Capturing the Moment

   Scuba Diving in Cape Town, South Africa: Wide Angle Photography   The cold water off Africa's southwestern tip near Cape Town is teeming with life. It is also teeming with wrecks of ships that didn't find the 'good hope' while navigating around the infamous Cape of Good Hope. There are dozens of colorful nudibranch species for the biological treasure hunter, and quite a few opportunities for some fabulous wide angle underwater photography.    Diving in the southern hemisphere winter will grant you a bit better visibility, but during the summer months a god day will run you 10-15ft at most spots. Now, (October) is the shoulder season so we lucked out with a good 20ft of vis on the reefs, 15 on the wreck, and about 40ft at the Cape Fur Seal rookery.    You can dive both the east and west sides of the peninsula and there are several dive operators that work mainly out of Hout Bay on the west, or Simon's Town on the east side, depending on w...

Still dry in my wetsuit   Snorkeling in Alaska!   This week I wanted to put our wetsuits to the test. Here in Southeast Alaska the ocean temperature is hovering around 40 degrees, unless you get too close to a glacier where the temperature plummets even farther. Our wetsuits include a 7mm bib, 7mm ¾ jacket, 5mm hood, 5mm gloves, and 5mm booties. You are pretty well covered. Even your face is mostly covered by your mask and snorkel setup. Still, it is a wetsuit, not a dry suit. So water does flood inside all of those layers of neoprene but hopefully your body can heat it up and insulate for warmth. This was the test.   Our snorkel location and timing were chosen after careful researching of the tides and conditions. Some of the islands off of Cape Fanshaw have been productive in the past so we headed to one in particular where mid-morning we should experience a -4.1ft tide, thus exposing the usual intertidal life above water and getting us snorkelers deeper i...

Even with wetsuits this water is cold! Our little corner   Surfing at the 42° latitude line proved to be a colder experience than I would expect, but one well worth the risks. We happened to have all of our surf boards being in between surf trips to Indonesia and Fiji, and I knew there were surf spots here in New Zealand, but I did not expect the chance to get to surf here. A hidden gem Myles with the 'Green Chili'  We landed in Christchurch on the South island but it wasn't until we drove to Greymouth on the west coast that we got our first glimpse of New Zealand waves. Greymouth is a medium sized city (for the south island of new zealand) located on the mouth of the grey river. It is this rivermouth and the breakwalls along it that create a good surfing environment. The wind was ripping down from the north as were the waves. However the breakwall blocked the wind and the waves would wrap around and wedge up creating a perfect peak...some of the times. T...