Tonight is Friday.
In many parts of the Western World, Friday is a special night of the week reserved for mischief and mayhem. After languishing for five days at the office, monotonously battling the personal demons deviously conspiring unleash their tequila-fueled furor upon the week’s conclusion, five o’clock finally arrives. As the sun sets, a new weekend rises. For this one night, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. (Then Saturday comes— recovery; and Sunday— repentance).
On Roatan, mere anarchy is a pervasive state of mind. How else can one rest comfortably in a Third World country while the government undergoes a miniature coup? Oh, wait, that’s right: on the beach with a glass of rum and pineapple.
I’m showering off the » read more «

Welcome back to surreality!
This is just a quick update to explain my lack of updates over the last week. It’s not that I haven’t had material to write about. I have, and that is the problem. For those eager for the next update in the adventures of TheScubaGeek, I offer this list of events in my life. Each of these items warrants a proper follow-up article (and I swear I’ll get them done), but for now, this is the best I can manage at 1am on Honduran highspeed….

Pete found a juvenile lionfish at 38ft near Dixie’s Place. We captured the bugger and brought him to the surface, where he survived for three days on a diet of rum and Funions.
A » read more «

According to this article on Deep-Sea News, I unknowingly filmed the world’s oldest animal a year ago.
Sweeping silently along the silty slopes 1400ft under the Caribbean Sea off Roatan, Honduras, Karl Stanley piloted his deep diving submarine Idabel upon a writhing mass of brittle stars entangled around the brilliant golden lattice of gold coral. My meager five megapixel camera did its best to capture the alien bundle of deep sea life, oblivious to the fact that the gold coral I was filming is over 2000 years old.
Turn down the audio… I never edited this video, so the white noise of the submarine is a bit blown out.

Read more about the amazingly ancient gold corals at Deep-Sea News…

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 risk. Done improperly, however, one can » read more «