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somewhere off the coast
of inhambane,
passed the breakers
in the open ocean,
down about twenty meters
in the purple brocolli coral,
a brightly colored
nudibranch gently
munches on a sponge,
while a fleet of manta rays
hovers in the darkness above,
like they have for
millions of years.

i know because i saw them
there once and i can’t imagine
they have anywhere else to be.

Sun Deck and Below

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I posted several photos of our amazing day today, but I like to think that nothing says a thousand words better than a thousands words, so here we go-

I am not sure what inspired me to become a certified diver. It is not like I was on some tropical holiday and was suddenly overcome by a whim to start a course. No. It was actually November. San Francisco was cold and wet and rainy and since this was the period before the Internet, I must have used the Yellow Pages to find a dive school, somewhere South of Market. As a student and a waiter, I was not in the habit of spending $500+ on anything let alone some weird hobby, but nonetheless I signed up for the Open Diver course and on a drive home from Tahoe with Jason we stopped at a dive shop in Terra Linda and I bought a mask & snorkel and a set of fins, ready for my first pool class a week later.

I remember riding my bike in the cold wet rain only to crawl into a full wet suit for pool sessions. All the classes were at night, and I seem to remember being alone for most of the sessions. The final dives were in Monterrey a few weeks later and just like that I was a certified diver. None of my initial dives were particularly fun or even interesting, but there was something about neutral buoyancy and the ocean that had me hooked. I quickly added some fish/bird ink on my arms and I was ready to head to Peace Corps and Mozambique. Little did I know that once in African, I would experience some of my best diving- seeing whale sharks and mantas rays. I would earn my advance certification which included deep and night dives in Lake Malawi.

I took a bit of a diving break while we lived in NYC, but Mairin and I were quickly back in the ocean as soon as we moved to Malaysia. We dove on Costa Rica, Mauritius, Sipadan and every other island holiday we went on.

Until the dive holidays came to a halt on July 8th 2006. With two kids, diving felt like a selfish all day activity that only one of us could enjoy. But today, I saw into a window to our future. One where in just a few years, not only can we return to diving holidays, but we can dive as a family.

Kaia was a natural. After some initial nervousness, she was social on deck talking to her instructor, as well as the salty tanned tattooed German diver telling her about the sea life in the area. I watched on deck as she made her way around the boat. I watched from above (I was snorkeling) as she dove with her instructor. And I listened to her on the sun deck on the ride back as she told me how much she wants to live the island life and lead dives. It was great to see so many young women role models as instructors. I always love when she sees confident women doing what they love.

From here on I can let the photos do most of the talking. I hope they show that today was one of the better days I have ever had in my life.

Sun Shocked

What a day! We were all a bit sun-shocked. Everyone was rosy and toasted and burnt, but it was another wide open blue day and the sea and the sand were calling, so what could we do? We lathered up on sun screen, put on hats, and applied and re-applied and re-applied sun screen and we were back at it. We never left the vicinity of our hotel. Took the kayak out to a near by island for some snorkelling, played some beach tennis and read. Too tired to go anywhere else, we had lunch at the hotel and then naps at 3pm on the dot. Dinner in town with Joe and Sarah and my body and brain are mush. I’ve been ignoring the news and letting my mind sit empty and cooked in the sun.


It makes me so happy to watch my entire family floating in the ocean today- up and over rocks as we explored and snorkelled. Kaia is very comfortable and even swam through a tight swim though today.


We set up a bubble maker course for her tomorrow, so it is time to take it to the next level. BCD, regulator and wet suit all fitted and ready for an early morning dive trip in the morning. I cannot wait to see her face as she comes up from her first dive. Only 2m, but she is beyond excited. A few more months until she can get the official junior Padi open water, but this will be a great first taste. I have been dreaming of diving with her since the day she was born and swimming before she could really walk. Much more on that tomorrow.


In the meantime, my tired burnt body and eyes need some sleep.
Short and sweet. It’s all I got.

The World Is Too Much With Us;

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

I didn’t run today. Although I woke up excited about the last few days before break, I was quickly suffering from the Monday blahs. My classes went well, I felt okay while in my classroom, but by day’s end I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by a nameless malaise. For some reason, whenever I feel this way, I am reminded of the first line from that William Wordsworth poem. I am not sure where I first heard it, but it always surfaces in the times I become unmotivated or nonplussed.

After school, I decided to lay down for a few minutes and rest my eyes before I went for my run, but I soon realised that it would be best if set an alarm and had a twenty minute power nap. I woke up not feeling much better. I was lethargic and snappy with the kids all night, and unmotivated to do anything productive or commit-Ito any level of interesting thinking.

I am in the process of creating a video for my Learning 2.0 Re-Imagine Strand, and while it is fresh on my mind, I am waiting for inspiration that is not quickly forthcoming. Fear not Brandon and Kim it will be ready by week’s end, but I'm still waiting for a jolt of something to get the ball rolling. My current mood is not helping. That latest Will Richardson article that is making the rounds has been a key part of my thinking.

In other news, Kaia made dinner nearly all by herself tonight- pasta with red sauce, quesadillas and some side raw veggies. I just made sure she didn’t hurt herself and washed up the dishes to help out. It was a proud moment. 

Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

The ocean is calling me. I need the beach and the sun and the sand and the snorkeling and the long slow afternoons by the pool. I need Pad Thai and Chang beer, the smell of sunscreen and tanning oil. I need to be barefoot and shirtless and bronzed and salty. I need to be on a boat staring down ten meters through the azure sea. I was born for island life and island life is waiting for me.

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Today was the 81st day of the year, so that must mean I have written eighty-one of these extend blog post/status update things. Wow. The year is young though and time is long. Here is hoping that today was just a case of the Monday blues right after a tense term and before a much needed break.

A few teachers and I are doing a Lip Sync performance for the last day of school, so I need to do some work on that. Good night all.

Everything You Need to Learn You Learn From The Ocean

There was a time when every vacation my wife and I planned revolved around Scuba Diving. Costa Rica, Mozambique, Mauritius, Thailand, Malaysia, and Hawaii. Yes, I have even dived in Lake Malawi. Although, I have logged nearly fifty dives and have my advanced license, I would never say I am an expert diver. I began diving as a way to face my fear of the ocean and claustrophobia, but years later, every time I don the regulator and sink into the big blue deep, there is still a part of me that is terrified. Beyond the ecstatic feeling of neutral buoyancy, the discovery of breathtaking marine ecosystems, and the feeling of perfect Zen meditation it is the fear that brings me back to diving.

I have not been in the water since my daughter Kaia was born over four years ago, so it was with great pleasure that I was able to look out at Bali to my left and Mt. Ranjani in all her fog capped majesty to my right, as our boat navigated the Gili Islands off the coat of Lombok, where I am lucky enough to be spending my Christmas Break.

image by yeowatzup

In the water, as I sank to about fifty feet and watched the bubbles engulf my body, I began to think about this blog post. Yes it is a sickness I know, but what can I say? My experiences are wrapped in my ability to document them in text and photos and music and video and…..well you get the point. This is not the “diving” post where I regale with fluid prose about the otherworldliness of diving, I am saving that for the book, this is simple a top ten list of things I was thinking about on my last dive as poked and prodded my way around the ocean floor. So there I am kicking along, controlling my breathing, watching my thoughts roll through my head and out my regulator and I thought of this list:

The four things I have learned from Diving:

1. Not every cause has an immediate effect. Sometimes you may see a big coral outcrop in your way and you take a deep breath to inflate your lungs, so by design, it will lift you effortlessly over the boulder, but before you let the air molecules play with the water molecules, and the ocean molecules play with the you molecules, you are kicking your legs and wasting precious energy and air, where if you had just waited patiently, you would have seen that the breath you took a few seconds ago would have done its job if you had just relaxed and let it. The world needs time to react to your energy, so don’t expect immediate reactions to your every action.
2. Don’t fight a current. Ever. The Ocean is much bigger than you. If a current is pushing you faster that you want to go and you are afraid that it will push you beyond where you want to be, well tough shit. Deal with it. Swim with it where it takes you and make notes a long the way. It is easier to gather your bearings and sort things out after a current is done with you than to try and fight it. No matter how big or brave you feel, going with the flow is always the right choice, even if you have no idea where you are going. Because fighting it will just get you tired and unable to deal with the end when you get there.
3. Don’t waste so much time looking into the big blue void looking for the big stuff that you miss the tiny nudibranch right in front of you. While sharks and Manta Rays may be impressive to spot, it is the myriad of tiny creatures making the ocean their home that make life interesting. Just because something is common doesn’t make it less interesting than something that is rare. When seen through the mask of curiosity and awe, even the most clichéd clown fish and anemone scene from Nemo can be fun to watch. If you spend the entire dive looking for something rare, you may waste your entire time not seeing anything at all. You are part of a bigger ecosystem; see it as a cycle and as a whole.
4. Focus on your breathing, but don’t fixate on it. Stay calm and breath. Live in the now, but don’t worry so much about breathing that you miss the ocean around you. No one wants to run out of air on a dive. Just like no one wants to run out of air on a life, but you can’t spend the entire time worrying how much time you have left. It is possible to be overly conscious. You try to stay calm, conserve your energy, and enjoy the ride, but if you see a turtle in the distance, never mind how much air you have; kick yourself over there and take a look.

Thought there were more, but I guess those juicy thoughts were mine alone to deposit onto the ocean floor.