January has always meant Tigers and Great Hammerheads to us. For the past 7 , or 8? Maybe 9 years (don’t remember exactly when we started, it’s been a while.), we have run our annual trip to Tiger Beach for tiger sharks, and over the past 5 seasons great hammerheads. It has been an amazing time of year for us, with both highs and lows, because you never know what you are going to get when it comes to the weather. Some seasons we get perfect conditions, other seasons we get crap weather with challenging swells. The one thing that we have been fortunate to do is dive with big tigers and great hammerheads on ALL our January trips. Not that we haven’t on our October and December trips, because thankfully we have. But January is during the Bahamas winter season and you just never know what you are going to get. We kicked off 2019 with two back to back trips and here are a few images from our time spent here. I do hope you enjoy. Thanks again to our friends who joined us on these trips, you guys are amazing and we couldn’t do this without you. BIG HUG my friends.
Trip one. January 19 - 26, 2019.
Trip Two January 27 - February 3, 2019
My BEST and WORST Day at Tiger Beach!
Totally Gutted!
January 29, 2019, - So I dropped down for a feed on our second dive of the day and we had Patches the great hammerhead and a hand full of lemons buzzing around. No tigers. There was one lemon who was buzzing me pretty close that caught my attention. Her skin had a few wart looking spots on her and a crack on the left side of her gills. I started calling her Cracks. Just the name that came to mind.
Anyway, Cracks approached close on her passes, and so I started giving her a nose rub. She really enjoyed it and came back for more. Before I knew it, Cracks came in for the rub and once I started, she would stop swimming and drop her tail onto the sand... Like, completely stop swimming. Of course Patches, would come in and push her off, but I really enjoyed this interaction with Cracks. So, every time she would swim up to me, I would rub her, and each time, she would drop.
During one interaction, when she dropped, I just sort of stretched her out and allowed her to drop all the way down to lay down in front of me. This was the first time a swimming lemon shark, swam up to me, where I would rub her nose and she went completely still and drop down into the sand for me. It was one of the most amazing moments of my career. I was on fire. In all the years of working with lemon sharks, this had never happened before. It was a new behavior and I couldn’t be happier that I got to be a part of this magic. A few people were around me with cameras and I couldnt wait to go up and check out what they captured. This moment, and this interaction, is the stuff I dream about when I think of sharks.
THEN, reality hit my ass… NO ONE had captured it on video, my heart sank. A few stills here and there and my buddy / safety diver Houston, got a short piece of it on video, but not the entire interactions, I was gutted. They all thought this was normal and didn’t think much of it. I saw everyone filming, so I assumed it was being filmed, but nope! Something, I need to make sure doesn’t happen next time. I will beg someone to capture it. Of course, if there is a next time?
Easily the COOLEST lemon shark interaction I have EVER had in my entire career diving at Tiger Beach, and sadly I don’t have the entire video to share with the world. I have it in my heart and mind, but showing people what is possible with these amazing animals is lost this time. Hopefully, I will get another opportunity with Cracks, but it is so rare that we do not have tiger sharks on our dives, I do not think that opportunity will happen again. The moment is with me forever, but I really would of loved to share that moment with you all.
Thank you for reading…
Shark Feeding... Passing the Torch!
I cut together a vlog this past week with some thoughts I had about watching my son David, feeding sharks for Phantom Divers off Playa del Carmen, Mexico. He has fed sharks with me before. But he was me on my trips and you know… dad’s kid, so even though its awesome, its still not as awesome as earning your spot. To get to feed for the shop, he worked his ass off, because the boys they have feeding are freaking awesome as well. Except Ramon, him not so much! Lol, luv you brother.
There really are no words for how proud I am of my boy for his hard work and dedication to becoming one of the shops core feeders. So during his visit to Texas, earlier this January, while working on his Mexican Visa, I had a chance to share some thoughts. Hope you guys enjoy.
Birding in the Rio Grande Valley
Crocodile Diving in Mexico
I cut together a quick vlog session for our Youtube channel, from our July 2018 crocodile expedition. It was a really good trip. The crocodiles were rock stars. Normally we have between 1 to 3 crocs on these trips. On this day, we had seven crocodiles try to come in, and by try I mean, they did come in, but they quickly got chased off by our dominate crocodile at the dive site, Gambit. Gambit is a big croc that has been the top crocodile here for quite a few years. Anyway, it was a really good trip and I had fun reminiscing . The comments our friends made that had joined us out there were really special. I hope you enjoy…
Anaconda Diving
Earlier this season when we visited the Pantanal to go diving with anacondas, I recorded this interview with our host operator, Daniel de Granville. It was a quick fun chat, discussing the myths surrounding anacondas vs. the reality of this very special animal. I recorded this interview for an upcoming podcast show we have planned for 2019. However, I also wanted to share it on our Youtube Channel. So here it is, I hope you enjoy.
Spotted Dolphin Photo Album
We just added a photo album from our 2018 expedition to swim with these animals off Bimini. We learned alot about photographing these fast moving animals, which is a challenge because they move so fast, so you can not shoot with lower shutter speeds. You can if you are going for an effect, but if you want sharp images of these speed demons flying past you, a quicker shutter speed is required.
Thankfully, the waters off Bimini, Bahamas are amazing and forgiving, so you can bump up the shutter speed without necessarily raising your ISO too much. So I was able to shoot them with, between a 200-400 ISO. So I photographed most of these images with between a 500-700 shutter speed, F8 and between 200-400 ISO.
I also normally post more topside images of our friends who joined us on our adventures, which I use my Iphone for. However, I drowned my phone in Africa this summer, on the sardine run, so sadly, I lost all my images from this trip. So sorry about this guys…
So if you are interested in checking out our photo gallery, please click here. Or on the photo. Thank you my friends for visiting our website.
Grey Whale Vlog
I cut together a vlog from our first visit to Baja for grey whales. It was an emotional day for me. I was overwhelmed with how incredible this experience was. Which is probably why it took me so long to release this video. I was embarrassed but after looking at it again, I dont care, how I feel is how I feel. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Photo Gallery for our Tiger and Great Hammerhead December Expedition
We just returned from our final trip of the 2018 season. We visited the Bahamas for tiger sharks and great hammerheads, which was the last trip of the season for us. It was a great trip with a lot of tiger sharks and a visit from Patches the great hammerhead. We also were given a very white Christmas when Hook the tiger shark returned to Tiger Beach after being gone for 2 years. I was afraid she was killed by fishermen and I was ever so happy to be wrong. So here is a photo album from the trip. Hope you guys enjoy…
Hook, the tiger shark.
Striped Marlin Baitballs off Baja Mexico
So we just returned from our annual trip to Puerto San Carlos, Mexico for a shot at swimming with striped marlins hunting sardines and mackerel. It was an epic success. We spent two weeks out there and had the opportunity to not only photograph these amazing animals but share a fun story for our youtube channel as well. Here is the video I co-hosted with my buddy Chris Doherty… hope you enjoy.
I also just shared a photo album from the trip which we posted yesterday with my favorite images from the adventure. Hope you enjoy.