I have been really lucky to be able to do a few dive trips this year to the seamounts (deep reef formed by underwater mountain ranges) called Roatan Banks, which is located halfway between Roatan and Cayos Cochinos (a group of islands located between Roatan and the mainland of Honduras). This is a relatively unexplored area and you are basically guaranteed a fantastic dive, with loads of fish, current, and amazing, healthy, vibrant coral. We've been lucky enough to spot sharks and massive eagle ...
Dive Photos
The Snorkeling Trip That Changed My Life
Kind of a bold title, isn't it?It's 100% true.That blurry photo is me. It's me during the second time I ever snorkeled in my life. (The first being a very sketchy set up off a catamaran in Cuba in 2005. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised I made it out alive.) I know it's hard to see, but my face is full of joy. I am at home in the ocean!I even know what day this was - February 5, 2012. I was on my very first trip to Roatan with my friend Steph, and it was our second day on the ...
Why I Tell You to Get the F#*&! Off the Coral
Yep. I really do tell people to get the fuck off the coral. (Great news is I'm underwater, so they can't hear my foul language, but the hand signals I give them seem to suffice.)Even after numerous briefings about the Roatan Marine Park from the shop assistant and dive lead, people seem to not be getting the message. I'm not sure where this mindset of "it's okay to manhandle or feed creatures, take shells or anything else I find, or be shitty diver and smash the coral to ...
And Now, Back to Diving.
So that was an interesting 3.5 weeks I spent in Canada. It was too many days and then not enough, as always. I stuffed my face, I laughed myself silly and I missed Roatan. I came back a few days ago and am slowly getting settled back in to the heat, the bugs, my favorite people, and being underwater.Since I had decided to buy a new camera for my new contract position with a marketing company doing photography for a resort here in Roatan, my old Canon point and shoot looked like a pretty good ...
Come for a dive with me!
I know, I know. You'd all really like to come diving with me, right? Since most of you can't, I'm going to take you on one with me in this post. Let's go!ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT KASEY DYKES 2013 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. USED WITH PERMISSION.Here's your dive briefing:photo credit: noel verobaWe're heading out to a dive site called Magic Bobby and we're going on a lionfish hunt! Roatan has a protected marine park around it, but lionfish are an invasive ...
A bunch of Brazilians and a headache.
We've had a group of 12 divers show up without a reservation at work and between that, more fun divers, 2 open water courses, an advanced open water course and 3 refreshers all this week (with only me and one other instructor), this is the first time I've been online in ages. My pocketbook is happy but I have a headache!how i feel after teaching that many courses in a weekAnd for all the doubters, I have only crashed my new scooter once so far, and it was totally Bobby's fault... ...
Under the sea is where I’ll be.
I've been doing that thing again where I work my ass off and don't go on the computer for a week.I'm diving more than I ever have been and it's been amazing! And since I'm too exhausted to tell you all about it, here is my last week in photo form instead. Enjoy!me giving a dive briefingthe odyssey wreck... i'm leading this dive. see all the tiny divers around the huge ship? it's over 400' long and it's sitting at about 110' deep at the bottom!me at the ...
Hey stranger. It’s been awhile.
I wish I had something more exciting to tell you all since I disappeared two weeks ago, but it's Semana Santa (Holy Week) here in Honduras and on Roatan that means one thing - PARTY!!favorite dress, favorite bar, favorite song, stupid faceI, however, do not get to partake in as much of this crazy week as I would normally like to... I'm busting my ass at work in a serious way right now. We are understaffed and overbooked, and our compressor is broken so every other night ...
New home, new job, new laptop charger.
The title pretty much sums it up...I have a new home - we moved December 1st from my amazing house to a new apartment with my roommates. It was a surprisingly easy move, I guess that's what happens when you move from furnished place to furnished place and all you have to move is your clothes and food. It also helped that we only moved 100 feet up the street! Our new apartment has some adjustments for us (no laundry, unreliable hot water, etc.) but the apartment itself is actually ...
The countdown is on.
I don't have much to say today. I'm having a stressful time with everything except my dive instructor stuff. I only have two more days in the classroom/water and then Thursday the instructor exams start. I wish I was a little more positive today, but sometimes you just have a bad day.In the meantime, here's a photo of me being a rockstar with two Caribbean reef sharks (see if you can find both). I'm on the left. Enjoy. ...