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!

 

Galapagos Video, Re-Post

Galapagos Video, Re-Post.

Galapagos Video, Re-Post

I thought I should re-post this video again where it can easily be clicked on and viewed rather than going to this link and that link. I know it’s a bit long in this world of instant gratification but for those of us who love the underwater world, it has some pretty cool stuff in it. So, if you have 33 minuets to spare check it out.

 

 

(I sent in footage to the Whale Shark Research Institute and they confirmed that the female in this video was pregnant.)

Galagagos

Galagagos Whale Shark

Whale Shark. This one was pregnant and about to pop. How cool would it have been to see it borne???

Click On Galapagos to see the Video!