Jamie Brisbin's Wanderlust

Life Aboard the Odyssey

2009-03-12T15:35:00.003-04:00

My time aboard the Odyssey:

After thawing myself out after returning from Ohio, I found myself packing up for one last international journey. This time I was on my way to spend a month in Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia working as a crewmember aboard the M/V Odyssey, a world-class live-aboard specialising in the wrecks of Truk Lagoon. Chuuk is the smallest of the four island states that make up the Federated States of Micronesia (formerly known as the Caroline Islands). Originally a German colony, control over the lagoon was turned over to the Japanese after world war one. During the Second World War the Japanese turned the small group of islands into a seemingly impenetrable fortress, using it as a staging point for almost all of the Empire’s naval activity in the Pacific.

On February 17-18, 1944 an American naval task force launched an attack on the lagoon, sinking over 50 ships and destroying 270 Japanese aircraft, turning Chuuk into the Mecca of wreck diving. Divers flock to Chuuk to see the largest and one of the most well-preserved and accessible collections of world war two era shipwrecks in the world. As one of the premier live-aboard vessels in the world, the Odyssey is one the most popular diving operations in Chuuk.

I was fortunate enough to meet Cliff Horton and Lenny Kolczynski and Cara Leonard of the Odyssey at DEMA in October. They invited me to spend some time with them to gain some practical experience working on a live-aboard. Captain Lenny and Todd Emmons, the second captain and dive instructor picked me up from the airport and after running a few errands brought me on board the boat that was to be my home for the next 28 days. Life on board the Odyssey could be tiring, difficult and hectic, but ultimately rewarding and exciting and extremely educational. Lenny, Todd, Mike, Madison, Ken, Kent, Sam, Jesse, Mika, Nelson, Emeren, Kermi and everyone else I worked with onboard were incredibly enthusiastic and friendly when it came to teaching me about boats, diving, running a business and the history and culture of Chuuk. Right off the plane I was learning about generators, water makers, marine diesels, compressors and boosters, moorings and almost every other aspect of owning, operating and maintaining a diving vessel. I also began my education in the fascinating history and disposition of some of Chuuk’s most popular wrecks.

The wrecks in Chuuk are beyond belief. Diving them is probably the closest thing to time travel I will ever experience. These ships were sunk in the heat of battle and it’s still obvious. The decks and wheelhouses are littered with artefacts. Deep within the holds and engine rooms, gauges, machinery and tools lie as if their previous owners had just stopped in the middle of a job and walked away. It’s especially eerie to be working on the engines or compressors aboard the Odyssey, then go diving and see some of the exact same equipment down below the surface in the wrecks.

My experience was immersive, intense and immensely enjoyable. For the next three weeks I tagged along on guided dives, trying to memorize as much of the gargantuan wrecks’ layouts as possible, repaired moorings, became a compressor and blending pro and met some very fun and interesting guests. However, My fourth week on the Odyssey would be my true test. Todd would be taking a week off from most of his duties while friends and family came to visit, and it would be up to me to fill the gaps. With only three weeks under my belt as a member of the crew, I was a little nervous about giving dive briefings and assuming responsibility for entire groups of divers, but with some friendly pointers from Todd and help from the rest of the crew I think I managed to get through my final week onboard without mishap.

Although I’m very excited about being able to spend the next month of my scholarship in the land down under, it was hard to leave Chuuk behind. The people I met, and the things I learned there will hopefully stay with me for a very long time!

A few Chuuk pics

2009-03-11T05:40:00.002-04:00

A few pictures from my time on the Odyssey, keep checking back for more entries about my experiences there! Click here for the complete album.

East Coast Image Gallery

2009-03-11T00:55:00.006-04:00

Now that I'm back in a part of the world that has the internet, I've begun the process of catching up with my blogging. Expect a rapid series of updates over the next few days. To start out with I've created album with some pictures from my road trip up the east coast. Click here to view all of the images full size.

East Coast Road Trip

2009-02-03T04:43:00.001-05:00

Before taking off for Chuuk, I decided to squeeze in a little jaunt up the east coast before I left the country again. The trip wasn’t directly related to the scholarship. It started off with my friend Alix’s wedding which I had been invited to months ago, but until recently hadn’t committed to attending. Once I had decided that I didn’t want to miss the wedding, and would be driving up from Virginia for it, a whole weeklong adventure seemed to spontaneously coalesce around the trip. Slowly but surely new pieces began to fall into place. One of my best friends that’s been living in Beijing for almost year decided to come back for a visit to Philadelphia at the end of January. Another friend who flies for Continental Airlines was transferred to Newark, NJ. I also had a professor and several friends on Long Island who I couldn’t imagine not taking some time to see after having driven 5 hours up there.

By the time I hit I-95 I had a pretty good plan drawn up in my mind as to how I was going to squeeze the absolute life out of the week, and I have to say that it went far better than I ever could have planned. I watched Masters of the Universe and erged at Vesper with Delux in Philly. I got really lost and drank amazing milkshakes of death with Andrew in New Jersey. I went to B & H, the worst surf shop in the world (no wetsuits or boards, really? I'll give you a hint, it was near times square and started with a 'Q') and some awesome bars with Matty in New York. At the insistence of the father of the bride, my friends and I ate too much, had a little too much to drink and even cut a little rug at the wedding (congratulations Alix & Brad!!!). I made some very tangible progress towards solid plans for my immediate future with Dr. P, caught some wicked waves and even managed to squeeze in a chill session in Hudz basement before heading south. It was a week of weeks.

Also: I'm now in Chuuk, and will be here until the middle of March. I only have internet on weekends and very limited bandwidth, so unfortunately this blog is now text only until further notice!

Chillin Out in Ohio!

2009-01-20T14:23:00.004-05:00

After taking a fun and relaxing winter break with family and friends I am back on the road for 2009! My first stop in 2009 was Port Clinton, Ohio. That's right... Ohio in the middle of January! I spent a little over a week there with Patrix Heschel, completing my PADI Instructor Development Course and going Ice Diving. Rod and Jenny Althaus from New Wave Snorkel & Scuba Center in Port Clinton were gracious enough to host Patrix and I for the IDC. Patrix and I worked our butts off keeping warm and getting through all the classroom material so that we could go ice diving at the end of the week.

After a week of sub-zero temperatures (Fahrenheit, not Celsius!) we had plenty of iced-over bodies of water to choose from. Patrix, Dave Gwin (another New Wave instructor) and I headed over to Gibsonburg, Ohio to dive in the White Star Quarry. Our chainsaw refused to start so we used heavy steel spud bars to break a large triangular opening in the 5 inch thick ice. The water in the quarry was 35 degrees and crystal clear. Visibility was easily in excess of 100 feet and the dim light that filtered down through the ice and snow gave the dive an incredibly beautiful and surrealist feel to it. I want to thank Patrix, his family, Rod, Jenny and Dave for making my trip to Ohio so much fun. It was a great learning experience and I really enjoyed the challenge of learning to safely dive under ice.

Sunset in Port Clinton

NorCal

2009-01-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

After spending a fun and delicious thanksgiving with the Bozanics, I began preparations to leave Southern California. The holiday season isn’t the easiest time to go diving, let alone be a guest in someone else’s home, but I spent most of December further up the coast in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Monterey. My first stop was San Francisco, where I stayed with Sara Shoemaker-Lind. Since being the North American scholar from 1997, Sara has been working above and below sea level as a highly successful photographer. Although we didn’t make it underwater this time around, we had a terrific time exploring San Francisco through photography. Photography has always been intriguing to me, but up till this year, I had never really seized upon an opportunity to explore it. Sara and I really lucked out on the weather and made trips to the Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field, the brand new and fantastic California Academy of Sciences and her show, A Mermaid’s View at the San Mateo Public Library. Sara and her husband Kevin also took me to several Christmas parties, including one being held by the Northern California chapter of The Explorer’s Club. I had a great time learning all about photography and managing media from Sara, and it was a lot of fun hanging out with her, Kevin and Remy!

Although I was leaving the Shoemaker-Linds in San Francisco, my next stop was with the Shoemakers in Aptos, CA! Sara’s parents, Wells and Sandie had graciously invited me to stay in the guesthouse of their home and winery, Salamandre Wine Cellars, while I was visiting Monterey and Santa Cruz. Venturing a little further south from Aptos I was lucky enough to spend two days with Gil, Justin and George at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I had never been to Monterey before, but I had heard from a number of different people how great it was. Gil Falcone, the diving safety officer, and Justin and George, two other divers from the aquarium were more than happy to show me around the aquarium and take me diving in the kelp forest tank. Although the aquarium doesn’t currently have a white shark in its huge outer bay tank, there are still hammerhead and Galapagos sharks so the divers working in that tank have to wear chain mail and work in coordinated teams. Maybe next time I’ll have a chance to dive in that tank.

By this time I had booked tickets to head back to DC on the 17^th, so I didn’t have too much time left in California, but before I left I wanted to visit last year’s North American scholar, Brenna Mahoney. Brenna is currently working towards her PhD at UC Santa Cruz and was nice enough to take a day to show me around Long Marine Station in Santa Cruz. It was nice to see some of the work going on there, and interesting to see what Brenna’s been up to since finishing up her term last April.

I spent my last few days in California with Sara, Kevin and Remy. December might not have been the warmest or most exciting time to visit Northern California, but I still met a lot of really interesting people and had a fantastic time. It was a really nice way to wrap up the 2008 portion of my scholarship.

November 2008

2008-12-01T14:38:00.001-05:00

My official journal entry for the month of November, also shortly available at OWUSS:

Fresh from the excitement of DEMA, Steve, Eline and I arrived at Jeff Bozanic’s house in Huntington Beach ready to begin our rebreather course. Jeff and his family are a great bunch, and very hospitable, so we were not the only guests staying with them after DEMA. Joining our class was a diver from Norway, Magne. Two of Jeff’s friends, Barry and Celia from South Africa would also be with us for a few days. Last year’s scholars had unanimously voted their rebreather with course as one of their top experiences, and by the first day I could see why. Jeff is a fantastic teacher and his course was fascinating and incredibly challenging. After working non-stop for three days we were ready to get in the water!

Even though the water was just the shallow end of the pool in Jeff’s backyard, we were all extremely excited. Magne and I drove up to Oxnard to pick up our Inspiration and Evolution rebreathers from Richard Graff, owner of Xtreme Scuba. Returning to Huntington Beach we were joined by Ian Martin, Jeff’s assistant instructor, who would be helping Jeff keep an eye on us in the water. We spent most of the next two days underwater in Jeff’s pool, struggling to master our buoyancy, minimum loop volume and a myriad of emergency drills. I think that all four of us were doing well, but when the time came for our first open water dive, I know I was a little nervous.

Early on Friday we loaded up Jeff and Ian’s cars and headed down to San Pedro to board the Psalty V, captained by Gary Jackson and his trusty canine first mate, K.O. We’d be spending the next three days on the Psalty, diving off of Catalina Island. Switching to closed circuit diving was definitely the toughest challenge I’ve faced in diving, but having Jeff and Ian right there to offer assistance, criticism and support as needed was great. Our rebreather course was an incredibly intense and whirlwind experience, but thanks to Jeff and Ian I feel very comfortable as a beginning rebreather diver.

photo: Elaine Jobin

By the time our course ended and we said goodbye to Ian and Magne, Steve and Eline were getting ready to leave the U.S. as well. Before they left we made one last trip together to visit DUI in San Diego. We were only there for the day, but it was more than enough time to meet with owners Dick & Susan Long, and to receive an in-depth tour from Faith Ortins! It was really fascinating to see how all of the different DUI suits are put together, and to see how much effort goes into making each one. We were also treated to lunch at one of the most incredible Mexican restaurants I’d ever been to.

After Steve and Eline left California I decided to stick around for a while. I was having a great time with the Bozanics. Jeff and I spent some time working on a new edition of his book on rebreather diving, and we took his son Evan on his first few open water dives in Shaw’s Cove, one of my favourite dive sites from when I lived in LA. On the way home from one these dives Jeff asked me if I was interested in doing a little more rebreather diving. I said that I’d love to get a little more experience under my belt, so he suggested I tag along on his next business trip to Hawai’i!

Jeff was heading to Hawai’i to meet with his business partner Harry Donenfeld and evaluate a new piece of diving equipment being developed in Hawai’i. Because of an NDA I can’t really explain what that product was, but it was definitely the kind of thing that James Bond packs up when he goes diving. We spent almost a week exploring Maui with Harry and diving the windward side with the crew from North Shore Explorers. It was my first time in Hawai’i and was blown away by the islands’ rugged beauty. The diving was awesome and Jeff, Harry and I had a great time with all the guys and gals from North Shore Explorers. After our week on Maui, Jeff headed home, while I travelled to O’ahu to meet up with Katie Laing, the 1993 North American scholar.

Katie’s originally from North Carolina but now lives on the North Shore of O’ahu. She works for a marine environmental consulting firm that’s currently involved in evaluating plans for a beach nourishment project in Waikiki. Katie was a great host and besides getting to tag along to a few meetings on the beach nourishment issue I got a weeklong immersion in life on the North Shore. It’s not known as the seven-mile-miracle for nothing, and even though the waves weren’t really ‘on’ by local standards, I still managed to get out for some mind-blowing surf sessions. After spending two weeks in Hawai’i with Harry and Katie I was pretty sure I’d found my new favourite place, but it was time to pack up my dive bag and head back to California for Thanksgiving with the Bozanics.

Aloha!!!

Visiting DUI

2008-11-25T21:09:00.003-05:00

Before Steven and Eline left the United States, we all took a little road trip down the coast to visit DUI in San Diego. For those of you unfamiliar with the world of diving, this doesn't mean we're in any kind of trouble (Rolex Scholars are more responsible than that!). DUI stands for Diving Unlimited International. DUI started out as a wetsuit manufacturer and local dive store and is now one of the largest and most reputable drysuit manufacturers in the world. The company specialises in drysuits for military, commercial and recreational diving and is an important supporter of the scholarship.

After meeting with Susan Long, president of DUI, her father Dick and Faith Ortins took Steve, Eline and I on a tour of the DUI factory and then out for a delicious Mexican lunch. Every suit is made by hand, and it was impressive to see how much work is put into making sure that every order is completely up to snuff. We also got to see one of the special hot water suits DUI made for the US Navy divers involved in operation Ivy Bells in the 1970's. This was a series of top secret missions where a number of nuclear submarines, including the USS Parche were modified to be used as saturation diving support vessels. These submarines would 'land' on the floor of the Sea of Okhotsk and lock out Navy divers who planted wire taps on a secret Soviet communications cable.

It was really fun to meet Dick and Susan Long and to see exactly what goes into every DUI suit, especially since I love mine so much! The people who build these suits really believe that the effort and extra quality they put into them helps the divers that use their suits accomplish tremendous things, and they're right!

Aloha From Maui!

2008-11-19T00:36:00.008-05:00

Jeff and I have been in Hawai'i for the past four days working on a project that Jeff was hired as a consultant on. When he asked me if I wanted to come with him last week I didn't think I'd be able to do it, but flights were dirt cheap and I couldn't say no. At this point I can't really discuss the project in public due to an NDA but hopefully sometime in the future I'll be able to go into it further because it is incredibly cool.

At any rate we arrived in Honolulu on the 15th and met one of our gracious hosts and Jeff's business partner, Harry Donenfeld. Harry is an awesome guy and we had a blast hanging out with him during our stay in Hawai'i. Not only did he put us up in his home on Maui and go to great lengths to share his favourite parts of Hawai'i with us but he's just a fantastic, high energy personality and a lot of fun to dive and hang out with. We spent our first night on the North Shore of O'ahu with one of Jeff's former students, Nick. Nick is a really nice guy and interesting character and I could probably write an entire bog entry or two on him alone. He's definitely got a taste for adventure and is an avid helicopter pilot, kite boarder, big wave surfer, rebreather diver and amateur film maker among other things. It would be an understatement to say that our accommodations were 'plush' and we had a very nice dinner that night at the Turtle Bay Resort with Harry and Katie Laing, the 1993 Rolex Scholar.

The next morning Harry Jeff and I set off for Maui where we would be meeting up with Jeff's client and working with a local dive operation, North Shore Explorers. Todd, Liz, Chris and the rest of the gang at North Shore Explorers have a sweet operation running, and took care of all of our diving needs during our stay. The jewel in the crown of NSE is the Pailolo, a converted US Navy rigid hull inflatable powered by two 300 horsepower diesel jet drives. Although one of the engines was having maintenance issues during our visit the Pailolo is apparently a beast when she's up and running and this allows NSE to run trips to spots and under conditions that would usually be impossible for run-of-the-mill cattle boat operators to handle.

The four days we spent in Maui were absolutely jam packed with amazing diving, people, food and exploration. Harry, Todd, Chris, Liz, John and everyone else made sure that we kept busy and had an awesome time. It was also a privilege (and a lot of fun) to get to help Jeff out with his work (we did do a little...). After a quick last minute dive with some turtles on the leeward side of the island Jeff and I set off for O'ahu, where Jeff will be catching a flight back to California but I'll have a few more days to hang out and explore with Katie Laing.

The Bozanics

2008-11-14T21:18:00.003-05:00

Since the end of our rebreather course I've been staying with Jeff, Rebekah, Evan, John Aaron and Taleah Bozanic in Huntington Beach, CA. They've been incredible hosts, and I've an amazing time diving, playing and generally acting like a member of the family. They even took me out to dinner for my birthday and got me an awesome cake with a little scuba diver on it. Jeff and I are leaving for Hawai'i tomorrow to work on a project with one of Jeff's partner's Harry Donenfeld.

Harry and Jeff have been working on a few interesting projects of late that I might be able to write about in more detail a little bit later on, but I wanted to post a video they have on youtube that I think is pretty cool. It starts Jeff's seven year old son, John Aaron.

Rebreathers!

2008-11-02T14:06:00.002-05:00

The most exciting opportunity to arise at DEMA was an invitation for all three scholars to join a rebreather class being taught by Jeff Bozanic. Jeff has an incredibly varied and interesting background in science and in diving, and a talk he gave at the LA County Natural History Museum that I attended while a junior at USC was a major factor in inspiring me to take up diving. Jeff has been a strong supporter of the scholarship for a very long time, and quite a few former scholars have said that this course was the highlight of their scholarship year.

Jeff

Jeff's courses are also known for their intensity and thoroughness. With less than a day to recover from DEMA madness, Magne (one of Jeff's students from Norway), Steve, Eline and I arrived at Jeff's house excited and a little nervous to begin what would be the most challenging week of diving any of us had ever gone through. After picking up the units we would be using from the course from Richard Graff of Xtreme Scuba, the first few days were focused completely on lectures regarding the history, physics, physiology, design and practice of diving rebreathers.

The three scholars hard at work

All of us would be learning to use an Evolution, Inspiration Classic and an Inspiration Vision, all three of which are electronically controlled close circuit rebreathers (eCCRs). This means that they have a fully closed breathing loop, complete with a suite of sensors that monitor the oxygen levels inside the loop. If the controller detects low levels of oxygen within the loop, a solenoid will fire, injecting oxygen into the loop. This type of rebreather is usually flown 'fully automatic' meaning that the diver allows the computer to control the partial pressure of oxygen. However, we would be learning to fly the rebreathers completely manually, using the electronics purely as a backup. If any of that is unclear, and you want a little help understanding it, read this. If you really want to know how a rebreather works, you should read Jeff's book, Mastering Rebreathers. If you are at all interested in diving technology or rebreathers it's a must-read. If you can't be bothered to read either, know that a rebreather differs from SCUBA in that it recycles the air the diver breathes by removing CO2 via a chemical 'scrubber' and periodically replacing the oxygen that the diver metabolizes. When used properly it can offer vast benefits in decompression obligation and gas consumption. In technical diving rebreathers can sometimes be used to complete dives that would be impossible on open circuit due to gas consumption.

Cookie-check, Rolex-check, problem sets-check

After completing the first few days of our training, we were really excited to be getting in the water and trying out our units. On Thursday we met our assistant instructor, Ian Martin, and spent most of the day in Jeff's pool, working on emergency drills, managing our PO2 and our buoyancy. On Friday we headed down to San Pedro and boarded the Psalty V, captained by Gary Jackson and his dog, KO. We were also joined by Jeff's friend and partner, Elaine Jobin, who was there to photograph the trip and join in on the fun. Jeff, Ian, Magne, Eline, Steve, Gary, Elaine and I would spend the next three days on the Psalty V completing the class and diving all over Catalina.

Karl checking up on us

Learning to dive rebreathers can be difficult and dangerous at best, especially when your students are a trio of young divers who have just enough experience under their belts that they're beginning to think they know what they're doing underwater, so Ian and Jeff approached every open water dive with extreme caution and careful planning. Rebreather diving is very different than open circuit; it requires extreme focus and concentration at all times. The dives were really exciting and fun, but very challenging. Ian and Jeff didn't hesitate to throw every emergency or problem imaginable at us at any time, often several simultaneously. On top of all of this we were expected to constantly monitor and maintain our set points without any assistance from our electronics. It was frustrating at times, but Jeff and Ian are fantastic teachers, and by the last few dives of the course we were beginning to feel like real divers again.

Bailing out

After the week was over, I definitely understood why so many scholars had spoken so glowingly about Jeff and his courses. Jeff and his family were wonderful to us during our stay at his house. They truly made us feel like members of the family. Gary and KO were also terrific hosts, the food, diving and accommodations on the Psalty V were absolutely top-notch. One of the coolest parts of the week was going to spots I'd dove on dozens of times before and seeing them in a completely new light thanks to the lack of noisy bubbles from our rebreathers. We also had a chance to see some old friends on the island including T-bird and Karl and check out the Two Harbors' haunted house! Best of all, each of us encountered and overcame some significant obstacles during our training, and I know that we all really improved as divers. If anyone is feeling extra generous around Christmas-time, a rebreather is now definitely holding down the top spot on my list.

DEMA

2008-10-27T21:05:00.004-04:00

It's difficult to describe what DEMA is like for people who have never been there or who aren't intimately involved with the diving industry. It's a frighteningly massive mix between a trade show, family reunion, high pressure sales pitch and non-stop party. It's a place to meet up with old friends, meet new ones, make plans for the future and experience Las Vegas (kind of creepy actually).

Besides Robin getting run over by a crazy lady in a golf cart (get well soon!!!) everything else was fantastic. I met a lot of new people and have some awesome new plans in the works for the rest of my year, I got to see my man Wes Skiles win a NOGI, OWUSS had a reception that I thought went terrifically and the other scholars and I had a great time at all the different parties and receptions, usually the guests of the ever-gracious Dan and Betty Orr! All of the OWUSS gang had plenty of chances to hang out and have fun as well.

More from Catalina

2008-10-16T13:29:00.003-04:00

Catalina has continued to be awesome. We've been to Avalon for some diving and mini-golf, done plenty of chamber ops, helped build a haunted house and much more. We had a chance to visit middle ranch and Catalina Conservancy and found some time to play in waves over in Shark Harbor too.

Karl has been a fantastic host and we've gotten a lot of great kelp forest diving under our belts as well. My friends Jen, Anna and Ali even came back to the island and hung out for a few days. The past two weeks have been a terrific reminder of why this is one of my favorite places in the world, and I'm glad I had a chance to share it with Steve and Eline.

Baywatch!

2008-10-15T01:10:00.007-04:00

Steve, Eline and I got to spend the afternoon with Baywatch yesterday! After spending the morning diving with Karl we met up for lunch with Kevin and Joel, two members of the Two Harbors Baywatch team. Baywatch is a part of LA County's lifeguard corps, which was recently incorporated into the Fire Department. Catalina has one Baywatch team in Two Harbors and another in Avalon. Not only are they responsible for looking after anyone who gets in trouble on or in the water, but as the only paramedics on the Island they get called in on anything that happens on land as well. Needless to say these guys stay busy.

After a quick lunch Kevin and Joel invited us to come check out the infamous Baywatch boat. The boat itself is deceptively small. Although its probably not much more than 25 feet long, it's packed to the gills with communication equipment, fire-fighting and rescue gear and medical supplies, not to mention two massive supercharged diesels that can easily push the boat to over 30 knots. Kevin and Joel took us out on a great tour of the West End and even let us try out the fire pump mounted on the front of the boat. We were a little disappointed at first that The Hoff wasn't around, but Kevin and Joel were much cooler anyways. Thanks guys!

Homecoming

2008-10-11T22:39:00.007-04:00

Egypt was hard to leave behind, literally. After seven hours on a bus, 18 on planes and a few lengthy lay-overs I was finally able to collapse into my own bed. I had a few days to catch up on sleep, capture some video, do some laundry and pack up for my trip to the west coast. On October 2nd I caught a flight into Long Beach. After spending a three days with some relatives in Southern California I met up with Karl Huggins and Eline at the Long Beach Aquarium. Eric, the assistant DSO took us diving in several of the larger tanks and gave us a quick look at some the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. I'd been to the aquarium before, but they've added some really impressive leafy and weedy sea dragons to their collection since the last time I was there.

Steve's New Hoopty

After our visit to the aquarium Karl and I had the pleasure of introducing Eline to the magic that is Trader Joe's while shopping for supplies for our time on Catalina. The next morning we met up in San Pedro and caught a boat out to the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. I spent a semester here in 2007, studying marine science, learning to dive and volunteering at the hyperbaric chamber and was really excited to be returning to the island. Karl, who's the director of the hyperbaric chamber, was the one who originally introduced me to the scholarship and suggested that I apply, so I really have him to thank for all of this. I was also able to reunite with plenty of old friends from the island.

Two Harbors, CA

Steve came down from British Columbia and joined us on Friday and since then we've been hiking, kayaking, diving and learning about the hyperbaric chamber. Every year the chamber hosts a 'wash-down party' where a group of volunteers get together for a weekend of serious cleaning and maintenance. Steve, Eline and I joined a few other volunteers inside the chamber where we were compressed to 165 fsw and tested the chamber's fire suppression system. Obviously it's important to make sure the fire sprinklers and hoses are working properly, but at 165 feet the narcosis turns the whole operation into a bit more of a drunken water fight. It's great to be back in California!

Ras Mohamed

2008-09-24T13:52:00.009-04:00

After leaving Dahab, Steve and I returned to Sharm to spend a few more days with Debbie at Blue Eye. With the help of Debbie and some of her employees (Paul, Rachel and Sam) we spent our last few days in Egypt cramming as much underwater video knowledge into our little heads as we possibly could. Not only did we work on our filming, but we did it at some of the best dive sites on the planet. We had been diving from the Straights of Tiran to Sharm and up to Dahab, but we still hadn't made it to Ras Mohamed.

Ras Mohamed is one of Egypt's first national parks. About 20 minutes south of Sharm El Sheikh, its sits on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. To the west lies the Gulf of Suez; to the east, the Gulf of Aqaba. The junction of these two portions of the Red Sea and the extreme depth of the water immediately off of the shore means that the life, especially the amount of large, pelagic fish is extraordinary. Most people board large day boats in Sharm and get to do two or three dives. In my opinion, that's one of the worst ways to dive Ras Mohamed. Rent a jeep, throw some tanks in the back and if you can avoid the land-mines left in the park from the Six-Day War with Israel (stick to the roads), you'll have the best spots all to yourself, for a quarter of the price.

Everyday Steve, Debbie, Sam and myself sat down, scripted out what we wanted to shoot that day, drove out to Ras Mohamed, picked a spot, dove, shot, came home, edited our short films, reviewed them, and got ready to do it all over again the next day. The improvement in our underwater video skills was incredible, and the diving was fantastic. Shark Reef was holding steady as my favourite dive site in the park until our last day of diving. Sam and his friend Mark Doherty surprised us by taking us to a spot that no dive boat leaving from Sharm will ever take you to. It was a little deeper and further from shore than most divers go, but it was absolutely worth it. Mark took some excellent pictures for Steve and I that I've included here as a slideshow (please respect his ownership of the images).

I think it's always best to end on a high note, and the dive was a great way to wind up our time in Egypt. I have to thank Debbie for being such an awesome host. Besides putting a roof over our head and food in our mouths she always made sure that Steve and I were having a great time and learning as much as we could about video. I also want to thank Paul, Rachel, Sam and everyone else at Blue Eye for taking us under their wing and letting us tag along. Everyone was super friendly and so eager to share all their best tips and tricks. Thanks Guys!

The Golden Emperor

2008-09-20T22:51:00.009-04:00

The Golden Emperor

I've been in Egypt for almost 10 days now, and so far it's been incredible. I spent my first few days with Debbie Metcalfe, owner of Blue Eye FX in Sharm El Sheikh. The world freediving championships were just ending as I arrived in Egypt, and Debbie had been contracted to provide all the television coverage of the event, so I was able to tag along for some of that. After a few days, Steve travelled up from Hurghada to join me in Dahab where we were set to join a live-aboard for a week. Our friends Lars and Dave from Red Sea Safaris had arranged for us to live on the Golden Emperor for a week, diving up and down the Gulf of Aqaba and assist one of Debbie's cameramen, Paul, with filming some promotional material.

Steve filming a bait ball on a night dive

We drove up to Dahab from Sharm, boarded the boat, and were pleasantly surprised to find that our friend from the One Ocean Dive Center, Tronde Jarle was a passenger on the boat as well. The next week was filled with new friends, plenty of filming, and absolutely stunning diving. Not only were we able to visit the Blue Hole and The Canyon in Dahab, but we were able to get to a lot of sites that can only be accessed by boat. The reefs were incredibly healthy, and the fish life was amazing. Steve and I had a great time diving with Paul and helping film the trip and we really learned a lot about shooting and editing underwater video from him. Steve and I got on really well with the crew and our fellow divers, and we're sad to leave Dahab, but we know we've still got some great diving ahead of us before we leave Egypt.

Shark Bait

2008-09-10T06:50:00.004-04:00

While staying with our friend in Denmark, Steve, Eline and I had a unique opportunity to visit and dive at an aquarium, shark center and dive resort, the Kattegatcentret. The Kattegatcentret is unique in that it's probably the only dive center in the world that offers confined water dives in an aquarium. Not only did we have an opportunity to check out Denmark's natural marine fauna exhibited in the aquarium, but we were able to jump into a tank filled to the brim with huge sharks.

The shark tank is huge, over 550,000 liters, and contains Zebra, Wobbegong, Nurse, Sand Tiger, Sand Bar, Lemon, Reef Sharks, huge rays and all sorts of fish, eels, and smaller sharks. Once a year, divers are permitted to dive into the tank with a cage, but we had special permission to dive without a cage. It wasn't the first time I had been in the water with sharks, but I had never been in the water with so many, or with any nearly as large as this. The largest sharks at the Kattegatcentret are definitely over 2 meters in length. The aquarium was really well done, and the sharks were incredibly beautiful. I have to give Lars and Teddy a huge thank you for arranging the experience for us, it was fantastic!

Eline, Steve, Jamie, Teddy & Lars

The Greatest Beer in the World

2008-09-07T20:28:00.003-04:00

Before I depart Europe for Egypt, I've been staying with Steve and Eline at a friend's house in Denmark. While visiting a friend in Copenhagen I had a remarkable beer experience I thought I'd share with everyone.

A few years ago, my friend Alan and I read about a type of beer called Westvleteren. Westvleteren is an ale from Belgium, brewed by Trappist monks inside the Abbey of Saint Sixtus near Ypres, Belgium. Besides being extremely rare, Westvleteren ales have long been considered by beer connoisseurs to be some of the, if not the finest beer in the world. At the time, Alan's sister was studying in Paris, and we nearly convinced her to drive to the Westvleteren Abbey in Belgium and purchase a case for us (Westvleteren can only be purchased one case a month per person, at the Abbey and only with a reservation!). Alas, our plan never came to fruition and I thought that neither of us would have a chance to try Westvleteren ever again. Luckily I was wrong.

Some friends and I were in a bar in Copenhagen that supposedly has been ranked very highly internationally as a beer bar. I was talking about Trappist ales with the proprietor when he mentioned that he happened to have a very hard to find bottle of Westvleteren 8 ale. Although it was obviously a little more expensive than a pint of PBR, I couldn't say no. It was definitely one of the best beers I've ever tasted, full of body and flavor. The only thing that would have improved the experience would have been to have Alan there to share it with. We'll just have to go on a road-trip to Westvleteren!

August Journal Entry

2008-09-03T17:00:00.008-04:00

A quick look back at the month of August:

August 1^stwas a date I had been looking forward to ever since the beginning of my scholarship. On July 31^st I left my parent’s house in Washington DC and boarded a flight to Copenhagen. I arrived the next morning, met last year’s European scholar Igor Valente at the airport, and traveled together to 2Dive in Copenhagen. Igor, Eline, 2005 European scholar Vibe and myself were guests of Flemming Thyge, the owner of 2Dive and a pro trainer for the International Association for Handicapped Divers (IAHD) in Scandinavia. All of this year’s scholars, as well as any previous scholars who wanted to come had been invited to participate in an IAHD Pro training course at 2Dive. Flemming, his assistant instructor Sole Victor, and another instructor, Daniel Zuidema from the Netherlands would be teaching us how to provide safe diving experiences for handicapped divers. Steve, who was traveling to Europe from Indonesia, would be unable to meet up with us for the IAHD course but would be joining us for the remainder of our time together in Scandinavia. The course took three days and went very smoothly. We learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and had an opportunity to give some handicapped people a chance to try diving for the first time, which was quite exciting. Flemming, Sole and Daniel were great hosts and I’m very glad I had a chance to meet and spend time with them.

On August 4^th Igor and Vibe departed for home and Eline and I met Steve at the airport and traveled north by train to the town of Helsingør. After spending a little time getting lost in the rain, we met up with Christian Rasmussen of Fotodyk.dk for a PADI underwater photo course. Christian not only went through the basics of underwater photography with us but also took a little time to show us around his hometown and introduce us to some traditional Danish food. While in Helsingør we had planned on doing a little wreck diving with Christian and Kjell Evensen from Master Dive, but unfortunately the weather was not cooperating, so we had to settle for a short pool dive and some beer and Thai food.

With our time in Denmark drawing to a close (for now) Eline, Steve and I prepared to travel north into Norway. We would be spending a week at the One Ocean Dive Center with Carlo Golfetto in Kristiansand, diving on some of its famous wrecks and working on an article about our experiences with Christian Skauge, the Editor of the Norwegian magazine Dykking. Carlo went so far as to pick us up from our overnight train at 4 am and put us up in his own apartment. The diving was fantastic and we had a great time with Carlo, Christian and Carlo’s divemaster, Trond Jarle Repvik. We even got to spend an evening wakeboarding in a nearby Fjord. Carlo was an excellent host, and it was the first time I had been on a dive boat where all the guests were served endless amounts of delicious pasta, fish soup and espresso!

We were sad to leave the great friends we had made in Kristiansand, but not even that could keep us from being excited about our next stop: Reykjavík! Diving in Iceland was something all three of us had expressed a strong interest in doing during our first meeting in New York in April, and now we were actually doing it. We went into our week in Iceland with very high expectations, and we were not disappointed one bit. Without even considering the hospitality and enthusiasm of our hosts, Tobias Klose and Louis Kotze from Dive.is, the trendiness and excitement of Reykjavík and the rugged beauty of the Icelandic landscape, diving in Iceland was an experience that affected me in an almost spiritual way. Traveling to ϸingvellir and diving into the crevices at Silfra was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Silfra’s beauty, above and below the water, is compounded by the purity of its freezing water and its geologic and historical significance. I’m fairly certain I’ll never find another place that compares to Silfra as long as I am diving, so I really feel privileged to have been invited there by Tobias.

After having a chance to dive in Silfra, we had another unique opportunity to visit the founder of Dive.is, Tommy Knutsson. Tommy has moved on from running Dive.is to work full time with an environmental group he started, the Blue Army. It began as a project to pull dumped batteries out of his local dive site and has grown into a widespread campaign to promote recycling, energy efficiency and environmentalism across Iceland. Although the people of Iceland have been blessed with an incredibly pristine and unique environment, it is not one immune to abuse and it was good to visit with Tommy and the Blue Army and see some of the great projects they are working on.

Just as Eline, Steve and I were falling totally in love with Iceland, and were convinced that there was no way it could get any better than this, Tobias played his ace in-the-hole. Louis, Eline, Steve and I drove 6 hours from Reykjavík to the north coast of Iceland to see the Strytans. These are a series of geothermal chimneys discovered on the bottom of a fjord in 1996. The largest rises over 55 meters from the seabed, spewing hot mineral rich water into the freezing arctic water of the fjord. The chimneys are not only fantastic and unique in a geological sense, but the life they draw is equally incredible. Huge schools of Cod and Coalfish black out the sun, making a torch a necessary piece of equipment while diving the Strytans. Not only were we staying in a farmhouse beside an incredibly beautiful fjord on the edge of the Arctic Circle, diving on one of the most unique geologic formations on Earth, but we also got to do it with the man who discovered the chimneys, Erlendur. Erlendur and his friend Siggi were fantastic guys and great divers, and you could tell they were very excited to share the Strytans with us. Siggi even invited us to come diving off of his boat later that evening. Knowing that it would be our last chance to dive in Iceland, we drove North to Olafsfjorður and headed out to dive one of his favorite spots, a kelp forest that lay below the tallest cliffs in Iceland (over 600 meters high). The dive was just incredible and it was an excellent way to conclude our diving in Iceland.

After promising ourselves that one week was not nearly enough time to spend in Iceland, and that we would all be coming back next year, Steve, Eline and I set off for Göteborg, Sweden. We were met at the airport by Johan Enqvist a partner and co-founder of Oxygène Diving. After going to lunch and taking a quick tour of Oxygène Göteborg, Johan drove us up the coast to Lysekil, where we would be spending a few days diving with Daniel and Susanne Dahlströhm, managers of Oxygène Lysekil. Johan had said that what exactly we would be doing there was going to be a surprise and something that could only be done almost exclusively at Oxygène Lysekil. None of us were able to unravel the mystery, but when we finally arrived we were excited to learn that we were going to be trained to pilot ‘dragons’. Originally used to search large areas of the sea floor for mines, unexploded ordinance, etc. dragons are basically a diver driven sled towed behind a boat, complete with a canopy, stabilizing tail fins and two wings used by to pilot to turn, ascend, descend or spin the dragon. Over the next few days we had a great time with Daniel and the rest of the Lysekil staff learning to fly the dragons and exploring Lysekil. Not only was dragon diving a blast but the people working at Oxygène Lysekil are a fun and close knit group, and we spent our ‘down-time’ exploring the rocks and caves that surround Lysekil, going boating, on cookouts and having a great time with the people we met there.

After leaving Lysekil, the three of us had a chance to visit Poseidon Diving Systems in Göteborg. We got a personalized tour of the facility from Jörgen Nilsson and by pure chance got an opportunity to test out a prototype of the new Cis-Lunar MK. 6 Discovery rebreather. Jörgen had thought that there wouldn’t be a unit available for our visit, but the design manager happened to be demonstrating a unit for a distributor so Eline, Steve and I became the first non-Poseidon divers to test the new unit. Although we were a little disappointed we didn’t get to take a MK. 6 home with us, we had a great time at Poseidon.

At this point our threesome split up for a few days. Steve headed north to Oslo, while Eline and I traveled to the Baltic coast of Sweden to visit Fred Hocker at the Vasamuseum in Stockholm. Although Stockholm and the Vasamuseum were great fun and incredibly interesting, it was the kind of place that I would have liked to spent a longer and more in-depth time visiting. The Vasa was a warship commissioned by the king of Sweden in 1624 and eventually sunk in Stockholm Harbor. Its story spans hundreds of years, and although I’m a total amateur when it comes to archaeology, the work performed by Fred and others that’s on display at the Vasamuseum is fascinating. I know that Delia spent a long time working with Fred at the Vasamuseum and I can certainly understand why.

After chilling out for a few days with Flemming again in Copenhagen for a few days, Eline and I were happily reunited with Steve and headed south to meet up with our Scandinavian coordinator Lars Kirkegaard and Jesper Østergaard from the Stevns Dykker Skole. Were there to take an IANTD wreck diving course. The course was a first for me in that there were five students and six instructors! Besides having a chance to learn about wreck and technical diving from a variety of different viewpoints, Eline, Steve and I got to go wreck diving in the Baltic with a group of safe, fun and totally awesome Danish wreck divers. We were able to make several reconnaissance and penetration dives on the wrecks of the Vapper and the Minos as well as try out some scooters.

Although it sometimes seems like August has flown by, when I stop to think about all the incredible experiences we’ve had in Scandinavia, I realize that we did A LOT this month, and we’re not finished yet! The best part is that whenever we were short on sleep or dreading getting onto another train or bus, we were still more stoked than ever to put a tank on our backs and jump into the water.

Stevns Dykker Skole

2008-09-01T16:57:00.005-04:00

We wrapped up our month of Scandinavian travel with a long weekend of wreck diving with Jesper Østergaard, owner of the Stevns Dykker Skole in Rødvig. Our Scandinavian coordinator, Lars Stenholt Kirkegaard joined Steve, Eline, myself and another diver as students in an IANTD wreck diving course. The conditions in the Baltic can be similar to those in the Great Lakes, cold, deep and fresh, and the centuries of maritime trade and warfare in the region mean that there are tens of thousands of wrecks in excellent condition, many still waiting to be discovered. Although Jesper and our other instructors have been exploring and diving these wrecks their entire lives, we didn’t set out to do anything groundbreaking or unprecedented. Our goals for the weekend were to examine the special considerations one must make when diving in overhead environments, and to practice some of these new skills on two well-known yet excellent local wrecks, the Vapper and the Minos.

We were blessed with amazing weather, and everyone had a blast zipping around on RIBs and trying out the new scooters that Jesper and his friends had just bought. Having so many experienced and enthusiastic instructors along meant we were always learning, and the lectures were almost as much fun as the diving. I'm really grateful to Jesper for inviting us into his home and showing us a little piece of the incredible wreck diving that the Baltic has to offer! It was the perfect way to end our time in Denmark.

A Glimpse into the Past

2008-08-28T04:51:00.003-04:00

While Steve took a few days on his own in Oslo, Eline and I set off for Stockholm to visit with Fred Hocker, Research Manager at the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is an incredible ship. Commisioned by the King of Sweden in 1624, it was one of the largest and most heavily armed ship of its day. It also had the extreme misfortune of sinking in 1628 before ever making it out of Stockholm harbor. It sat on the bottom of the harbor, lost but not totally forgotten for hundreds of years before being brought to the surface intact in 1961. Preserved in incredible condition by a combination of brackish water and anoxic muds, she now is the centerpiece of a massive maritime museum in downtown Stockholm. Our host, Fred Hocker, is a busy guy, but we were still able to get a thorough tour, including a close look at all the research and preservation activity going on beyond the view of the public.

The museum and the ship is absolutely terrific, but what really fascinated me were all the connections and insights into 17th century Europe that have been made by the archeological work being done on the Vasa and its associated artifacts. Restoration of the ship and all the objects and corpses found with the wreck has really yielded an incredible wealth of information about that age. Stockholm itself is a really fun city to visit, but no trip there is complete without a stop at the Vasa Museum.

Bubble Free Is The Way To Be

2008-08-27T04:49:00.003-04:00

Steve, Eline and I had a chance to stop by Poseidon Diving Systems today in Göteborg. Jörgen Nilsson took us on a tour of their facility, which included meeting the design manager for the new Poseidon/Cis-Lunar Mk 6 Discovery rebreather. We were also incredibly fortunate enough to take a prototype of the unit for a quick dive in the pool. Although none of us had dove a rebreather before, we were all very impressed with the size, simplicity and safety features in the Discovery's design. I can't post any pictures of out experience on the web, but the units begin to ship in September, so keep your eyes open! And if anyone feels like giving me a €5,000 (VAT included) christmas present, a new Discovery would be great!

Just Breathe...

2008-08-25T04:48:00.003-04:00

I think that after diving in Iceland, I was worried I had peaked too soon in my year, and that the rest of my experiences would struggle to live up to the diving we had done and the people we met there. I didn't have anything to worry about. Johan Enqvist, one of the founders of Oxygène International picked us up from the airport and took Steve, Eline and I out to lunch and on a quick tour of Göteborg before driving us up the coast to Lysekil. We knew that we were going to spend a few days diving at an Oxygène dive center there, but Johan had kept exactly what we would be up to a secret. Upon our arrival we were very excited to learn that we were about to become trained as 'Dragon' pilots!

'Dragon' is a rough translation from a Swedish word that can also mean 'kite' (but dragon is cooler) and is the name given to a type of diver-piloted sled. Two sleds are towed behind a boat and are steered by pilots over the seabed or along an underwater wall. They were originally used by military divers to search large areas for mines and unexploded ordinance, but are now being used in a more recreational role in Lysekil and a few other spots in Sweden. We had a fantastic time over the next few days learning how to dive, steer, spin and bail out of our dragons from our host and instructor Daniel Dahlström. By the end of the week all three of us managed to complete our training as underwater pilots, and we only crashed one dragon!

Of course, a description of our time in Lysekil would not be complete if I just talked about the diving we did there. Daniel and his wife Susanne invited us into their home and their dive center, and made sure our time in Lysekil was memorable. The staff at Oxygène Lysekil is a terrific group of people and we made a lot of friends during our stay. When we weren't diving we were out rock climbing, caving, barbecuing or just partying. Daniel, Susanne, Andreas, Flexz, Lars, Johann, Malin, Johanna, Edvin and everyone else at Oxygène Lysekil are a really cool group of people. I'm already looking forward to visiting them again!

IAHD Videos Posted

2008-08-22T11:45:00.001-04:00

Our host from København, Flemming Thyge just published the video he produced of our visit with him from the beginning of the month. Just a fun little look at what the OWUSS scholars were up to in København.

Part 1

Part 2

Farewell to Iceland

2008-08-21T16:39:00.012-04:00

Steve, Eline and I have finally been forced to depart Iceland, and have arrived safely in Göteborg, Sweden. Although we're excited to be visiting Sweden and hanging out with Johan and Delia, leaving Iceland was probably one of the harder things we've had to do this month. I think that all three of us would agree that a week was nowhere near long enough a stay, and I'd be very surprised if this was the last time I travelled to Iceland.

As previously reported, we were greeted at Keflavík by our awesome host Tobias Klose, owner of DIVE.IS and driven into Reykjavík where we would stay for our first few days in Iceland. The next morning we were picked up by Louis Kotze, our divemaster to head over to ϸingvellir. Louis is 23, from Namibia, and is finishing up his first season working as a divemaster in Iceland. We didn't know it then, but Louis would become a close friend of ours, and share in all of our Icelandic adventures. Generally regarded as Iceland's most important and popular national park because of its role as the earliest European parliament (930 AD), we were drawn by ϸingvellir's unique and incredible geology. The entire park is essentially a large rift valley sandwiched between ϸingvallavatn, Iceland's largest natural lake, and a dormant shield volcano, Skjaldbreiður and the glacier Langjökull.

ϸingvallavatn

The mid-atlantic ridge, the crack in the Earth's crust where the Eurasian and North American plates are separating, rises up above the ocean and passes directly through Iceland. The separation of the two plates is literally tearing apart the earth and has created ϸingvellir. The geology and flow of groundwater is something that's being carefully studied and debated but water that froze and became part of Langjökull over a thousand years ago melts and travels through the porous volcanic rock of the dormant volcano Skjaldbreiður at depths of 5-8 kilometers below the earth. After a journey of 50 years through the volcanic crust, this water emerges out of springs inside ϸingvellir, incredibly pure, and a bone chilling 2 degrees. Diving is permitted only in one of the spring systems, Silfra (Silver Lady in Icelandic). The water is shockingly cold, the view, above and below the water is so crystal clear and stunningly beautiful that it can be difficult to distinguish up from down, and we quickly learned that the best way to clear your snorkel is not to blow the water out, but simply to drink from it until you can breathe through it again. Diving in Silfra was an intense and incredible experience, and its hard to imagine diving anywhere more beautiful.

Silfra

During our time in Reykjavik, we also had a chance to meet with Tómas Knútsson, the founder of dive.is who has since moved on to founding and leading his own environmental movement in Iceland, the Blái Herinn (Blue Army). Tommy was a really interesting guy to meet, and we had some good discussions about his views on environmentalism, youth and public opinion on the environment, and his own personal campaign for various environmental causes within Iceland. As a diver, he began the Blue Army as a project to clean up batteries from cars and boats that were being dumped in the ocean, but has broadened his efforts to a number of issues facing Iceland. He was a very inspirational guy, and I think he really made the other scholars and myself reaffirm our environmental convictions. We also took some time to visit Geysir and the waterfall Gullfoss with Louis before leaving Reykjavik for the north.

Gullfoss

Besides a short battle with a flat tire, we spent most of the 7 hour journey to Hauganes staring out the windows with our jaws on the floormats. I've probably mentioned it several times already, but I'll do so again; Iceland is incredibly beautiful and mysterious. We were there to dive on the Strýtans, a series of geothermal chimneys discovered in 70 meters of water on the bottom of Eyjafjörður on the northern coast of Iceland. We were also lucky enough to be joined by the commercial and scientific diver who had discovered the chimey, Erlendur, and another local diver, Siggi.

Me, Eline, Erlendur (legendary), Steve and Lois

Although the visibility wasn't fantastic, we were able to remove our gloves in the 12 degree water and warm our hands in the 75 degree water flowing out of the vents. We also caught some beautiful cod and coalfish that proved to be delicious! On our last night in the north, we drove half an hour to Olafsfjörður for our last dive in Iceland. Siggi took us out on his boat to dive on a kelp forest. We also came upon a sperm whale which had died and washed up nearby. Although it was almost 10pm by the time we made our way back to the dock, the sun was just beginning to set, and I think that all of us were really stuck by the beauty surrounding us, and how lucky we were to be traveling and diving in such an incredible place with such awesome people.

Icelandic Sunset

We were able to squeeze in one last evening free-diving trip to Silfra with Louis before our flight back to Göteborg. I'm confident that we'll make more friends like Tobias and Louis during our travels, but all three of us had knots in our stomachs as we boarded our flight to Sweden. With any luck this won't have been the last time we visit Iceland.

Iceland Addendum

2008-08-21T12:10:00.002-04:00

I wanted to add a few more iceland pictures I really like here and make sure that Steve gets proper credit for his awesome photography. Everything here and above was taken by him, with the exception of my picture of Gullfoss (someone buy me a DSLR please!) I tried not to steal his thunder, so if you want to see the best stuff, keep checking his blog for his upcoming Iceland post.

Reykjavík!

2008-08-13T17:54:00.005-04:00

Silfra Cathedral ⓒ Peter Rowlands, PR Productions

I'm happy to report that the three of us have made it to Reykjavík! We were met at the airport in Keflavík by our host Tobias from Dive.is who drove us into Reykjavík. All three of us have been looking forward to this part of our trip for a long time, and so far we have not been disappointed at all. Reykjavik is a beautiful and unique place, and the apartment we're staying at is incredible.

Tomorrow Tobias is taking us diving at Silfra in Thingvellir National Park. The water is cold (35-39°F) but the visibility is incredible (150 meters+). Not only is the water pure, clean, drinkable glacial melt, but we will be diving in the crack in the earth's crust that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. Later in the week we'll head north to dive in the ocean at Strýtan. Divers recently discovered hydrothermal vents there, almost identical to the ones found along mid-ocean ridges. As far as I know this is the only place in the world where these type of vents are shallow enough to dive with SCUBA. When we're not underwater we'll be visiting glaciers, doing some whale watching and meeting with some local scientists and environmentalists.

Leaving Norway

2008-08-12T12:50:00.003-04:00

Steve, Carlo, Eline and I on the Once Ocean boat

Eline Steve and I have begun to make our way back to København to catch our flight to Reykjavik. We've spent the last week as guests of Carlo Golfetto and Trond Jarle Repvik at One Ocean Dive Center in Kristiansand, Norway (Check it out on Facebook and YouTube). The three of us stayed at Carlo's apartment in Kristiansand and spent most of our week diving and wakeboarding. Kristiansand is famous for its incredible wrecks, especially that of the M/S Seattle, and diving along the steep walls of the fjord was beautiful. The water was surprisingly warm (almost 60°F at the surface) and the visibility was usually excellent once you dropped below the thermocline.

Carlo was an incredible host, and One Ocean was a great place to dive. He always made sure we had plenty of espresso and fresh cooked pasta or fish soup between dives, and the dive center was setup with great showers, changing rooms and compressors. Trond Jarle took us wakeboarding and was a great guy to dive with as well. We also had the pleasure of diving with Christian Skauge of Dykking magazine, who's writing a story about the scholarship. All three of us had an excellent time, and it was hard to leave.

We're not too broken up thought because our next stop is Reykjavik! I should also take a second to direct you to Steve Lindfield's photos and blog. I've been remiss in not mentioning his sites before now. He's an excellent photographer, check out his stuff.

Norwegians Know How To Do Jesus Camp

2008-08-07T16:55:00.003-04:00

One Ocean Dive Center is inside a camp ground which is being used for a huge religious camp this week. Apparently Norwegians have a different take on the whole Jesus camp thing. These kids were getting some serious air.

We begin our Scandinavian Odyssey...

2008-08-03T17:14:00.012-04:00

Steve, Eline and I have been so busy, and have been having such a good time that I've hardly had time to sleep, let alone update my blog, but I'll try to share what we've been up to during our first week. I departed from Washington DC at 7:30 pm after a few hours delay, made my connection at Schipol in the Netherlands and arrived in København at 10 am on August 1st. Luckily for me, Igor, the European Scholar from last year was arriving at the same time so we were able to meet up and make our way to our hotel together. He had been to København twice before, so he knew the easiest ways to get around.

We had come to København as guests of Flemming Thyge (pronounced 'two') and IAHD, the International Association for Handicapped Divers. Steve wouldn't arrive from Indonesia for a few days but Eline, Igor, Vibe (European '03) and I got to take part in a special training session to be qualified to work as instructors and divemasters with handicapped divers. We worked for several days with Flemming and two other IAHD members, Daniel Zuidema and Sole Viktor. The whole process ended with a try-dive experience for three new handicapped divers at a local rehabilitation center. Flemming really went out of his way to invite all of the OWUS scholars, past and present, opened his home and his dive center to us, and worked hard to make the weekend a huge success. He also arranged for us to meet Peter Symes, editor of X-Ray Magazine. It's an online diving magazine, available for free, with a lot of great stuff, definitely worth checking out. IAHD is a relatively new organization, but we were all very impressed with Flemming, Daniel and Sole, and their aims as an organization. Hopefully we'll all have opportunities to use our new abilities to help handicapped divers in the future.

After our last night in København we said goodbye to Igor and Vibe and Flemming took us to meet Steve at the airport, where we caught a Train up to Helsingør. We spent two days with Christian Rasmussen from fotodyk and Kjell Evensen, owner of Master Dive in Helsingør. Christian is an excellent photographer, both above and below the waves, and he and Kjell hosted us during our stay in Helsingør and took incredible care of us. Even though the weather was too stormy for any offshore diving, we got through the entire photo course and got to practice in the pool. Steve, Eline and I are all of varying skill levels when it comes to photography, but we all learned a lot, and the class got all of us even more excited about improving our photography and videography skills.

Our next stop was the One Ocean Dive Center in Kristiansand, Norway. Our journey yesterday encompassed riding in/on a taxi, a ferry, a bus and a train, passing through three different countries (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) and all within 24 hours (barely). Amazingly, our host Carlo was there to meet our 4 am train and take us to the apartment he is lending us during our week long stay here. After a few quick hours of sleep this morning he picked us back up and took us diving! Our first dive was on Kristiansand's most famous wreck, the M/S Seattle. It's a German cargo ship laying upright at an angle with her stern lying in 25 meters of water and her bow bottoming out at 75 meters. Obviously we couldn't explore the entire wreck on this first dive. Even if we had the training to access the deepest part of the wreck, it's far too large to explore in one dive. We didn't unpack the underwater housings for this first dive, but one of the local divers has posted some pretty good video on youtube:

So far our trip has been fantastic. Every host we've had has been so thrilled to be a part of the scholarship, and we've learned so much, and met a lot of incredible people and divers. The best part is that we still have a month to go before we leave!

July Journal Entry

2008-08-03T15:33:00.005-04:00

July was another incredible month filled with great people and outstanding diving. July 1^st found me wrapping up my cavern and intro cave diving certifications with Jill Heinerth in High Springs, FL. I had met Jill at Beneath the Sea in New Jersey, but upon my arrival in High Springs, Wes Skiles arranged for me to join one of Jill’s rebreather cave courses (on open circuit) for the first few days in order to start my cave training. Jill was a terrific instructor, and I was totally hypnotized by the beauty of Florida’s karst systems. Once I had completed my certification, Wes invited me to accompany some of his divers on a project near Tallahassee. Wes’ business partner Pete Butts took me along with Tom Morris and Mark Long to Mariana, FL to collect data and water samples from several springs and caves in Merritt’s Pond. Pete, Tom and Mark also brought me along on a project in Silver Springs, a cave system that is usually illegal to dive in. Since we were working on a contract for the state we were given special permission to dive into Silver Spring to measure the output of the spring. Historically the spring has averaged 500 million gallons per day, making it the largest spring in North America by output volume.

Between working on projects with the boys from Karst Environmental I spent several weeks shooting pictures, surfing, diving, and exploring the springs of Florida with Wes and his family. They were incredibly hospitable and it was difficult for me to leave them behind.

The Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City was my next stop after leaving High Springs. I met up with JR Hott, who took me on a terrific full-day tour of the EDU. We began by observing a series of dives that were being conducted in the Navy’s wet chamber for dive table evaluation. I had a chance to see all of the chambers and facilities on the base, meet divers and scientists, and get an inside look at some of the work that’s going on at the EDU. I also got to visit Mike Ward at Dive Lab, an R&D facility that’s associated with Kirby Morgan and develops specialized equipment for military and special warfare divers. Mike and one of the other Dive Lab employees, Rocky, gave me a personalized tour that culminated in the opportunity to test dive a prototype Kirby Morgan MK 77 surface supplied diving helmet. It was my first hands-on introduction to surface supplied diving.

After visiting Panama City, I was on my way back up to North Carolina to visit DAN in Durham. I had a chance to meet back up with my friends Eric, Donna, Bryan, Ken, Dan and Betty, as well as go through a number of DAN instructor courses. I also met up with Kim Malkoski, the Boston Rover Scalli Scholar. Both of us had volunteered to participate in a flying after diving at the Duke University hyperbaric chambers. The PI for the study was Dr. Neal Pollock, who has been examining the risks associated with flying after hyperbaric exposures. It was a great way to see how physiological research concerning diving is being conducted today. Eric, Donna and Dan and Betty Orr were all very gracious hosts and opened their homes to me during my time in Durham. I’m looking forward to seeing all of them again at DEMA.

I ended my month with a few days at home, unpacking and recovering from my trip through the southeast US and preparing to leave for Europe. Only August first I’ll begin my trip to Europe with a course in København!

Subject 585

2008-07-28T11:13:00.001-04:00

Right now I'm taking a break from packing to get one final entry off before I leave for Europe. My flight for Copenhagen leaves in five hours! I had an awesome time at DAN in Durham last week. One of their head trainers, Patty put me through a super-intense DAN instructor boot camp. I also had a chance to take part in a medical study at Duke University as a volunteer subject. The PI for the study is Dr. Neal Pollock, and he's examining the risks involved with flying after diving. The test subjects were placed in a chamber and completed a simulated 60 foot no-d dive and then went back into an altitude chamber for a simulated flight. Any formation of bubbles within subjects' hearts or pulmonary arteries are monitored the entire time using doppler and trans-thoracic echocardiogram. It was really interesting to see first hand how this type of physiological science is performed.

I also had a great time hanging out and partying with everyone at DAN. Donna, Eric, Scott and especially Dan and Betty were incredible hosts. Hopefully I'll have a chance to get involved with some other DAN projects during my year. I've got to get back to juggling stuff around between bags, dive gear is heavy and luggage restrictions are stricter than ever! This time tomorrow I'll be from Copenhagen!

Mister Jamie

2008-07-23T19:42:00.002-04:00

I'v been in Durham, NC visiting DAN for three days. I arrived a little earlier then planned on Sunday afternoon, and got to hang out with Eric Douglas and his family until Monday. Eric has two daughters, one of whom is also named Jamie (Jamison), so of course, I soon became 'Mr. Jamie'. The Douglases are also the proud new owners of a totally awesome trampoline. It didn't take much convincing to get me on it.

Monday and Tuesday I stayed at Donna Uguccioni's house and worked with Patty Seery, going through a really fun but intense DAN instructor 'boot camp'. Yesterday, Kim Malkoski, the Scalli Intern joined us. The two of us have been working with Patty, and on Friday we'll be participating in a physiological study at Duke University with Donna. I've also just moved into the infamous 'princess room' at Dan and Betty Orr's house. So far DAN has been great!

NEDU/Dive Lab

2008-07-17T23:59:00.004-04:00

After driving up to Panama City late last night, I met up with JR Hott in the visitors' parking area of the Panama CIty Naval Support Facility. JR works in the unmanned testing & evaluation department of the experimental diving unit, and had graciously volunteered to give me a tour of the unit. After I picked up my visitors pass we headed through the base to the EDU.

The main event of the day was a series of dives being conducted for a dive table evaluation study. I wasn't allowed to bring my camera along, so I watched from the back of the control room while the divers suited up and climbed down through the chamber into the wet pot to set up their gear. The first group of divers dove to 190' for 5 minutes and the second group dove to 130' for 10 minutes. They pedaled bikes at depth and then underwent a few hours of observation after surfacing.

Besides observing the dives I was able to check out all the various labs and test facilities at the EDU, and of course, the massive series of interconnected chambers that make up the heart of the unit. The capabilities of the facility are impressive in themselves, but there's a lot of history behind the unit and Navy diving as well. I also had a chance to meet a lot of interesting divers and researchers.

In the afternoon JR took me out to visit Mike and Rocky at Dive Lab. Dive Lab is an R&D facility associated with Kirby Morgan that modifies or develops diving equipment for military divers. Besides getting an up close look at all their cool toys, and some of the special projects they're working on for the military, I had a chance to try out a prototype surface-supplied diving system, the KM 77 helmet. It was heavy, but also very shiny and impressive.

The next day JR and all his Navy buddies had to go jump out of helicopters and other fun stuff that I couldn't come along for, but the day I did get to spend at the EDU and at Dive Lab was incredible. Lots of very interesting people and things going on in both places, and I'm very thankful to JR for getting me in and showing me around. Next stop for me is DAN up in Durham, NC for a week, a few days at home, and then I'm off to Copenhagen to meet up with Eline and Steve for the European leg of my summer!

Silver Springs & My Departure From High Springs

2008-07-16T23:58:00.004-04:00

Pete, Tom and Mark from Karst Environmental invited me to tag along on one more job before I left for Panama City. We travelled about an hour south of High Springs to Silver Springs, home of the largest spring on the continent by volume. The whole 'complex' was originally a 1950's era Florida tourist operation that went bankrupt and is now owned by the state. It's an incredibly beautiful area that's actually composed of over 20 smaller springs, although only the largest, Main Spring has a real cavern and cave system associated with it.

The springs are still a major tourist draw today, but unless you have special permission from the state you can't even get in the water, let alone dive into the beautiful cavern and the tiny side-mount fissures that split off from it. I had never heard of Silver Springs before, but after hearing about how beautiful it was, and how rarely opportunities to dive it without ending up in handcuffs crop up I jumped on the chance.

The springs are beautiful, full of native and introduced life. Crocodiles are common here, and although most are smaller and non-threatening, Tom told me about a 9-footer that likes to hang out in the springs and can be a little too aggressive when encountering divers. The springs are also full of invasive Tilapia and giant tank-like armored catfish. Rhesus monkeys run free throughout the park, remnants from a Tarzan movie filmed here years ago. The mouth of the main spring is about 65 feet wide and 10 feet high. An average of 550 million gallons of water flow out of the spring every day (varying with rainfall) making this the largest spring by volume in North America. The water spewing out of the spring literally forms its own river, the Silver River.

Dodging the electric glass bottom boats that swept over our heads every 10 minutes we worked for two days setting up a carefully measured and marked metal scaffolding, and then measuring the flow of water out of the spring at about 120 points on the scaffolding. Later, Pete will be able to calculate the output of the spring and map the flow of water exiting the mouth of the spring. Not only did we get a lot of work done, but we had enough time to explore the cavern and caves, finding a whole lot of interesting trash that's been thrown into the spring, as well as several manatee ribs that could be thousands of years old. I had a great time diving and hanging out with Mark, Pete and Tom, and I was glad I got another chance to work with them before I left High Springs.

After we finished our work, I had to head back to High Springs, pack up my van, say goodbye to the Skiles and drive up to Panama City. I've been hanging out with Wes, Terry, Nate, Tess and Jaxster for almost a month, and it's been great. Driving away made me feel like I was leaving home again, but I was excited to see Panama City, and I knew that I wasn't saying goodbye to the Skiles for too long.

History Channel Shoot

2008-07-09T23:51:00.003-04:00

A film crew from the History Channel stopped by the Skiles' today to interview Jill and Wes about their near-death experiences filming 'Ice Island' in Antarctica. After interviewing them for a few hours about the dangers of diving inside caves within free-floating icebergs, we went over to Ginnie to shoot some B-roll. I took a few photos of the shoot and some of the animals along the banks of the Santa Fe river. Jill had a pretty serious ear infection, so they didn't do any actual diving, but just threw some gear on and pretended to be surfacing out of the Devil's Eye.

Spearfishing

2008-07-08T21:58:00.002-04:00

I've been at Wes Skile's place in High Springs, Florida since June 26th and I've been having a really great time so far. My first three days were spent with Jill Heinerth working on my cavern and intro to cave diving courses. I had met Jill at Beneath the Sea in New Jersey, but it was really nice to have an opportunity to learn from her and go diving with her. She's an amazing explorer, photographer and diver; check out her web-page at intotheplanet.com and her blog on rebreathers and advanced diving at rebreatherpro.com. She's a fantastic instructor, and I'm a little worried I might be hooked on cave diving after only a few short dives.

After having completed my NSS-CDS intro cave diver certification I headed up to Merrit's Mill Pond with Pete, Tom and Mark from Karst environmental. They had been contracted to place a variety of sensors into caves and springs, and invited me to tag along. Since then I've been hanging out with Wes, riding motorcycles, visiting Dive Rite, learning about photography and cooking. On Sunday Wes, Wes' son Nate, Mark and I went spearfishing, another first for me. We caught a lot of big fish and had an awesome time.

With Hurricane Bertha heading our way, we might take a few days this weekend to go surfing and hopefully after that do a little more cave diving and photography before I take off.

June Journal Entry

2008-07-05T12:09:00.000-04:00

The beginning of June found me leaving Washington, DC for Wilmington, North Carolina, where I stayed with Doug Kesling, NURC’s advanced diving technology manager. NURC stands for National Undersea Research Center, and is a component of NOAA responsible for running all of their advanced diving, ROV, and AUV projects, including the Aquarius habitat in the Florida Keys. Besides having a really cool job, Doug was also the North American Rolex Scholar in 1983, so it was really nice to start off my travels with someone who knew exactly what I was up to, how I was feeling, and the kind of things I might be interested in. Most of my time was spent working on my rescue diver certification with one of Doug’s scientific diving classes at UNCW. It was fun diving with the other students in the class, and I really enjoyed meeting some other NURC people like Scott Fowler and Glenn Michaels. Most of our skill work was done in the pool, but we moved out into open water for our last few dives, which was a lot of fun. I also really enjoyed Wilmington; it seemed like a fun place with nice people, good restaurants, music, and beaches.

I had one final cool experience lined up before I left Wilmington. Stefanie Misner (NA Scholar ’03) had arranged for me to visit the NC Cape Fear Aquarium and take a dive in their largest tank. It was really cool to see how the aquarium was run, how divers worked both behind the scenes and in the public eye, and to have a chance to learn a little about the aquatic ecosystems in that area. Stef also took me to the beach and I had a nice relaxing weekend with her and her friends.

After my week in Wilmington I was headed further down the coast towards a little town called High Springs, Florida. The average person would probably have a hard time finding High Springs on a map, but it’s a place well known to cave divers. Although I wouldn’t be doing any cave diving during this visit to High Springs, I would be visiting Ginnie Springs, a collection of freshwater springs in the High Springs area with a group of divers from Divers Alert Network. Eric Douglas and Ken Berry had invited me to work on a video shoot for a DAN training video. Officially I would be working as a grip and as an actor, but it was also a great chance for me to learn about video production both above and below water. Ken, DAN’s media manager, did a great job keeping everyone happy and on task, and the photographers, Tom Holden and Donald Tipton were both incredibly talented and friendly. Everyone working on the shoot got along really well together, and I think that despite the inclement weather we had to work with, we got a lot of good footage in the can. It was a shame that I was only able to stay with the shoot for a week, but luckily I’ll be able to meet up with almost everyone involved either during my upcoming visit to DAN or during DEMA.

After my week in High Springs I continued my journey south, all the way to the Florida Keys. I’d be spending almost two weeks at the Atlantis Dive Center, working on my divemaster certification and diving in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. After a long day of driving, I pulled into the parking lot to meet up with Captain Slate, my host and owner of the Atlantis Dive Center. Right away he asked me if I wanted to jump on a boat for a night dive on the Spiegel Grove. From that point on I spent most of my time either in the water or in the classroom with my instructor Skip, working on my divemaster. It was challenging adapting to take responsibility for other divers, but very rewarding. After I finished the DMC I took a few days to relax, practice shooting video and travel down to Key West, stopping off at the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada. Slate, and the other Atlantis divers I had a chance to hang out with were a lot of fun, and the diving was incredible. Before I arrived in the Keys I didn’t really see how a spot so close to a huge city like Miami could have beautiful reefs and such outstanding diving. Staying with Slate and working on my divemaster at Atlantis was a real treat.

On June 26^th I made my way back up to High Springs, to stay with filmmaker and photographer Wes Skiles for a while. I’m beginning my cave diving education with Jill Heinerth, and hopefully we’ll have some great adventures in the springs and caves that are so abundant in the area.

Diving History Museum

2008-06-24T20:15:00.007-04:00

The Classic... A Navy Mk. V Helmet

I stopped off at the Diving History Museum in Islamorada (mile marker 83) on my way down to Key West today. The museum itself is a modest size building on the bay side of US-1 and is adorned with a David Dunleavy mural. Although it's a small museum (even the most inquisitive guest will take less than an hour to see all the exhibits), their collection of historical and contemporary diving equipment is impressive. With artifacts ranging from ancient Greek amphorae to civil war era diving helmets to modern day helium and rebreather apparatus, this place has it all. The exhibits take visitors from the earliest mention of divers (the Epic of Gilgamesh, ~2700 BCE) through the development of diving bells, helmets, surface supplied diving, the development of the demand regulator all the way to modern diving, including mixed gases, rebreathers and 1 ATM suits.

I eventually made it all the way down to Key West, which was neat, but the museum was definitely the highlight of my trip. Right behind that was driving on the stretch of US-1 featured in so many quality films like 'True Lies' and 'Mission Impossible 3'. Key West itself seemed a little overdeveloped and touristy, not really my ideal vacation spot, but the Keys are unique and (for the most part) beautiful, and I'm glad I had a chance to check them out before I left.

A Shark Named Babycakes

2008-06-23T19:35:00.004-04:00

I've finished my Divemaster yesterday, so today I thought I'd take it easy and do some relaxing reef dives in the afternoon. I figured it would be a good opportunity to practice using my camera and film some fish, especially since I didn't have many chances to take pictures or video while I was working on my Divemaster.

The first dive we did was North North Dryrocks, which has become one of my favorite reefs in the area. Visibility was a little poor, but I got plenty of good practice in with my camera, and hopefully a few keepers. After the first dive we decided to hit up Key Largo Dryrocks, better known as Christ of the Abyss. An 8.5 foot tall bronze statue of Jesus Christ was placed in about 25 feet of water near the reef in 1965 by the Underwater Society of America. It's one of the better known local "land"marks so I took some video of it, and then tagged along with Jen, one of the other divemasters towards a lesser known patch reef nearby.

After a few minutes of slowly finning over the sand towards the reef, we passed over a few coral heads and came across a nurse shark in the sand. By this time, my camera battery was nearly dead, but I did manage to capture a few minutes of footage of the shark. Once I get my hands on my new hard drive I'll be able to post some video. Jen thought she recognized the shark as Babycakes, a nurse shark that's normally found 4 miles from Christ of the Abyss on a wreck called the City of Washington. It certainly seemed like he recognized Jen. Once he realized he was being watched he rose up off the sand and swam around us, disappearing behind the coral from time to time, but never straying too far. He was probably between 5 and 6 feet long, and very beautiful. It was probably one of the largest sharks I've seen in the wild, definitely a memorable experience.

Divemaster!

2008-06-22T20:59:00.005-04:00

I finished my Divemaster today, meaning I'm officially a 'professional' diver (scary huh). I'm planning on heading back to the High Springs area on June 26th to work on a documentary with Wes Skiles, so I have a few days off to do some fun diving and explore the Keys. Hopefully I'll make it out to the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum in Islamorda and get down to Key West for at least a day I only wish there was some swell up so I could go surfing...

Key Largo

2008-06-18T20:54:00.000-04:00

I'm currently down in Key Largo, hangin out with Captain Spencer Slate, who owns and runs the Atlantis Dive Center (check it out). I've been working on my Divemaster for a few days, diving and exploring the keys. I drove all day on Saturday to get down here, and arrived at Captain Slate's Atlantis Dive Center at about 5 pm, expecting to just be able to chill out, grab a bite to eat and relax. I was way off. Less than an hour after I arrived I was on a boat running out to do a twilight dive on the Spiegel Grove. It was an incredible. We were the only divers on the huge 510-foot wreck. The current was almost non-existent and the visibility was probably a little north of 80 feet. Luckily I managed to set up my camera wrong, and not realize till I was already halfway down the anchor line. I'll have other chances to dive the wreck, so I'm sure I'll be able to get some good video, but I doubt I'll have another chance in conditions as perfect as that. I've spent the rest of my time here hanging out with Hunter, Slate's 7-year old son (reminds a lot of my cousin Eric) and working on my divemaster with my instructor Skip. I'll post some more photos and maybe some video when I get a chance. I've also added some pictures to my Picasa account so check them out.

'Coooba Divin

2008-06-16T18:10:00.006-04:00

I just finished a week in Ginnie Springs with a group of divers from DAN, working on a new training video. The shoot was lead by DAN's new media manager, Ken Berry, who acted as director/producer. Eric Douglas and Brian Harper from DAN were also there, the director of photography was Tom Holden (a USC graduate), Simon from Karst Productions was in charge of lighting, Donald Tipton was in charge of still photography, and Abby, Billy, Holden and myself were 'talent' and grips. Although this was the first time most of the people working on the shoot had met each other, everyone got along really well, and it ended up being an incredible week. Tom, Simon and Donald were incredibly talented and friendly people, and it was really a privilege to work with them, and pick up a few tips on lighting and photography from them. Ken did an incredible job making sure everyone was happy and productive (a well-fed crew is a hard-working crew) and Eric, Abby and Holden were great to hang out with. Billy is involved with ROV design and construction, a field I'm interested in. Brian reminded me a whole lot of my friend Jeff from USC, and we found out at the wrap party that Wes Skiles held for us on Friday night that he was quite a musician. Everyone involved was incredibly fascinating and intelligent, and it was one of those weeks that just ended too soon. Luckily I'm pretty sure I'll have a chance to meet up with almost everyone again, either at DEMA or at DAN. I'm rapidly running out of hard drive space, so until my external drive arrives, I've posted just a few unedited, reduced quality clips. That's Brian modeling the fashionable Tar Heels speedo at the end...

A Week in Wilmington

2008-06-10T20:14:00.002-04:00

I've just arrived in High Springs, Florida, after finishing my first week on the road as the 2008 scholar. I spent the week with Doug Kesling (NA Scholar 1983) in Wilmington, North Carolina. It was great to kick off my year with a former scholar and Doug was a terrific host. I spent most of the week sitting in on Doug's scientific diver course at UNCW, working to finish my rescue diver certification. It was really a great week because not only did the other students and I get to dive and hang out with Doug, but Scott Fowler and Glen Taylor from NURC and Ken Oots also helped out with the class, and it was a lot of fun hanging out and diving with them. I really liked my classmates, and Doug's job at NURC seems really rewarding and enjoyable (for the most part). Hopefully I'll have a chance to meet up with Doug and/or Scott later on down to the road for some diving, or maybe even to take a look at the Aquarius habitat.

While I was in Wilmington, I also got to meet up with Stef Misner (NA Scholar 2002) and her husband Ian. Besides taking me out to dinner and to the beach, Stef arranged for me to visit the NC aquarium. I was lucky enough to be able to dive (with sand tigers) in the aquarium's largest tank. Stef also gave me a personalized tour of the entire facility and introduced me to the aquarium's diving officer, Brian. It wasn't the biggest aquarium I've ever seen, but the exhibits were incredible, and it's focus on local ecosystems was really great.

It was tough to leave North Carolina. The people I met and dove with were great, and it reminded me of California (in a good way). I started trying to learn how to use my camera, and there are a few clips here, just to give you an idea of what I've been up to. I'll put some stills up when I get a chance. So far I'm having an awesome time in Florida, so keep checking back!

May Journal Entry

2008-05-31T23:45:00.004-04:00

Here's the latest installment of my monthly journal. Theoretically this and all my other monthly journal entries will also be posted on the OWUSS page, but don't hold your breath.

Journal Entry: May 2008

May began with my first real trip as the North American scholar, a weekend drive up to Gloucester, MA to do some dry suit diving with Vin Malkoski and DUI. Every year the North American scholar is fortunate enough to receive a special DUI drysuit. This year DUI also invited me to one of their dog day events to learn how to properly use and care for my suit. Vin and his family graciously agreed to host me and take me diving while I was up in Massachusetts. Even Brenna decided to get in on the action. Friday the 2^nd I drove up and visited some relatives in the area. Saturday we dove all day and afterwards Brenna and I visited some friends of hers in Brookline. Sunday we were back in the water and I even managed to have dinner with my brother at BC before driving back to school. Even though it was cold and raining the entire weekend, everybody stayed warm and dry. After learning all about the particulars of diving dry on Saturday, I got the chance to help Vin introduce some relatively novice divers to their new suits on Sunday. Seeing as I’ll be working on my divemaster certification next month, it was a good opportunity to observe a terrific instructor at work. I was really impressed with Vin’s patience and thoroughness.

Unfortunately, after the weekend was over, I had to head back to Long Island and face the reality of grad school. The next three weeks were a blur of last minute assignments, final exams, papers, trying to plan my summer, and moving out of my apartment and into my parents’ house in Virginia. I somehow managed to escape school and Long Island in one piece, and made it down to Virginia in time for Memorial Day, and my little sister’s birthday. Besides getting a chance to catch up with my family, I had a giant pile of packages waiting for me from Aqua Lung, Halcyon, Light & Motion and Sony. It was like a second Christmas! Although I love spending time with my family, as I write this I am chomping at the bit to hit the road. Tomorrow morning I’ll be tossing the final bits of gear into my van and heading down south. First stop: Wilmington, North Carolina for some diving with Doug Kesling!

Free Diver Sculpture

2008-05-31T16:16:00.005-04:00

I blogged on pouring bronze back in April and I thought that I'd share the results with everyone. I've been working on a few different pieces, but the real focus of my work has been this statue of a free diver. It's based on a photo by Zena Holloway entitled "75 metres". It's finished with a sulfurated potash (liver of sulfur) patina to give it a darker finish and hopefully to convey a sense of depth. I'm thinking about adding a wooden base, maybe some black walnut or something dark but I'm not 100% sure about that. I really enjoyed the class, it was great to have a class that wasn't all about oceanography, and the professor, Dan Richolt was awesome.

Someone buy me this...

2008-05-29T17:45:00.002-04:00

In other news, I've been chilling in Virginia for a few days with my family. My sister's birthday is this weekend, and after that I am headed down to Wilmington, North Carolina for some diving! Catch up with me then!

Diving Dry

2008-05-19T12:16:00.008-04:00

Ted, Vin, Jamie & Faith in Gloucester

It's been a while since I've managed to get a post up, but May has been a busy month. Most of my time has been spent dealing with finals and moving out of my house. It's been pretty stressful, but I've only got two meetings to go before I'm done! After I leave Long Island I'm heading down to Virginia to spend memorial day with my family before I finally take off to begin my travels as the 2008 NA scholar.

Although I know memorial day is going to be fantastic, the highlight of the month was definitely the trip I took up to Massachusetts on the 3rd and 4th. Diving Unlimited International (DUI) sponsors the NA scholar every year by providing them with a special production drysuit, and this year, Brenna and I were able to attend a product demonstration weekend they were putting on at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester. Vin Malkoski, dive instructor and marine fisheries biologist extraordinaire took us diving and helped me adjust to the new suit. Even though it was grey, cold and rainy the entire weekend, we all stayed warm and dry, above and below the water. I've had the chance to do a few more dives in the suit since coming back to LI, and it's fantastic. Thank you Faith and DUI!

Not only did I get some great diving in with Vin and Brenna, but I got to visit my aunt Liz, uncle Tom and cousin Maggie, hang out in Brookline with Brenna and some of her friends, and stop by BC for some dinner with my brother on the way home. It was great to get away for a weekend and do some diving! I can't wait for my travels to begin.

The A-Team

2008-05-05T19:10:00.005-04:00

I just found out that I'm now an official member of the Aqua Lung 'A-Team'. It's pretty cool to have my name on a list that includes Jaime O'Brien, Philippe Cousteau and Katya Meyers. Thanks Aqua Lung! Check it out here.

April Journal Entry

2008-05-05T12:33:00.007-04:00

This is my first official OWUSS journal entry, and it should be posted on the scholarship web-page soon as well:

I’m very excited to be writing my first monthly journal entry as the 2008 North American Rolex Scholar. I first heard about the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society during my senior year at the University of Southern California. I was spending my last semester living on Catalina Island, and was fortunate enough to hear about the scholarship from Karl Huggins, director of the Catalina Hyperbaric chamber. Although I hadn’t learned how to dive on Catalina, it was there that I realized how much I loved diving, and that it can be more than just a hobby. I really need to thank Karl, Gerry Smith and all the other ‘SC divers from Catalina for helping me discover my passion for diving.

After a long and in-depth application process, culminating in a thorough interview, I was shocked and overjoyed to learn that I had actually been selected as the 2008 North American Scholar. A year ago I never would have dreamt that I would have been chosen to receive this tremendous honor. The weeks after my selection were filled with excitement and impatience. After exchanging a flurry of emails with all sorts of people related to the scholarship, I finally met up with my new national coordinator and ‘mer-mom’ Robin Parish and the 2007 North American Scholar Brenna Mahoney at the 2008 Beneath The Sea dive show in Secaucus, NJ. We spent the entire weekend running from booth to booth, meeting new people and catching up with friends that Brenna had made during her scholarship year. We met up with Jim Standing at the fourth element booth, and even got some time in with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. We also got to stop off at the DUI booth and meet up with Faith Ortins. Not only did I get fitted for a brand new DUI drysuit, but I got to run around the convention center in a DUI undersuit/telly-tubby costume.

Brenna, Robin and I were also lucky enough to be guests of Dan and Betty Orr at the Fish ‘n Famous dinner on Saturday night and the BTS awards banquet and film festival on Sunday night. Dan and Betty were really gracious hosts and introduced Brenna and I to an incredible number of people including Stan Waterman, Wyland, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Dr. Kathy Sullivan, Wes Skiles, and David Doubilet. The films shown on Sunday evening were terrific, and we had a blast. By the end of the weekend I was almost ready to head home for some sleep.

Unfortunately, the end of Beneath The Sea meant I was heading back to school until the OW-USS banquet on April 12^th. Luckily my schoolwork kept me busy, and it wasn’t long before I was catching a train to New York City for the big weekend! After dropping my bags off in my room, I went down to the lobby to meet Elvin Leech, Jim Corry, Lars Kirkegaard, and my fellow adventurers Steve Lindfield and Eline Feenstra for the first time! I was very excited (and a little bit nervous) to meet my fellow scholars in person for the first time. As soon as everyone was ready, Elvin, Lars, Eline, Steve and I piled into a taxi and headed over to Rolex USA for a last minute fitting and a quick tour. We were met by Mr. John Flaherty and Ms. Randy Greenberg, and got a quick glimpse of our watches before they were hidden away until Saturday night. We also got to take a look behind the scenes at Rolex USA’s art department and a sneak preview of the new Oyster designs Rolex is getting ready to release next year. The watches were incredibly beautiful and Eline, Steve and I were really excited to get a sneak peak of the goings on at Rolex.

Once we arrived back at the hotel, the weekend began in earnest. I had thought that my experience at Beneath The Sea was intense, but I was about to find out exactly how important and exciting this weekend was going to be. After an extensive round of introductions, everyone headed off to the theater to see a production of “The Conscientious Objector” courtesy of Mike Emmerman and Pat Stockhausen. The show was excellent, and everybody was able to go to the cast party afterwards, which was a lot of fun. The next day the new scholars were introduced to the board of directors, and the previous year’s scholars gave brief presentations on their years’ experiences. That afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Feenstra were kind enough to take Steve, Eline and I to the Whitney and the Frick Galleries. My family arrived on Friday night in time for a fun dinner at the Byblos restaurant thanks to the generosity of Ted and Barbara Janulis. The food was excellent, and I was happy that my family had arrived and was able to meet everyone involved with the scholarship.

The next morning everybody headed over to Mike Emmerman’s office for a series of lectures, including presentations by the 2007 scholars. It was especially interesting hearing from some of the OW-USS interns about what they had been up to in 2007. After the lectures, as the excitement for Saturday night’s festivities really began to build, Jim Standing called all the scholars into his hotel room and began loading us up with loot. I was amazed that Jim had been able to bring so much awesome Fourth Element gear with him all the way from the UK. Each scholar received some top-notch drysuit undergarments, a killer 5mm wetsuit complete with hood and huge assortment of hats, jackets and shirts.

Saturday’s dinner was being held at the Explorer’s Club, which is an exciting place to visit in its own right. Luckily Steve, Eline and I managed to sneak in a quick tour with Brenna, Igor and Matt between cocktails and the pre-dinner photo session. The evening began with the presentation of the movies that Brenna, Igor and Matt has made during their scholarship years, which were incredible and inspiring. After dinner had ended, the moment that Steve, Eline and I had all been waiting for had finally arrived. We were brought to the front of the room and awarded our medals and Rolex Submariners by Jim Corry, George Wozencraft and John Flaherty. Dan Bennett, president of the Explorer’s Club presented us with our student memberships. The three of us also received gifts from Fourth Element, DAN, Suunto, Light & Motion and Scuba Diving Magazine. Each of us tried our best to convey our incredible gratitude and excitement with a few short words and that was it. We were now the official 2008 Rolex Scholars.

Steve Lindfield, Dan Bennett, Eline Feenstra, Jamie Brisbin and John Flaherty

By Sunday morning I was hardly able to stay on my feet. Everyone met for brunch at Mike and Pat’s house, and said their goodbyes before heading home. The weekend had already been an incredible and life-changing event, and I still had an entire year to go! I really want to thank all the wonderful people I met, all the board members, all the coordinators and supporters of the scholarship. There are far too many of you to name here, but I had such a good time in New York with all of you, and I’m so honored to have been chosen to join such a special family of people. I still have a little school left to complete until I can really begin my travels, but by next month I should be on my way!

Ooooohh Helicopter Boy!

2008-04-28T16:40:00.001-04:00

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T12:40:00.002-04:00

NASA's top ten photos of our planet

More NYC/OW-USS Pictures!

2008-04-21T22:25:00.003-04:00

I've just posted some more pictures from the OW-USS/Rolex weekend in NYC. Check them out here. Many thanks to Chris Baker from Rolex USA who took all these pictures.

Pourin' Bronze

2008-04-17T22:56:00.000-04:00

We've been pouring bronze this week in my bronze casting class, and I took some pictures to share with everyone. We've been working with two different types of molds, ceramic shell and investment. Both are heated up and buried in compacted dirt to try and keep them from exploding when the molten bronze is poured. All my pieces haven't been poured yet, but you can check out the pouring we did today on my Picasa site.

OW-USS in NYC

2008-04-17T21:55:00.008-04:00

The Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society's annual meeting took place on the weekend of April 12th this year. For the new scholars, the weekend began on the afternoon of the 10th. I took a train into the city, and met Elvin Leech (European VP), Lars Kirkegaard (Scandanavian Coordinator), Steve Lindfield (Australasian Scholar) and Eline Feenstra (European Scholar) at our hotel. We quickly grabbed a cab over to Rolex USA were we were greeted by John Flaherty and Randy Greenberg. We were allowed to see our incredible Oyster Perpetual Submariners just long enough to ensure that the fit was perfect.

Mike Emmerman and Pat Stockhausen treated everyone to a very enjoyable performance of The Conscientious Objector on Thursday night. On Friday the new scholars were introduced to the board of directors, and the 2007 scholars submitted their formal reports. Afterwards Steve, Eline and I managed some time to sneak off with Eline's parents to the Whitney and the Frisk Gallery. The Whitney was all right, but we were all quite impressed with the quality of the Frisk's collection.

Friday night my family arrived, and there was an informal dinner courtesy of Ted and Barbara Janulis followed by a short time at the bar. I probably should have held myself back a little more than I did on Friday night, because Saturday morning featured a series of lectures given by the 2007 scholars and interns, guest speakers, and Catalina's own Karl Huggins! The lectures were interesting, but it was a long morning. The highlight of the weekend was the formal awards banquet held at the Explorer's Club. Matt, Igor and Brenna showed their movies (which were incredible), and Steve, Eline and I were presented as the 2008 Rolex Scholars. It was an incredible evening, topped off with a great party at the Black Sheep. The weekend closed with a great brunch at Mike and Pat's house.

The entire weekend was so incredibly packed with introductions, meetings and parties it seems unreal. On the train back to Stony Brook I was feeling a mix of sheer exhaustion and disappointment in knowing that I'm going to have to wait an entire year for the next OW-USS weekend. At least I know it won't be a boring one! Although it was bewildering at times, it was really special to find this astounding family of people, and be welcomed into that family with open arms by every single member. The sense of community and genuine warmth was unbelievable. It's truly a privilege, thank you guys.

This is totally awesome:

2008-04-09T11:38:00.003-04:00

Check this out:

Australia's 5,500-mile Internet connection

A Weekend in NJ

2008-04-07T11:48:00.009-04:00

Normally one would not associate spending a weekend in Secaucus, NJ as something to be excited about, but this was a definite exception. On Friday, March 28th (Yes, sorry this post is about 2 weeks late) I drove out to the Meadowlands Exposition center to meet up with my scholarship coordinator Robin Parish and the 2007 North American Rolex scholar, Brenna Mahoney at the 2008 Beneath The Sea dive show.

It was an amazing and insane introduction to the world of diving. Basically our days were split between working the show floor (huge), meeting hundreds of incredibly famous, interesting and awesome people, black tie dinners and awards banquets, various hotel bars, and trying to grab enough sleep to be able to go out and do it all again the next day. Some of the highlights of the weekend were meeting a personal hero of Brenna's and mine, Dr. Sylvia Earle:

You might not realize it yet, but she's your hero too! She gave an incredible speech at the awards dinner held partially in her honor on Saturday night. We also had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Kathy Sullivan:

Besides being the first woman to walk in space, Dr. Sullivan served as chief scientist at NOAA and is now a member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame.

I wish I could put up pictures and write at length about all the awesome people I met that weekend. Getting a feel for and seeing what kind of people that are involved in the scholarship and that I'll hopefully be working with was really encouraging. Although I felt like I kind of knew them already, meeting Brenna and Robin for the first time in person was also great. They've already been such a great help, and it's really comforting to know that they'll be around to help out during the next year. I don't think I could've asked for a better scholarship "mom" and "big sister". The weekend was a blast, and it got me really excited for the upcoming weekend in NYC. I can't wait to meet my fellow scholars, and all the other members of OWUSS that will be there!

RMS Rhone

2008-03-25T09:45:00.004-04:00

The Rhone is probably the most well known wreck dive in the Caribbean, and with good reason. The wreck is massive, and the only thing I regret about this dive is not being able to go back and do it two or three more times.

An all iron, 310 foot steamer, the Rhone was one of the most modern ships of her day. She was one of the first steamers to use a propeller instead of paddle-wheels, and had a full complement of masts and sails. Built by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, her job was to transport mail, passengers and cargo between England, the West Indies and South America. Her usual stop in the Virgin Islands was in St. Thomas, but an outbreak of yellow fever there meant that the Rhone was diverted to Great Harbor, Peter Island.

On October 29, 1867 the Rhone was anchored at the mouth of Great Harbor with a paddle steamer, the Conway. By mid-day the weather began to worsen. Both captains decided to make a run for the more sheltered anchorage of Road Harbor, Tortola. The Rhone's anchor snagged on the bottom, and in his haste to escape, Captain Wooley was forced to cut free and abandon 300 feet of massive chain and his huge 3,000 lb. main anchor (which is still a popular dive site in its own right today).

The Rhone headed out of Great Harbor and was making for Road Harbor through the Salt Island Passage when the second half of the hurricane hit. Even at full steam the Rhone was driven up onto the rocks on the western tip of Salt Island. The sharp rocks sheared through the iron hull and water began to flood the hull. When the relatively cool water hit the massive steam boilers, there was an explosion that blew the ship completely in two. Almost all of the crew and passengers were killed. Today the bow section lies in 80 feet of water, while the stern section remains in almost the same place it struck Black Rock Point in 1867. A massive wreckage field lies between the two halves, containing the remains of several boilers, some smaller hull sections and some spectacular arches.

The visibility was not as perfect as our dive on the Chikuzen, but was still excellent. Doug, Sterling, Aimee, Pascal, Delis and I started at the bow and made our way through the wreckage field, ending our dive near the stern section, and the Rhone's massive propeller. We were lucky in that there were no other divers on the wreck the entire time we were there. The wreckage is fantastic, and the hull sections are still in remarkable condition. The sea life is also extraordinary. Check out the pictures I managed to snag of a cute and playful porcupine fish hiding under a hull plate.

Wreck of the Chikuzen

2008-03-24T22:55:00.002-04:00

The Chikuzen is a derelict refrigeration vessel that was abandoned by a Japanese fishing fleet in St. Marten. The hulk drifted into the BVI where it was towed out to a spot between Tortola and Anegada and finally sunk. The 246 foot ship now rests on her port side on a bed of white sand in 80 feet of water. Her starboard rail comes within 45 of the surface. The wreck is marked on charts, but we found that the reported position of the wreck is over a nautical mile off. Luckily we managed to get our hands on the GPS coordinates of the wreck. I'll definitely be holding onto these numbers.

This dive was far and away the best of any of my admittedly few dives. We were incredibly lucky with ocean conditions. The wreck is miles from the nearest land, and completely unprotected. The slightest swell destroys the visibility and kicks up currents that make diving the wreck dangerous to suicidal. We had vis that easily exceeded 100 feet. To get a feel of how crystal clear the water was, the pictures I've posted here were taken using only ambient light at 80 feet. The wreck was incredible, and we encountered curious barracuda, massive groupers, cobia, and more. An incredible dive.

Holy Crap I Love South Park

2008-03-24T22:18:00.004-04:00

Wow, great news, every single episode of South Park ever can now be viewed, legally online. Check it out here.

All Good Things Must End

2008-03-24T11:57:00.009-04:00

Even with a chemical oceanography exam two hours away, I can't seem to accept the fact that I'm sitting under fluorescent lights in my office in Stony Brook. Maybe I'm just in a post-vacation state of withdrawal, but I'd have to say that the past week may very well have been the best in my life. I can now agree with Alan, based on first-hand experience, that wake-boarding is one of the finest sports ever created. We also managed to get in some incredible diving. We dove on the Chikuzen, RMS Rhone, Marie L. & Pat at night, The Chimney, Santa Monica Rock, The Indians, and Shark Point.

While the scenery, diving and sailing was incredible, the greatest part of the week by far was spending time with my family (Brisbins and Browns), and making new friends. The crews of the Nahema IV and Go Free were some of the friendliest, most talented and coolest people I've ever met. Leaving Pascal, Delis, Aneshka, Patrice and Anna Maria behind was very hard. Hopefully we'll stay in touch, and I'll be able to share my travels with them. Who knows, maybe I'll need their help one day getting a job on a charter catamaran!

Most of my photos are underwater, but I'll be putting more and more up as I get them uploaded and organized. Doug took a lot of really great HD video as well, so hopefully I'll be able to share some of that with you as well. For now, you'll have to whet your appetite with some photos of our trip down to BVI.

...The Bitter End

2008-03-16T19:56:00.003-04:00

So far the British Virgin Islands have been incredible. We arrived on Beef Island on Saturday afternoon, and were met at the airport by our captains Patrice and Pascal of the Go Free and Nahema IV. Patrice is from France, and his wife, Anna Maria is from South Africa. Pascal, Delis and Anesca are all from France as well. The boats are amazing and we've been totally spoiled by the crews. This morning we dove The Chimney off Great Dog Island. Its a massive stone arch surrounded by incredible coral gardens. A nice warm-up dive. It's also supposed to have been Cousteau's favorite site in the BVIs. Tomorrow we'll be diving on the Chikuzen, a 246 foot Japanese refrigeration ship that burned and sank in open ocean between Anegada and Tortola. Tonight we're anchoring at The Bitter End, a marina on the north side of Virgin Gorda. I doubt I'll be writing anything else before I get back to NY, but I'll have plenty of pictures and underwater video (hopefully) to share with you then!

Norbert Wu Photography

2008-03-13T23:59:00.010-04:00

Just one more day till I'm taking off for the British Virgin Islands for spring break. I'm going to be spending a week on a catamaran with my family and some family friends for spring break, and I want to try and post some stuff before I take off. I had a meeting today with Dr. Peter Brink, chair of the physiology and biophysics department at Stony Brook (more on that meeting later) who among other things, is hosting photographer Norbert Wu at Stony Brook on April 2nd. I had never heard of Mr. Wu's work before, but after checking out some of his stuff (click on the title of this post, or check your required reading list to the right) I was blown away. Seeing as how I'm going to be getting into photography heavily next year, I set up a personal meeting with Mr. Wu on April 2nd. Please, anyone on Long Island, let me know if you want to meet this guy or come to his presentation, I have a feeling it's going to be spectacular. If you spend a few minutes going through Mr. Wu's work, I can almost guarantee you'll find a photo you're familiar with. The volume of his work is so prodigious that it's inevitable.

Unfortunately Mr. Wu has a strict policy on reproducing his works, so I can't include any of his pictures here, but I spent a little time going through his website and picked out some shots and albums I thought were pretty interesting. The first shot that really struck me was this picture of a dynamited grouper from his Borneo album. The incredible size of the fish struck me write away, quickly followed by the senseless of its death, and the wonder and compassion in the eyes of the children. Kind of a sad but really impressive photography.

I also really liked some pictures of a cave called Turtle Tomb in Borneo. Apparently this cave system is so vast and maze like that sea turtles swim in and drown before they can find their way out. The idea that sea turtles get lost in caves and drown simply never occurred to me.

I'm not sure why I'm so fixated on tragic pictures today, but the last album keeps with that theme. It's called "Mattanza (The Killing)", some of you may have heard about this before. It's a ritual slaughtering of tuna that takes place every year near Sardinia in the Mediterranean. The tradition apparently dates back 1200 years. Fisherman set up nets in a narrow channel in the migratory route of critically endangered Giant Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus), slaughtering every single fish that tries to migrate through the channel. The photography is incredible, and some of the images are quite disturbing. It's hard to imagine killing an animal like this.

It's definitely worth spending some time looking at some of the amazing images on Mr. Wu's site. It would be great to see what other people find in his albums.

Holy Crap I Love My Brother...

2008-03-13T22:34:00.003-04:00

Also, for those of you following the Spitzer fiasco, this is awesome...

Weekend Update

2008-03-08T14:28:00.006-05:00

I wrapped up a very busy week last night at the Public House in Southampton with some friends from school. Enjoyed a few delicious espresso stouts, and there was a reggae band that was actually pretty impressive. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to start the weekend.

I've added some fun stuff to the bottom of the page, and I'm going to try and keep them updated regularly so if you're curious or bored you can see what I'm into at any given time.

On a sadder note, Mahe Drysdale pounded Rob Waddell into the dust a few days ago. Apparently Waddell has been having medical issues with his heart. Not surprising since it's probably the size of a pot roast. Mahe will be representing NZ in the single scull in Beijing, but if Waddell can get his medical issues under control, he'll probably be offered a spot in a team boat.

Check back next week for updates, I'm working on some sculpture and surfing stuff!

Eccezionale Fabregas!!!

2008-03-04T20:33:00.009-05:00

Today was a crazy day! I got to sleep in, which was great, but once I was up, the hits just kept on coming. Once I had taken care of some reading and a bunch of emails, I headed over to the NYS Marine Resources Bureau for a meeting on mapping new york seagrasses. I just started working as a technical advisor for the DEC in February, so this was really my first time meeting a lot of people involved with the project. The meeting focused mainly on the technical problems surrounding aerial surveys of coastal areas, and the need to develop comprehensive standards for surveying seagrass beds while taking into account the unique aspects of each system we'll be looking at (south shore, LI sound, Peconics, etc.). Until now, several different surveys have been carried out at various times by a number of different entities, all using different survey and groundtruthing methodologies, so hopefully one of the things the NYS seagrass task force will accomplish this year is a standard procedure and schedule for conducting these aerial surveys.

Chris Friel and Gary Florence from Photoscience presented a lot of interesting information about new digital sensor technology and analysis. Even though seagrass biomass is probably declining in almost all of our systems, the new digital sensors are so good, that switching from analog to digital imagery makes it look like there have been large increases in seagrass coverage, simply because the digital sensors are able to pick up signatures we never would have seen with the older equipment. Kind of a 'good' problem to have, and one I never would have thought about before today. By far the best part of the meeting though, was the Tate's Cookies that someone brought. Next time you're in Southampton check these guys out, their cookies are incredible!

The meeting ran past 4pm, so JB provided me with important text message updates on the Arsenal - AC Milan game. Apparently Cesc Fabregas is not only blessed with an incredibly awesome name, but an incredibly awesome ability to score goals:

GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!

After the meeting I had time to grab a quick bite to eat before I drove back to school for my bronze casting class. Right now I'm working on a piece inspired by Zena Holloway's photo "75 Metres". When I get a chance I'll upload some pictures of all the different pieces I'm working on. Right now I'm mostly finishing up some Wax burnouts and pouring some molds. It should get a little more interesting when I start actually casting the Bronze. I'm also working on some new stuff to add to the blog. Good Night!

Waddell vs. Drysdale

2008-03-03T13:41:00.004-05:00

My chemical oceanography course is cancelled today, so I'm sitting at home waiting for the live broadcast of the NZ Olympic rowing trials to begin (Click on the title of this post to check it out). At 9 am on March 4th (3 pm today for everyone on the east coast, noon for Alan, Will, JB and everyone out west) the starter's flag will go down at Lake Karapiro. Mahe and Rob have been battling it out for weeks, and right now are tied at a victory apiece in Olympic qualifying races. These guys are arguably the top two scullers in the world right now, so while it's terrible that only one will make it on to Beijing (and Delux), the race this afternoon should be excellent.

I was going to hold off on posting here, but I guess this race is as good a way to start as any. I'm not sitting at the starting line of an Olympic qualifying race (I wish), but I do feel like I'm at the beginning of a pretty awesome adventure. Hopefully I'll be able to include as many of you as possible with this blog. Right away I need to throw a huge thank you out to Karl Huggins, Karla Heidelberg, Ken Nealson, Brad Peterson, my family, my friends and everybody on Catalina. I also want to thank everyone involved in the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society, especially Robin Parish, Brenna Mahoney, Jim Corry and everybody else who have been sending me messages over the past few weeks. I haven't even left home yet, and I can already feel how incredibly supportive and important this group of people is going to be to me. I realized the other day that this scholarship is so prestigious because of the accomplishments and the character of the scholars that have preceded me, so I'm really excited to take what you all have given me and do my best to push it higher and farther than ever before.

While I'm super excited about the scholarship and about sharing my adventures with everybody through these posts, when it comes to blogging about myself, I'm just like an unfrozen caveman (thanks Chuck!!!). I really have no idea what's going on. I've included a couple of things like my favorite links and videos etc. I'm going to try and keep them all updated and constantly changing, so subscribe to my RSS feed and check up on what I've got going on. I also see this thing as a great way for people to get in touch with me, so post comments and send me messages about what you guys are doing. Feel free to make fun of my early attempts at underwater photography and videography. Hopefully a year will be long enough for me to learn the difference between my elbow and my aperture, and everybody can play a role in shaping my final movies and presentations. Anyway, I've gone on long enough for one day. Hopefully some of you see this in time to check out the race, I've got my money on Waddell!