I feel that it is only fair to the diving community to illustrate why I am so vigilant against stupidly deep diving. Look closely… Tank. BCD. Regulator. Slates. The abandoned weight belt lies some twenty feet below. The depth? 370 feet (112m). The reason? A dead diver. Mind you, I was never stupid enough to see this site myself whilst scuba diving. Even with a Trimix tec rig and a proper dive plan, this depth is more than a bit insane. No, this eerie shot was taken from the safety of Karl Stanley’s deep diving submersible Idabel. Diving is a very safe sport when done properly— though complete safety is never guaranteed, proper practices have consistently shown to successfully mitigate » read more «

Believe it or not, the best dive course you’ll ever take has nothing to do with scuba diving. As a PADI Instructor, there’s a lot of dive courses I love teaching. There’s nothing like seeing a student take their first breaths underwater during the Open Water Course, or watching divers make the crucial improvements in self-awareness in the PADI Rescue Course. However, one course always seems to get glossed over in the PADI system: the Emergency First Response course. It’s sad, too, because in my honest opinion this is the single most important course anyone can take. The day-to-day applications of Emergency First Response course extend far beyond scuba diving. In just the last year, I have: Dealt with the » read more «

Why don’t you get a real job? I hear this question far more than often than I’d like. Regardless of how valiantly I try to explain what I do, who I am, and why I’m here, I routinely encounter people of mindsets who seem to be inexplicably yet vigilantly opposed to the professional pursuit of relaxation and happiness. When are you going to accept responsibility? The falcon cannot hear the falconer. Despite the US economy being in freefall, people still somehow adhere to the notion that being responsible entails laboriously saving up for 401Ks that implode upon recession, paying for overpriced insurance plans that guarantee you’ll be miserable in times of good health, and gradually acquiescing to inevitable serfdom as » read more «

If there was an Razzie for Worst Performance as an Internet Service Provider, Hondutel would take home the Golden Raspberry. I’ve been without internet access for over three weeks, and it’s not just me. All of Hondutel’s customers on Roatan have been broken down on the side of the Information Superhighway.