May 27, 2011 I got some very cool news today. My video To Touch a Tiger, was given a run on the home page websites of 4 newpapers in Australia, which is very cool. They left the video intact and told the story that I wanted to tell. Which to me is a huge win for sharks. Showing the other side to these animals is so damn important. The reason I wanted to share this story was because very few people will ever have the opportunity to see sharks behave this way. Where they seek out a persons touch, or where they compete for attention. I have witnessed so many different behaviors while down there, things that were just so amazing that its mind numbing. I have had moments where I witness something unique and I am looking around at the others who are down there with me, asking them if they saw it too - just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Beautiful moments that leave me humbled, completely in awe of nature and these animals. Anyway here are the links to the news websites that are/or were sharing the video...
At the end of the day my ultimate hope is to create change - change in the way the general public see sharks and their ideas about these animals. And more importantly what is possible. People are terrified of lions and bears, but they also see that these animals have another side to them, and that they are worth saving, I want that same idea to circulate in the minds of people about sharks. An uphill battle? Hell yes, but one worth doing.
May 10, 2011 Damn I am so behind on blogs. Sorry about that. Well of course it was for good reasons. First it was that issue 24 got here, and the work of shipping began, then it was to prepare for our oceanic whitetip Cat Island adventure, which I was there and back, and will return to for a couple more weeks. And when I got back from Cat, I wrote a trip report for the adventure, and then I got busy learning how to edit short film stories. I have finally cut my teeth and took up the editing tools, and am working on creating short stories. It was long over due, and I am stoked that I finally learned the art of it. I finished two short stories, so to speak. The first was a short film I made to promote our 2011 sailfish expedition, which is currently on our home page, and if its not there anymore, because I am always editing now, then you can find it on our sailfish expeditions page. Of course these were my first efforts at it, so I am sure they could be better, even though the response has been over whelmingly amazing. Thanks to all who left comments on our FaceBook page. I had been wanting to create short film on our sailfish expedition, because I truly feel like writing stories about the experience always falls short of the how incredible this adventure really is. It was an amzing adventure and I am stoked about the trip we experienced this season, with a couple of days where we had baitballs with a lot of sailfish for over 2 hours. EPIC stuff. I then cut together a short video for my sons for their friends. I took them this past February to Playa del Carmen, Mexico to get their dive certs and to dive with bull sharks. This was such an amazing adventure to be out there with my family and have them experience an adventure with me, and for me to show them what this world is all about. A huge thanks goes out to Chino and the Phantom Divers crew for making this trip extra special. Un Abrazo.
Just an FYI, I created a Shark Diver Magazine channel on Vimeo. So if your a member, please add us to your favorites. Now that I have been introduced to the editing world I will try to post videos at least once a week, if not more for you all. I currently have two videos on there, I hope you like them. The next video I am going to work on is Tiger Beach, a place that I hold dear to my heart. I can't wait to show it to you all...
April 4, 2011 Mags, mags, mags...mailing out mags like crazy. Its always fun when the new box of magazines arrives. I'm always excited to see what each issue looks like when its finally printed. of course I am always disappointed with the final product because I want it to be perfect, and of course they never are. Colors are sometimes off, font is not as cool as I thought it would be, this - that, its always something. Well this issue we had a big problem. The printers left out one of the pages from one of my articles, and they have refused to reprint the run. And my budget does not allow me to reprint the mag, so I am going to send out this issue with the missing page article. What I am going to do is have the page available online, so if you want to finish reading the piece you can visit our website and finish reading it there. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I know you all have waited a long time for this issue so I am not going to make you wait any longer. The page will be up this week, and you will be able to find it on our home page.
Ok sneak peek time. I am going to leak out one of the layouts for issue 24 just to get you all pumped up about reading the new mag, as well as to get those of our readers out there who let their subscriptions laps to get to subscribing again.
So here's an update about what my week looks like. I got 3 days of mailing magazines, cameras and gear to pack, an e-book that I begin writing this week, issue 25 to start penning ideas for, a script to write for our upcoming Summer of the Sharks 2 shoot which we begin filming this week, and a big adventure that I am off on. I am off to Cat Island for what I am hoping is an amazing adventure. Cat Island, Bahamas is an amazing place that is also one of the sharkiest islands in the Bahamas. It is also the location of our Summer 2 shoot so it is going to be crazy busy while we are out there. Not only will we be shark diving every day, trying to show our guests sharks, but I also will be directing and filming interviews with the shark divers who will have appearances in our movie as well. I will be posting as much info as I can and still not sure if I will have access to my website from the island, but I will be updating on my twitter page (sharkdivermag) and my facebook page. So become a friend or follow us along to see whats going on in my world.
So keep checking back for updates images and news on our latest project. Summer of the Sharks 2 is going to be an exciting ride that will be ready for you all August 2011!
MARCH 29, 2011 The Mag is gone and out of my hands. Now the work begins - need to get envelopes ready, catch up on blogs, work on upcoming SDM trips, as well as write up trip reports, I have 2 left to do. Man, just thinking about the upcoming shark season gets me fired up. This is going to be a busy and exciting season. Here is a quick run down...In April I head out to Cat Island, Bahamas for the oceanic whitetip shark season. Of course we call it whitetip season, but in reality its just an EPIC shark season, because Cat Island is a shark divers paradise. The big game migrate through this area and so many different species of sharks visit the island to take advantage of all the food that cruises through the area. Oceanics, tigers, bulls lemons, reefs, silkies, great hammerheads, duskies, blues. Damn, its heaven on earth. The great thing is with us being out there we can push for protection of these sharks with the help of the locals, which we will be working with while we are on the island, from the fishermen, to meeting with the local governing body, to visiting the schools and talking to the kids about sharks. Hopefully changing how the islanders view sharks. It's an uphill battle but worth every bump and bruise along the way. Cat is such an amazing place, and we want to help keep it that way. The only way to do it is to get our asses back out there and make it work.. I will be reporting from Cat weekly once we are there, with stills, and video. I will try to give you all daily shark reports on what kind of sharks we see, and so on. So more on that later.
So I made it!!! I finally arrived at issue 25, a goal I have been shooting for, for a long time. I have big plans for this issue, I am going to dedicate a page to the making of this issue, mostly with behind the scenes videos, old photos and so on - Most will be talks about the history of SDM and what this journey has been for me. When I came out with the very first issue of SDM, some of the very first words I remember hearing were, "lets see if they are around for a year?" The guy who said that did not know that those were the exact words I needed to hear, because that just put fire in my soul - and when things got really tough, and I should of just cut my losses and called it quits, I remembered those words. So I refused to quit, because the nay-sayers expected me too - I just dug deeper, and I kept rolling and banging along.
I am so glad I did.
Me with our premier issue at the printers. February 2003. This is an old pic, I was still wearing a watch back then. Quit wearing them years ago.
So keep checking back throughout April, May and June as I prepare to create and cut together what I hope is the best and most exciting magazine known to man! I know it will be the very best issue we have ever created but the goal is go beyond your expectations and create a magazine that you will keep rereading because it is just that cool. I promise you when you open up the first few pages of 25 you will be surprised and hopefully your first words when you see it will be... WOW!
MARCH 9, 2011 It has been quiet I know, sorry about that. I have been so busy knocking out issue 24 that I just have not had time to update the website. As of right now I am cutting the final story for the mag, then it will be putting the issue together and knocking out the finishing touches on the issue, before it goes out for print. I know this one has been long over due, but it is finally at its last stages of being done. I am pretty excited about a last minute story I was able to include in this issue, which is a story about a longfin mako encounter! Yes thats right, you heard me, the elusive and hard to find dream shark has finally been photographed. And the crazy thing is that this was a natural encounter, not a chummed experience, which makes the encounter ever sweeter. My excitement is being able to publish these images which are the first ever of a free swimming longfin in the world. It just does not get any better than that, except a free swimming megamouth shark coming in to say hello??? There is always some shark out there to hope for and seek out.
So anyway, just to let you know what else is on my plate, after I am finished with issue 24 and its gone, then the fun part of getting all the envelopes ready so I can ship it is next, then when that is done, I have 3 trip reports to write; sailfish, tigers, and bulls. Then I will be preparing for our 2 month long expedition (Aprial and May) to Cat Island for the oceanic white tip season with EPIC diving. It was awesome - late last night I got a text from Vinnie and Debbie, my partners in this adventure checking if I was up. They were down in Florida checking on our boat that is being prepped and outfitted for the adventure, and they were on fire. This boat is a shooters dream! It is set up for diving and is really a luxury boat with plenty of deck space for cameras, it is outfitted with a camera underneath the boat so we will know when a shark shows up. 32 inch flat screen, surround sound, a nice dive deck, dive door, super nice tank benches, plenty of shade, tuna tower to shoot arieals, and so on. Its the nicest day boat they have ever seen. Like I said its a shooters dream. And this is going to be what we will be taking people out in for the oceanic season. Man I hope you can join us. Its going to be amazing. Ok, so much work to do, so I am going to get back to it.
FEBRUARY 11, 2011 I am back from a quick trip to Tiger beach. So far January has been an amazing month filled with adventure. Thankfully, I have a 2 month break before I hit the road again. So I will use the time to knock out SDM projects, from mag work, web work, and cataloging footage from our film shoot in Mexico; to preparations for our summer long Cat Island project with EPIC Diving. So it is going to be a busy 2 months.
So far this has been an interesting week, I had a quick 2 minute long apperance on CNN to discuss a rise in shark attacks around the world. They wanted my opinion on unprovoked attacks and I had to say really quickly that I do not believe there is such a thing as an unprovoked attack, because I believe everytime there is a shark accident it is our fault. We provoke their natural hunting instincts by doing something that attract their attention, and its as easy as sitting on a surf board, swimming, wading, and so on. Sharks investigate these things because that is how they hunt. Now don't misquote me and say that I said, sharks are hunting for humans. I do not believe that for a second, but they are seeking out specific signals; like watching for turtles coming up for a breath of air, or birds splashing at the surface, which could mean they are feeding on baitfish, or a dying animal struggling and gasping for its last breaths at the surface. So they are always on alert for these kind of sounds, and images, and when we enter the water, we can easily mimic these same sounds and signals, and it can cause a shark to come in to investigate. And since sharks often mouth the things they investigate, trouble soon follows.
Remember the ocean is not a swimming pool. It is as alive as a rainforest, or an african jungle, and we all need to respect the ocean and all the creatures that call the ocean home. And considering that humans spend so much time in the water, numbering in the millions globally, and sharks accidentally injure so very few of us, it is a credit to these animals and more proof that they have no interest in humans as a prey item.
Just an FYI, I have 2 trip reports coming up soon. I am writing a report on our last sailfish expedition off of Isla Mujeres, Mexico, and a tiger beach trip report. that I will be writing up very soon. Both trips were just amazing with insane action and I am pretty excited about the write ups. They are going to be fun reports with amazing images from some of SDM's top shooters.
