjoy macro photography and strange critters, but if I had to pick, photographing big animals is what I live for.”
And what a living it has been. Randy, a former air traffic controller and police officer, owns his own landscape and underwater photography business, Wildlife Imaging and has led groups of underwater photographers on undersea adventures to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and many other destinations. Earlier this year, Randy led a group of dive travelers on a trip to South Africa to watch the frenzied action of the Sardine Run – the fourth time he has witnessed and documented the spectacle.
“There’s nothing like it that you can experience in scuba diving,” Randy says. “Similar behavior occurs in other places in the world, but nowhere else does it happen with so many different species and in such large numbers – sharks, dolphins, birds, whales, and more. And you’re sitting there right in the middle of it.”
So with such an appetite for photographing such chaotic action, what does Randy do to unwind? Every mid-morning, he saddles up his Trek Madone road bike and cycles 25 miles.
“It’s relaxing,” Randy says, “but it’s also a good opportunity for me to organize my day and get away from phones and computers and clear my head.”
But when he returns to his home office, Randy reaches out to STV customers, no doubt enticing them with stories of some of his underwater and land encounters with the wildlife he enjoys photographing.
“I like visiting new destinations on behalf of STV, checking them out to make sure they meet our standards,” Randy says. “I also enjoy making travel arrangements for clients, putting together vacations for them and sharing my experience.”
Some of those include photographing polar bears in the Arctic, a close call with a family of grizzly bears in Alaska and his most recent thrill ride – a night dive off Cocos, surrounded by hundreds of hungry, hunting white-tips.
“I got bumped a few times when they were feeding,” Randy says. “We were outnumbered by hundreds of sharks. There are some rules of engagement and if you’re complying at all times you don’t get hurt. But I’ve been very lucky to have seen some really interesting things.”
To see some of the great images of Randy please visit www.wildlifeimaging.comFor years, all of us at Scuba Travel Ventures have been hearing this question from potential clients. And we admit, it’s a darn good one.
We especially hear this question throughout the year when we travel to dive trade shows throughout the country. We also hear another question: Who needs an agency?
Our response, year in and year out, can be summed up by using the three words we consistently offer our clients better than any other dive travel service: Experience, Benefits and Passion.
For nearly 20 years, we’ve delivered to our client base unsurpassed knowledge of the world’s best dive destinations, the best dive resorts, and without a doubt, the best customer service. Why should you go through the hassle of contacting 10 to 20 different resorts, when you can call us or send us an email and get exactly what you’ve been looking for with one phone call?
We cover every last detail of your dive trip, from who’s picking you up at the airport when you arrive and what dives you want to do, to finding you the most lively nightlife and daytime excursions to enjoy. If you want to immerse yourself in local culture or find the best restaurants, we’ll hook you up. We’re not psychic, but trust us, we know exactly what you’re going through as you prepare for your dive trip. We know what questions you’ll ask us and why you’ll ask them.
We have a deep passion as deep as the seas themselves for what we do and it comes across each and every time we talk to you. Our dive travel specialists hear your excitement as you plan your next dive vacation. And they love matching your excitement. It just doesn't get any better than that.
Contacting an agency is not about getting the best price. It is about getting the best value. Call Scuba Travel Ventures and give us the opportunity to get to know you, your likes and dislikes, the types of accommodations you enjoy, the number of dives you want to do each day, where you have been and where you want to go. Let us fit you in to your next adventure which gives you the best value AND exceeds your expectations.
We get what divers want. And we deliver.
So why use STV? Why the heck not?
Diving is a great pastime for everyone who takes the plunge, but sometimes dive travel is even more enriching, therapeutic and downright fun when it’s done with members of an affinity group. In other words, both on land and at sea, it’s great to have a “girl’s night out.” It’s also comforting for some women to travel and dive in the company of other women.
So bringing women together for diving and adventure is just what Teresa Cabading – owner and president of San Diego-based Scuba Travel Ventures – and 44-year dive veteran Karen Kessel are going to do. Together they are joining forces to create travel adventures for women divers with the launching of a new joint venture called Eat, Play, Dive – Women Traveling the World. They’re actively looking for adventurous female divers for the inaugural dive trip who dream of traveling to some of the world’s most unusual dive destinations. But beyond the diving, planned itineraries will also include cultural immersion tours, hiking, biking, kayaking, and whatever else may be available.
Some of the planned itineraries for 2012 and 2013 include unforgettable dive trips to Fiji, the Galapagos Islands and the Philippines.
For each trip, Eat, Play Dive will pair roommates, based on a questionnaire. While most of the planned trips will be for divers with advanced skills, at least one trip per year will be geared toward women wanting to improve their diving skills, or earn open water certifications. There will also be trips dedicated to underwater photography and marine research.
So ladies, what are you waiting for? Catch the pioneering spirit and be the first to jump on board for our inaugural dive adventure trip to Fiji in April 2012!
For more information, call Teresa Cabading at (800) 298-9009 or (619) 291-9087, or Karen Kessel at (209) 985-0304. Or, just visit www.scubatravelventures.com.
Some days, he wants to bolt his home office and go off the rails on a crazy train.
It’s not because his clients, colleagues and customers drive him insane – though setting up divers’ trips to the Caribbean, Fiji and Indonesia and routinely attending dive shows across the country, as STV Dive Travel Specialist Warren Sims does, is intense. In fact, Warren says he loves those parts of his job. It’s just that Warren – an accomplished, lifelong drummer – can’t get rock ‘n roll out of his blood. And the “crazy train” Warren would, in his dreams, hop on board as the incomparable heavy metal legend-turned-TV-reality-show-star Ozzy Osbourne sang about back in the day. That’s when Warren was rocking out on drums, in bands.
“I had hair down to middle of my back and a gnarly mustache,” Warren, now 54, recalls. “I wore bell bottom jeans and t-shirts and our lead singer wore leather pants. We played in bars. Or anywhere we could get set up. We made tapes of our own stuff.”
Still, as much as Warren loves being a rocker, he decided not to make a career of it. “I knew the odds were against me,” Warren says, “and if I didn’t have a regular job, I’d have nothing to fall back on.”
But instead of falling back on something ordinary, Warren back rolled into adventure. He’s almost a full year into his tenure as an STV dive travel specialist and Warren says he loves the challenges that have come with the new job. “I’ve loved being on the road and traveling to all the different dive shows,” he says. “It’s allowed me to reunite with colleagues throughout the industry, meet new clients and sell really great product.”
Besides making the rounds on the dive show circuit, Warren has also been on the road, diving into the Pacific and the Caribbean, to experience firsthand the riches of dive travel, which he’s busy now passing on to dive travel clients he books trips for. Warren was recently swept off his fins by Fiji’s beauty and charm, so he’s elated to be returning there in November, when he’s scheduled to lead a fam trip for a group of dive shop owners.
So if you’re on that trip, planning to sign up for it, or if you plan to book an STV trip to Fiji, Indonesia, or the Caribbean, prepare to work with a dive travel specialist who rocks – figuratively and literally.
ScubaLife is pleased to announce the launch of its B2B site www.scubalife.biz. Its purpose is to explain how this revolutionary program can benefit both the customer and the industry professional.
For years the dive industry has been seeking exciting ways of attracting new divers to our sport. ScubaLife was created for just that purpose. ScubaLife gives new divers easy entry into the sport of diving by offering them a one-stop online shop for purchasing training, equipment and travel.
ScubaLife is a turn-key web based business opportunity for the dive industry professional that connects the new divers with existing dive shops and instructors.
Brought to you by NASE Worldwide, Ocean Designs CORP. and Scuba Travel Ventures, the ScubaLife online portal offers business owners the opportunity to instantly begin selling training, equipment and travel. At the core of the business model, ScubaLife works to help dive professionals attract and keep new customers by providing a custom branded, ready-to-use e-commerce website.
“Our goal is to develop ScubaLife as a tool that enables professionals to tap into the power of the internet, leverage the power of a co-op and focus on profitability by reducing overhead,” says Allen Garber, V.P. Sales and Marketing.
The Scubalife.biz site is designed to answer questions, dispel myths and ultimately sell this business to professionals who want to have a leg up over the competition. The consumer site,www.scubalife.com is targeted new diver acquisition, gear and travel sales for each business owner.
“This is a radically new concept that has huge potential for forward thinking professionals; sometimes getting outside the box is the only option to bring about change,” says Garber.
For even the most prepared diver, logistics on international dive trips are at best a hassle, and at worst a nightmare. There's a ton of boxes to tick on the mental checklist.
Now - if you’re a diver without any bodily restrictions - put yourself in the fins of a diver with serious physical challenges. What if you’re paraplegic, have very limited mobility, or use a wheelchair? Then your checklist grows exponentially, with questions such as: Will the resort room have a reachable shower head near the shower bench? Can I easily access my bed from my wheelchair? Will the dive boats fully accommodate my needs? Will my dive guide be properly trained in leading divers like me? Or even: Will I have a compatible dive buddy?
Together with the nonprofit organization, Diveheart - an Illinois-based group which trains both disabled children and adults (including military veterans) in diving and trains able-bodied divers to teach and buddy with them - Scuba Travel Ventures helps make physically-challenged divers’ dreams come true. “Diveheart teaches them how to dive,” STV Dive Travel Specialist Mike Arellano says, “we help set up their travel arrangements to make it rewarding for both DiveHeart and the divers."
A group of five Diveheart divers -- five wheelchair-using young adults from Chicago Mike has personally guided - are booked next month to fly to Bonaire for a week of diving at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort .
In addition to booking Diveheart’s trips, STV works to make sure the world’s leading resort managers are aware of physically-challenged divers’ needs and committed to accommodating them. STV also works with resorts to donate vacation package giveaways at trade shows, raffle them off and donate the proceeds of ticket sales to Diveheart, just as the Roatan-based resort,Sueno Del Mar recently did.
“The most gratifying thing is looking at the pictures and hearing the voices of Diveheart divers who in diving did something new,” Mike says. “We’re doing whatever we can to get them more physically and mentally active through dive travel. They’re able to do what able-bodied divers take for granted and feel a sense of accomplishment.”
To learn more about Divheart’s efforts and STV’s collaboration with this nonprofit group, visit diveheart.org.
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