Below the Surface

Slipping below the water’s surface, I firmly grasp the regulator between my lips as I slowly descend into the inky depths. I click on light which penetrates twenty feet in front of me, startling my dive partner into spewing forth a stream of bubbles as a few stray unidentified fish shy away from the glare of the light. They’ll be back. Fish are a curious lot and can’t resist investigating anything new in their environment. We level off only 5 feet below the hull of the boat to orient ourselves in this pre-dawn dive off the coast Boynton Beach, Fl, near what’s known as the Del Ray Ledges. We checked our air gauges one more time and gave each other the thumbs up then with a kick of our fins; we headed down through the cooler layers of water known as thermal climes. Down we went to where the lobsters were hiding out. Yup, you guessed it. Its lobster season here in Florida, and its opening weekend. We wanted to be some of the first out of the gate as soon as the sun came up to be able to pull our first prizes out of the deep blue depths. Especially before the waters became inundated with hundreds of other divers and the pickings became scarce. Thankfully for us, we dive on Nitrox, a special air mix that gives us longer bottom time so that we can hunt longer underwater. Neither my dive partner nor I are into huge hauls of lobster, and there is a limit to what we can take. You cannot pull females with eggs and you do have to measure your catch to make sure that the spiny “bugs”, the universal diver term for lobster, are not under a certain size. So we’re all geared up with our catch bags, tickle sticks, measure gauges, gloves, you name it! Now I’ve seen other divers who carry all the bells and whistles and overburden themselves with too much gear or try to make it too easy to catch “bugs”. They’ll use what looks like butterfly nets. My buddy and I like to do it the old fashioned way: if we can’t tickle them out with skill and finesse, then that lobster deserves to stay on in the nooks and crannies all the wiser for what he or she is! A heck of a smart bug! It’s like the old saying goes, a bad day spent underwater, is better than a good day at work! The feel of gliding motionless under the water like a dolphin, seeing a school fish dart by you and the whole group suddenly change course at a moment’s notice. I enjoy watching huge sea fans that undulate in the current and shining my light over the coral and to see it light up in a myriad of hues of pinks and oranges. It’s breathtaking and fascinating. There isn’t another experience like it on earth. Well, maybe skydiving. Similar feeling of weightlessness that is, but a different kind of exhilaration and rush. I’ve dove on wrecks and on ledges, swum along sand planes, and in caves. I’ve been in cold water lakes and warm water reefs as well as black water rivers. I for one prefer the warm water reefs for the wide range of colorful life that you can view and be a part of. I keep all of my dive gear in tip top shape, even though to look at it, you would think that it’s old and rather grubby. I prefer it that way. Barracuda are attracted to anything bright and shiny and I would rather not attract the attention of a predator as nasty as one of those. With their rows of razor sharp teeth and quick temper, a barracuda would just as easily take a bite out of your arm as it would chase after it’s usual prey because it has mistaken a silvery flash of aluminum from the back of your tank for the underbelly of a small darting fish. Oops, that’s hurt! And yes, it has. So, I keep all of my equipment looking unpolished and kind of dingy looking. Helps to keep it from being boosted from off the dive boat as well I might add.