Diving is something I have wanted to try off and on since I was young, unfortunately it never seemed to be the right time. In 2014 on honeymoon I got the chance to do a guided dive in Bora Bora and was hooked, I loved it. It still took a year and a half to get myself enrolled in a class in Seattle and get certified.

Bora Bora

I have been seriously diving now since February 2016, and convinced my wife to start in March. We have both certified to advanced open water and love to be in the water as much as we can. Although I would prefer warm water there is a pleasure in diving locally even if it masochistic – dry suits are a pain!. We had the great pleasure of a wonderful trip to Bonaire and spent a week aboard the Bonaire from the sea AMORAY with Sue, Richard, and Rob. The diving was great, as well as finishing our advanced certification we also complete the wreck certification on the Hilma Hooker.

Sandi and Sue

I have slowly worked up to an expensive camera setup as I found that the GoPro I was using (HERO6, with Super Suit housing and filters) was fun as a record of the dive and the 4K video it took could be truly spectacular, but… when people asked what we saw they expected pictures not hours of video. I started taking stills from the video but they were never quite as clear as I hoped and so I skipped the smaller dive cameras and decided to build myself a nice rig. A shout out to Annie Crawley who runs a really good underwater photography course, thanks!

Sony and ikelite

I do try to remember to upload dives to Dive Logs but it’s not always as up to date as it should be. I use DiveLogDT as my primary log, syncing from my Shearwater Nerd2 and Perdix (and my previous Atomic Aquatics Cobalt II) computers.

Photos

In our happy place, Isla Mujeres MX.

Simon and Sandi, Isla Mujeres

Simon, Isla Mujeres

Although, cenotes with francisco (at Dive Life Playa del Carmen) comes a pretty close second.

Sandi, Cenote The Pit

We also dive in the cold, a lot more work but it can be really rewarding. In 2019 we took part in a community clean-up dive as part of Earth Day under the docks at the Kirkland, WA waterfront.

Simon and Sandi, Kirkland

Apparently at some point I took a rest…

Simon resting, Kirkland

Places Dived So Far

  • US
    • Seattle, Kirkland
    • La Jolla, CA
    • Key West and Key Largo, FL
  • Caribbean
    • Isla Mujeres, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, and Mahahual MX
    • Grand Turk and St Kitts
    • Bonaire
  • Asia
    • Indonesia Derawan Islands
  • South Pacific
    • Bora Bora

Gear

The following picture was our August 2020 trip to Mexico, three sets of gear for two people. We still haven’t mastered the ability to pack light.

3 sets for 2 people

  • Backmount
    • Mares Pure Hybrid BC
    • Mares Abyss II Navy regulator
    • Shearwater Nerd2 AI computer
    • 2 × Big Blue AL1100NP primary/backup torch
    • Ocean Reef full-face mask
    • Mares Quattro+ or Mares X-Stream fins
  • Sidemount
    • xDeep Stealth 2.0 Tec RB
      • xDeep expandable pouch and bolt snaps
      • xDeep tank cam-bands and bolt snaps
    • 2 × Hollis DC1/212 regulators, one short and one long hose, with Hollis SPGs
    • Shearwater Perdix computer
    • Atomic Aquatics venom mask
    • Dive Rite HP50 primary torch
    • Big Blue AL1100NP backup torch
    • Mares Quattro+ fins
  • Cold Water (add to above)
  • Mares Smart backup computer
  • Seiko Prospex 200m dive watch
  • Camera
    • Sony a7RIII camera body
    • Sony FE 28mm f/2-22 with either Sony 21mm f/2.8-22 Ultra Wide Converter or Sony 16mm f/3.5-22 Fisheye Converter
    • Sony FE 90mm F/2.8 Macro G OSS
    • Ikelite Housing with either 8” dome port or flat macro port
    • Pair Ikelite DS-160 Strobes with dome diffusers
    • Big Blue VL7200P-TC-18 primary/video and VL3500P secondary/focus lights
    • Kraken/Weefine 3000 macro ring light

Certifications

  • Open Water (Seattle)
  • Dry Suit (Seattle)
  • Advanced Open Water (Seattle, Bonaire)
  • Nitrox (Bonaire)
  • Wreck (Bonaire)
  • Full-face mask (Bonaire)

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