Some pics from a summer trip

Was going through some old pics, and realized I never shared these with the board.

Took a trip out into the GOM this summer with Ed and some of the usual suspects. By far the sharkiest diving I've done so far. We had to literally dive through a layer of sharks to get to the fish.

My hi-light of the trip was encountering a killer whale while being the first one in the water on the first spot. Pretty unreal experience. Sorry, no UW pics, had a busted housing... Go figure.

Anyways, enjoy the pics.

G

Hi Steve, GOM stands for: Gulf Of Mexico

Quote from Dan

Gerald, can you describe a little the encounter with the killer whale, distance, did it react to you, did your shorts require special cleaning afterwards? etc.

It was kind of surreal. I jump in, the bubbles clear and after a short breath up I dive down on some AP's that swim by about 40ft under the surface. Realizing I'll never get a shot on them, I start to look around, and out the corner of my eye see this huge dark shape with a bright spot in the murk, about another 40ft down. I do a double take, and am in total awe as the KW just keeps on cruising, completely ignoring me. I hung motionless for a while until it dawned on me that I had to go back up for air. Once on the surface, I start swimming back to the boat just to be safe, and relay the story to a skeptical crew... Man did I wish I had my camera...

Quote from Dan

Awesome. Was it a wreck or natural bottom? What was the depth? How far offshore? Wondering if it could ever happen here.

140+ ft of water, 70 miles offshore on a scattered debris field of an old wreck. If I get lucky enough to encounter one again (yeah, right), I just hope that I have my camera ready. I never considered the potential danger of the encounter until I was back on the surface. It had me totally mesmerized...