Video Dude Productions

Hello everyone.

September 29th finds the Video Dude in Sint Maarten, Netherland Antilles to dive with Scuba Fun Dive Center. It was a glorious day weather-wise and the seas were running about 2-4ft. Aboard our boat, the “Coral Palm”, Captain Jarvis and Divemasters Kelly, Guillaume, Nichole and Michelle were getting all our gear situated in preparation for our upcoming dives. We are scheduled to do a Wreck/Reef combo called “Proselyte Reef” (where a ship was wrecked in 1801) and another reef called “Shark Attack Reef”.

In great spirits for the day, we all arrive at “Proselyte Reef” for our first dive. Depth on this dive was @60ft and the coral canyons were amazing. Coral heads nearly reached the surface from our 60ft depth, and there were good spots with Lobsters, Trunkfish, Trumpetfish, Grunts and more. Also on this reef are the remains of a wooden ship called “The Proselyte”, which sank so many years ago that the only thing left are the anchors and cannons (and even they are really overgrown with coral!). Soon this dive is over and we have to head back for our safety stop and then the boat.

Back onboard, we get our gear changed over and get ready for dive #2 on “Shark Attack Reef”. As soon as we dive in the water with our divemaster Michelle and get to the bottom, I notice 2 Caribbean Reef Sharks swimming parallel to us about 100ft off to the side. I signaled Michelle I was heading over to get some video, and swam along side the sharks for a bit. About that time we found an area that another dive operator had set up for feeding the sharks, so we all swam over to that spot and sat down on the bottom waiting for the rest of the sharks to appear. Ultimately, they start to come over one at a time, circling us and waiting to see if we had food. One or two sharks got a little braver and swam in between some of the divers and myself. Was really amazing to watch the grace and fluid motion of these animals! Although I would have been happy staying with the sharks, we did have to go check out the rest of the reef, so off we went. Again beautiful coral heads/canyons and schools of juvenile tropicals of all species. Then it’s off to the boat again and get ready to head back to the dive shop.

Thanks again to Scuba Fun Dive Center. Antoine and the staff there are first-rate!!

The Video Dude

Below are some still frames from the video which is now available for sale (see link at bottom of posting!):

posted by Video Dude @ 11:35 AM  

Hello everyone.

Monday June 8th finds the Video Dude and dive buddy “Hall of Famous” Joanie diving under Blue Heron Bridge. This is my 500th (non-teaching) dive and Joanie is working on her photography skills for her upcoming trip to Indonesia (lucky duck!). The weather was very cooperative and high tide was scheduled for 9:10am. We arrived at the bridge @8:30am and began setting up our gear. After our final buddy checks, we head for the shoreline and make our way into the water to finish getting our fins on and any last-second final adjustments.

Then it’s off to the pilings on the west side to see what we can see. Visibility turned out to not be so great, maybe 10ft or so, so we had to stick close together. We right away found lots of Starfish and the ever-present Sea Urchins with their shell camouflage. We actually saw an urchin using a plastic cough syrup bottle for camouflage! I haven’t laughed like that in a while! Zig-zagging around the pilings we also came across a Batfish, Arrow Crabs the size of Frisbees, Banded Shrimp, Barracuda, Spadefish, Hermit Crabs, Lobsters, Sheepshead and Hogfish. It was definitely a full-variety day to be sure!

After close to 80 minutes underwater, we decide to head back to the beach. It was a nice leisurely swim back and we finally bumped into another couple that were just heading over to the bridge. We basically had the whole place to ourselves until then! It was a great spot for my 500th dive and having a great dive buddy along made it even better!

Here’s to the NEXT 500 dives in Paradise!!

The Video Dude