Scubatony Porn

Just when you think the diving in Cozumel can’t get any better and you have seen it all something special comes up that truly wows ya! Today was one of those days.

I had a great group of divers with me to start the story. Rana and Shadow are getting married and Thursday and Trent and Edi found me and decided I would be a good dive op for the days they are here. It worked out well because I had a little break in my schedule that needed filling. Today Gina and Brad added to the group and it was fun time. First dive was great. We did 80 ft at Palencar gardens for 47 min and although Gina was a little hesitant after a 4 year hiatus she quickly remembered that she was a very skilled diver and fell into a dive zen. Everyone else was magic from the start so it was just making things easy and fun for me cuz I get to play when no one needs me to hold their hand. Very weird thermal cline at around 50 ft but nothing dramatic comes up from the abyss.

We did a nice surface interval at Palencar beach and the chicken tacos were the usual yumminess. For a second dive I chose Cedral wall. The current was the normal swift and Edi got a little narced and started heading for the abyss. A quick reminder and she came to her senses no harm no foul! We drifted through the rest of the dive with a sweet shark and lazy turtle encounter to end the dive.

So at this point your like “so what’s the big deal?” I know I know, here’s the good part:

We are on the surface recounting the sweetness of Cozumel underwater wonders when Brad spots a fin on the water headed our way. I turn and immediately yell “Dolphin!”. Everyone scrambles for the deflate buttons on the BCD and we head down. At first the pod of about 7 bottlenose dolphin are headed right towards us. As they grow closer they turn right and head south. I’m in the lead and pissed at myself again because I don’t have my camera. The group is less then 10 ft underwater and falling back. I know that Carlos (our boat captain) has them insight and they are shallow so I press on like the selfish dive guide that I am leaving them all in my wake. I stay with them for 3-5 min as they all head to the bottom at about 35 ft. “Wow” I think! They slowly pull away from me and I just can’t keep up with them. That was awesome!. It’s been 6 years since I have actually spent some bottom time with wild dolphin.

So I’m overjoyed and now headed back to find my divers who I am sure are headed back to the boat by now. I’m at about 20 ft when I see all of my divers over head looking down. There is another larger group of dolphin right below them. A quick check of my air gauge (1000 psi) and I’m headed down again. But something is odd in this group. There are about 9 dolphin rolling and twisting on the sandy bottom. I tuck in behind a coral head and try to keep a low profile. Dolphin don’t usually like bubbles much some I’m chillin’ zennin and fully incognito. Thinking as many happy zen dolphin thoughts as I can muster, I get really low. I Should have brought a shovel.

So low and behold I realize I am the peeping Scubatony and the 9 dolphin 15 ft in front of me are having a full on, getting giggy wit it orgy! 2 females are coy and aloof near the bottom and given it up for the other 7 males. Okay maybe not so aloof. Each encounter takes less then 10 seconds. One male moves in with his micro curly sticking out, she rolls, he rolls they dock and then he slowly moves on. Then the next male swoops in does the hokey pokey and glides effortlessly away. They all turn and twist on the bottom making popping and whistling noises as if to say “Yea baby! You know you want it!” This goes on for maybe 5 min as I am kicking my self in the head for not bringing my camera to make dolphin porn movies! Geez what a moron! The camera is actually all ready in the case but 35 ft above me on the boat! Idiot!!!

So I’m an dork but moderately aroused by the whole scene. I think they have it kinda figured out really. Our mating ritual is just way too complicated as humans. Maybe I hang with the wrong crowd? Anyway a super wowzy type experience that I just had to share. Trouble is I am taking the gang diving again on Wednesday and I am going to have to find some way to bring a whale shark disco dance to top today’s dive. Hum…. Maybe a new tour for Scubatony is on the horizon?

By the way: all these pictures were taken while snorkeling with the same group about 15 min later as I did manage to get back to the boat and get the camera. Note the big, happy we just got some smiles on all their faces!

Ciao 4 now

New friends

It has been a busy week. Dove 22 tanks in the last 8 days. It seems the combination of short attention span (read swine plague of yesterday how soon we forget) and the cheap airfares (read Oh do we still fly to the Caribbean?) has convinced some folks the Cozumel is still a great safe place to visit. So they did. I had all new groups this last week. Nice folks from Canada, Texas and Florida. 70 percent of my biz is return guests but on weeks like this I get to make new friends and share the island to folks for the first time.


Rob and Brian are from Florida. They came down to do their advanced open water course with me as well as get in some great diving. They are fairly new to the dive scene and wanted to get a little more instructor time so we did some really good training. It was great to see them learn and improve over the week.


Jen and Evin are from Vancouver and they were already very skilled divers just looking to see a new ocean. They certified in Australia and did a few dives in Vietnam almost 2 years ago. I was a little worried they might be rusty but once again youth and fearlessness prevails and they did great from start to finish. Jen is an avid photographer so I let her use my camera to take some shots and I gave them a disk of their dives to remember Cozumel by. Might be a while before they make it back however cuz Evin is hard into learning dentistry and works really hard all year. They don't get much play time for the next few years. We were treated with a huge free swimming green moray at Cedral wall on one of the dives. I had set the max depth at 80 ft when we left the boat but Mr Moray convinced me to extend it to 100 as he was not about to come up to us. He gave us a really good show and had a big grouper following him around. I am still trying to figure out the relationship between them. Why do they hang out together so often?


I also got to take Branden, Roy and Brandon from Texas out for their Advanced open water. Branden had been here before the Roy and Branden were Cozumel virgins. We did the wreck, Delila, Santa Rosa wall, Chankanaab, Yucab and lots of others. We also saw a very large nurse shark on Delila. They seemed to be really pleased with the super viz this week and Branden is already planning his next trip to Cozumel. He might even rent Na Ha!


So it was really a great week of diving although after so much bottom time I need a little off gas time. Luckily I have a little break before party Marty and his family get here, with Steve and Kelly to follow close behind. And then well dive dive dive til our daddy takes the dive boat away... Dive dive dive til our daddy takes the dive boat awayyyyyyyyy,.,,.,.....