Baby Beach Aruba (Carribean)

Aruba, at just 19 miles off the cost of Venezuela, you can actually see
this country's cost in a clear day from Baby Beach down south in Aruba.

Baby beach is known for it's calm water for tourist and non proximity to
any hotels, but under the water of baby beach lies BABY BEACH REEF.
Being away from the usual diving spots (north side) it is full of life
and you will have the reef for yourself.

This is a shore dive and even though there is almost no walking going
into the dive you can expect a little bit of a swim (dive tips), fortunetly
there is a lot off things during the swim you can actually see schools
of Blue Surgeon fish often, as you come close to the descent point you realize
there are some nice waves, use them, and have fun go under them and see how
they spread as white fingers over the water.




And now you are down in about 15f/5m of water clear blue water and some
Parrot fish to look at there is usually a bit of a current, relax and take
it easy keep swimming and reach the point where soft corals show
you the way to the reef sand on your left hand life and colors on your
right, easy dive and right then i see my first turtle and a big one
at that, shy Green Sea Turtle but still a bit curious she followed me for about 5 minutes of the dive then went her separate way, it easy to find big Green morays and Queen trigger fish the coral it self is full of life, honey comb trunk fish some times is small groups of up to 10 of them, then out off the corner of my eye ... that is funny a coral with fins!!! ohh i see now the biggest Goliath grouper i have ever seen it is easy bigger than me i stand 6'3/188cm with no natural predator around he is not concerned about me ...at all i get close so i can take a picture... i am guiding no camera for me so i check my diver who is at this point suffering of "big fish narcosis" his smile is easy to see around his regulator, i am guessing he is enjoying the dive at this point hahah
at 52f/16m it is a very comfortable dive and a great one too.


we leave the Grouper and move on to the famous under water cross
said to be there because of many different reasons, the truth behind
it is, that some kids left the cross there as a way to say we where
here because they lived in Aruba and where going back to the US.
I know this because i met one off them who is now in his older
years but still a great diver, and human being.


But well back to the dive, in front off the cross a big puffer fish
guards his castle, the tire some times has some different guest
like big morays but not this time this time he was king and it
suit him well. looking in to the sand i see a Southern stingray i
tried to show it to my diver but he was busy with the 2 "flying"
spotted eagle rays coming our way they are beautiful and graceful, they change there direction slightly so they are just close but not too close. we reach the time to go out we star ascending using the coral as a reference in between the coral i spot a couple of lobster ... what a dive hahah.

Water movement

In diving, usually what you would call a nice dive would be a no movement, clear water easy going dive, as you get experience you want a challenge and water movement is one of the things you are going to have to learn to handle and know about.

I like diving from the shore, sometimes you have a bit of a walk with equipment on your back, may be you have a bit of a swim on the surface too and with this sometimes you have waves.
Waves can make a swim on the surface quite tiring ... unless you know how to use them.If your swim is against the waves, dont fight so hard wait for the wave to hit you and as the water goes where you want to go kick, if you fight the wave you are just going to get tired and not move very much, time yourself sometimes it helps to see how things move so you can get the hang of it sea fans and small fish move with the water... fan goes against you relax fan goes where you are gooing you kick nice and easy not hard you will see how much you move

PS: hey not all the waves you can dive it is never a good idea to try and dive while there is a big wave surfing competition , use good judgment

Elphinstone Red Sea

Elphinstone is 6.5 nautical miles from the shore, it is 300 m long with sheer sides, and runs from North to South. At the middle it is just 1 m deep, but the walls drop steeply down to the depths. The current here can be very strong, which is good as it means plenty of fish life.

As you go in you notice how deep it goes, you can see easily to 20 m deep, when you hit the 30m mark you can still see another 20m, it is just great.

Life here is varied, not everywhere but close to the reef you will find some nice stuff, your main company would be some barracuda not huge ones but they will stay with you for a while, you also get nice size Groupers and on the small side very colorfull nudibranchs. But the dive it self started for me when at 20m all my group turn around to take pictures of my, i did felt important but something told me there was more to it than that.

There it was Carcharhinus longimanus AKA as Oceanic White Tip Shark, HAHAH the joke was on me because i turn around and he was right there, next to my arm, when he notice me looking at him he went away but not far we had and excellent dive with depths between 5 and 10m with 2 beautiful sharks who where coming and going in between the divers, one of the sharks decided to try one of the fins of fellow instructor Oliver Kurmann. He is fine no bites on his body just a nice mark on his fin and a new story, in his own words "those are 10 bar on one breath hahah"

Some Tips

Every time we have the opportunity to go under water with a camera, we always hope to take photos like the ones on magazines we buy all the time, unfortunately that is not always the case.

So here are some tips for your enjoyment:

1.Use the surface, it creates that dramatic contrast of colors and it also gets you some more light.
2. Get close, your taking a photo of a clown fish, a barracuda (not too close) let IT fill your photo after all that is what you want yo show and at close distance light travels less distance so you get better colors.