8 years and 149 trips to Isla Guadalupe and still 100%

I am approaching another milestone in my career as a shark diving operator. I am departing shortly for my 150th expedition to Isla Guadalupe.  It has been a long and rewarding adventure for me. I have many fine people and friends to thank for supporting me. It is impossible to show the gratitude that I feel towards so many of my friends and family here in this blog but.
One person in particular that I need to thank the most is Kat Fisher.
 Thank you Kat for the many years of support and your patience.


I must thank James Moskito my partner for being the honorable, dependable and trustworthy man that he is.  James you ROCK!


I also wish to thank Art Taylor for the seven wonderful seasons we had on the Searcher and for giving us the opportunity to get Guadalupe on the map as the best white shark diving location on the planet.

I want to thank Jose Luis Sanchez and his lovely wife Leslie and the entire Solmar V organization specially the boat crew for 6 awesome seasons so far and still going strong.

Thank you to all of our "Shark Fans" that keep coming back and also for spreading the good word for sharks and the company.

MUCHAS GRACIAS AMIGOS!

May the sharks be with you all always.

Yours in sharks,
Lawrence


Here is a kiss from Cal Ripfin   MUAH!

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SHARKS ALL DAY EVERYDAY

The 2010 White Shark Season has been just incredible so far!
We have been out at Guadalupe on the Solmar V for 8 trips this season so far and they just keep getting better. The action has been nonstop and the sharks very cooperative. The Shark Fans have been outstanding and we have been enjoying a stellar season with some fantastic people.

Here is a little note from some of our newest family members.

Hi!

I just wanted to send an extra "Thank You!" to Lawrence, Kat, the Solmar V crew, James and anyone else who had a part in making our trip to Guadalupe Island from Sept. 6-10 so wonderful.

This trip was so much more than I ever expected!  Lawrence and Kat made sure everything went as planned.  The crew made us feel so at home.  And James made sure we had our dive gear on time from Dive California.

This was a true "once in a lifetime" experience.  I have always had a passion and fascination with sharks, especially white sharks.  So, I was going to be satisfied if we only saw one shark  the entire trip.  Little did I know that we would see multiple sharks all day every day!!  It was absolutely exhilarating!!  

Thank you all again for making this trip (and our anniversary) such a wonderful experience!!!  We are already researching other trips with you all.

Best regards,

Christy and Chris Cole
Birmingham, AL






You are quite welcome you two love birds! :)


With all the sharky action and cool shark fans like these fine folks who could ask for anything more?

The weather has been very cooperative with relatively smooth crossings and sunny days at the island.

The sharks are plentiful and still very hungry. But there is still plenty of shark food at the island, there are hundreds of fur seal pups all around the island and the tuna are thick and seen from the cages nearly everyday. The Elephant seals numbers are increasing steadily as well. YUM!

Photos by Erick Higuera (Somar V )




Thank you! to all of our friends for making this an epic year for us and we look forward to having you back again soon!


I wish I had more time to write but I have to get ready for the next departure in a few hours.


May the sharks be with you all!


Yours in sharks,
Lawrence

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2010 Trip #2 Another Awesome Expedition #140 and still 100%

Just back in from trip #2 of 14 for the 2010 season and our 140th to Guadalupe Island.

CAL RIPFIN was once again the star of the show. Cal has to be the coolest White Shark ever!
This handsome brute is the most cooperative white shark I have ever seen, and I know quite a few.
Cal just loves to hang around and pose for photos and video. He is always calm, cool and easy going.
He and 14 of his buddies (all males still) enjoyed the clear blue water and bright sunshine with us for 3 full days.

Jacque was also there the entire trip. Jacque named by our dear friend Eric Cheng is also a real player and kept the divers busy going through flash cards, video tape and batteries the entire stay at the island. However Jacque apparently had the misfortune of encountering the "Expedition Great White" (EGW) crew last winter and is now sporting a heavy SPOT tag on his dorsal fin. Poor Jacque already has had multiple PAT tags over the years and has a great deal of marine growth on the leaders left behind from those tags. I think that is a crime to put these incredible animals through this time and time again in the name of research. How many times do these same animals need to be tagged??? We also noticed that Jacque has suffered an injury to his left eye. I can't help but suspect that it most probably occurred when he was Hooked, towed for miles, and "After His Will was Broken" lifted out of the water by the EGW crew and 4 holes drilled and had the SPOT tag bolted on. WTF!! Poor Jacque......

We are heading back out shortly so I have to run. Ill be back in 5 days with the next report.

Word from ABC4, was that they have found a dead whale near KZN and will be towing it out to sea and watch what happens. Sounds pretty stinky but should be pretty cool! Good luck buddy!

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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