As we were coming back from a dive and through the Split straits between islands Solta and Brac we were hit by a short rain storm so beautiful it has to be one of the best 30min of my life. The rain cloud seemed tied to the Brac side of the straits, swallowing one sailboat after another as we were approaching it from the southwest and it finally cut loose when we got near it.

Those moments were pure poetic simplicity. Millions of raindrops on the calm surface of the sea, rising mist obscuring our view of sailboats and coastlines nearby, thunder as background soundtrack…. words and photos cannot even begin to describe the situation.

I just hope Miro got some excellent shots out of it. It would be too brilliant footage to miss in the documentary.

After what seems like a year (though it was really only since november) I got my feet properly wet again. There’s nothing like a day out on the boat combined with diving in the off season…

It’s just as cold down there (13-15°C below 15m) but the feeling is so completely different it might as well be an entirely different planet. Maybe because there’s just you and (almost) nobody else around.

I only did few dives, first of which was a night dive (not really a standard practice) and the last one I screwed up (plain and simple). Apparently I didn’t fasten the tank to the BCD well enough (or the BCD is useless) and it slipped away at 35m. As the location didn’t really allow much fumbling around (current, nothing to hold on to etc.) I didn’t take the BCD off to work it out and continue so I aborted the dive with both hands behind my back holding the tank in place.

You might question why my buddy didn’t help out but as it happens we had a complete failure in communication. She didn’t understand what I was trying to point out, never noticed what the problem was and I didn’t hassle her long enough for her to finally get it. I still don’t really know why I didn’t do anything to solve the situation either on my own or with her help but at the time I felt aborting was the only real option. You can imagine the dissapointment. Even though we made our way out slowly, with a few peeks here and there, and did 75% of the planned dive we still got out half an hour sooner than expected.

I screwed up…

I was however fortunate to act as a dive guide for Croatia Undersea project backed by Croatian national television HRT. Guys were great to dive with but I had to cut my participation in this awesome project short because I had to return home (only to realize later on I didn’t really have to go back)… §@$¤!!!

image gallery (only did two dives with a camera so there are far fewer photos than usual)

preview:

Yesterday was one of those days when I really wished I had a faster camera (like 1D mk3).

The reason… one of those near misses that are entirely down to the camera:

Note how only the toes on her hind legs start to come into focus (though the real focusing point is actually still further back). I know the Sigma 70-200/2.8 can handle the speed but the 20D usually lets me down in such situations. Other than faster focusing I also wish 20D had focusing points organised in groups rather than single/all selection given. It would really help with composition in high speed movement shots since as it is, you can only rely on the center point. Others are rarely helpful.

The fact that her left hind leg and a part of the frisbee got cropped irritates me much less than this…

I did get some good ones but nothing I’m be terribly proud of. Take a peek in the gallery.

For the record… that’s an Aerobie Superdisc she’s catching. By far the best frisbee for dogs. It floats extremely well (though it might be slightly too fast for smaller dogs) and it has a soft rubber edge so they don’t injure themselves when they bite down. They start bleeding really fast with other frisbees, believe me. It’s also highly resistant to chewing. We’ve had one for about a year now and it’s still in great shape. Most others get destroyed in a day or two.
We have one Dogobie on standby but it’s too soft, doesn’t have a straight & stable flight and it’s also not that resistant to chewing as they’d like you to believe. Sure, they can’t tear it up completely but it does get punctured relatively fast. But having said that… ours is still flight worthy after a year of rather heavy use. We just preffer the Superdisc. It might be better suited for occasional play.