Report on scuba-diving El Hierro, the smallest and most western of the Canary Islands. Until the 15th century people thought this place was the end of the world so the meridian even went through it.
Nowadays it’s an amazing and peaceful island untouched by the claws of mass-tourism. A perfect place for diving and an incredible place to view topside nature. It holds rainforests, pine forests, endless lava fields, rocky cliffs and some nice and small harbours. A perfect place to be honest, no wonder it’s a Unesco Biosphere Reserve!
Because of doing a two and a half week diving report on Croatia for Duikmagazine it has been a little quiet on the updating of this website. And as there is a lot of travel coming in the next few months I will probably have this problem for a while.
For a change a small photo series on just one particular dive: the famous Blue Hole. No, not the one in Dahab (Egypt) which is literally a killerdive (dozens of people have died there while trying to outsmart common sense while scuba-diving) but a actually much nicer one located on the island Korčula. Located roughly three hours by ferry from Split this very nice island hosts some of the best diving of the region. With over twenty dive-sites to choose from we just barely scratched the surface with our three days of diving but one site really stood out: the hole…
It’s actually not just the hole itself with it’s cathedral-like lighting but also the massive and highly untouched soft gorgonians that are to be found around the hole at 35+ meters of depth. Massive pink giants that are most photographers favorites!
Well, just enjoy the photo’s and make sure to get in contact with Croatia Divers when doing some bubble-blowing over there!
Finally some fresh wallpapers, I’ve been lacking the past few months but there’s just so much to do! Please enjoy these colorful underwater images from this amazing tropical Caribbean island.
Click here full the full set of scuba wallpapers or click one of these (widescreen) images below. Just remember, they are also available in a normal (non-widescreen) XL hi-res size!
A weird combinatio took me all along the South African Coast and inland: sharks & hotels. A nice report on some of the nicest hotels in South Africa along the Route of the African Sun. Published in 2007 for Tulp Magazine.
Some guys have all the luck I guess, quite often I feel like I’m one of them but last week there was no doubt about it whatsoever. After doing a small press-release for the Telegraaf (the largest Dutch newspaper) on heli-diving in Curaçao, which is exclusively organized by a good friend of mine he suddenly asked me if I’d like to do it myself tomorrow?
After less than a nanosecond, a huge smile on my face and a big “Are you kidding me?” things were taken care of and a day later we were setting our gear up on a small industrial platform near the huge oil-harbor of Willemstad. With me were Belgium adventurer Marc Sluszny, underwater photographer Peter Verhoog and Walther Bruckschen, a German Journalist, the lucky bunch so to speak!
As a heli-dive is not completely without danger we had to do a full-gear practice inside the hangar which had a very good airco. Just imagine practicing this sort of thing with full wetsuit and heavy scuba gear in the soaring 35 degree weather of this tropical paradise! Most importantly is the jumping out of the heli: if this isn’t done in perfect sync the heli can easily tilt and that’s something you don’t want 2 meters above the surface of a sea! The trick is a third person inside the heli that holds both divers hands while they climb outside and hang backward fully. Literally your faith is in this guys hands as he controls the moment to drop, it’s simply out of your hands.
The Amazing view over Willemstad from the chopper.
And what a drop it is! After an intensely beautiful flight under the impressive Julianabrug, along Willemstad and all its bright colors, the low pass over the Pontjesbrug with many people waving and taking photographs (the helicopter is open so they see you in full scuba-gear) it’s time for a sharp right turn over the stunning blue seawater and the approach to the wreck site. Niels Jorissen, the owner of DivecharterCuracao and the organizer of these heli-dives, is already waiting with his 25 feet Tornado RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) so all we have to do is climb out and wait for the right hovering height of the helicopter.
Now that’s a heli-drop!!!
So there we are, hanging outside, arm and legs stretched out fully, one hand over mask and breathing equipment, waiting for the plunge…. Then suddenly we’re falling, we pretty high so we have time to soak it up! above us the heli shoots upwards as it suddenly lost about 200 kilo’s in weight. Then the splash comes, water all around us and the tail of the chopper quickly vanishes from our viewpoint. We’re done, floating about while the heli goes for the next bunch of drop-outs! What an insane feeling and what a way to go diving, knowing one of the nicest wrecks of the Caribbean(the Superior Producer) is waiting for us below…. we ARE truly lucky!
The front deck of the Superior Producer.
Belgium adventurer Marc Sluszny enters the hold of the ship.
German travel writer/photogrpaher collegue Walther Bruckschen.
Underwater photographer collegue Peter Verhoog.
With many, many thanks to:
Niels from DiveCharterCuracao who organizes these heli-drops, unique in the world.
George from Blue Skies for making his heli available to us.
Chilo from Chilo.tv for editing the movieclip.
Full gallery on the heli-dive here.
More images from the Dive Festival Curaçao 2009 here.
This months Duikmagazine opens with a 10-page article on my favorite diving destination, the Barkley Sound [open in Google Earth] in Vancouver Island. The place where you can finde the Dutch/Canadian operator Rendezvous Diving, one of the best places ever!
Okay, that’s enough: no more Dennis the Dugong after this post (at least for now). The Portugese underwater filmer Joel Machado, who can be seen at work this photo, just sent me a link to his video of our little quest to find Dennis.
You can see me swim by a few times and trying to get aquinted with a Remorra… at 04:21 I’m actually taking this picture (watch the flash). But have a look at the video because it’s simply beautiful!
It is starting out to be a bit of a Port Ghalib fest on this website as (see here and here), again, there is another publication on this brand new resorttown. This time a massive 8-page checkout in the Dutch diving magazine Duikmagazine. The article is about the resort as well as the fantastic diving with the guys from Emperor Divers who run a very nice operation over there. Surely one of the best spots in Egypt that easily accesible as Port Ghalib is about ten minutes away from the Marsa Alam airport. Resort quality? Let’s just say that it’s the only place in Egypt where I’ve found it to be safe to eat the salads and fruits in the hotels.
What is an article on scuba-diving doing in a Ski Magazine? Well, that’s gotta be the summer-edition full of climbing, biking and this time some diving too. It’s in Dutch, sorry for those who can’t read it. The openingspread was taken at the Port Ghalib Resort near Marsa Alam. See this post for more under water images from this area.
Knowing there is something to fotograph but not being able to find it sort of frustrating, especially when underwater and being limited by an annoying but finite thing as an air supply.
Try imagining an area as large as a couple of football fields of underwater seagrass and an underwater visibility of about 20 meters and you’ll understand it’s not easy to find a specific living animal, even it has the size of about two humans.
Seeing these pictures you’ve probably guessed we found it but it took us two full-hour dives to actually spot it. Sure, we did come across plenty of huge and approacheable Turtles and a couple of large Stingrays but imagine being a the last stage of your dive (it’s that limited air supply) and spotting an enormous dustcloud underwater, the number one Dugong signature… but no Dennis to match it.
Turned out it was right above us and while we were getting highly frustrated not seeing it, he was just getting a breath of fresh air. Our paths finally crossed when we decided to go up and finish the dive while he was going down to continue vacuuming the seafloor.
We squeezed a few last minutes at our ample air supply… enjoy the shots!
Images taken with a Canon Eos 20D, 15mm f2.8 fisheye and an UK-Germany housing.
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