LIVING THE DREAM

After 150 trips to Isla Guadalupe over the last eight years, you might think that I might be getting tired of it. Well I am not. Hell NO! Deep down I still love it all and I am still thrilled each and every day that I am out there. I am indeed grateful to be “Living the dream”.

However there have been days when I wondered WTF am I doing this for, and those days are pretty much in the past now. With the Navy issue out of the way for the time being and most probably for good (but you never know when working in Mexico), now there are just little annoyances occasionally but with the 2010 season pretty much in the history books, the little things just don’t seem to matter much anymore. There still is lots of work to be done and battles to be fought, but the tide of the war has definitely turned in our favor and we now have the upper hand on things.  Most people just have no idea what goes on behind the scenes with permit issues and having to deal with inept officials that make ridiculous decisions based on rumors and hear say. It is extremely difficult working in a third world country and the bureaucracy is absolutely stifling at times. People have no idea how many hoops we must jump through to keep this whole thing running or even in existence for that matter.  But we do it and we will keep up the fight and we will never quit.

Having had this amazing opportunity to share these incredible animals with so many people over the years has been very rewarding for me on a personal level.

It still makes my day when I am able to coax a first time diver into the water and watch them blow their first bubbles. That is something that I truly enjoy. Those little things are what makes it all worth it. Seeing the smiles on the faces of divers coming out of the cage after their first encounter with white sharks is still priceless to me.  What is really cool is that on most trips nearly half of our guests are repeat clients, some of which have made the journey with us several times. We have created a unique and special relationship with our guests and we have all become one big extended family. We share a bond that is hard to explain. It is so wonderful to have met so many different people from all walks of life who share a passion and common interest in such a special animal. To many the experience has been life changing and that is what keeps us going.

I truly am honored to have had the opportunity to work with the Solmar V and her awesome crew. It has been such a pleasure and we have all become close like brothers over the years. We are hands down the best White Shark diving operation in the world and I am very proud and confident in making that statement. No one else has the amount of experience as we have or the amount of success that we have had.  We are so successful because we work very well together and we keep an open mind about every aspect of our operation. Every season and every trip we learn something new and we take what we have learned and we make improvements and that keeps our operation fresh and leaves our competition in the dust. We continue to lead the way as we always have with new technology and new techniques and that is what makes us the best white shark diving operation in the world.

Thank you to all of our “Shark Fans”. We are looking forward to the next 150 trips.

Stay tuned for some very exciting news! We will be making an important announcement in the very near future.

Thank you Dean Karr for these recent and most precious images.

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Shark Diving International Hosts Mega Yacht APOGEE at Guadalupe

We received a phone call last July from the Captain of a mega yacht that had been hearing cool stories about the white sharks at Guadalupe. He stated that he had asked around for the best operator with the best reputation and everyone he spoke to recommended us as the hands down best operator in North America. Thank you to all of our Shark Fans once again!

So now we are 

Apogee's first-class amenities turn even the most remote destination into a five-star resort. This yacht offers a complete range of watersport activities, including water skiing, fishing, snorkeling, and even scuba diving. Rich mahogany warms the main salon, setting the tone for Apogee's classic elegance. In addition to its sweeping circular staircase, the main foyer includes an elevator that links all five decks. Much larger than ordinary skylounge and completely outfitted in magnificently crafted mahogany, burl mahogany and rosewood the bridge-deck saloon is a leisure destination unto itself. It features a 22-foot-long backlit onyx-topped bar modeled after Monaco's Cafe de Paris and Miami's Delano Hotel, a Wurlitzer jukebox and a spacious adjacent aft terrace complete the package. A crew of 17 awaits - one of the highest crew-to-guest ratios in the industry.

COMMUNICATIONS
Sat B, Fleet 77, Mini-M, GSM, High speed internet access

AUDIO VISUAL EQUIPMENT & DECK FACILITIES
Plasma & LCD TV/DVD/VCR throughout yacht, SatT.V., Bose Surround Sound, Wurlitzer Jukebox, Karaoke

Apogee is a beautiful vessel with a great crew who were a pleasure to work with and dive with. It was pretty funny seeing these boys get an opportunity to dive with whitey when the guests were having lunch. 

Thanks for the good times Flash, Chris and Bert! aka "Ray Charles".

We were able to make tis happen on very short  notice which was a feet in itself when permits usually take months to prepare but it all worked out and the guests and crew had the time of their lives and hope to return again someday. Thanks to our own Bobby and Don for helping out.

We are heading out again today with one of our all time favorite Shark Fans DEAN KARR.

So we know it is going to be an awesome trip with some really fun and cool peeps.

May the sharks be with you all!

Yours in sharks,

Lawrence 

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2010 Isla Guadalupe White Shark Season Begins

Greetings Shark Fans
Sorry for my prolonged absence as I have been litteraly on the move for the last 6 weeks.
I am currently in port in Ensenada on board the Solmar V preparing to depart for Isla Guadalupe for the second of 14 trips.

Our first trip to Guadalupe was nothing short of EPIC! We had 12 individual white sharks over the 3 days at the island. That would be a record for the first trip of the season. All males as expected and they were very active throughout the trip. The first shark arrived only 20 minutes after arriving at the island and Cal Ripfin arrived after only 2 hours. Cal did not show up until late September last year and had us all worried.

Cal looks GREAT! He is still gaining weight and appears to be in excellent condition. For those who have not had the priviledge of meeting Cal Ripfin (aka Shredder) he is one of the most famous white sharks in the world. I met Cal Ripfin back in 2002 and have seen him at the island every season for the last 9 seasons now. He is truly one of the greatest "Players" in the shark world. He hangs around the boat for hours at a time and loves to swim close to the cages and he even swings by the submersible cage and HI 5"S the dive masters. He is the Coolest Shark in the World! Sorry Emma.... (Jimmy's fav Tiger shark)

The weather was fantastic providing us with a very smooth crossing. At the island, morning clouds cleared to bright warm sunshine and we enjoyed just a slight breeze to keep us comfortable. August can be blistering hot at Isla Guadalupe. The water conditions were ideal with a temperature of 65-67 and 80' of visibility.

We were boarded twice by the Mexican Navy and all of our documentation were inspected and approved.

Never a dull moment down there!

I will be back in 5 days to bring you another Shark Action Report.

Photos by Kat Fisher

Team update:
ABC4 just arrived back in Cape Town SA. Congrats to ABC4  for scoring #5 of ALL TIME, Shark Week Show with his "Into the Shark Bite" show. He also just signed a new contract with NAT GEO! Keep it up Bro!

Mary O'Malley is currently also in S Africa finishing up a extended Sardine Run Expedition

Bobby Mc Nerney is preparing for an expedition to Tonga and will be joining us back at Guadalupe soon.

Erick Higuera is on board the Solmar V


STAY TUNED!

May the Sharks be with you!

Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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Juvenile White Shark Project Gets Underway in So Cal

The Shark is out of the bag!


We have been operating in the Los Angeles area over the past few weeks preparing for an epic film project. We are here on a mission, to film and document Juvenile White Shark behavior in the wild. 


Over the past few weeks I have been busy meeting with many local law enforcement and other government officials in preparation for this project. Getting everyone "In the Loop" and notifying the local agencies of what our plans and intentions was very important to me and indeed very fruitful. I believe that it is very important to meet face to face with the right authorities and local people and show your respect when taking on a major project such as this. I was pleasantly surprised by the reception I received and how helpful everyone was. They all appreciated the fact that I had the politeness and forethought to contact them before I started my project.


One of the contingencies for having the cooperation I asked for from these government agencies was that we kept a "low profile" and not stirred up any unwarranted attention from the media or concerns from local residents . I of course had no problem with that issue and have been publicly quiet about my project.


Well, now that the media has gone nuts over some recent sightings here and the local residents are now "warned" about the arrival and subsequent sightings of these White Sharks, we are now able to share our story with all of you.

Surfers Warned After Shark Spotted Off Malibu Coast

KTLA VIDEO HERE


From the Shark Research Committee site:

Sunset Beach  —   On June 27, 2010 Scott at SunsetSurf received the following report from Agam Singh; “Shark sighting: 7 – 8 foot White Shark fully breached about 200 yards off the point around 3:00 PM, Sunday, June 27th. At least 5 people saw it and kept surfing. I bailed!”




Our Juvenile White Shark Project has been in the planning stages since March of this year.
We arrived in LA in mid June and began staging equipment and vessels in strategic locations around Southern California. Our base of operations is located in beautiful Malibu, CA. In total we have 4 vessels and several shoreside bases. We have a great communications network set up between multiple vessels and shoreside observation posts from North to South along the coast. 


                                                We are geared up and ready for action!

We will be open water diving with our two CUDA 850 Scooter/ HD video camera rigs. These slick little units are stable, fast, quiet and maneuverable. In the above configuration we can cover large areas in a short period of time. In the event we would want to have extended range and cover huge distances we can simply add additional batteries and increase our range to over 10 miles. However I have designed and built a Twin 850 configuration that combines both scooters into one ultra fast, ultra long range machine which I call the "Super Max 1700". This very cool "one of a kind" unit is capable of over 8 knots and has a range of approximately 28 miles. Utilizing a closed circuit rebreather, I can make dives below 100 feet and stay submerged for over 3 hours. To put that into perspective, I would be able to travel submerged from one end of Catalina Island to the other or actually travel (utilizing specially designed navigation instruments) from the North end of Catalina Island to Santa Barbara Island, non stop. HOW COOL IS THAT? :)~




So stay tuned for some exciting reports from us as we embark on this latest adventure!


Enjoy the 4th of July and Ill see you next week!


Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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Long Beach Scuba/Shark Show 2010

 The official "Roll Out" of our Self Propelled Shark Cage (SPSC) at the Scuba Show in Long Beach, CA this past weekend proved to be a real SHOW STOPPER!
I want to say thank you to all who came by and visited us at our booth. It was great to see so many people that we have had on our trips over the last 10 years.

With over 10,000 attendees at the show this year it was a busy 2 days for sure.
And I would have to say that the show buzz was all about SHARKS and shark diving. With a huge turnout of shark conservation organizations, advocates, activists and of course 100's of shark fans. It was pretty much a complete SHARKFEST this year. The world renown marine artist Wyland, who was the shows special guest, even painted a huge White Shark on canvas, live during the show.

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Welcome to Our Shark Diving International Team Blog

Happy Earth Day to All

Well, here we go! Our first post.

We have purposely chosen to start this blog on Earth Day April 22, 2010 to celebrate our successes over the last decade and to share a new and promising decade with all of our friends from around the world.

Currently our Team is scattered to the four winds:

Heidi Derosa
Heidi is stuck in London this week due to the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption. She was returning from her Red Sea diving expedition and was grounded there by the complete commercial aviation shutdown in Europe. We wish her all the luck in getting home safely and soon. Hiedi will have some good stories from this trip I am sure.

Andy Casagrande
Andy is currently on assignment in the Bahamas on a documentary film shoot.

Erick Higuera
Erick is on the Solmar V diving at the Revillagigedos Islands. His season dive report will be coming soon.

Bobby McNerney
Bob is back home in San Pedro, CA and just returned from a trip to Tiger Beach on the Shearwater with Jimmy Abernethy. Bobby will be heading back out very soon for a Oceanic White tip trip with Jimmy in early May. 

James Moskito
James is back at SDIHQ "West" in the SF Bay area after a very successful Nor Cal coast dive trip. Save us some Abalone Dude!

Mary O'Malley
Mary has been super busy working on Shark Safe campaigns since her recent trip to Indonesia last month. Mary has been working diligently writing letters and emails in support of The Hawaii SB 2169 bill to ban sale, possession, distribution of shark fins and all shark harvest in Hawaii.

SB 2169 passed the Conference session with a unanimous YES vote on Tuesday 4/21. Without a doubt, this bill would have never got off the ground without the Herculean efforts of Stephanie Brendal who has been on the forefront of shark conservation in Hawaii. Our friend Steph is also the founder Shark Allies around the globe.

Lawrence Groth am currently at SDIHQ "East" preparing for my annual migration back to the west coast. I will be driving across the USA in early May to arrive in time for the Long Beach Scuba Show May 15 &16 at the Long Beach Convention Center. On May 24th I will be departing for Cabo San Lucas to join Erick and all my amigos on the Solmar V for a 9 day trip to the Revillagigedos Islands. Upon my return from that trip I will be embarking on a massive 3 year filming project, documenting the natural history of White Sharks. I will be spending a great deal of time diving and filming in southern California prior to the start of the 2010 Isla Guadalupe white shark season. I will be posting regular reports along the way to keep you all up to date on this epic project. I am sorry that I cannot say very much else about the project at the moment due to nondisclosure agreements.

So just stay tuned for some very exciting posts and incredible adventure stories from The Team!

A personal note:
This blog has been a long time coming. I personally have been turned off of blogging by certain persons who have no scruples and that think they can just put anything up on the internet without any sense of honesty or morality. This unethical "BLOOSER" (My own word :) has been left on their own for far too long. They have taken advantage of the fact that most people believe everything they read on their blog. Most ethical people would not write anything but the truth and thus their readers automatically believe that whatever they read must be true, because it is posted on a blog and viewed by everyone. We have had enough of this BS! Beware little man....

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