Ropes with Ryan and Ian

Today's excursion to an old spot but a good spot reminded me of how much more I need to improve in my free-diving skills.  The biggest fish in this spot hang out well below 50 feet.  My companions left me high at the surface, so high that they looked like small hunters in a very big, dark world.  I get ahead of myself.  Here are our hunters at the start of the day, swimming out to find their white whales.

Armed and ready for action, I tried to stay out of the way and challenge myself as documentary photographer.  The water was a bit murky, and my subjects went beyond the depth limits of the underwater camera.  Honestly, they went beyond my depth limits, but I'll blame the camera.  Also, they went into little caves and crevices, and without lights to boot!  I liken this to sticking one's nose over an unknown flask, rather than wafting to get a sense of the environment.

Although I could not follow, I did admire their patience.  It's not easy to hold your breath, swim down to 40-50 ft, equalize ears as necessary, look for fish, then calmly stalk them to spear them. Even if not successful, they still have to slowly come back to the surface to breathe again.  It's not easy, folks.

Every now and then, there is success.  Sometimes, they know exactly what they have and are already thinking about dinner.  Other times, we have to wait until we look at the laminated poster at our house of edible fish species, compare the poster with two field guides for this region, and make a guess.  Usually, everything gets cooked and sampled.  Usually, the search image is honed.

I tired of the depth after a while.  Also, my ears were not cooperating today.  Sometimes, I have no problem equalizing and can surprise myself with how deep I can go.  (That's what she said!) On this day, there weren't many pleasant surprises, so I swam closer to the cliffs and entertained myself with some reef wonders.  Another great day in Okinawa!