Well, we have been so busy getting wet there has hardly been time for current updates. Diving has been excellent through August and September and we have been very lucky spotting some amazing critters. I have managed to find two seahorses in the same week; one was so tiny it could hardly be seen. Since mid-August we have also come across 5 (!!!) nurse sharks, all on different dive sites, numerous juvenile smooth trunkfish aka ‘Peas’ (three in the space of three days alone just recently, lots of scorpion fish hiding in the reef, stingrays and eagle rays, the elusive painted elysia sea slug and three tiny red lined blue nudibranchs, tons of neck crabs, a shortfin pipefish floating about in midwater, there’s been a couple of harlequin pipefish trying their best to hide from us in the coral as well as all the usual turtles, giant green moray eels, horse eye jacks, king crabs, lobsters, groupers and squid etc.
At the end of August I saw my first ever octopus during the day, whilst doing the safety stop at Blue Channel at the end of the afternoon dive, and this is after almost 500 dives. Mind you we usually get to see them there at night, top count is 5 in one night dive so far, which was last week.
A couple of days ago we had a wicked afternoon dive at West End Wall with strong current where at one point we found ourselves surrounded by no less than 12 (!!!) great barracudas, during the whole dive we must have seen about 30 of them. So things have been absolutely amazing underwater and now that my new mask has stopped fogging up it can only get better!!!!

Nicole

Even though we are coming into the low season and some rain over the next couple of months, the weather here for now is really nice. The last couple of months have been HOT so it’s nice to be a little cooler for now. The low season on Roatan means that every were is slower for a while, which is a great reason to come and stay at Luna Beach and still get some fantastic diving. A little cloud and a few heavy showers is no reason to stay away. Coming soon is Luna Cam; we will have a webcam set up looking out to sea over our dock. So you can see us running around and check up on the weather on a day to day basis.
We will publish the link here on Lunablog when it’s set up in the next week or so!!

“Big Diver in a Small Body”

Zack came to us with his parents a week ago. His parents, already experienced divers, were here to get wet, take pictures and enjoy diving around Roatan. Zack how ever, now that he was ten wanted to get certified. Full of enthusiasm and ready to go, but after finding out about the self study and the work involved began to ask him self if he was ready or old enough to become a certified diver. How his life would change over the next 3.5 days with me….
We began with some class work and after a while I could see that his brain was beginning to fry, with thought of what was all that about and WHY ??? and WHAT IF ??
So we moved in to the shop to get some equipment for the little man. This was fun as we had to try and get stuff to fit, after several adjustments and some extra clips we were ready to rock and roll.
Over the next few days we played in the sea and in the pool with the skills, great fun. Then covered the rest of the theory mixed up with the 4 open water dives. Zack was a bit nervous about the final exam, but he only got a hand full of questions wrong and for a young man of that age that is fantastic, as many of you who are already certified know.
We had 4 great dives and Zack managed to get two more in before he left.
All I have to say is thanks Zack for a great week and it was a pleasure diving with you.

Kids and diving go well together, as they have little or no fear. So teaching them is no problem in the water, but sometime the theory can be a little too much. As long as the kids know that we can have a lot of fun, but on the other hand we have to cover the academics and take diving seriously at the same time.
Any thing is possible with a little extra time….