Twenty feet down, murky, dark, swarming with kelp, surge pulling me back and forth, fighting to stay in place. Feeling my oxygen slipping away with my arms buried deep in a crevice as I try to reach a huge abalone. I look up and there is even larger ab just inches away. Still time. Re-position, slip the iron in,…
Finally, there it was: “Pawn to Queen’s Knight Four.” I raced into my bedroom to my chess set and made the move. Staring at the pieces I smiled and immediately thought of my next move. But then I had time to think: it would be months until his next move. They call it the Game…
Born on the Navy circuit, moving every 2 years. Home was an elusive concept at best. As life would have it we occasionally doubled back and that place was San Diego. Living there in the’ 60s and ’70s was a magical experience. Simple, clean, fun, and just right for starting my love affair with the ocean.…
I remember my first dive clearly, gradually sinking to the bottom in three hundred feet of water. As the bottom approached, the water cleared and in the dim light I could make out white objects covering the seafloor. Suddenly, we landed and the submersible’s pilot turned on the outside lights. Wow! We were surrounded by…
Animal? plant? aliens? Chances are you have never met a crinoid, although they are one of the most common invertebrate creatures along the California coast below 75 ft depths. Meet Florometra serratissima, the common crinoid or feather star of the Pacific coast. They average around 8-10 inches in height but are as light as a…
I am continually surprised about reactions to my amateur surf films of the 70s and 80s. While living in San Diego in the early 1970s I started borrowing my Dad’s 8mm Minolta film camera and making surf movies. Somehow making movies just clicked with me and I made about 20 short movies between 1972 and 1985.…
Mike Wallace of 60 minutes fame complied a book entitled “The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World’s Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century.” He asked me to write an essay on my vision for the future but it did not make the final cut. For whatever…