A Hole in My Heart

I HAVE BEEN A CERTIFIED DIVER since 1986 and have logged hundreds of recreational and technical dives. Since 2014 I have primarily been doing technical rebreather diving with a close group of experienced rebreather divers from Northern California. During the summer of 2019, our group visited Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Michigan […]

Divers Jim Eckhoff and Keith Flood exit the water after diving

Solomon Islands Evacuation

Learn about the unexpected Solomon Islands evacuation during our diving holiday in paradise and its shocking aftermath.

Allen breathes supplemental oxygen during a helicopter transfer to Honiara Hospital with Marco by her side.

Mistakes and Bad Decisions 

I WAS ON A TRIP TO TULAMBEN to dive the Liberty wreck for three days. The first day was recreational dives followed by two days of technical diving. I had a cold and sinusitis leading up to the trip, but the conditions had cleared up …

Revenge of the Lionfish

My boyfriend, Sean, and I had a day off from the dive shop where we work in Grand Cayman, and we decided to make the most of the beautiful conditions […]

Morose lionfish sulks over coral

Not in Denial

HAVING DONE THOUSANDS OF DIVES since I started in 1964, primarily off the coast of North Carolina, the shipwrecks and dive profiles there are familiar. Overall conditions couldn’t have been much better on this particular day — calm, clear seas with barely a current. We planned on two reverse profile decompression dives at an offshore […]

diver with a school of fish

DCI After a Training Dive

Read about my journey into diving and the realities of DCI after a training dive. Safety is paramount in this new adventure.

Staff reacted immediately, administered oxygen, and returned to shore.

The Trip of a Lifetime

IN 2018 AND 2019, MY HUSBAND AND I traveled to 50 locations in 35 countries over 14 continuous months, spending more than 250 hours underwater to research a dive travel guidebook for National Geographic.

Paralyzed in Grenada

I was 50 years old and had applied to law school. I was anxiously waiting to hear if I had been accepted, so to distract myself I decided to take […]

diver at the surface in distress

Broken Leg in Bonaire

While walking from the truck to a dive site entrance on Bonaire, my wife, Deborah, caught her foot under a root and hyperextended her leg when freeing herself. Falling to the ground, she exclaimed that she had broken her knee.

broken leg required two plates and nine screws

An Unconscious Ascent

WHILE DESCENDING ON OUR SECOND DIVE, I was at around 60 feet when I unexpectedly started ascending rapidly to the surface.

woman scuba diving