Monday, November 17, 2008

Sunset Beach

So I'm enjoying my new job. I work mornings by the pool offering free scuba try outs and then anyone who is interested comes along with me to sunset beach to dive. I like this job for a number of reasons.
The people who dive from El Cozumeleno are pretty nice. Because they tend to be beginners they are eager to learn and super respectful about Marine life.
I love that the dives are shallow. This is easy on my body and means I can run and lift weights after work. Most people who guide from boats are diving 4 dives a day, starting at around 100ft. This is tough on you physically and really restricts what you can do in terms of exercise and your own personal diving.
Another thing I like is that I always dive in the same area. This is nice because I am getting to know the marine life down there. For example there is one coral head where I know a family of yellow stingrays live:This guy often whispers "Nothing to see here just a sandy bit of ocean floor - no stingrays to look at here - honest- its much more interesting on the next coral head". Frankly, if I were those stingrays, I would move because all of the dive masters who dive of Sunset Beach know where to find them - so at least 4-5 times a day they are accosted by a heard of elephants. I try not to disturb them too much but a few days ago I did interrupt some stingray lovin. Two of them were just about to get busy when I came along with my group. I'm afraid we completely ruined the moment.
My favorite fish off sunset beach is the trunk fish. Here is a little video I took of one:


The snorkelers clearly feed these fish and so they are completely unafraid of people. This is nice and at some points in the dive you can swim amongst big groups of trunk, cow and parrot fish.
One of my recent students took some pictures of us gearing up. I'm hoping he will send those to me so I can give you an idea of the set up.

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