Video: Underwater with Dolphins

This underwater adventure was one of the most magical underwater encounters I have had the opportunity to experience. In the past I have put up pictures from wild dolphins encounters around the Hawaiian Islands, but I've always wanted to capture the feeling on video. So this time I took my Canon 5d markII and drove out to a beach on the west coast called Electric Beach. I was pleased at the flat calm conditions of the ocean when I pulled up, and pleased even further when I saw the pod of dolphins! I had been skunked the last few times I had been here so I didn't waste any time in suiting up, grabbing my fins and mask, and practically running to the water.

  
   As I started swimming I realized that the dolphins were much further out than normal, but I was on a mission so I kicked hard. It didn't pay off. As I swam up to the four other snorkelers I saw the dolphins slowly cruising away from the group. I hoped that the pod would turn around and come back but I was a little afraid that they may have all woken up and were headed offshore to deeper hunting grounds.
  I waited. And waited. But to no avail. After bobbing up and down like a cork, straining to look for the dolphins for about ten minutes I slowly started to kick back in shore. Maybe I could still get some sea turtle pictures on the way in. But then I heard it. A high pitched squeak that could have only come from a dolphin. I turned around and there they were, heading back to where I had just been waiting. Even though I was about halfway back to shore at this point I turned around and swam back out into the deep blue. And this time it paid off, in a big way.

  Enjoy the video, listen for the squeaks, and see just how playful, intelligent, and nurturing these animals can be.