My dad is always beside me in everything I do. It was no surprise when he followed me off the end of our dive boat and under the waves.
He was right behind me in 2004 on our first dive together as buddies in the Florida Keys. About 20 feet (6 meters) down the anchor line, I spotted dark shadows circling the space I was meant to fill. I looked up and made eye contact with my dad, who immediately made a shaka sign, reassuring me that the giant barracuda would cause us no issue. As we had discussed in the dive brief, our combined size would be larger than most fish, taking away my fear of dropping down between the fanged hunters. I felt secure as they swam away.
My foundation was strong and always bolstered by Dad’s laughter, so it was easy to find wonder in the underwater world. I will never forget my first dive, buddied up with him as we spotted bright parrotfish, followed goatfish, and almost lost our dive boat while trailing a goliath grouper.
In May 2022, he rolled off the side of our tender vessel with me to dive Belize’s Lighthouse Reef. Once we reached the edge of the underwater cliff, we took one big step forward and fell into the Great Blue Hole World Heritage Site in slow motion. That descent was evocative of our shared, 18-year diving dossier.
Together we descended into the famed Devil’s Throat in Cozumel, Mexico, dared the open ocean to investigate an Australian oil rig, and trusted the light of a full moon in Roatán, Honduras, to excite the bioluminescent plankton. The delight and confidence from these adventures cultivated a fervor to protect and restore ecological balance.
The summer before I began college as a marine science major, I returned to the Florida Keys for my advanced diving and nitrox certifications. A few years after graduation, I could not wipe the smile off my face for the duration of a four-month divemaster internship in Koh Phi Phi Leh, Thailand. After living in Hawaiʻi for six years, I was ecstatic for my father to visit and to introduce him to freediving on Oahu.
These experiences stick with me and have shaped who I am. I am proud of the spirit my dad helped foster in my life. I do my best every day to stand up for the beings and the places that have brought me to my senses. The ocean needs our advocacy and protection.
My career has taken me into local food systems, where I have found that improving the resilience of those systems and downsizing our reliance on mass production helps address some of the issues that plague our global reef systems.
I intend to pass my devotion and curiosity forward so that the sparks my father and I share will continue to brighten our collective future.
© Alert Diver – Q4 2024