After one of the THE most confusing starts to my day that I’ve had in quite some time…….. I finally headed down town to Historic Frederiksted, to hang out at the dive shop. Since I am a bona-fide employee of the shop….. I stood inside, leaning against the counter like I owned the joint and made small talk with the small crowd of folks who were drifting in from the freshly moored cruise ship docked across the street. I answered a LOT of typical tourist’y‘ type questions the best I could. The time finally came for me to go to ‘work’. We had a dozen people all lined up on the front porch (so-to-speak) and starting their introduction to SCUBA diving. Commonly referred to in our business as a DSD….. or Discover Scuba Diving………. these are usually folks who have never tried to breathe underwater before and are curious about the pastime. This was a fairly diverse group… young, old, male, female…… a nice mix…….. I snapped pictures I know to be preferred and waited quietly until we were all gathered on the dive boat, which is when my real ‘work’ goes into over drive. My picture taking finger stays really busy for the next 3 hours at this point. Today was no exception……. but I did so happily, swimming around in that gorgeous blue water, watching these people (most of whom have never been to our gorgeous little island) living the life of a world traveler, experiencing things that a big handful of the worlds population don’t get to try. It truly is satisfying to watch. Even more satisfying to me that I get to document this particular opportunity for these fine folks. Our weather was doubly cooperative today, with huge white puffy clouds and water that looked like it belonged in an aquarium. The sea life today was also equally cooperative with Sting Rays, turtles and dozens of different species of fishes making an appearance. Just a really great day all the way around. Nobody panicked or needed any special tending to….. so just a really good day for everybody involved. I wound up taking almost 400 pictures….. which is a LOT for a 1 tank dive… even for a DSD….. but the people were fun, the water and sea life was amazing….. so I did what came naturally…… and like to think that there are a dozen people that sometimes in the next 12-24 hours will have a great big smile on their face when they see pictures of themselves underwater…. SCUBA diving~! And that those smiles will be compliments of my handiwork with a camera……. I am truly living a dream in that I get to do this in my ‘golden years’………. and when I get to see or hear the various comments about “Oh my gosh… I can’t believe how beautiful those pictures are…..” or any variation of that…… it just makes this old heart beat a little faster and prouder……… I hope someday every one of you reading this….. get’s to try out SCUBA diving so you get to see first hand all the cool stuff I get to see every day…….. and I hope I am there to capture it on ‘film’ for you~!
Good Night Y’all & & & & & & & & & & & & Thankx for stopping in~!
P2240233 <—- Video
