diving — Stutzfamily blog thingie

Last Diving off Gili Trawangan

March 28, 2015 – 11:28 am

Our final spring break in Indonesia, and we went to one of our favorite places for a week of diving and relaxation.

: Come into the deep blue see for some diving pictures!

: Alea and Breck will be your guides today…

: Mom and dad just try to keep up…

: Susan took most of the really cool pictures.

: And Dave just tried to figure out our new camera.

: Spotted ray

: A school of fish – we ran into tons of “swarms” during the week.

: Bright light!

: Yes, this is fish butt, but I just liked these guys a lot.

: Nemo says “Hi!”

: A turtle and his remora friend take a break to savor the view.

: Hmmm…

: Chilling in the shade.

: This guy almost smacked Susan in the face.

: Know what that is? It is an octopus!

: Octopus hanging from the rocks.

: Octopus hiding in the rocks.

: Octopus coming out of the rocks.

: I like eels. Except as meals. And the way they feels.

: Swirling in the current.

: First nudi picture (don’t worry, there are plenty more).

: Two shrimp.

: Another nudibranch.

: Another moray eel – we saw more eels of all kinds on this trip than ever before….

: A little porcelain crab.

: Another porcelain crab.

: Pygmy seahorse – that”s our guide”s hand, so everything is ok. No great close up…

: Wonder why they call these sweetlips?

: Just a fun scene over an anemone.

: Met up with a guy at our dive shop who gave me some tips about playing around wi…

: Met up with a guy at our dive shop who gave me some tips about playing around wi…

: Peek a boo.

: Two cuttlefish in this picture. We saw lots of them on this trip (and Alea spells them “cuddle fish”)

: Another cuttlefish.

: I really like scorpionfish. There are a couple more shots in the album where they are even more hidden than this one.

: Lionfish.

: A turtle resting among some coral.

: We were told that “baby sharks don”t count,” but I don”t care. Here are two baby sharks hiding uder a rock.

: Here”s an adult swimming around.

: There were actually 2 of the adults in the area, but I wasn”t able to get them both in the same frame.

: Again, just a lot of fun to try to get fish pix.

: This baby fish is about as big as my pinky.

: A little puffer fish, hiding from me. It reminds me of a little cat sitting in a corner all curled up.

: Another nudibranch – really cool!

: So wiggly and fun to watch.

: At the end of one of our dives, we came across this huge swarm of glass fish. I love the pictures, but am not sure they do the fascinating scene justice.

: Another view of the glass fish.

: This was so cool!

: Just an all around fun place to be.

: Mantis shrimp.

: Another one, out in the open.

: Oh hey – time for another Nemo shot!

: A school of unicorn fish.

: Big, bad, triggerfish.

: Leaf scorpionfish.

: Go home turtle, you”re drunk!

: Funky textures.

: Lionfish – love all the little horns and things.

: Hi, porcupine fish!

: Hi, puffer fish!

: Another nudibranch – this is a kind our guides really liked and said they hadn’t ever seen before.

: I actually got some video of this one crawling along the bottom.

: A couple other nudis hanging out.

: Nemo’s family at home.

: Lion fish in full regalia mode.

: A clam being illuminated by our guide”s flashlight. Gives you an idea of what things really look like deep underwater.

: A very cool velvety purple nudibranch.

: A close up of this one”s antennae.

: A crab hanging out.

: Brain coral grooves.

: A pinnacle full of sea life.

: Cuttle fish face.

: Here”s the cuttlefish with his buddy the nudibranch in the corner.

: Lobster and shrimp. Two great tastes that taste great together.

: Seascape.

: Turtle in a seascape.

: Two little crabs in a coral.

: Blue ribbon eel upset at being disturbed.

: Alea and Breck explore the deep blue.

: Another turtle in full resting mode. Never had seen this before, saw it twice on this trip.

: “Hey dude”

: Scorpionfish – a face that only a mother could love!

: I really do like these guys.

: These guys, though, are the real deal!

: Here”s a spotted moray checking us out.

: A couple of shrimp.

: Totally cool colors – I dig the red and yellow together.

: Another cuttlefish.

: Probably my favorite nudibranch picture – and Susan is the one who took it!

: Zoomed in view of the previous shot.

: So this is apparently a ribbon of nudibranch eggs!

: Reminds me of those little troll dolls with the funky hair.

: Cow boxfish – saw these on our first ever muck dive.

: Black ribbon eel.

: Another first for us – an Indian Walker (aka the Devil Stinger). He’s “hiding” behind a plant.

: Another scorpionfish.

: Action around an anemone.

: Another kind of lionfish.

: Glass shrimp.

: Here’s a squid guarding its bundle of eggs (the white clump on the right)

: Another cool nudibranch.

: Another cool ray.

: Another Nemo face.

: Another nudibranch.

: Ninja divers Breck and Alea really did a great job, and we had an all around wonderful time. Thanks to the whole family for a great final week in the Indonesian sun and surf!

By Dave | Posted in Alea, Breck, Dave, Family, Indonesia, Life in Indonesia, Suz, Travel | Comments (3)

Happy Anniversary!

January 4, 2015 – 10:28 am

We’re so busy enjoying the Thai sun and surf that we’ve posted very little during our trip. Here are 4 quick shots from our dives – under stunning cliffs, we saw sharks, rockfish, and Susan finally laid eyes on a real-life seahorse! That makes for a pretty special anniversary present, right honey?

By Dave | Posted in Family, Travel | Comments (0)

Diving in Bali – October 2014

October 27, 2014 – 12:39 pm

We headed to the tropical paradise of Bali for our autumn break, and spent a few of those days on the north shore diving. We’ve been to this area several times before, but not for diving. While we didn’t see the huge schools of fish that we’ve encountered in other places, we did come across plenty of colorful mini-reef life that kept our eyes occupied and our camera busy.

By Dave | Posted in Family, Indonesia, Travel | Comments (0)

Komodo dragons and such

March 31, 2014 – 7:14 pm

In addition to all the cool diving that we did, we also had the chance to see some pretty extraordinary sights over spring break. This album is all from our “above water” camera, to complement the diving shots posted the other day…

By Dave | Posted in Alea, Breck, Dave, Family, Indonesia, Suz, Travel | Comments (0)

Manta Rays in action

March 29, 2014 – 8:36 am

We took a few snippets of video of our dive to Manta Point. Here’s a 2 minute look at what we saw (with bonus narration!). Susan, Alea, and Breck are all in here (if only fleetingly).

By Dave | Posted in Alea, Breck, Dave, Family, Indonesia, Suz, Travel | Comments (0)

Flores – Spring Break diving

March 28, 2014 – 11:29 am

We headed to the Indonesian island of Flores for a week in the sun. One of our “must do in Indonesia” items was to see Komodo dragons in the wild, so that was the impetus for this trip. The first pictures, however, will be from our diving adventures. We left from Labuan Bajo and went under the sea on 3 days (only 2 with a working camera!), and saw some wondrous stuff.

By Dave | Posted in Alea, Breck, Dave, Family, Indonesia, Suz, Travel | Comments (0)

Bali Break (part 1)

October 20, 2013 – 12:27 pm

We headed off to a week in the sun on Bali’s east coast. Diving (scuba), driving (scooters), and dining (seafood) were the only things on our agenda. Our hotel was fabulous, and we went under the sea a few times as well. Here are a few shots from around our resort, as well as some of the undersea life we saw on our first day of diving. More to come!!

: Our October break (spring break, here in the southern hemisphere) was dedicated to the joys of underwater life!

: We always say we should take better note of the places we stay, so here’s the official “picture for the record.”

: The view from our rooms’ balcony.

: Not sure if this is an official “infinity pool” or not, but it sure was nice!

: Tough livin’

$Alea lets the water's refraction offset her feet a little$: Alea lets the water’s refraction offset her feet a little

: Getting ready to go under – with a Balinese fishing boat above and in the shadow of the volcano Agung.

: Breck takes a snorkeling plunge.

: Alea heading under the sea…

: Susan swims with the fishes…

: Love the contrasty colors and light under here

: Here’s the first moray we saw – looks like he’s getting ready for lunch!

: A clown fish comes out to greet us

: We saw bunches of rays on these dives – they hunch up like this when they are getting ready to swim (either away or on the attack!)

: Here’s another ray, chilling on the seafloor

: Beautiful colors and oh-so-much sealife

: A leaf scorpion fish hanging out. We saw quite a number of these too – white, yellow, and pink.

: Another scorpionfish – a very different type, giving us a face-on stare!

: Here’s another one of a different guy…

: Really cool interplay of shapes and textures allover the reefs. Check out the red brittle star in the middle of all that stuff.

: There wasn’t always a ton of structure (at least compared to some of our other dives), but this section was a fabulous wall.

: Susan scoots in for a closer look.

: Alea checks out the coral growth.

: Breck slips past a coral formation

: Cool spots and iridescent colors abound

: We loved the fan-type coral.

: An underwater utopia

: They even reminded us of snow-covered trees, something that we’ve not seen much of the past few years!

: This is just a closer look at all the little tiny pieces that make up each fan – truly “fan”tastic!

: We dived at a Japanese wreck from WW2 – we’ve snorkeled there on various occasions, but never dived. Susan liked it so much, we ended up going back the next day too.

: And what photo shoot is complete without a lionfish?! We saw lots of these on our dives (but, strangely enough, not a single turtle).

: Nudibranch – the slugs of the sea.

: We ran into this puffer hiding out in an amphora-type coral.

: We are always on the hunt for seahorses, and here’s one we came across. A pygmy seahorse, he is about the size of a fingernail!! We’ll post more pictures in the next few days as well!

By Dave | Posted in Alea, Breck, Dave, Family, Indonesia, Suz, Travel | Comments (0)

Diving Bunaken Island Sulawesi

April 2, 2013 – 3:38 pm

For spring break, the family headed to Sulawesi (formerly known as Celebes), one of Indonesia’s largest islands. In addition to eating traditional foods (see the other photo album), we spent a couple of days diving off the smaller island of Bunaken. Armed with a point-and-shoot camera and trusty underwater housing, we took a few pictures that show a little of the glorious beauty we found.

By Dave | Posted in Family, Indonesia, Travel | Comments (0)

Diving on Gili T

October 21, 2012 – 12:10 pm

We pulled out the trusty underwater camera and headed to the sun and surf paradise of Lombok for October break. This collection of photos are from our below-water adventures…

By Dave | Posted in Alea, Breck, Dave, Family, Indonesia, Suz | Comments (0)

Diving pictures from Bali

April 3, 2012 – 9:07 pm

This is the same set that I put on Facebook here, but I’ll also put them on the blog for a “permanent record!”

By Dave | Posted in Family, Indonesia | Comments (0)

Swimming with the fishes

January 1, 2012 – 9:32 pm

Just a quick post of some pictures from our underwater adventures. I borrowed an underwater camera from a colleague, but discovered on arrival in the islands that there was no memory card! Luckily, one of the diving instructors has a side business of taking photos for groups that he takes out, so on our last dive we had a “professional” shooting us. I played around a little bit in Photoshop on these with the colors and such, but they still don’t do the underwater world justice.

Just a bit of informational interest here – the turtle that we saw was an endangered Hawksbill turtle. It was actually a rare dive or snorkel during our visit (I think once out of all our time in the water) that we didn’t see at least 1 turtle. Our record was 4 during one bit of snorkeling!

Enjoy the shots (which are in a random order), and we will be out of touch (again) for the next week as we travel to Yogyakarta, Indonesia’s cultural capital!

By Dave | Posted in Indonesia | Comments (1)

Dream diving vacation

December 31, 2011 – 10:05 am

We’re back from our vacation on Lombok and the Gili Islands. We had an absolutely spectacular time learning how to scuba dive and just soaking in the sunlight on some of Indonesia’s deserted white sand beaches. While the lack of internet connectivity cost me any shot at a fantasy football championship, that was a small price to pay for such splendid isolation!

We are throwing a little New Year’s party tonight, so rather than a full travelogue, here are some pictures with quick descriptions from our travels. Click on the first shot to begin – and have a happy new year!!