BULA!  Hello and greetings in Fijian.  I’m in my second favorite office here at 39,000’ winging back from Fiji and on the way to Costa Rica.  In Fiji, we had the opportunity to do one of the most remarkable shark dives we had ever seen.  Eight different species of sharks and LOTS of them came in for a feeding including several large bull and lemon sharks.  It was a packed house so to speak.  I went into detail on this in Part One and Part Deux so check them out if you haven’t.  Now, we’re on our way to dive Cocos Island off the western coast of Costa Rica – a place known as the island of the sharks.

A Load of Bull ..... Sharks

Cocos Island and Fiji – A Study in Shark Diving

Cocos Island is one of the few places in the world where large schools of scalloped hammerhead sharks congregate.  There are also healthy populations of white tip reef sharks and silky sharks as well as other species including whale sharks – the largest fish in the Ocean.  These two places offer a very different opportunity for diving with sharks.  Cocos Island sits like a very remote, relatively pristine beacon for shark populations.  While it is a protected marine park, over the years, it has been illegally longlined but no so much that it has lost its sharks.  Sharks occur in large numbers naturally at Cocos Island because, among other things, there is an intact and productive food web there that can support a large population of apex predators and there hasn’t been rampant overfishing.  In Fiji, it is rare to see sharks on most dives other than the occasional white tip reef shark.  I don’t know what Fiji’s original shark populations would have looked like?  Were there always fewer sharks there or have they been fished out over the years?  I’ve only been diving Fiji since 1998 so I don’t have that answer and this in a nutshell is the problem with shifting baselines.  We don’t know how good it once was so we accept a degraded state as the norm.  In meeting with the chief of Malake Village which derives a lot of its food and most of its cash revenue from spear fishing, he told me that the spearfishermen from the village constantly have sharks around them while they fish.  I took that as a good sign.  There are still some sharks in Fiji.

Unlike Cocos Island, when shark diving in Fiji, the sharks are attracted with bait – in other words, it’s a feed.  This is what I will define as a shark dive – when divers are taken to a dive site where feeding has repeatedly been done and sharks show up in unusual numbers because there is a dinner bell ringing figuratively and sometimes literally.  In some places, this means the difference between seeing one or two sharks swimming around versus a dozen and in other places, it means the difference between not seeing any sharks and seeing 50.  Fiji is the latter.

As you might already imagine, there is controversy around shark dives so I’ll just wade in with a fairly bold statement:

Shark dives are probably the best thing to happen to sharks in the

last 65 million years

Creating Shark Advocates on Shark Dives

The reason for this is simple – sharks are being slaughtered by the tens to hundreds of millions a year.  In less than a human generation, some shark populations have been reduced by 85-90% and we are rapidly losing the rest.  I’ve seen it with my own eyes.  In fact, sharks haven’t faced this kind of threat since a worldwide extinction event 65 million years ago.  You’ve probably heard of save the whales, save the mountain gorillas and seen the cute panda bear mascot of the World Wildlife Fund.  These are cute, fuzzy and charismatic animals that don’t have the reputation for eating humans.  Thus, they are worth saving and get most of the press and most of the funding.  Conversely, because sharks are seen as a potential threat to humans and in many cases as eating machines of destruction, they’ve been all too easy to kill and difficult to protect.  Until recently, there simply has been no realization much less ground swell to protect sharks.  All you have to do is look at how difficult it was to get the first three sharks species listed on CITIES, the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species and you’ll see the indifference to protecting sharks.  The only way to save sharks is to create shark advocates and the best way to do that is to give people a personal experience with sharks;  A personal, up close, in water experience.  And that is what shark dives are all about.  There we have the opportunity to see that they are definitely wild, amazingly graceful and highly selective.  Maybe the most important thing is that we see that the first large fish that swims past us with a dorsal fin doesn’t immediately try to eat us like in Jaws.  I’ve talked with Wendy Benchley (Peter Benchley’s wife) a number of times and they rue the day they published Jaws and have spent the remainder of their lives trying to undo the PR damage it did to sharks.

A Big Bull Shark, Notice the Hook in Her Mouth

Concerns About Shark Dives

There are a number of concerns about shark dives and in some places, a lot of opposition.  Concerns include

• divers being bitten and injured or killed during a dive
• sharks being attracted to areas where swimmers or surfers are present
• having sharks become dependent for food
• having sharks associate humans with food

Why Do We Need a Set of Best Practices for Shark Dives

All of the above concerns are valid and are why we need a set of Best Practices for shark dives.  This is a set of rules when followed that create a safe environment for both people and sharks.  Over the years I’ve seen some well run shark dives and some that were bone headed beyond belief.  A couple of years ago in the Bahamas, I watched in mixed horror and disbelief as a diver was attacked by a number of Caribbean reef sharks following a shark dive.  I thought, “After all these years, I’m about to see a guy get bitten.”  This all happened because the dive operation would ring the dinner bell literally by banging on the dive ladder on the back of the boat and then throwing in a bucket of bait.  Are you seeing where this is going?  After the feed, as a diver ascended to the surface to exit the water at the dive ladder, the boat pitched on a swell and the ladder banged against the boat making the same sound as the dinner bell.  The sharks were habituated to charge to the back of the boat when they heard this which is exactly what they did – and they found a diver there.  Dinner time!

Fortunately he fended off the sharks for a few long seconds and then was physically yanked from the water by two large Bahamian dive masters.  I watched from underneath as one of his fins drifted down to the bottom.  After having run hundreds of successful shark dives myself, this showed me without a doubt that a set of best practices needs to be established so everybody out there isn’t running off half cocked and doing a bone headed shark dive.  Because when one person gets injured on a shark dive, all the world of good we’ve done to create positive PR for sharks is going to disappear in a flash, aka Steve Irwin or Timothy Treadwell, the Grizzly Man.

What Are Best Practices for Shark Dives

Here are the rules:

• Separate divers and the chum.  NO hand feeding.  Divers in chainmail suits are a bunch of macho crap.  If you need to be in a chainmail suit, you shouldn’t be there – and it sends the wrong message.  Fasten or secure the chum and give the sharks free access.  Set the divers at a safe distance to watch the action.  Sharks shouldn’t be trained that they need to approach humans for food.
• No touching the sharks.  Sharks are wild, powerful, elegant animals.  When we treat them like puppies we are sending the wrong message and somebody ultimately gets bitten.
• Use an absolute minimal amount of bait.  This will attract the sharks but not replace their natural diet and need to hunt.
• Make sure and set up the bait so that the sharks can approach it and circle around without needing to swim through divers.  Keep their path clear.
• Don’t introduce bait near the entry or exit points of the dive boat.
• Conduct the feed at a reasonable depth.  That way if a diver has a problem, they can surface easily.
• Follow the same procedures every time.  This is as important for the divers as it is for the sharks.  Everybody knows what’s expected.

Time for Some Shark Dives

Ready for a shark dive?  I hope so.  When conducted properly, shark dives are a safe way to see what may be nature’s most perfect predator, honed by over 300 million years of hunting prowess and mastery of the Ocean.  And …. It’s a hell of a rush.  See ya down there.

Bad Ass Shark Dives in Fiji

I’d heard a lot about this particular Shark Dive in Fiji over the past couple of years – and I couldn’t wait to come check it out.  As I mentioned in Part One, I’ve been intrigued by sharks for a long, long time …. Thus the handle – Sharkman.  I celebrate sharks, think their cool as hell but never forget they are wild, wild, wild and generally sit at the top of the Ocean realm.  As Mantagirl is fond of saying, when we go back into the Ocean, we reenter the food chain and not necessarily at the top.  In other words, when we go back to the Ocean, we’re on their turf and we better not forget it.  I believe when practiced properly, Shark Dives are fantastic; they’re a wild rush for everyone involved and great positive publicity for sharks … again, when done right.  We’ll get into what it means to be done right later but for now, let’s talk about what this bad ass experience was really like.

Shark Dives in Fiji

I’ve done Shark Dives before when you pull up at the site, tie off at the mooring and not only can see the sharks swirling below the dive boat but can even catch a dorsal fin or two cutting the surface.  On one particular shark dive I was leading in Tahiti, I grinned ear to ear behind my Smiths as the husband of a young Mexican honeymoon couple made his new bride get in the water first.  Que es muy mas macho?  Here in Fiji, it wasn’t like that.

We pulled up to the dive site and the water was calm and relatively clear with 50 foot visibility.  I looked down in anticipation and there were no sharks in sight.  The dive staff gave us a thorough briefing and explained the procedures for the feed.  Incidentally, if you haven’t heard the definition yet, Shark Dives are usually a situation where some kind of bait is introduced into the water to attract sharks in some way; it’s a feed.  Divers get positioned in some way to watch the action, the divemasters bring down the bait, the action begins and things clear out amazingly fast once all the bait is gone.  There is some controversy around this and we’ll talk about it in Part Tres.  It was interesting to note the reactions to the shark dives by other divers …. But we’ll cover that later.  Back to the dive.

The Bistro

Gettin Wild at the Shark Dive

The dive site is called The Bistro and that cracked me up.  It’s just the kind of humor that I love.  I’m not big into making large splashes in the water on my entry at Shark Dives I haven’t done.  So I slowly eased myself off the stern platform of the dive boat and immediately looked down to spot for any sharks that I was sure would be present and there were – none.  Unusual for most shark dives I’ve done but I later talked with one of the divemasters and found out that since this feed is done deeper than most, at about 85 feet, the sharks stay down there.  They don’t bother to come up shallower because they don’t get fed there nor is the bait out in the open as it comes down from the surface.  The bait is put into large plastic trash cans that are tied shut and transported down and not opened until they are at the specific site where the feed takes place.

So What’s It Really Like on Shark Dives?

All the divers descend together and head down to the site.  The feed takes place at the base of a pinnacle which has some benefits.  There’s a rope that’s about 60’ long that’s anchored to the bottom at its ends.  The divers are aligned along the line and can grab it if they want.  It’s not like it magically keeps the sharks on one side and the divers on the other but it’s actually an important piece of organization.  It keeps divers from drifting into the action which takes place 15’ in front of them and also creates an arrangement that the sharks understand and follow from dive to dive.  This line of divers creates a wall of bubbles that most sharks aren’t keen on swimming through.  So the sharks form a swirl out in front of the divers as they come in to take some bait, then roll off and sweep back around for more.  The pinnacle in back of the divers keeps sharks from swimming back behind the divers which in this particular case is important because there are some sharks that you don’t want behind you.

I’d heard that there were a number of species at this shark site, but as I descended and came over the pinnacle, I was blown away.  Immediately, I made out Pacific nurse sharks swimming 50’ below and there were A LOT of them, and man were they big – in the 7’ range.  In the end, I counted 8 different species of sharks which was amazing.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  I noticed a number of other different shapes and sizes but my attention was quickly fixed on a few massive shadows down deeper.  Those were bull sharks and while I’ve seen bulls before, they seemed particularly big.  As I got closer, and they got closer, I found out they weren’t big, they were frickin’ HUGE.  They were massive and moved through the masses of fish and other sharks with an authority that was easy to see.  Nothing else except other bulls would swim near them.  Later, one of the divemasters would share with me that he had seen a bull shark snap a giant trevally into two pieces on another dive.  I’ve never even heard of that before.

Sharks and More Sharks

On a bit of a side note, it was fascinating which species of sharks were NOT involved in coming into the feed but stayed way out on the periphery.  Normally, white tip reef sharks are like feral dogs and just swarm a feed.  Gray reef sharks are like a pack of wolves at a feed and are usually involved in large numbers.  In this case, both were noticeably absent at the dinner table.  And I am certain it was because of the abundant bulls that would have grabbed a white tip or even a gray and made a hasty meal.  White tip reef sharks are slow and apparently know it.  Even the silver tips weren’t interested in getting involved and those are pretty big sharks.  The only sharks that actually came in on the bait were the abundant Pacific nurse sharks, the bulls and the large lemon sharks.  All the other sharks got the hell out of the way.

Once all the divers are arranged along the line, the divemasters bring down the bait.  Its organized chaos on a shark dive and not just because of the sharks.  There is inevitably a massive cloud of fish on a shark dive but this was different.  There was a STORM of fish.  I’ve never seen a larger collection of greater trevally in my life – they are the biggest members of the jack family and large, awesome predators in their own right.  Here they showed up en masse with thousands of other fish.  They created a literal cloud around the bait that was difficult to see through  ….  You would look at this swirling mass of fish with sharks entering into it and coming out.  Once the bait is opened that’s the kind of instant action that you see.  These fish and sharks know what’s coming and it’s a massive pile on.  It’s kind of like in college when the free taco bar opened.

Keeping Your Head (and fingers and toes) on Shark Dives

It’s important to be level headed on a dive like this whether you just want to check out some sharks or are looking to produce imagery of a lifetime.  There’s so much going on, you need to be aware of what’s happening all around you.  Typically, you’ll be kneeling down and just checking out the action.  If you’re producing imagery – still or video – you’ll want to understand the flow of the sharks so you can position yourself in the best spot to catch the action you want to capture.  Have in mind some of the images you want to capture before you hit the water and let serendipity help you produce the rest

The action was intense.  I spent the dive watching and anticipating the action, framing shots and keeping an eye out.  I also had a divemaster next to me on both dives looking out which was a good thing.  Twice, I had bulls swim up on me from the side and I didn’t see them until the last minute.  One narrowly turned just before slamming into my camera.  But did I get a heck of a shot.

Moment Before Impact with MR Bull Shark

End of a Shark Dive

At the Shark Dive in Fiji, they feed by hand which I’m not at all crazy about.  Once the bait is gone, it’s amazing to see how quickly the action fades.  It’s like a plug is yanked from the wall and all the power goes out.  Wild.  You begin to ascend along the pinnacle to the top at 20’ where you do a long safety stop.  As you look down into the blue, occasionally you can see the shape of a silver tip or lemon shark passing below.  When you consider that if you saw even that on a typical dive it would be a big deal, the shark dive in Fiji quickly frames itself as something wicked good.

More on shark dives to come ….

MASSIVE bull sharks

There are certain things in life that produce an automatic, deep in your gut, visceral reaction and being borne down on by a ¾ ton toothed apex predator the size of a Yugo is one of them.  On the way to write this blog, I was attacked by a coconut.  It fell out of a tall palm tree with a violent thunk right next to me.  It hit the ground so hard, it cracked the thick shell and coconut juice sprayed out all over the place – but somehow, I just didn’t feel the same menace that I did earlier this morning.

Sharks, Sharks and More Sharks

I just got back from one of the most amazing, intense Shark Dives I’ve ever done.  After having run Shark Dives in Tahiti for almost two years and shark diving around the world, this was truly something special here in Fiji.  WHOA!  Eight species of sharks – blacktip reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, oceanic black tips, gray reef sharks, silver tips, pacific nurse sharks (that were HUGE), pacific lemon sharks and MASSIVE and I mean MASSIVE bull sharks.  I’ve seen bull sharks before but never anything like this.  There were at least a dozen and they were 10-12’ long and had the girth of a small compact car.  And they were curious – VERY curious.

Mantagirl and I have been Shark Diving for about 15 years now and I’ll be the first to say that its one of our favorite things.  Sharks are magnificent, WILD animals that have been honed through over 300 million years of evolution.  They survived the last great extinction on earth that killed off the dinosaurs with over 75% of the rest of life on the planet and they have thrived since – until recently …. More on that later.  Their diversity is extraordinary!  They live in every sea on the planet, from the tropics to the arctic and Antarctic and in shallow waters to bone crushing depths that never see a ray of light and live in perpetual darkness.  Their constituent member species span across numerous families.  Yes, amazingly diverse.

I’ve always been fascinated by sharks and judging by the things I read and people I talk too, you probably are too.  They are graceful and elegant, strong and cunning and in some cases, dangerous.  And that’s probably the big deal, because in a world where we’ve methodically eliminated risks to humanity, sharks still sit out there on the edge of our dreams.  It’s really quite simple; when we get back into the water, we’re no longer at the top of the food chain.  It may also be one great predator admiring another.  Who knows?

Readers Digest 300 Million Year History of Sharks

Whatever the answer, we’re taught from a young age that sharks are things to be feared.  The reality is this: there are almost 400 species of sharks in the world and only about 40 species have ever been recorded biting a human and only about three are actually considered man eaters.   The man eaters, especially the great white shark get a lot of press of course.  Unfortunately nothing sells ad space like a shark attack.  This has created a public image of all sharks being mindless killing machines.  In reality, recent groundbreaking research on great white sharks show them to be anything but – they are in fact very calculating.  And while they are apex predators, we aren’t on their menu.  The side affect of all of this public perception is that we have allowed sharks to be wiped out from our Ocean in epic proportions.  What the last global extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs couldn’t do, we’ve accomplished in the last 50 years.  And that’s why Shark Diving is so important.

Why Does Shark Diving Kick Ass

Shark Diving is a rush, it’s a massive blast of adrenaline, it kicks ass.  But in addition to that, it’s a critically important educational tool if we are going to save our sharks.  By getting in the water and seeing for ourselves that we aren’t going to be immediately eaten by the first thing with a dorsal fin that swims by, we knowingly or unknowingly just became ambassadors for our finned friends.  We see them for what they are – very wild, powerful, graceful, necessary and generally unthreatening.  And if we want to be diving with them 10 and 20 years from now, we’ve got to make this change.

More on Shark Diving to come …..

Greetings from the South Pacific isles of Fiji! We have come to Fiji to discover new places and activities, to re-discover old friends, visit a village we support through our non profit Ocean of Hope Foundation and find new needs along the shores of these palm swept islands.

The Yassawa Islands

On the boat to the island

Under the waterfall on a Tuesday

Preparing the fire for firewalking

Our journey began seven hours later than expected as we had a rare delay in our Air Pacific flight. After many hours sleeping on the floor in LAX, we were off at 4:00am. The silver lining here (remember make travel FUN) was that we landed in the daylight giving us fabulous and rare views of the Yassawa islands. Even the flight crew were glued to the windows for the landing, bet I could have gotten away with not putting my tray table up if I wanted to!!

Today, we are on the island of Beqa where we have just completed our first two dives. Beqa lies off the southern end of the main island of Viti Levu. The diving can have challenging conditions especially during rainy season. Many rivers run off the coast and after heavy rain can bring lower visibility diving as we had today. The tops of the coral heads at Gee’s Rock, however, were vibrant with anthias undulating in the current seeking out tiny particles of plankton for lunch.

After our dives, we had a wonderful lunch, some of the best chefs in Fiji are purported to be on the island. And then off on a hike to check out a local waterfall. It was an easy, though uphill walk about 45 minutes through village farms and across ridges with spectacular views of the lagoon. The last 15 minutes we hiked up the river bed to a lovely waterfall about 40 feet high. The water was a PERFECT temperature to sit under and have our photo snapped, nothing better to do on a Tuesday in our book!

Our busy day continued as we went to see a traditional firewalking ceremony. The legend of the island holds that the gift of firewalking was given to the villages by an eel as a gift for their chief. It is a tradition started only here on Beqa Island. The village men built a fire which burned for seven hours heating huge rocks beneath it. The ceremony consisted of the men using long poles to pull out the burning logs and arrange the rocks flat within the fire circle and then take turns walking across the burning hot rocks. What is the secret to not getting burned? They say it’s no sex and no coconut for four days before…..

Our day was not over yet! After a fantastic dinner we were treated to another Fijian traditional ceremony, a sevu sevu, the kava drinking ceremony. Ridlon was chosen to be the Ratu or chief (this is good since the chief drinks lots of kava and Ridlon likes it!). Kava is made from a pepper root which is ground and then mixed in a four legged bowl into a dirty dishwater like color and consistency. Traditionally it was chewed first then added to the bowl by many of the men but now they use a mortar and pestle to crush the root. Then through a series of claps and ritual chants, the coconut bowl full to the brim (known as high tide) and is passed to the chief and then around the circle of participants. Kava is known to numb the lips and tongue and after numerous bowls to give a feeling of drunkeness. I find that about three bowls is enough to give me a stomach ache but I love the ritual! The taste? Hmmmm remember dirty dish water?

Our day now complete, we wandered out into the moonlight to our bure (the Fijian word for home) to soak in the wonderful day and prepare for tomorrow…more diving, a visit to the village schools and then the school children will visit to show us some of their traditional dances, then Friday….the FAMOUS Beqa Lagoon shark dive! Stay tuned!!!

But what about the valuables that just can’t be left at home: passports, cash, credit cards, cell phones, cameras, etc.? Here are some tips to protect the valuables you do take with you.

Before you leave, document valuables.

•  Leave one copy of the documentation at home, and take one with you.
• Make copies of your debit and credit cards, both front and back, and include bank contact information, and account information. (Make sure the trusted contact back home knows where to find your PIN, social security number, and other details, and that your bank and credit card company have the required authorization to talk with your designated contact if you can’t do it yourself.)
• Document your cell phone account information and carrier contact numbers.
• Take pictures of your camera, iPod, video camera, jewelry and other valuables. Note serial numbers and other information for police reports or insurance claims.

Theft on airliners is rare, but does happen, especially on overnight flights.

• Stash your bag in the compartment across from your seat, so you have a clear view of the overhead bin where items are stored.
• Turn zippers and openings toward the back of the bin, to make it harder to open them in flight without removing them from the overhead compartment.
• Keep passports, cash, and other important items on your person – don’t leave them in a coat pocket, and then put the jacket into the overhead bin.

Remain alert for pickpockets or thieves as you travel.

• Street performers sometimes work with thieves to hold your attention while their associates make off with wallet, cameras or purses.
• Be aware of your surroundings and the people near you.
• If you carry a purse (experienced travelers don’t, relying instead on a small daypack or stashing wallets and personal items in front pockets of trousers or jeans), keep it in your lap or between your feet when dining.
• Make it hard for a pickpocket by putting wallet and passport in a concealed carrier that fits beneath your clothes.
• If confronted, do not resist. Giving up valuables is better than risking injury or death for a few dollars.
• Never count money in public.

Don’t assume that your hotel room, ship cabin, or rented apartment is secure.

• Pacsafe  sells has small, virtually indestructible bags that fit easily into a backpack, and then become portable safes for passports, small cameras, and other items. When needed, hide them with valuables in a hotel room, secured to some immovable object like a bedpost.
• Keep luggage closed, and belongings out of site in your hotel room or cabin.

Common sense, remaining aware of your surroundings and good choices in what to take with you are the primary factors in a travel adventure without fear of lost property!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alkanchaglar/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Live Adventurously is a premium provider of SCUBA diving vacations and advice on travel, adventure & the adventure lifestyle.  We provide our guests and friends the experiences and knowledge to live an extraordinary life through adventure.

*Quick note* I write this post because a quick trip to Fiji and Costa Rica came up this week. Because I want to do some live blogging on location, I am going to push the last week of the Travel Planning Series back a couple of weeks. ** Hope that’s ok!

Because I own an adventure travel company, most people assume that I just travel the world for free, sip pina coladas and get a tan. Is that true? Is it really the perfect job? Well, yes….after all, we are getting ready to leave for a month of visiting some new dive operations and it’s going to be fun…..and no…it is not free and sometimes quite frustrating to find the “right” place that we can share with the tribe.

First, owning your own company is fun. At this point in my life, I can’t imagine working for anyone else but me! But it’s also stressful because you and you alone are responsible and accountable to make sure everything is just right. You need to wear many hats if it’s a small company like ours. You need to be CEO, CFO, Marketer, Blogger, Expedition Leader and the one who rinses the dive gear at the end of the trip. But you also are the one who gets to lead the trips to Fiji, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Palau and get the tan and drink the umbrella drink. And you get to check them out ahead of time.

The internet is a great research tool especially for travel. But you can’t smell through the internet, you can’t taste through the internet and you can’t see what’s just around the corner on the internet. A lot of people seem to have forgotten this and we’ve found that when we do, inevitably, we end up with something unexpected.

How do YOU benefit from my suntan?

At Live Adventurously, we have a strict policy that we will only guide guests and friends to a place we have personally checked out and this is for numerous reasons.

*We all want to know that the dive operation is safe

*We all want to personally vet and select the best local divemasters and guides. We all know what a huge discrepancy there is between divemasters and what a big difference it makes.

*We all want to make sure the dive op is diving the best sites, not just the most convenient

*We all want to make sure that the rooms are as good as they look on the internet and pick out specific rooms for our guests. All rooms are NOT equal.

*We all want to check out the cuisine. We can’t taste over the internet.

*We all want to explore the area for interesting and unusual cultural activities. This is the kind of unique stuff that you only find when you are there

*We arrange for special dinners and activities

*We all want to be sure there is an adequate arrangement for audio/visual equipment for talks, slide shows and video presentations

*And, we all want to be sure the diving kicks butt and is really as good as they say it is

We check out the bathrooms

We check out the resort

We check out the Dive Masters

Even the Sunsets from the rooms!

We especially check the diving!

What can go wrong?

Here are two examples of exactly why we do site visits. We recently went to a beautiful Caribbean island for a site visit. We were wined and dined, given spa treatments, upgrades in accommodations and even a room with a private butler and swimming pool INSIDE our room. The resort was amazing, the staff exceptional, the food exquisite, the property beautiful and the island picturesque. Its now one of our favorite Caribbean resorts. The last time we had visited the island the diving was also superb but it had been 10 years. We were stunned when we got in the water, the reefs were algae covered and dead and the largest fish was miniscule! We were crest fallen. Its a fantastic resort, but we would never guide a dive expedition there.

There is a magnificent over water resort on the island of Bora Bora. Yes, you can picture it…idyllic…white sand, turquoise water, beautiful reef fish swimming below your deck. The weather is perfect the company supreme….but wait….what’s that smell??? OMG, I paid $800 a night for this??? Yes, this particular resort costing millions of dollars was built across the water from the landfill and when the wind blows in that direction….look out! I would be horrified to be guiding guests and friends here sight unseen…..how would I repair that??? But if I had not been to and stayed at the resort, I would have never known. Typical FAM (familiarization) trips for travel agents often consist of multiple days of traipsing through four or five properties a day. They are grueling! If the wind had not been blowing that day you would have never known. But, by actually staying at the location and experiencing it gives you a completely different view.

Yes, site visits are fun but they are also work. It is important to dig in deep and find the good, bad and the ugly about a resort, dive operator and dive sites. While it involves great diving, it also involves meetings, property walk thru, individual room walk thru and sometimes….like in the Caribbean, hard decisions when you have to tell the lovely hotelier that after all their hard work, you simply can’t use their resort.

Is there really a free lunch?

Every trip involves financial resources even if the hotel comps your visit. You still have to get there which in our business can involve thousands of company dollars and being away from the office for weeks on end. There are always incidental costs of getting around, overnights in hotels on the way out and back etc…. So it is very important for us to do our research on the location and be almost 100% sure it will work for us before we shell out the bucks and take up the time and resources of the resort and dive operation. In the case of the Caribbean resort, we had to find a way to recoup those costs and also find another location.

In the end, even though I do get a tan, you, our guests and friends, are the biggest beneficiaries of our site visits. You can be assured that you are getting the best the area has to offer. We will have personally picked out your room, your divemaster, your dive boat and perhaps even your table at the restaurant.

Why Travel with Us?

Live-Adventurously has always stood for adventure with a safety net. That extends beyond your physical safety on a dive vacation. It is your insurance that your vacation WILL be a trip of a lifetime and you can be safe in knowing we have you covered!

When you book your next dive trip, be sure you are trusting your dollars and time to someone who has been to, dived and stayed at the resort. You may pay a bit more but they will be dollars well spent!

Have you had a bad experience because you didn’t know anything about the resort you booked? Do tell!!

See you next week in Fiji!!

Check your attitude before checking your bags

There are days when you arrive at the counter just ready for an epic, BraveHeart-esque battle… right? You were not able to get seats together with your spouse, you know your bag is just 2 lbs over the limit and you want a free upgrade…you know you deserve ALL this because you fly all the time and you’ve played out the conservation in your head as you walk up to the counter. You’ve already looked over the counter agents trying to decide which one has Little Big Man’s disease and which one you can sweet talk…..sound familiar?

Ok, Ben-Hur, slow down and back up….Let’s take this one step at a time.

What Are YOU Bringing to the Airport Check In Counter?

Did you take my advice from the last post and ease up on the caffeine this morning? Did you get a good night sleep? Were you running around frantic at the last minute? Did your ride to the airport show up late?

Before you approach someone who has not had any contact with you…EVER…check your emotions. The counter agent is not the enemy. They did not book you on the 6:00am or misplace your computer power cord this morning. Breathe….Now…be pleasant.

Pre Check In Counter Strategy

If we are traveling as a couple, we often “divide and conquer”. Ridlon goes to check in and I park the car in the lot (this saves time). I drop him off with the checked bags and I bring the carry on luggage. Here’s why. When you roll up to the counter with two checked bags, a roll aboard and a shoulder bag for two, it just looks like a ton of stuff. So he checks in with only his small shoulder bag carry on luggage. I arrive and go sit in the corner with the three other large carry on luggage pieces. He comes and takes over with the carry on luggage while I walk to the counter to quickly show my ID (or often he shows it for me) and then off we go to security. Works like a charm, ESPECIALLY on small airlines where they will definitely insist you check (and pay for) the second carry on.

If you get to the gate and they say it’s too big for the plane, they simply gate check it for you. It gets hand delivered to the top of the stack and at no charge.

Done deal.

Avoiding the Check In Counter

Kiosk service is wonderful if you have it in your airport. You check in, indicate the number of bags, get your boarding pass, drop your bags and go. If you are Elite Status with the airline and checking in at the kiosk, click on “special” status for your luggage then inform the counter agent you have status that allows for free bags.

Checking in on line before leaving home can be a good idea if you are running late but I have found that I still need to show the counter agent my ticket so it generally doesn’t get me too far. The notable exception to this is Southwest Airlines where you ALWAYS want to check in online at least the night before. For Southwest Airlines, boarding passes are issued in the order passengers check in and even if you’re the first to check in at the airport, dozens of people have already checked in before you online.

The En”Counter”

If I opt to bring all bags to the counter, I always put my large carry on luggage at my feet to avoid any questions (I travel with lots of heavy camera gear). As I am approaching the counter I scan for the person’s name on their ID badge and ALWAYS greet them by name. It makes such a huge difference and the agent is always surprised that you care enough to call them by name. Instant connection. I ask how they are doing and immediately hand over my passport or ID without being asked. If you give the impression that you know what you are doing it makes quite a difference in the attitude of the agent.

I then chat amicably to them. This is not to “get something” but simply because it’s now a pleasant interaction, you may learn something fun about them and it makes their day better and yours too. They automatically just process you through while enjoying the conservation and send you on your way. Easy!

Luggage Restrictions, Favors and Not So Favored

Know the restrictions of the airline you are flying

If your bag is overweight you’ll be charged. Agents are strict about this so weigh your bags and don’t expect a favor here. All that will happen is that you will sit on the airport floor pulling out shoes and jackets and getting mad. It’s not their fault that you can’t tell the difference between 50 and 53 pounds. However, I have been known to “hang” my bag off the scale a little or let it rest on my leg so the full weight is not resting on the scale (shhh, don’t tell!)

If you want a favor, ask in a pleasant upbeat manner and don’t act like it’s the end of the world if you don’t get it. I often say, “well, I just thought I would ask!” Then remember, you can always ask again at the gate! Intimidation and fist pounding doesn’t get anyone anywhere anymore. Its been done for so long now that service personal have just learned to tune out.

If the Check In Counter Turns Into a Bad Dream

Of course, there are times when it all goes bad. The army duffel bags I travel with, if filled to the brim and stretched do exceed the bag size but in 12 years of using them I’ve never had a problem. I don’t fill them to capacity, never pack them over the weight limit and if I have one extra bag, I am proactive and walk up and say, “Hi, I have 3 bags so I’ll need to pay for one of them.” That is the surprise of a lifetime to an agent!

One day, we came across an agent who just wanted to make a point. Here I am, in the middle of an itinerary and he tells me he is going to charge me $400 in oversize bag fees. Of course, there is no way to “change the bags” since we are in the middle of the ticket. So we kindly asked for a supervisor. It’s OK to do this but again, don’t fist pound. Simply acknowledge to the agent that it seems that you can’t come to an agreement on this issue so you need to speak with someone who can help make a decision. At this point, we decide which one of us will handle it. Having both you and your spouse trying to prove a point doesn’t work. In most countries out of the US, it’s still better for the man to handle it. Sorry, ladies but that’s the reality of it.

Do not make it a test of wills; look for a win/win. You want to get what you think is a fair compromise but allow them to save face as well. You may even ask, “How can we make this a satisfactory ending for all involved here?”

Always write down the ID number and name of the agent in case you need it for future correspondence but I don’t do this till the end of the conversation so it doesn’t seem like a threat. I do this so I can explain my unhappiness about a particular agent but also if they have helped solve your issue, I will often call or write the airlines to compliment the supervisor.

There have been a few occasions when a compromise can’t be worked out. In this case, I use my American Express card, and then deny the charge on the card. This gives you some recourse after the fact.

The main points here are really the same as you learned in Kindergarten at age five; play fair, be nice and no temper tantrums!

sometimes just getting to the airport can be an adventure!

If you have a long drive, be sure to give yourself extra time for the unexpected like flat tires, weather and moose in the road! This may sound obvious but most people don’t factor in enough time. Don’t start your day stressed out. The rule of thumb these days is to arrive two hours before a domestic flight and three for an international flight. In actuality, it’s HIGHLY variable depending on airport. Smaller, regional airports typically have fast check in and short security lines. We’re fine with a 45 minute check in time in Missoula. But I would never do that in Vegas which has notoriously long security lines; I’ve seen a number of people miss their flights there. On weekday mornings, Atlanta has very long lines too. The check in lines at DFW for non elite coach can be massive at peak times. The best thing to do is start with the general rule of thumb and then adjust based on your observations at your departure airport. Keep in mind that timing can have a huge effect as well. Early AM, Mon-Fri is slammed with business travelers and early Sat AM is slammed with vacation travelers – especially at hub airports.

On your return when flying home from your recent international adventure, DON’T check in when the hotel tells you too. The reason for this is because that’s when everybody else is coming and the check in counter is guaranteed to be slammed. So when flying home from Palau, where the hotel tells you to check in three hours before the flight, either check in 3 ½ hours ahead and beat the crowds or show up two hours ahead when the lines have died down.

If you live Far from the Airport

Since it’s a 1 1/2 hour drive for me to the airport and it’s more dangerous to drive at night or early morning because of animals on the road, I often drive to Missoula and stay the night with my cousin. I take her out to dinner in exchange and we have a great evening catching up. Now I’ve added FUN to my trip. My cousin drives me to the airport in the morning, keeps my truck and now has another vehicle at her disposal, win/win.

Creative Airport Parking Options

What if you booked the 6:00am flight to save $50 and despite the fact that you have loads of great friends no one is dumb enough to want to drive you to the airport at dark thirty? Now you have to drive yourself and park in the airport or remote lot. Your parking costs $10 or more a day and now you’ve gotten up way too early and paid MORE in the end to do it.

The auto dealership where I bought my truck is five minutes from the airport. When I need service, I wait until I’m ready for a trip. They keep my truck for me at no charge, do the service work needed while I’m gone (no inconvenience) and they pick me up and drop me off at the airport…win/win! You may be able to use this strategy as well…using a cab or friend to drop you off. It’s great to have your truck worked on when you are out of town!

Did you know? There are hotels like the Comfort Inn in Cleveland who will allow you to leave your car up to three weeks in their parking lot when you overnight. Here’s a win/win! You get to the airport the night before your trip, have a relaxing evening, spend $100 to stay and park your car for three weeks. (prices at Hopkins range from about $11-$8 per day). No need to worry about a flat tire or rush hour traffic on your way to your flight. It’s FUN, easy and convenient! I’m sure there are other hotels that offer this service.

Relaxing on Your Travel Day

Also, since flying can be a stressful experience I recommend taking it easy on the caffeine on travel day. I am amazed how caffeine ramps me up and gets me primed for a boxing match with TSA or a few rounds with the counter agent. If you are a nervous flier like I used to be, caffeine will make it much worse. Opt for soothing morning drinks like chamomile tea and skip the Mountain Dew! When I switched from Coca Cola and microwave popcorn to a nutritional shake for breakfast five years ago, my life changed, as did the life of the counter agents on many airlines!

Another great option is to check in several hours early and then do something FUN near the airport or in the airport. Many airports have good restaurants. While you’re waiting for your int’l flight at LAX’s Bradley Terminal, go upstairs and have dinner at Daily Grill. In Minneapolis, you can catch a free shuttle to the Mall of the Americas and see a movie.

Well, it seems that I’ve morphed from getting to the airport right into travel day which is tomorrow’s topic!

If you have creative ways to get to the airport let us know!

Planning together can save a vacation...that's us!!

My husband and I do pretty much everything together; we own our business together, work together 24/7, cook dinner together, plan overseas adventure travel together … everything. Even so, getting out of the house on travel day used to consist of eye rolling, muttering under our breaths and impatient pacing. We made some changes to our routine and now it’s back to marital bliss on departure day.

I began to think that if we – who think so much alike that we constantly finish each other’s thoughts – could have issues with this, there must be others!

It begins way back in the early planning stages of a trip. It’s important to divide and conquer on the things that need to be done. For example, I make all transportation arrangements from flights to transfers to car rental. Then I am accountable to it. Ridlon makes sure it all works on the financial end, credit cards have plenty of credit available, bills are paid before we leave and money where it needs to be. I am responsible for the dive gear and packing it and he is responsible for paperwork, checks, contracts etc… It works very well for us, each using our expertise as well as our enjoyment of various parts of the plan. This is extremely important!

Travel Planning is a Team Sport

Keep checking in with each other to be sure you are on schedule. This DOES NOT mean nagging. If one or the other is behind, offer to assist. The most important thing to remember is that YOU ARE A TEAM. This goes beyond packing and planning for a vacation, this is how it is in life. Sometimes one gives more and sometimes the other gives more and that’s ok…..You won’t get far in life together pushing against each other, turn and roll together with the current!

So…enough of marriage counseling 101.

When it comes to packing…we each pack OUR OWN personal items. There is no way I want to be responsible for “Hey you didn’t pack my favorite blue shirt”. We also pack OUR OWN camera gear. He would feel terrible if he forgot to pack my charger and I would be horrified if I forgot to pack his favorite lens. Yes, you are a team but be responsible for your own personal stuff. I know many married couples where one spouse doesn’t work outside the home and so is responsible for being clairvoyant to pack just the right stuff. This can create arguments that never end throughout the vacation!

Then, when everything is packed, we run through the lists together to be sure that we have everything. There are times when I say, “Oh, I thought you were going to do that and vice versa”. Don’t get into the “he said, she said” match. This is supposed to be FUN! But of course, since you are finishing the packing a minimum of 24 hours before departure, if anything is missed it can be remedied in plenty of time.

Getting Out the Door On Time

About one week before departure, we have a discussion of the things that need to be accomplished before we leave so nothing is left for last minute. Then the day before departure we discuss specifics. We agree on a departure time and discuss what we have left to do before then. So when it’s 10 minutes before departure time and he pulls out the eggs and bacon to make breakfast I am not stunned! What??? Breakfast NOW?? I didn’t know you were planning to make a big breakfast? We have a plane to catch. When it’s time to go but no one’s packed the truck then what happens? BUT when we talk the night before and lay out the things we need to do, then we plan the time accordingly.

It’s an easy discussion. I say, “I think we need to get up at 6:00 because I want to get a run in, shower and dry my long hair, grab a shake and I’ll be responsible to load the car and we should leave at 7:30.” Then he may say, “I want to cook a hot breakfast, then I need to send off a couple of emails, I’ll be in charge of turning down the hot tub and the heat and shutting off the water and plan to be ready by 7:30. I think I need to be up by 5:30am”. Great, now expectations are set, we know who is going to do what and we can both plan accordingly. This discussion can save a marriage!!!!

Overseas Adventure Travel is Fun ….. Remember?

As in life, open and honest communication is key to fun and easy travel planning with your spouse. There is nothing worse than starting a vacation that is supposed to a “trip of a lifetime” with an argument. Get over it, get communicating and get out there and have the adventure of your life!

Let’s talk for a minute about two important subjects …. Travel Luggage and Carry On Luggage.

Pick luggage that suits your type of travel

What Travel Luggage and Carry On Luggage Should I Use?

Hopefully you know that the days of expensive luggage went out the same day we stopped traveling in our Sunday best. Luggage gets tossed, broken, ripped and United breaks guitars . Anything short of complete and total destruction and the airlines will take no responsibility and have no liability and even then, they usually won’t. So when it happens, and it WILL, if you haven’t invested in a Louis V matching set, you won’t care and you’ll just take it in stride…

What Type of Adventure Travel are you Doing?

Depending on your type of travel, your luggage will be different. For diving, I put my gear in $25 army duffel bags. They weigh 2 lbs so I can put more gear inside and they look like dirty laundry coming home from boot camp. For climbing, we picked up Everest Hard Gear duffels in Nepal. Any bag that is yak proof is definitely airline proof! We don’t use bags with insignias on them that might indicate what’s inside and they need to be durable but expendable – because we’ve never met a bag that the airlines can’t destroy. Duffels lack wheels and require some hefting but that’s ok … there is always a luggage cart or porter available.

I use TSA locks on everything and bring a couple of spares. They do get cut sometimes and/or lost by the airlines or me.

For any “regular” type of travel, I use American Tourister soft-sided luggage or equivalent that I can replace for about $40. These have wheels and are easy to grab and go. Soft sided are a bit lighter even if less durable.

I prefer to be self-sufficient when traveling alone, especially as a woman. I usually have one rolling checked bag, one rolling computer bag and a small backpack. That way no one who need not be in my business has an excuse to approach me.

I don’t tie a hundred yellow ribbons on my luggage but I do have a luggage tag on both the outside AND the inside of my bag and even written in black marker ON the bag. I put my email but not my phone number. Again, as a woman especially when I travel alone, I don’t want to advertise my number.

Airline Baggage Requirements

Most airlines these days have the same requirements in terms of the size of your bags (though weight and number of allowed bags differs). Be smart. Take a few extra minutes and be sure the bag you purchase is not oversized unless you fully intend to pay for it. This will save hassle and stress at the airport.

I can’t say enough; check the weight restrictions for your airline. I recently had an airline check in agent tell me she just reads the limits off the screen now because it changes so often that she can’t remember it anymore. Be aware that when traveling on a multi airline itinerary, you will be limited by the least generous airline. Just because an airline gives you an allowance and you are flying part of the itinerary on their international partner; don’t assume that the international partner will give you the same.

Carry On Luggage

If you travel with a roll aboard bag you are pretty safe. Get a standard size one and don’t overstuff it. Airlines (even most remote ones) see these bags all the time and expect them. European weight limits for carry on luggage is very restrictive but North American limits are incredibly generous. Then carry a small backpack or shoulder bag as your “personal item.” Be careful of putting valuables in a backpack; they are very easy to pick in a crowded airport. I often carry mine off the shoulder.

Especially if you are traveling overseas or overnight there are essential things to keep in your carry on luggage.

1. All important papers such as visas, hotel confirmations etc..

2. Any valuables (diving watch, cash, credit cards etc)

3. Any Medications you need to take on a daily basis

4. A change of clothes suitable for your destination, including bathing suit. Anything you would need for 24 hours if your luggage were lost.

5. Breakables like your laptop

Accessible Carry On Luggage

You will want to put one of your pieces of carry on luggage overhead and the other under your seat. In the “under the seat” carry on you’ll want things to make your flight more comfortable and fun and that you can access without disturbing other passengers by getting in and out of the overhead compartment.

1. Book /magazine/ Kindle

2. Dvd’s and player

3. ipod

4. Noise canceling headphones

5. Extra layer of clothes (like a sweatshirt when the plane gets cold or socks)

6. Cash and perhaps credit card

7. Vitamins/toothbrush/hairbrush/ hand and face lotion (for long or overnight flight)

8. Snacks

9. Passport (Int’l flights you will need to fill out paperwork and you don’t want to have to get up and get into your overhead bag)

10. Pen (same reason)

11. Neck pillow (I usually “hook” this onto my roll aboard so it doesn’t take space and throw it on my seat when I board)

What do you like to have in your carry on?? Let us know!!

To the Universe and Beyond!