The Wandering Waterman

So, this post isn’t going to be about diving, I’ll tell you that upfront, so you can move on if that’s what you were hoping for… “Damn, he calls himself the Wandering Waterman, but he’s writing about… what? RODEO?!?”

Well, yeah, sometimes I have to come onto land you know, so I can see my loved ones! Of course, this time around I spent it at the Salinas Rodeo with NONE of my loved one’s so… Ok, I went up there to do some shooting, both still and video, looking to put together a small multimedia piece on the rodeo, and no, it won’t be an anti-rodeo piece. I actually like the rodeo, my dad is a former cowboy, grew up working the ranches in Arizona and Mexico, and he used to take me to rodeos all the time when I was a kid. I also grew up riding, and working with horses, so I can appreciate what the rodeo is. I know there are more “enlightened” people that hate the rodeo and can rail against it, and you know what? That’s cool, that’s your right as an American, and as I’ve said before, I will fight for you to have that right. That being said, I’ll also fight for the right of rodeo lovers to have their say, freedom of speech applies to all.

Anyways, back to the rodeo… I’m going to keep the words short and just post the photos, so look through and enjoy. Oh, and let me know what you think, but PLEASE, keep the negative energy to yourself. Thanks all, and enjoy!

Day 4 in Utila, and I LOVE it! The diving here is spectacular, seen whale sharks, turtles (2 already!), barracuda (sing it if you know it), and tons of reef life. 100 foot visibility at times, average 50-70 feet, water temp has been between 75 to 82, but coming from California diving that is 3mm wetsuit, no hood, no gloves, “what are you a wuss, this ain’t cold!?!” kind of diving, and I’m loving it!

Utopia dive resort is also top notch, I highly recommend it so far, though if you’ve got sweet blood like mine, make sure you bring some bug repellent, the sand flies will drain you. Apparently, they’re not always present, so it’s basically a roll of the dice… do you feel lucky? The owners I’ve met so far, Angelika, Kyle, and Roxanne, have been gracious hosts, and have a great story about how this place got started, read it here: Washington Post these women are great examples of strong women taking action, we can all learn something from their story.

Alright, still two more days of diving, still hunting Whale Sharks, fingers crossed, need to shoot some sellable clips. I’ll post again once I’m home, will give it all a proper review and let you all know what I recommend…

Alright, so it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here. Wish I could say it’s because I’ve been traveling the world, filming amazing footage, hobnobbing with the Cousteaus…. but I’ve just been lazy… yep, a lazy diver, imagine that?

Anyways, I’m about to leave to Utila in less than a week’s time, and I’m ready to gogogogogogogo now! Everything has been checked, double checked, triple checked and sitting in the corner waiting to go… or to be checked again!My wife Maria says I’m like a kid at Christmas…. of course I am, I’m going diving with Whale Sharks! Who wouldn’t want that day to roll in already? I know, I know, I was this excited back in October when I went down to La Paz for Whale Sharks and came back with footage of everything BUT Whale Sharks. I’m not one to be disappointed though, and I think they’re all just kicking back down in Honduras!

I’m staying at the Utopia Dive Village, an Eco-friendly resort run by a few Americans. It’s isolated, supposed to have an amazing house reef, and just be a great place to dive out of. I’ll be posting daily here while I’m there… they have WiFi, and I’ll let you know what the overall experience is like.

Here’s some info on Whale Sharks, courtesy of National Geographic:

As the largest fish in the sea, reaching lengths of 40 feet (12 meters) or more, whale sharks have an enormous menu from which to choose. Fortunately for most sea-dwellers—and us!—their favorite meal is plankton. They scoop these tiny plants and animals up, along with any small fish that happen to be around, with their colossal gaping mouths while swimming close to the water’s surface.

The whale shark, like the world’s second largest fish, the basking shark, is a filter feeder. In order to feed, it juts out its formidably sized jaws and sucks in everything in the vicinity. It then shuts its mouth, forcing water to filter out of its gills. Everything that remains becomes the giant shark’s dinner.

The whale shark’s flattened head sports a blunt snout above its mouth with short barbels protruding from its nostrils. Its back and sides are gray to brown with white spots among pale vertical and horizontal stripes, and its belly is white. Its two dorsal fins are set rearward on its body, which ends in a large dual-lobbed caudal fin (or tail).

Preferring warm waters, whale sharks populate all tropical seas. They are known to migrate every spring to the continental shelf of the central west coast of Australia. The coral spawning of the area’s Ningaloo Reef provides the whale shark with an abundant supply of plankton.

Although massive, whale sharks are docile fish and sometimes allow swimmers to hitch a ride. They are currently listed as a vulnerable species; however, they continue to be hunted in parts of Asia, such as Taiwan and the Philippines.

Alright, keep coming back, especially after the 13th, that’s when I land in Honduras!

Here’s something I shot four years ago, pre-HD camera days, while I was living in Newquay, U.K.

Newquay, U.K. – 2004 from AquaHombre on Vimeo.

Alright, here’s a bit of underwater Fiji, let me know what you all think! Later this week I’ll post something with more land based subjects and sharper edits!
Fiji Underwater from AquaHombre on Vimeo.

So I haven’t written here in about two weeks, and I wish I could say it was because I was in some exotic location, swimming in dangerous waters, filming Giant Pelagics… but no, I’ve actually been here in L.A….not diving….and working in my wife’s shop YOLK…sigh…. BUT! I do get to go back in the water in a few weeks with a new class of divers, so I’m looking forward to that. They’re all on a budget, so our ocean dives will be at Redondo, hilarity will soon follow on this blog!

Anyways, lets put the Fiji trip to rest, shall we? First of all, I finally got my camera back, it only cost, oh $2103 to fix! Thankfully I had insurance!!!!! So I’ll be editing the tapes this weekend and will post some stuff here next week.

Well,I’ve already described the diving, or at least a bit of it, it’s hard to really describe what I saw, you’ll have to watch the video, but what follows are a few bullet points on my memories and experiences. Not everything is in here, because you, the reader, might not find everything as interesting as I do, but some of the stuff that really stands out.

1.) Seeing the sharks…yes, SHARKS with an S, as in more than 1! There was the Grey Reef Shark I saw in the current of death, but also saw at least 3 White Tip Reef Sharks on subsequent dives…of course they were dives that I did AFTER the camera had flooded, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

2.) Finding the tiny little Harlequin Shrimp, and the smallest Frogfish I’ve ever seen (ok, it was the first Frogfish I’d ever seen, but it was TINY) I did get footage of those two, though I had my wide angle lens and the adapter isn’t great at filling the monitor, so we’ll see what they look like.

3.) Giant Clams!!! Well, maybe more like BIG Clams, but bigger than any clam I had ever seen, so I guess they would be considered Giant. I mean, you might only stand 5′8″, but you go hang out with Pygmys in Africa and they would probably describe you as a giant. (It’s why I like visiting my family in Mexico, down there I’m “tall”) The best part was watching Kinsey make them snap shut and her jumping everytime they did because she thought they would clamp down on her and drown her! hahahaha

4.) Ah, just everything underwater, I’ll show you later, I promise.

5.) The friendliness and kindness that the Fijians show towards visitors, and not just at the resort, where some of you, yeah you, the cynical jaded one reading this post, might assume is because they’re hoping for a tip. The people are very nice and good natured, it goes against cultural belief to argue and they hat being impolite (maybe we should just let Fijians run for office?)

6.) Oh, the shower in my room… yeah, you read that right, the shower. See, it was one of those indoor/outdoor showers, where one of the walls is a plate of glass and it faces into a small “private” garden, so you can get the sensation that you’re actually showering outside.Yeah, I know people LOVE that….um… don’t. As much as I get accused of being extroverted, I actually like my privacy. The first thing I do when I go into a hotel room is pull the curtains shut…tightly.
Anyways, I walk into the bathroom for the first time and see this shower and think “Shit… I wonder if anyone can see in?” There’s a bamboo screen around the garden for privacy, but I can clearly see gaps in-between the poles, just enough for someone to catch a glimpse of my hairy shampooed ass. I kneel down and try to see what’s on the other side of the fence, but the sun is shining in, so I can’t really tell. I’ve been on a plane for 10 hours, and then took a 2 hour van ride to the resort and I stink. I know I need to take a shower “Well, I am going diving tomorrow…I’ll be in the water…that’s like bathing, right?” Hmmmmm? SO my first shower consists of me turning off the lights (can’t look into a window if the lights outside are stronger than the one’s inside) turning the water on, quickly jumping under the water stream, making sure I’m facing AWAY from the glass, cleaning up really quickly, and then jumping back out… all the time imagining half the resort walking by my room and going “Hey, look! We can see right into that guy’s shower! Look he’s totally naked! hahaha… Gasp, oh my!” That last part is because the half of the resort I was talking about was the female half and they…well, never mind.
So I showered, went to dinner, came back, turned the lights on and walked towards the back of my room, where I noticed that the only thing facing my room was a huge hillside and you could see nothing going on in there. Needless to say, I still showered with my back to the glass for the whole trip….

Back home from NYC, got in at 9pm last night, the rest of the trip was uneventful, hence no writing after I posted the photos…well, except for two things.

First, I finally got to meet my friend Nancy Schwartzman, after 8 years of emails, phone calls, near misses and almosts. She was one of the first photo editors to actually not only give me feedback on my portfolio when I was shooting, but also gave me a few assignments. We’ve been trying to meet for years, but never quite got it together, so it was awesome that we were both in NYC, well, that’s where she lives, and we got to meet! Felt totally comfortable and like were old friends, which we are, but no awkwardness at all. I guess we know so much about each other that meeting was just a formality. I find it fascinating how the internet allows friendships to flourish across thousands of miles, sometimes overseas, with people that you might not ever meet face to face. For all the complaints one hears about how the internet is full of crap I think this is one of it’s greatest contributions…it shrinks the world!

The other event was me getting lost in Central Park while walking back to the hotel. I thought I was walking ACROSS the park, from 5th to Central Park West, but when I stepped out onto the street, I noticed I was on 5th Ave again…”Hmmm, no worries, must have gotten turned around, I’ll just go back into the park and just follow this road through the park, and exit on…. 5th Ave…” Don’t really know how I did that, I have an EXCELLENT sense of direction, never get lost, so thought it was simply because I was tired, so I returned to the park, walked down a path, past the little boat house, crossed a road watched some remote control boats toll around a pond, and finally exited on…5th Ave!!!!! 3 times!!!???!!! I finally just hailed a cab and got back to the hotel $10 lighter…

Other than that, it was good, until the morning of our return.I didn’t check the flight times before that morning, assumed the flight was leaving at 3pm, and then actually checked at 9:30am that morning, and realized our flight was actually leaving at 11:30am!!! I figured we could make it, Maria didn’t think it would be possible, so we ended up re-booking for the 4:59pm flight, at an additional $600, and went to go get lunch… a really quiet lunch. When we finally boarded the plane we were one row behind a mom and her two crying kids, thankfully I have Skull Candy’s Proletariat NC headphones, the NC standing for NOISE CANCELING, so on go the headphones, the iPod gets clicked on, and G.Love drowns out the crying babies!

Maria had pointed out that one of our fellow passengers was Donna A. (a.k.a. Brett Anderson) from the band “The Donnas“, if you don’t know them, click on the link and get to know them, they’re pretty rocking! Maria actually wrote about them back in the days when she worked at Jump Magazine, just when they were starting off and we got to see them a few times, the last show being at The Troubadour in Hollywood, where, after the show, Donna A. pulled up next to us in her Volvo station wagon… guess they didn’t have a tour bus back then! Anyways, she sat in the row in front of us and I could see her seat back screen from where I sat, and so I got a gander at her playlist, Virgin America allows you to put together a playlist for your flight from it’s MASSIVE music collection, …but I ain’t telling what she was listening to! I considered leaning over and coolly asking about her Volvo Station Wagon, kind of show her that I knew who she was, but was too cool to mention the band, or her music…. but Maria pointed out it was kind of creepers, and the idea of getting punched by a rocker chick and then arrested at L.A.X. really wasn’t appealing, so I sat back and read my book.

Anyways, back home now, the weather is much cooler than it was in NYC, and things are back to normal… as normal as it gets in L.A. anyways. I need to go underwater, feel myself getting grumpier and my gills are drying up. Here’s a quote for you guys:

“The sea does not belong to despots. Upon its surface, men can still exercise unjust laws, fight, tear one another to pieces, and be carried away with terrestrial horrors. But at thirty feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched and their power disappears. Ah! sir, live – live in the bosom of the waters! There only is independence! There I recognize no masters! THERE I AM FREE!”
– Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne

Freedom only underwater….

Ok, so didn’t write yesterday due to two reasons: A.) Went to see Les Paul, yeas Les Paul, who is 93 years old AND still plays better than 90% of us out there! It was awesome…

Les Paul, still jamming at 93!

B.) I was dead tired after walking from Battery Park all the way up to our hotel at 103rd St, which, according to Mapquest, is a distance of almost 8 miles! Hmmmm, I walk 8 miles here, but won’t walk the 1/4 mile down to the store back home….

We also ate dinner at Mama Mexico which I have to say, is one of the best Mexican restaurants I’ve eaten at in NYC! The Carne Tampiqueña was excellent, they had nicely cooked nopales, and Maria had a chili quesadilla which was delicious!

Today I did the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had a good time. They have a great photo exhibit going on: “Framing a Century: Master Photographers, 1840–1940″ which I loved, but still question the validity of some photos. I still think that some of those photos are only considered special because of their age and their association with their creator i.e. a snapshot by Henri Cartier-Bresson (who’s work I love)= BRILLIANT!!! A snapshot by some joe schmo = just a boring snapshot. Sometimes it’s all about the marketing, know what I mean?

Anyways, enough talk here are the photos from the past two days, enjoy!

Where I started: Battery Park!

National Museum of the American Indian: Bowling Green

The grease in America's wheel bearings!

Even in the middle of NYC a garden can still grow

I was taking a photo of the bubbles, someone decided to stick her tongue out at me!

Fresh Fruits and Veggies in Manhattan!

I used to get my slice of Pepperoni and box of garlic knots here 8 years ago!

The old homestead...we used to live on the 3rd floor, right side

My personal favorite shot of the Flatiron building

Nearing the Empire State Building... feet are starting to hurt!

Passing the library

Entering the mass of humanity on 5th Ave

Halfway home...and I think I feel a blister on my heel!

The Pond in Central Park

How many movies have been filmed here?

Upper East Side... as my mom would say

The NY Skyline from the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Up on the roof!

Made it back to the hotel!!! I've got a blister!

Let me know what you think!

I’ll keep this short…I promise.

Did the Gift Show with the wife at the Javitz Center today helping her shop for her store, YOLK. Told her I would spend a day with her at the show, and I kept my promise….but man, was it painful!!!!

So many badly designed, cheesy, awful, ugly pieces out there! I spent the day staring wide eyed at stuff that people actually sell and by the end of the day was basically a walking zombie, just following her around from booth to booth. Luckily, there were some nice thing in that Sea of bad taste. We found our friend Tracy Tanner who just creates these really great leather pieces, for both guys and chicks. Looking at getting myself the passport wallet (I sneaked an extra one into Maria’s order) AND she’s planning on making guitar straps in the future, so I’ve got a pending order for a few of those as well!

Also, Design House Stockholm was there as well, and they have a bunch of new stuff coming out, I’ll be putting up photos tomorrow, but you can always follow the link and see what they have, THEN, you can come to YOLK’s website, or into the store, and get it from us!

My brain isn’t working too well, I know she ordered a bunch more stuff, she’ll tell you on her blog when it’s up.

Last thing and then goodnight. We went to Aquavit for the Crayfish Celebration, we weren’t able to make it to Sweden this year and I thought this might help Maria’s homesickness a bit. When they found out she wasn’t going to see her family in Sweden this year, they went completely above and beyond and made the evening perfect. We got two appetizers, a crayfish bisque, and maria got a crayfish salad, both on the house and they were delicious! We then got a pound of crayfish and proceeded in destroying the little buggers and, consequently, spraying ourselves with crayfish juice throughout the meal. For dessert, Maria had the Rhubarb crumble with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, I had a dessert not found on the menu, called the Arctic Circle, a small tower of sweetened goat cheese parfait, with a blackberry sorbet on top, and stuffed with passion fruit cream….amazing! If you ever make it to NYC and find yourself near Aquavit, I suggest you make a reservation and get a taste of authentic and delicious Swedish food! Make sure you order the Arctic Circle for dessert, you won’t regret it!

No, NYC hasn’t gone underwater…yet. Give global warming a couple of years to melt down the rest of the icecaps and then I’ll be diving through the Penn Station Coral Reefs, and doing the “MTA Metro Swim Throughs”!
In NYC on a vacation/business trip, my vacation, business for my wife. You’re saying “Wait, you just got back from Fiji, that was a vacation!” No, sorry, even though it looked like a vacation, and sounded like a vacation, that was actually work for me, hard.difficult.work….God, I love my job!
We’re staying at the Marrakech Hotel a really nice, and cheap (at least for a nice hotel in NYC) boutique hotel. It’s basically a room with a bathroom, a small wardrobe and a flat screen tv (which you’ll hear about in more detail below) It’s Moroccan inspired, the staff is helpful, and the best part is, since we’re on the bottom floor and near the front office, the WiFi works in our room!
Anyways, got in last night, just as the last of a storm was leaving the city, we did get caught in the rain as we walked to our friend’s, Sophia, apartment, but no worries, we caught a cab..you know, you can’t hurt iron, but Mrs. Reynoso isn’t made of iron, more like some exotic, Swedish precious metal that doesn’t like getting wet. So into an infamous NYC cab that charged us $12 for going 15 blocks!(Just wait until they’re underwater!)
Today was easy, took the train down to Houston (pronounced “How-sten” though it should be pronounced “Hue-sten”, though thats an argument for another time.) and we walked through some of our old neighborhood haunts in SOHO and the Village. Maria immediately went into shopping mode and, not only reached her budget, but shattered through it like a jet shattering through the sound barrier! I got myself a shirt and a new hat, tired of wearing baseball caps, Fedora’s make one look like an “Indiana Jones” Fan boy and don’t really go with jeans and t-shirts, and those Kangol caps make my thin, long face look like a mushroom. I found a “newsboy” cap that fits my face and makes me look pretty “jaunty”…yes, damn it, I just said jaunty! Anyways, 10 seconds later I found a stand that was selling shemags and got myself an olive one, just like the ones I had while in the Gulf back in 1991 (before you give me any crap, I served in our U.S. Navy and went through the First Gulf War, so I can wear whatever I damn well please! Plus, we live in AMERICA, where one has the FREEDOM to wear whatever they want, so boycott this!um…how do you flip the bird online?) Think I like the look and will probably get a few more – I tend to collect looks I like, hence my 26 Target ringed t-shirts in different colors. Makes dressing so easy!
We had a nice Indian dinner at the Calcutta Cafe which we both agree had to be some of the best Indian food we’ve had in awhile. Order their Garlic naan and their Tandoori Chicken, you won’t regret it!
We got back to the room and tried to watch the Olympics, I say tried, because it seemed that our television was being controlled by another guest’s remote and he was attempting to buy “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls”, so every couple of seconds, usually right in the middle of an exciting race, the tv would be filled with Indiana’s face. We saw it in the theater, and as much as I liked it, we didn’t really want to see it again. After a few trips to the front desk, and an offer of $20 from my own pocket if he would just watch the Olympics (I almost gave away the ending of the movie, but I’m not that big of an ass) we finally got to watch the Olympics.
Yep, a pretty uneventful day, we’re just PARTY animals, aren’t we? The rest of the week will be better I promise, tomorrow we’re going to Aquavit a Swedish Restaurant that’s holding a Crayfish Festival this weekand my wife being Swedish…really Swedish, like she was BORN there, not that “Oh, my great,great,great grandfather was 18th Swedish, which is why I have this Viking tattoo” Swedish, we have to go and participate. For $25 we’ll each get a pound of crayfish with garlic bread, boiled potatoes and Jarlsberg Cheese…hmmm, an entry on upset stomaches? Monday we’re going to go see Les Paul play at the Iridium, and I’ve bought the tickets!!!! If you’re not a guitar music fan, you probably don’t know who I’m talking about, I’ll try and shoot some vid when I’m there. We’ll also be going to see Chicago…the musical, not the city… and, even though we lived in NYC 9 years ago, we’ve decide to do the tourist thing and take one of those double decker bus tours! I love being a tourist!!!