Reading Notes

Sometimes, I will read any style if the subject is what I want.

Or, I will read any subject if the style is what I want.

Best practices, right?

Surface Tension

Mendocino Free Diving: Glimpses

Superficial: 7 Shots

Sub-Surface Sequence: Hawaii

(I'm borrowing part of my title from an excellect dive shop in Ft. Bragg, CA: Sub-Surface Progression.)

The Behavior Of Water

Or, The Surface Matters.

This shot captures one reason I free dive: the surface.  When I tell folks that I free dive, they want to know how deep I go and how long I can hold my breath.  When I tell folks that I snorkel, they don't take me seriously as a diver and start talking as if I'm a tourist who has never worn flippers before.  (I've worn flippers out, let me tell you.)  I used to say "snorkel" just to see what would happen, but I have tired of the disrespect.  I'm a diver, yes, but I spend a lot of my time at the surface and/or interacting with the first few feet of water.  It's warmer up there too, by the way.  Maybe I'm just a swimmer . . . but I do like following the fish around down below.

Thought not quite plumbed here.

Arnold: "With Noiseless Current Strong, Obscure and Deep"

Below the surface-stream, shallow and light,
Of what we say we feel -- below the stream,
As light, of what we think we feel -- there flows
With noiseless current strong, obscure and deep,
The central stream of what we feel indeed.

--Matthew Arnold

(1869)

Surface Shots: Free Diving (On A Low Viz Day)

Free diving Monterey Bay: bright June day.

Underwater, the visibility was strictly limited to 10 feet at most close in to shore, sometimes even zeroing out.   Up top, though, matters lack such limitations.