Love it or Hate it.

 

When you write a book there is always going to be criticism, negative and positive. I found my book falls into the “Love it or Hate it” category. And this is fine by me. I wrote my book for myself, for my fellow dive instructors and my family. It’s raw and opinionated but it is also honest. Here a a few reviews from both sides of the spectrum.

Colin reviewed Does This Island Go To The Bottom?: The Adventures of a SCUBA Instructor in the Caribbean

 Amazing Book!!! November 18, 2013

This book was a fantastic roller coaster ride. At first it seems dull and boring but you will soon learn that you will go on the adventures Eric did. Amazing book! I feel truly connected with the people that are written about in the book!

Add a comment View this book’s reviews on Amazon.com

cil reviewed Does This Island Go To The Bottom?: The Adventures of a SCUBA Instructor in the Caribbean

1 of 3 people found the following helpful

 Terrible July 12, 2013

Vulgar language, over and over. I could not even make it a 1/4 of the way through very disappointed!
Kindle should rate nasty books like this as… NASTY

MR JAMIE PUTLAND reviewed Does This Island Go To The Bottom?: The Adventures of a SCUBA Instructor in the Caribbean

 Thoroughly entertaining read 6 August 2013

Purchased this book due to being an instructor myself and wanted to read the stories from another mouth, can relate to everything written and loved the way Eric told it all.

Would recommend this book to anyone interested in diving or just for a laugh at the way the diving community live their adventurous lives.

Hope I now get the chance to experience being on the Caribbean paradise teaching too 🙂

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. Rushton “simonru” reviewed Does This Island Go To The Bottom?: The Adventures of a SCUBA Instructor in the Caribbean

 Sour 12 November 2013

A really sad read about someone who seems to have complete disdain for his dive students. Sorry, as a fellow Instructor I thought I would get some insights, amusing stories but didn’t get any of that.

Add a comment View this book’s reviews on Amazon.com

lAdam Helberg reviewed Does This Island Go To The Bottom?: The Adventures of a SCUBA Instructor in the Caribbean

 Enjoyable adventures of a scuba instructor. November 9, 2013

As a scuba diver myself I enjoyed reading this book of real life adventure. It’s about a guy from Southern California bored with his job who becomes a scuba instructor in the Caribbean, finds a compass to his life and returns to the US. The reality and technical accuracy helped make this a good read.

Now for the instructor that gave it a 1 star, he has obviously little experience working in a resort environment. If you read my book carefully you’ll see that I do in fact hold great compassion and respect for my dive students. Criticism is good, both negative and positive. I see so many self published books that have nothing but 5 star reviews. This sends up a red flag for me. I’m more apt to read a 3 star book knowing that someone has given it an honest review.

I will soon be in the process of expanding my book “Does This Island Go To The Bottom?” I have stories that I left out and details I think are important to add. But one thing is for sure, it will still be a roller coster ride!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43NeBiPEzqk

Scubacrowd.com

An article I wrote for an online scuba social network site called Scubacrowd.com. Check them out, it’s a great site with cool articles and videos! Hit the link.

http://www.scubacrowd.com/diving/article/discovering-california-experience-dead-mans-reef/26

 

The movie “Blackfish”

It’s been over two weeks since I’ve seen Blackfish and the images and story still haunt me. This is a powerful documentary, a must-see for everyone who respects the animal kingdom, on land and in the sea.

The film was not as graphic as I was suspecting it to be. It was, however, as sad and gut wrenching as I suspected it to be. And I was surprised to find myself feeling a strong compassion for not only the orcas, but their trainers as well. To the trainers the orcas had become their responsibility, their companions, their friends, even though they knew the dangers involved. The trainers were not involved with the barbaric capture of these fascinating and intelligent wild animals. They were not the people behind the scenes in the massive money making corporation calling the shots to keep a known agitated orca in the show who had attacked trainers in the past. They were doing their job. And some were doing their job unsure if it was morally right. One trainer expressed his reasoning best by saying something to the affect that  “I felt like who else would take care of them and feed them? I can’t just leave them.”

I know I would feel the same way.

Should orcas be in captivity? My opinion is no. I felt this way long be for Blackfish was made. When I was young I watched the killer whale show at Seaworld in San Diego, CA. This was the Shamu and Namu era. I was excited and in awe with the massive animal. However, there was something that troubled me about one of the orcas and I asked the question, “Why is that ones fin curled over?” A man sitting behind me leaned over and said, “that’s what happens to their fins in captivity. They really don’t know why.”

I thought about this for a while and came to a simple conclusion at that early age. Its fin is curled because it’s not happy.

Blackfish is a necessary movie.

Columbia, the Last Certification Dive

Excerpt taken from “Does This Island Go To The Bottom?”

 

“We were in the midst of thick mangroves somewhere in Columbia with two shady looking characters manning the boat. Cartagena is where the cruise ship docked and that’s all I knew. Pretty Boy and I had our students on their last certification dive. As I looked at their faces, I could tell they were thinking the same as I was. It was an endless, slow tour of navigating the narrow channels, then out to open ocean then back into the mangroves.

There was no way in hell that there is any diving around here. No possible way.

Finally, the cut throat Colombian crewmen killed the two outboard motors and tossed out the anchor. I was relieved to see that there was no body tied to the line.”

Reviews:

Excellent Read

“This is by far my favorite book within the realm of “diving books”. I have read it over and over.” – Amazon

Great Entertaining Read!,

This review is from: Does This Island Go To The Bottom?: The Adventures of a SCUBA Instructor in the Caribbean (Kindle Edition)

“I actually laughed out loud many times when reading this book. It is a great read and thanks to Eric, I had a few sleepless nights because I did not want to go to bed, I wanted to continue reading it. What I admired about the writing of this book is the raw factor you get from it. Eric does not hold back in language or opinions, but you don’t find yourself offended at all. You can tell that this is Eric’s passion and I could visualize every part he wrote about because it is written very well. I honestly could even feel the warmth of the sun when reading this and I live in Northern WI! You will not get bored. If you are like me and have never been to the islands, never been scuba diving…or even if you have, this is a must read!!” – Amazon

 

“I read this book almost in its entirety and it is not for the faint of heart. Disturbing on so many levels. A rather sobering view on the scuba industry and dive ‘professionals’ narrated by the author.” – ScubaBoard.com

 

“Phew! I’ve just finished reading this whirlwind ride through a Californian diving instructor’s real-life experiences in the Caribbean of the 1990s, and still don’t know quite what to make of it . . .” – Divernet.com

Review in “Diver Magazine”

Here is an honest review of my book “Does This Island go to the Bottom?” by the editor of the UK’s 1 selling dive magazine, Diver Magazine and its online format Divernet.com. I am honored and grateful for the editor to take the time to review my book and feature it in the magazine. It’s an awesome feeling to know that something you worked so hard at is selling over seas!

Thank you Diver Magazine.

Divernet | Scuba Diving | Scuba News | Scuba Gear | Underwater Photography

Click link below to go strait to article.

http://www.divernet.com/other_diving_topics/reviews/1938171/does_this_island_go_to_the_bottom_by_eric_h_pasley.html

A review from a diver on ScubaBoard: Does This Island Go To The Bottom?

If you’re a diver than you know about ScubaBoard.com. A social media site for divers that covers all things related to SCUBA. Here is a fellow divers review of my book “Does This Island Go To The Bottom?”

“I just finished the book on a flight back from FL to the frozen north of MN. It was a nice quick read with very good imagery. I could picture all the places and sites that Eric described in the book.

I always enjoy hero to zero escapades of the “been there, done that” divers you run into on dive boats. Eric also points out how instructors and DMs get a kick out of the new divers awe of being underwater for the first time.

Overall a solid book and good money spent.”

And here’s another . . . this one’s great!

“I read this book almost in its entirety and it is not for the faint of heart. Disturbing on so many levels. A rather sobering view on the scuba industry and dive ‘professionals’ narrated by the author.”

The Red Lip Batfish.

“I really don’t want to go,” I said.

“This night dive you’re almost guarantied to see the red lip batfish,” our underwater naturalist said.

I was beat, tired. We did four dives already and I just took a hot shower. I was nice and comfy. Fact is, most of the divers didn’t want to go. We had been on the Lammer Law live aboard in the Galapagos for five days now and just left Darwin Island where we dove with whale sharks, schooling hammerheads, pods of wild dolphin and countless other creatures. So who cares about a red lip batfish?

“I’ll go if Julian goes,” my girlfriend, Lori, yelled in the galley. Julian was from the UK and was diving the whole time with a hole in his dry suit the size of a soft ball.

“Boody hell,” Julian said as he got out of his bunk. “All right then.”

Lori looked at me. She was the one who motivated all the divers to do the night dive that night. “Well?” she said.

I shook my head and walked out of the galley to the back deck and started putting on my cold, soaking wet suit.

There was about eight of us who decided to do the night dive in search of the red lip batfish. We all geared up and hopped into the ponga (dingy,) and headed out to the dive site. The sun was gone and the sky was black as coal with little specks of stars scattered about.

“This looks like a good spot, right here,” our dive guid said as the inflatable boat slowed.

We all sat on either side of the ponga ready for the word to all make our back-roll entry at once. All the divers that night were well advanced divers, divemasters and instructors. The Galapagos Islands are not for the novice diver.

“OK, go.”

We all rolled back into the cold, dark water at once. Suddenly my tank hit something about two and a half feet underwater, causing a loud “ping” to echo through the water.

Then, ping, ping, ping!

We made our entry into only three feet of water!. It must have been a comical sight. Here was a group of well seasoned divers on their backs with their legs and fins sticking up out of the shallow water, kicking and flailing. After we crawled off the rocks and out to deeper water we went down and did see the red lip batfish. But the best part of the dive wasn’t the batfish, it was the entry!

 

Aquatica Magazine

Writing is hard work. From a simple blog to a novel to a full blown magazine. Writing takes focus, dedication and determination to see it through, to see your end results in your hand or on a computer screen. The editing, revising and proofreading becomes maddening. You sometimes become consumed in your work to the point of insanity. Just ask Poe and Hemingway to name a few. But you press on. Something is driving you, something you quite don’t understand. All you know is that you have to finish your work and share it with others. That’s your reward, sharing it with others, hoping that they find useful information, entertainment or escape in what you produce.

This is why I’m proud to share that one of my best friends, Pete Langevin, has published his first issue of Aquatica Magazine. It’s an awesome magazine centered around water with articles on top architects in the pool construction design business to scuba diving pioneers and all thing in between. Pete poured his sweat, heart and soul into his magazine and he is offering it free. Take time to check it out, because who doesn’t love water. Water is life!

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aquatica-magazine/id561877397?mt=8

http://www.facebook.com/AquaticaMagazine?fref=ts

Sharks on a Wreck

Diving with sharks just never gets old. And they listen to Bad Religion too!

A Close Call

This is a better clip of one of the shark dives I did where a Caribbean Gray Reef Shark bumped my hand while is was using a tiny GoPro. Look closely at the part in slow-mo, you can see its protective membrane cover and uncover its black eye.

Stay Wet . . .