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SDM JOURNAL FOR...

July 2, 2008
The calm before the storm. The first batch of mags have arrived and preparations are being made to get them packaged, labeled, and pushed out the door, and into your hands. I always enjoy the feedback I get from our readers regarding the new issues we print. It is always fun when people love what you do, and then let you know they love it. Publishing 18 mags still blows me away. I can't f'ing believe I have published that many magazines, and still many more to go. The ultimate goal, is to be saying this when our 100th issue comes out. That is when I will put a picture of me on the cover, all fired up, with a beer in my hand. Ok maybe its a bit much, but you get the idea.

As a company and as adventurers, we have done a lot in 6 years. We have been to so many places, and met so many people. From the legends in the shark world, to celebs, to more importantly; hanging out and going diving with many of you, our readers. That is the coolest experience ever. Our slogan is 'Livin' the Dream!' and I have been truly living a dream, and I have all of you, our readers to thank for that. I know that maybe I sound like a broken record sometimes, but its all true... thanks.

So anyway back to the new issue, I am already packaging the mag and getting it ready to ship, as well as adding the web pages that go with the mag, so if the blog goes dead for a few days you all will know why.

I am also prepping for our 1st reader trip of the season. Only 12 more days till we depart for Holbox! The whale sharks are calling.

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June 26, 2008
I talked to Rusty Armstrong today about our movie Summer of the Sharks. We are at the tail end of the movie, I mean it is pretty much done - maybe 97% done. We nailed the story. It has drama, a shit load of shark action, and it keeps moving all the time. It never stops. At our test screenings we have had people walk out of there saying they want to go shark diving. That is awesome, because that was my goal for this film, I wanted for people to fall in love with sharks and this sport. People will protect what they love, if they don't love them, then they don't care whether they live or die.

Tomorrow I go to Rusty's office to sit with him and go over the final edits of this film. Now we are going over it with a fine tooth comb to make it as perfect as we can. We still have over a month till we need to submit to Sundance Film Festival. The biggest and hardest film festival to get into. Yup thats right we are submitting our movie to Sundance. Lets hope they are fired up about a shark movie.

Our first official movie poster

Until then we are doing everything we need to do to make it awesome. I said before we are changing the industry, not only with our publication, but with our films, and after seeing our first film alomost finished, I stand by my words. I can honestly say there has never been a shark film made like this! I know I am biased but the feed back so far from non-shark divers has been overwhelmingly good, and I know Shark Divers are going to love it.

I have already revamped the film page and made Rusty commit to a movie trailer deadline... July 9th is the official debut of our official movie trailer. He was wanting to wait till August but I made him commit to a closer date, becuase I wanted a trailer online for you all to see.

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June 25, 2008
I spent the day working out all the details for our upcoming Holbox Island, whale shark reader trips. Holbox is a must for every serious Shark Diver... A must! The largest aggregation of whale sharks in the world! On one of the coolest Island settings. Totally laid back. No cars, no banks. Just sandy streets, golf carts for vehicles, and some real good food. This ain't an infomercial - you don't have to go with me, not what I am saying. What I am saying is you need to go! Before it goes mainstream and this island life is lost to corprate America.

This year we are trying something different, along with the whale sharks, we are going to hitch a ride to see the sharks from the air. I got to do this last year, and it is a must for everyone. I loved the shit out of it... Hell the plane ride alone was unreal, let alone seeing the sharks. So basically one of the days will be spent like this; in the morning we will be swimming with the sharks, get back, clean up, then climb on this little plane and head out for a gnarly afternoon, flying adventure.

Holbox sunset

One of the best segments in our movie 'Summer of the Sharks' is when we visit Holbox. Just seeing those big sharks, and seeing them from the air is amazing. With this life I lead as editor of SDM, I often have moments where I am pinching myself, just to make sure I am not dreaming. I do that everytime I visit Holbox. I know that sounds kind stupid, but its true.

Mexico has always done that for me. I have always felt a sort of freedom, that I do not feel when I am in the States, can't really explain what it is, I just love the country. And no I don't feel like I going home, because of my roots. There is just something about that place that feels so FREE! Like if watches and clocks don't really exist here, or shoes and shirts are really optional. Not sure, but I can't wait to go back.

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June 24, 2008
The mag is gone! Issue 18 is finally off to the printers to get printed... talk about a crazy gnarly time trying to get the mag out. But I did and now I have a few days to relax before the craziness of mailing magazines happens. Of course now I have to add the web pages to go along with the magazine, but I have a few days before I have to get to that. For right now, I am going to relax, and catch up on my blogging work, and returning emails, as I have gotten behind on that.

I'll start that tomorrow, emailing that is. I sent out a few emails today, but I still have another 40 that need answering. So lets see what needs updating, well I guess I can talk about the mag and what this issue feels like. This issue is going to be different than what you all have seen from me in the past. A few interesting articles that I think will spur some controversy. Plus a first look at our Summer of the Sharks ad poster. It is a work in progress, but you will notice it right away. And finally here is a sneek peak at the next issues cover. Its low res, so the colors are not sharp

Its funny how the more mags I do, the more anal I get. I am always pushing myself to come out with a better and better issue. When I first started working on this issue, I thought -oh man, this one is going to suck, and not that the stories were going to suck, but the overall theme and feel of this issue was. Because I really did not have any direction or plan for this issue. I normally have a pretty good idea about what I am going to do with each issue, but issue 18 was one that I sort of overlooked and did not think about much. I was so into planning issue 19, that I mentally kind of forgot about this issue.

But once I picked the cover (its a new cover boy, Tom Burns) I really got into it. Right after that, the pacing and the story ideas for layouts just started flowing, and it all came together well.

About our cover boy. Tom has written articles for us before, he was our first featured Hardcore Shark Diver for issue 12. He had sent me a blue shark article a few issues back, and I did not print it for two reasons, first was because I had just published a blue shark article, and the second was because I saw a potential cover in there as well. So I had to space it out. Tom just thought I did not like his story so he gave it up for dead. He sent me another article with images from an aquarium dive that he did in Florida. I sent him an email regreting to inform him that I was not going to publish that article, because yet again, I had already had an aquarium article ready to go in the upcoming issue. I did report though that I was instead going to publish his blue shark article, with one of his shots as the cover. Here is his reply email to me;

Hi Eli-

Awesome!! That really rocks! I am so stoked to have a cover on your mag. And I am totally honored as well. Thanks man! I'll dust off the article and get it back to you soon. In the meantime, I will toast more than a few brews to you. This is great shit.

Thanks!!
Tom

This is why I continue to do what I do... you all get me fired up, and I love every second of everyday that I get to do this for a living! Thanks for all your emails, keep sending them. And thank you again for sharing this crazy adventure with me, and for taking the time to read my blogs. I am looking forward to getting the new mag in your hands and to bonding with all of you even more.

One more crazy Idea!
I am going to try something crazy for our 20th issue (See I am already planning ahead of the 19th). When our 20th issue comes out, I am going to set a date and time for all our readers to get together in a giant toasting of beers. No matter where you live, or where you are; at a certain time, on a certain date - on a Saturday night. I will ask you all to hoist whatever your drinking, your beer, or soda in the air and give a "CHEERS to SDM for our 20th issue! Long live the sharks!" Hopefully you will do this knowing that many of our other SDM readers are doing the very same thing, at the very same time where ever they live... All of us - Brothers from different Mothers

"Take care of yourselves, and take care of someone else!"
-George Carlin. (he will be missed)

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June 12, 2008
Sorry another couple of days off to finish up the next issue. Life gets crazier for us here at SDM. From our movie, to TV projects, to our beloved magazine (which started all the craziness for us) to our upcoming reader shark diving season. I will skip all the boring stuff and just say, its busy.

Speaking of TV projects, its time to report on my last Nat Geo shoot. I went to Florida to help them film bull sharks for one of their TV productions, which was a lot of fun for me. Because I was able to do more than just film underwater or safety dive for their cameramen. I helped pick out the boat operator who would take us out to find the sharks, as well as get some on camera time to talk shark.

We ended up having my good friend John Dickson take us out to find bulls, and find them we did. John is an avid spear fishermen, and in Florida, to attract sharks all you need is a speargun, and the sharks come running. It was awesome. The shark tally for this shoot was a half a dozen bull sharks, a couple of big duskies, one great hammerhead, and a nurse shark.

We filmed at my buddy Dean's dive shop - Pura Vida Divers. We had to film the dive shop dog!

This was my first real shark dive in Florida. I mean I have dove with Caribbean reef sharks there before, but it was nothing like this. The bulls and duskies are pretty aggressive with the spear fishermen and it up'd the level of intensity for the shoot. The footage should be really good because they shot it using the big HD cameras. I would of shown my u/w still shots from the shoot, but they turned out bad. My setting were wrong for the depth and vis, which means I have to go back to get it right!

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I also got to hang out with my good friends, Andy Mitchell, and ABC. Both are full time shooters for Nat Geo. and a lot of fun to hang out with. We have become really good friends, and don't get to hang much do to work schedules, so when we do, its always a good time. The producer for the shoot rented a beach house in Juno Beach, which was really nice, and a cool place to spend a few days.

The house was cluttered with camera gear and diver gear.

Andy Mitchell, he had just flown in from a 2 week shoot in Belize for whale sharks

Me with the wildman- ABC, if you have not heard his great white shark song, you need to... its a catchy tune. Check out this video from somewhere in Africa!

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June 9, 2008
Sorry for the long wait between blogs. I took some time to do a family trip before the busy shark season begins this summer. Much has happened over the past few days. Such craziness in the shark world. Rumors are surfacing that sharks are purposly targeting humans in Mexico. Of course the only people who have gotten bit are surfers... shit when will people get it! Surface swimmers, and surfers will always- always be potential prey for sharks.

Image courtesy of WildCoast. These posters were posted in Mexico after the accidents.

Here is the reason; In the ocean nothing naturally floats, the only things that ever float in the ocean is a potential meal. It could possibly mean that a fish is either dead or dying, or a turtle coming up for air, or a seal. And these are all meals for big sharks; tigers, bulls, whites, all hunt by stalking prey from below. Hiding in the shadows seeking out turtles and seals that are unaware of any dangers lurking below. All that jazz. A guy sitting on a surf board out in the ocean looks like a potential meal. So a hungry shark in the area will almost always investigate it. And when that happens bite and spit is the norm.

People need to remember, the ocean is not a swimming pool, it is alive and full of life.

Our Movie
This past weekend we had a private screening of our movie, 'Summer of the Sharks.' Our Director, Rusty Armstrong screened it for a group of non-shark divers to see what they thought of it, and it was a thumbs up across the board. They all loved it. Rusty had given them pen and paper to make notes on things they did not like, or did not understand, or where to make changes. Everyone said it was awesome, don't change a thing. A few minor things here and there, but over all, they said the show was awesome. They even clapped at the end of it. So that was a great way to begin the week. I know shark divers are going to love it, there is so much shark action to keep all shark divers lusting over grabbing their gear and hitting the water... Lots of action. It was the non-SDs, I was worried about.

Me filming tigers in the Bahamas. Tiger do love to bump cameras.

We still have a few more screenings and refinements to go before we are 100% happy with it. We have already began the audio and color corrections. But the movie will be done and submitted to all major Film Festivals by this August. We will be screening it on our upcoming shark trips as well, so if your going with us, you'll get to see the movie before the official release.

Tomorrow blog... how the latest Nat Geo TV shoot went...

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June 2, 2008
I am at the airport on my way home from our bull shark shoot. Was having trouble logging on to the web, so I couldn't update the day to day activities. However, I am not really sure how much info I would be able to blog, as the producer kept us pretty busy. The shoot was fast, and the diving was amazing. Unfortunately we were only able to spend one day in the water, but my buddy John came through for us and took us out to some great spots, where we had duskies, bulls, and a fly bye by both a great hammerhead and a nurse shark. I wish I had more time to dive these spots because these are some very sharky spots... About to board the plane so more about the trip later.

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