The sun sets the ocean on fire and dips away into darkness. In the last light a 600 pound critically endangered monk seal flosses it’s teeth on our bow line after gorging at the fish farm a quarter mile offshore. I am already freezing from the first dive. I shiver as I pull back on the top of my wet wetsuit and turn on my light. I’ve come too far and waited too long to care that much. I run my fingers through my hair to pull it out of my face as I slip on the mask only to be reminded that my hair is still just promising stubble. Starting to come back out like me.
Starting To Come Back Out
15 years ago I was scheduled to dive with mantas off the coast of Hawaii when a storm came in and I had to cancel. Six months ago I was looking at cancer that had metastasized into my abdomen and was threatening to cancel me. But the wheel is spun and I get a second chance. The biggest secret hiding in plain site from the whole experience is that the stuff that stresses and consumes us is usually not what matters. It’s only work. They are only pedestrian plans. All that matters is health and time to spend with the people that you care about.
You go through cancer alone even though everyone is there for you. I can see them on a snorkel boat tied next to my dive boat. They wave and smile and I am so happy to just be here and be with them. A gift. Does anyone deserve it. It doesn’t matter just jump in.
Jumping Into The Dark
I giant step off the rail one hand on my mask. Blue black bubbles shimmy up and I go down like the other lighted torpedos of my dive mates seeing the hull shrink away and dim above. We gather around a ring of rocks on the bottom and lights are turned on in the middle. A campfire of light shines toward heaven, a geyser, a signal like a spotlight in Gotham city to summon something larger than life.
The light brings in plankton which brings in huge manta rays. They have no teeth or stingers but can be 15-20 feet across and weigh more than a ton. The first one careens around me and The regulator almost falls out of my agape grin. For the first 20 minutes I kind of watch in a daze trying to somehow capture the perfect image on my underwater camera that could convey the experience.
After awhile I decide to stop trying to record it and instead just relax and experience it. If you find yourself inside Jurassic Park do you try to get a picture of the brontosaurus or do you just watch as it cranes its head 25 feet above its 30 ton frame? I released my camera and it falls taught on the thin cable lanyard. Almost with a wink I am immediately rewarded as a giant 15 foot manta materializes at the fringe.
An Improbable Experience
On one hand this is a contrived experience. The mantas show up because we made it. However, it is also somehow improbable. Like being in Antarctica when suddenly a penguin waddles over and kisses you on the cheek. I don’t really belong here but none the less that 15 foot manta flies toward me like an albatross in slow motion. As it passes through a beam of light a foot away from my face, it flares its shark like gills gulping plankton and then does a double backflip in perfect symmetry. I feel the power of a whoosh of water past my face betraying the truth that this nimble butterfly is actually a one ton powerhouse. To be chomping at a midnight campfire buffet; not just eating but dancing too. To go from lying in a bed to being 30 feet underwater at the base of a volcano at night 2,500 miles off of the continent swimming with manta rays.
Coming Back
Back on the boat, I am quiet. I sip hot chocolate while others try to verbalize the euphoria that we share. The outboard drones as we head back toward the lights of land across the water. Behind us in the sky 2 red beacons on the wings of an airplane approach the airport looking on like the eyes of a giant manta in the sky. I look overboard and green sparks bioluminesce in the prop wash like lightning through clouds. I am heading back to the light. My family will be there. We are here together. There will be more sunrises and sunsets 🙂
Do you have an experience that had special meaning to you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below 🙂
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3 comments
Thank you for the pictures they are breathtaking. You are right though sometimes seeing things is for your eyes only and just to enjoy the special moments as they present themselves is a wonderful gift. I also always tried to capture everything in photos( it’s a passion) and I missed out I feel of just enjoying the gifts that were given. Now I try to create a balance of taking photos I can look back on and enjoying the moments as they present themselves.
Glad you’re back at it. Sounds like an awesome way to get back into your adventurous life! Looking forward to reading more from you for many years to come.
Liked the Gotham spotlight imagery. The look on your face in the video seems to sum up the whole thing experience.
Closest thing I experienced was getting brushed by a jellyfish longer than me in Puget Sound. Luckily I had a wetsuit on! Good times. The manta dive sounds like way more fun.
Great to see you are doing well mate. Really enjoyed the post, I had no idea mantas could be this big/heavy!
Something I learned as grew older was to take more mental pictures than digital. I remember taking my SLR to all the trips and taking hundreds of pictures, now I rarely take it out of my bag.
An experience that I would always cherish has to be my encounter with the mountain gorillas in Rawanda. I love seeing wildlife in nature but being so close to a huge silverback was something special for me.