Eli Martinez

October 12, 2016

My Perfect Moment; I was ONE with nature…or was I?

Eli Martinez

October 12, 2016

I have so many favorite moments in the water. It is difficult to find my most memorable one. However, one particular story that I have shared many times, is a story where I felt like I was one with nature. It was perfect, it was beautiful. Until that is… I realized the fish I shared my moment with, were actually assholes.

It was a perfect day in the Bahamas; beautiful, deep blue water, hot, sunny, with flat calm conditions. We were looking for oceanic whitetips off Cat Island. We had been chumming for a while, but no whitetips. I decided to go on a scouting snorkel to see if I could find any sharks skulking around. This was pre gopro era, and the only camera I had was my big bulky Equinox camera. So I decided to go without it. My captain suggested that I swim in the direction of some sea birds that were out in the distance. The birds were pretty worked up, so I started my swim towards that activity.

There was not much shade on our little boat, so the water felt amazing. I snorkeled out around 100 yards from our vessel and I could see the birds getting closer. I was hoping they were following a shark, but marlin or schooling tuna would be amazing as well. The birds were flying in my direction, so I started scanning the area. I would pop my head up, look at the birds, see where they were, then look down to see what they were following. They got closer and still nothing.

I just kept looking, scanning and finally I could see a few fish hauling ass towards me. The group got bigger and bigger. Finally a school of about 20, 3 foot rainbow runners approached me and started circling me. Underneath them was a group of about 10 tunas (about the same size). On the outside of them were three dorados that also joined in the spin. They all circled me, over and over. I was totally blown away. They were within touching distance, but I didn't try to touch them. I crossed my arms and stopped swimming to enjoy this perfect amazing moment. I was glad I didn't, but at the same time, I was wishing I had a camera. It was so magical.

Moments later, a huge oceanic whitetip approached me. The swirling fish parted and the shark swam up to bump me. I put my hand on her head and gently guided her away. She swam around me and tried to bump me again. I put my hand out and guided her away again. She approached me for a third time. As I picked my hand up to put on her head, she winced and swam away from my touch. This time, she swam around me and dropped down into the blue abyss. The entire entourage of fish that was with me followed her and disappeared.

I was left alone in a daze of what I had just experienced. It was easily one of the most amazing moments I have ever had in the water. I have shared this moment with people countless times. It was perfect and beautiful, just everything we all dream of when we think about the ocean and the animals that live there. I was thankful for this gift…that is until, I really understood animal behavior. Then it hit me like lightning. Those dirty buggers were all there because they wanted to eat me!

Now, I see clearly what happened that day. Those game fish were out hunting for food. They probably were rounding up baitballs, which is why they had the birds excited. The oceanic was tailing them to join in on their action. And maybe to eat one of the distracted tunas or rainbow runners, while they were feeding on the baitball. I showed up, all by myself and the game fish found me. They started circling me to attract the oceanic in. Their plan was for the oceanic to kill me and they would grab a free meal, courtesy of the oceanic whitetip.

They left when they realized I was formidable prey and it was not worth the risk of injury. It is fight or flight in their world. Well, I ain’t gonna lie, I was a bit heart broken when I realized it was not this perfect zen moment with all these fish. Instead it was a tribal dance of death. Whatever it was, I still dream of something like that happening to me again, because even though those fish wanted to eat me…it was still was so great, almost getting eaten by those awesomely beautiful assholes.

Eli Martinez

October 8, 2016

Advice for the budding professional Shark Diver…or whatever you want to call yourself

Eli Martinez

October 8, 2016

“YOU ARE SO LUCKY, How do I get a job like yours and do what you do?” That is something I am always asked. I get emails like that every week. I am always hesitant as to how I answer that, because the truth is, “I just don't know?” I am not really sure how I got here and do what I do for a living. The only thing I can say for sure is…LUCK, had nothing to do with it.

Editing and Laundry in between trips. The work never ends.

When I step back and look at what I do and what I get to do. I admit, it is pretty exciting and fun. But what people don't see is the years and countless hours put into it all to make it work. The emails I get all the time from people are asking to intern or work for me. I think its cool that they are asking, but most of them really don’t know what it is we do. Most are under the illusion that I spend all my time in and on the water.

They always ask to shadow me, so they can learn about shark behavior and more specifically, want to learn to feed sharks. Little do people realize that I spend about 75% of my time at a desk, behind a computer, writing, and editing, and marketing and returning emails. It goes on and on. Sometimes 10-12 hours a day…everyday.

When I think about it, why would anyone ever know that part? It’s not like I share that side of what we do. What ends up on our website and on social is the excitement of life as a professional Shark Diver. We are out there, playing with sharks, or swimming with orcas, or photographing polar bears. Thats what everyone sees. And that is what you are supposed to see. Not the boring shit with me sitting behind a computer for 12 hours straight, editing a video, or updating social stuff.

So how did I get here? Again, I am not really sure, it is kind of blurred into one great big adventure. I’ve never really had an official job title either. I guess if I had to think about it or write it down it would be; Professional Shark Diver / TV host / Photographer / Dive guide / Teacher / magazine editor / Story teller / marketing rep / toilet scrubber and mail boy. I wear a lot of hats here at SDM. and I love every part of what I do. Except the toilets, don't really like that crap (no pun intended).

We have been in business for 13 years and it took a very long time to get where we are today. There were so many nights I would lay there trying to figure out how to keep things going because we just were not making it. I would ask myself why am I doing this?, Why do I keep trying to publish this magazine?, How am I going to pay for this boat charter? But we did it... it worked. Somehow it worked. And quitting was never an option. Even though I questioned it, I could never quit, because I don't really know how.

That part stems from my bull riding days. When I was riding bulls, I wanted to be great, so I trained hard, like really hard. Because I had no natural talent and I was my own coach. I had to dig deep and gut it out. To be a great bull rider means you have to have your feet in the fire all the time.

A story I remember; I was at a practice buck out. I was riding a bull and was bucked off after a few seconds. I ended up landing face first in the dirt. Seconds later the bull stepped on the back of my neck, shoving my face deep into the dirt. Thankfully they had just plowed the arena, so it was softer than normal and when the bull stepped on me, the dirt acted kind of like an airbag. Only with bullshit mixed into it.

I got up and assessed the damage; my neck hurt like hell, red with some missing skin and my face was sore and completely covered in dirt. I had a little bit of blood in my nose, but nothing was broken. I was raging mad for bucking off the bull. I grabbed my rope, dusted some of the dirt off my face and threw my rope on the next bull in the shoot to try and ride again. Everyone was telling me to take a break and catch my breath. They wanted to make sure I was ok, but I didn't want to. I was fine, other than my spirit, because I had bucked off. I was more determined than ever and I wanted to take that negative energy and throw it into my ride. And that’s what I did and continue to do to this day. I take that negative energy from failure and throw it into everything I try to do.

That grit inside me is what drives me. It has kept me on this journey, and allowed me to live this life and do what I do. It took a lot of work to get here and I guess if I can do it, anyone can. Anyone can become…whatever it is that I am?

It does come with a price though; long hours, bad seas, freezing oceans, shitty travel days and a lot of missed family moments you will never get back.

The highs of course, are those magical moments that you will carry with you forever; magical sunsets, great new friends from around the world, beautiful landscapes and sharing time with some of nature’s most amazing animals, both big and small.

I’ll finish this rant with this; This life is amazing and worth everything you’re willing to put into it. If you want to work with sharks, then chase your dream and find a way to make them your life. But you have to be willing to put in the work and make all the sacrifices. You can’t give up when things get hard, because they will - you just need to find your own kind of grit.

Wishing you the best of luck…even though, luck has nothing to do with it.

Eli Martinez

October 4, 2016

Shark Diving can contribute to Shark Science!

Eli Martinez

October 4, 2016

There has always been a love hate relationship between shark divers and shark researchers. Researchers have been very vocal about there dislike (some, but not all) for shark diving. Of course, Shark Divers have been very vocal about their dislike (again some, but not all) for shark research and their methods.

I admit I have been very vocal in the past about my dislike for shark research. Although, like I have mentioned in the past, I get it and I understand the need for some of it. And some shark researchers have also been VERY vocal in their thoughts on me and shark diving; how I am invasive and shouldn't touch sharks or feed them, molest them…It goes on and on.

Not that I don't respect shark researchers (the legit ones) for their importance and contribution to shark protection. And yes, I have been involved with shark tagging programs in the past. But I am just too huggy, kissy with sharks for me to ever be comfortable with it.

I know shark research is important. But there is so much more to be learned, beyond just hooking sharks, taking blood and measuring them. A lot could be gained by visiting shark diving sites and just observing, especially popular ones like Tiger Beach. These places are great laboratories for sharks; how social they are, their hierarchies, mating behaviors, healing abilities, the relationships between species, etc. - So many stories, so much science. But, as I have been told, this is not a natural setting so it would not be real science.

However to prove my point on how important these dive sites are, I was finally able to contribute to shark research. On December 2nd of 2014 I filmed one of our resident tiger sharks, New Girl with fresh mating scars. She showed up with two chunks taken out of her tail fin. I remember seeing her, thinking that was not good. She arrived that day super skittish, which is normal behavior when a shark shows up with fresh scars. It takes them a little while to settle down. She never did come in close though. In fact that was the only dive we saw her during that trip.

Less than a year later (October 12, 2015), she showed up completely healed. Which was wild because I had no idea they could do that. (and before it is questioned, yes it is the same shark, I know this is her, because she has a very unique color pattern on her left side that easily identifies her.)

What this shows is that sharks (or some species of sharks) can regrow sections of their fins back. It is known that they heal quickly, but that fins can regrow is pretty new. It makes sense since shark sex is so violent. I had documented this in my journal (I do this with my tiger sharks here). and got lucky enough to record it on video. So I shared it with the research community, asking if this was commonly known. Some forms of it were known, but for the most part It was not.

Although, this is research that has not been published and probably never will. Don't really care about that. All I know is that footage I captured was passed along the researcher channels and discussed. Which excites me, because it proves that shark diving sites can contribute to science, beyond just hooking them. Maybe some researchers will still disagree with me on that…some, but hopefully not all.

Eli Martinez

September 29, 2016

Guadalupe is White Shark Heaven!!!

Eli Martinez

September 29, 2016

Guadalupe bound…We left port, thankfully with a good crossing. Something, I was extremely happy about. My last major crossing had us in 15 foot seas. The ocean was screaming at us and it felt like we would never see land again. Nothing worse than being locked down in your bunk for 20 hours straight, not moving because you just felt like crap. The good and bad thing was I found out what my super power would be if I had one; Projectile vomiting. Disgustingly, I was amazing at it!

Thankfully this wasn't a crossing like that…Nope this was a heavenly crossing. We made good time and all of us were anxious to arrive. I was excited to see what the next few days of diving with white sharks would be like.

Our trip last year was good, but the whites were in and out, with a lot of down time in between visiting sharks. I was really hoping this years action would be better….and it was!

Typical Guadalupe with rolling clouds from our 2015 trip

We dropped our anchor into flat calm seas. As I looked around the first thing I noticed was that there were no clouds. There are normally clouds rolling off the top of the volcanic mountains here, but today there wasn’t. The skies were clear, the sun was out and the visibility looked amazing. Within an hour of arriving, our first shark show up and the mad dash for gear began. Shortly after that a second shark, then a third. Once we started diving, it just never stopped. From about 9 in the morning till the last divers entered the cages in the evening - the sharks never stopped rolling in.

September is such a great time to be here, because its the middle of the season. It’s good for both small sharks and the big boys. And on this trip, we had them all…from small, 10 foot sharks, to 17 foot, 3,000 lb. monsters. It was a dream. The stress of running a shark diving trip is that you are always worrying that no sharks will show up. The smiling faces and full camera cards told me that this was not going to be one of those trips.

The white sharks performed like rock stars. They cruised by our cages, over and over again, trying hard to take the hang baits off our shark wranglers. The sharks are getting smarter, you could see them trying to figure things out. They kept changing their approach strategies, using speed and stealth to steal the bait away. It was awesome. We had quite a few half breaches as the sharks would rocket up from underneath the cages to surprise our wranglers. Everyone got a show - Those that were in the cage and our guests that were topside. We all had a blast watching the cat and mouse game that was going on.

By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and cold from hours spent in the cages. It is hard sometimes to explain to people who are there for the first time just how special a day like this is, because these kind of days are so rare. I was just thankful it happened on my watch.

Of course in the morning when we kicked off our 2nd day, I was half expecting it to be back to old Guadalupe, where the sharks come in, hang around for 10-30 minutes and then take off. But nope, when the cages were dropped (at 8am), within 20 minutes our first shark showed…and again, it was going off! The rest of the day played out like a repeat of day one. The only difference was we lowered one of the cages to 30 feet, to get a different perspective of the sharks. Those rides are always so much fun.

The day was just amazing, the sharks never stopped coming in. I shot over a thousand photos in a two hour session. Most ended up crap, but what was great was getting the opportunity to shoot that much. I got out of the water cold and happy, excited to see what day three would bring…BUT, our captain dropped a bomb on us. Tropical storm Frank was headed our way. So, we finished up our day of diving, pulled the cages and headed home.

We had one more day of diving left and even though everyone was not thrilled with leaving, riding home for 18 hours through a tropical storm was not something anyone wanted to do either. So we left and thankfully everyone was very happy. The two days in the water were so great no one really felt let down. I was excited for everyone and yes I admit, secretly even more excited about beating the storm for a smooth crossing home. Which meant, that my super hero, secret identity was not revealed on this trip. Till next season Guadalupe…You were amazing.

A video from our trip by one of our guests Steve Crawford. So much fun.

2016 WHITE SHARK EXPEDITION GALLERY

Eli Martinez

September 28, 2016

Our new website...Hell Yea!

Eli Martinez

September 28, 2016

Well I finally did it. I updated our website. This has been one of those projects that has just given me hell and grief through the years. Not to mention, costing us thousands of dollars, only to be frustrated and unhappy with the end results. Finally after almost ten years of disappointments. I had pretty much given up on our website and decided to just stick with our original website with all its flaws.

But every time I would look at my original website, it would just upset me all over again, knowing that it could be better. So after one last bold search for help, I decided enough was enough. I was going to build this website myself. I built our original site for Shark Diver Magazine, after disappointing results with website programmers for the first website we had built. The thing with website programmers I feel is they always want to get too fancy. They learn some new tech stuff in school, or want to experiment with a graphic art tool they heard about and often try to make it too cool and usually end up crapping it up.

I know I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but somehow I was going to get the damn website built. Through the advice of a good friend (thank you Jero), I checked out Square Space and decided to try it out. After a full day of fumbling around with it, I decided I was to going to use this platform and a template I was happy with and made it my own.

So this is what you guys have, the new look and feel of SDM adventures… we are using sdmdiving.com, as our main url right now, mostly because I am still trying to figure out how to add sdmadventures.com to our website. and there is way to much history with SharkDiverMag.com to let that one disappear. But eventually I will let it go and move the url over to this site as well…baby steps.

The first thing was updating the core of what we do here at SDM which is who we are, and what we do, which is, travel. Then it was figuring out how to give you guys more content and a gallery of images to look at. We have so many pictures, so many moments that are just collecting dust on hard drives. This was something I had always wanted to do, (create galleries) but was never able to quite do that before. The next is a user friendly blog page. Well user friendly for me. I have always loved blogging, but it was a pain in the ass with the old setup.

I have been posting blogs on my old site, SharkDiverMag.com, since 2005. Right now, sadly, I am not able to incorporate all those old stories and rambling mess into what I have here. But maybe I can, somehow link those old pages on here? There is so much history there. Again, baby steps.

The next big thing is our store…well, that has remained the hardest part for us to incorporate into a website. For whatever reason. It has been a nasty stumbling block. In fact that is why I have always tried to hire people to help me. I wanted a really good store. So when I went to web developers asking them to build me a store, somehow they always wanted to do more than just build a store for us - they wanted to redesign the whole thing. I would always say yes, ( so of course this nightmare is my fault.). Shortly after thousands were spent, the entire project would become a huge disaster. With of course, surprise, surprise... no working store.

Hopefully, it wont be on this new site. I am currently working on it and once it is done, I will proudly share it with you all. I have always wanted a store with our shirts and rash guards, back issues of our magazine, but also an art gallery with prints of moments we have captured through out the years. I will share that with you when its ready. But for now, I am excited to present to you guys, the new and improved website. It is visually pretty amazing. I do hope you enjoy it and return again and again. Yes, I will be updating it quite a bit and of course our blog to incorporate both video and written blogs. There are so many stories left to tell and adventures to share.

For all our friends who have been with us from the beginning, this is for you…thank you so much for sticking with us through it all.

Eli Martinez

September 23, 2016

La Jolla Shores is Freaking Shark Diving Heaven!

Eli Martinez

September 23, 2016

La Jolla Shores has always been a special place for me. It was my first beach dive. And, of course, it is full of sharks. Back in 2006 was the first time I swam here. As the editor of Shark Diver Magazine, we had already run stories about the Shore’s, and the leopard shark population, so I was itching to experience it for myself. I finally got my opportunity when we added the location to the documentary I produced, 'Summer of the Sharks.'

Such beautiful sharks. Each one has its own unique pattern and color.

For this dive/snorkel, you literally walk into the surf zone and scattered beneath these waves a few feet away are so many of these beautiful little sharks. As a Shark Diver, it doesn't get any better or cooler than that. After that formal introduction of this place and these sharks, back in 06’ I was hooked. I made it a point to visit this place every year since.

The beauty about the shark action off La Jolla is the leopards are not the only great thing about this place, nor are they the only shark species you can find. You can see; topes, horn, swell, angel, grey smooth hounds and the big stars here off La Jolla, the seven gill shark. I have seen them all, except the swell sharks. But everywhere you swim, you are bound to find some species of shark hanging around.

The leopards were not the only reason I came out here, I was also after tope sharks. Swimming among the grassy sea beds are where the topes hang out. What a conservation success story these guys are. These sharks were all but gone, until the gill net ban was enforced along the coast lines here off Cali. Now they have seen a rebound in the number of topes. Which is great for the eco-system. Brings back some balance to these waters. Of course, it also adds to the excitement of an already exciting dive site.

Like I mentioned I have been coming to this area since 2006 and even though the sharks are always here, the diving easy, its not without its challenges. The ocean is almost always surging which really kills the visibility here. So most of the time I am swimming and trying to capture footage of these beautiful little sharks in muddy soup. Thankfully this was my year to finally have an opportunity to film them in near perfect conditions. It was still surging and the sand was stirred up a bit, but the visibility was amazing.

We spent a lot of time playing with the leopards. In two days I think we spent about 5 hours swimming with them. It was just a lot of fun. I do recommend low tide conditions if you want to see them. During high tide, they tend to scatter. Low tide, they seem to gather together, which makes for better shooting opportunities.

The topes were a bit more challenging to film, just because they were a bit deeper. On my second day here, I went pretty late in the day for a shot at finding them. Thanks to my buddies, The Scuba Diver Girls, Margo and Stephanie, who literally dive there everyday, finding them was not an issue. They put me on them pretty quickly and I went to work trying to frame shots in failing light. And since I shoot with natural light, it was tough. It was still fun, tracking down and trying to sneak up on these sharks to compase a shot. Well, I did what I could with my time left and started heading back in when the SDG girls found me one more gem…a Pacific black sea turtle.

This was a huge goal for me. I rushed over to shoot this beautiful little turtle and like a super model, it patiently stayed there and allowed me to shoot, shot after shot. What a dream. I have a goal of photographing all 8 species of sea turtles, so far I have four. Its actually mine and my daughters Sophie's goal. The plan of course is to film them together. But it is exciting that I found out where to find a black so that I can bring her back later to see them. The black we found is a resident in these waters.

La Jolla is such an amazing place with so much to offer a big animal lover like myself. Of course two days is just is not enough time, but I had to say goodbye and continue on my journey. I wrote this blog while packing up my gear and checking out of my hotel for the next stop on this adventure. Today, we are headed South of the border. I am bringing a group of divers to visit Guadalupe Island for a 5 day trip to swim with great whites. Love this crazy Shark Life.

2016 WHITE SHARK EXPEDITION GALLERY

LA JOLLA SHORES PHOTO GALLERY