Tuesday, September 18, 2012

It was a day to remember here at Guadalupe!


Hola everyone!

The water was a warm 71 degrees and the visibility stayed at around 80 feet for most the day with a line of cloudy water of 20 feet from the surface, that gave us a shallow visibility of 40 ft. For the majority of the day we had different individual white sharks. One, of which was the crowd favorite, Zapata. A small juvenile of 8 ft. was also made close passes and went for hang baits. Zapata, however, was the star of the day. He approached close on the surface cages as well as the submersible cages. The sun went down and divers stayed in the water not wanting this amazing day to end! Zapata was enjoying his games with our Instructor Dani on the bait line, getting everybody excited until it was dark! By then it was time for dinner so we said goodbye to our big boy,  waiting for more playing.. It was definitely a day to remember here at Guadalupe!

Until next time!

Ricardo TamaƱo
Dive Instructor

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

"Today was the day!"


Hola everyone!!

"Today was the day!" That`s what all our guests were saying after today`s shark-tivities ended today. The water was a warm 70 degrees and the visibility stayed at around 100 feet for most the day. Not only were the conditions excellent but the sharking was non-stop all day. For the majority of the we had  four different individual white sharks. Three known sharks: Jacques, Cee-Cee, and the crowd favorite Zapata. A small juvenile of 8 ft. was also making close passes and going for hang baits. Zapata, however, was the star of the day. Zapata is a 12 ft shark whose mild demeanor makes him great for photo and video. He approached close on
the surface cages as well as the submersible cages. The sun went down and divers stayed in the water not wanting this amazing day to end. Finally, we couldn`t see anymore so diving was finished for the rest of the day. It was definitely a day to remember here in Guadalupe.

Until next time....

Dave Valencia

Monday, September 10, 2012

A great day of shark diving followed by panga ride up the coast!


Buenas tardes from Guadalupe,

We arrived to a sunny and warm day at Isla Guadalupe, and the sharks showed up within a half hour of us setting things up. We had a 12ft. male hang out at the surface cages allowing for our first wave of divers to get some great shots. This shark was quite active and putting on a good show even for those of watching from the sun deck, waiting for their turn in the cage. The submersible cage entered the water and the first divers identified three different sharks. None were regular sharks for us, all had easily identifiable markings and unique dorsal fins. We`ll see if they show up tomorrow.
We ended diving activities around 6:30 and Gero took everyone on a panga ride to check out the elephant seals, guadalupe fur seals, and sea lions closer to shore. Once they return we`ll cap off the day with a bbq on the bow of the boat. A nice beginning to our trip here in Guadalupe. 

Until next time...
Dave Valencia

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Today we found a pod of Cuvier's beaked whales, and a mako shark!


Hi Folks!
Unfortunately mother nature did not treat us very well today, we had big swells and back wash at the dive spot, so we sailed a bit south in search of better conditions.  At our new dive site, we found better conditions with great visibility, but the three sharks that we found were a bit shy, and did not want play! We did however get an extra treat when we saw a 6' long short fin mako, and while on Geronimo's infamous panga rides along the coast of Guadalupe Island we found a pod of 8-10 Cuvier's beaked whales that we followed for a little while! 
Stay tuned for more from us tomorrow!
    Dive Instructor
    Daniel Zapata.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Buenas Tardes De Guadalupe!


Buenas Tardes from Guadalupe,

It was a nice start to our first day of sharking. We quite a few first-time divers on the boat this week. Can you imagine your first dive being in a cage with Great White sharks? It`s all downhill from here. 

Well, we had sharks from the get go, within five minutes of having the cages in the water. Our first visitor was Jacques and then the Mau snuck in and stole a few hang baits . We had at least three sharks passing the surface cages for most of the day. We even had  a visit from a brave sea lion, a turtle, and a small pod of dolphins all near the back of the boat.. This may sound insensitive, but we were hoping for a predation. Once we got the submersible going divers identified five sharks underneath the cages. The sharks were making some close passes on the submersible cage. This made the submersible cage the place to be towards the closing of our first day.

Until next time...

Dave Valencia

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

4 Full Body Breaches!


  Before anything else I have to say Isla Guadalupe gave us a good morning with 2 full body sharks jumps, before our divers were in the cags!  The first one took place at 6:50 am, and the second one at 7:10am! So thoughout the day we had 2 more jumps, and the amazing thing is all the breaches happened within 20 meters of the boat!
    So for the morning and surface cages activities we had up to 4 shark (3 together at times) coming back and forth from side to side of the boat, attacking the bait from different angles also from depth to surface, vis was good up to 80ft but dropped a bit lower towards the afternoon, but we had great photo opportunities with four 9 to 12 ft long sharks and strength of this amazing and majestic  animals.
    For our certified divers, on in our sumbersible cage we had from  2 to 5 sharks at the same time. Watching the powerful animal from below offers a completely different perspective as well as some choice photo opportunities!        The last 2 hours of the day we had Mau (short for Mauricio) and Jacks in the area, plus another 3 other new sharks that we saw on our last trip! On our previous trip they unscathed, but today they all showed up with new and fresh bites, we assume fighting for territory and preys since no females have being seen this season.  Water temp ranged from 68 to 69F.
    Dive Instructor
    Daniel Zapata

Sunday, September 2, 2012


Greetings From Guadalupe!

This was our second day of shark diving here in these shark infested waters! It was a day full of excitement. The sharks were hanging out deeper today so it was the submersible cage that stole the show today. We started the submersible cage at around 9am when the sharks started to get warmed up. During those first few dives we say as many as six great whites at one time! We spotted a familiar shark. Mau, who was busy jumping at the hang baits. The sharks were coming very close to the cage. One encounter that stands out was a 12ft great white was circling very close to the submersible. It was so close you could have touched it. It swam around three times consecutively and gave us some GREAT great white photo ops.
On the surface, we had two full breaches. Both breaches were not at anything in particular and were within 20ft from the boat. Unfortunately nobody was quick enough with their trigger finger to catch those on camera, but there's always tomorrow! Until next time.....

Dave Valencia

Saturday, September 1, 2012


Hi folks! Here's the latest news from Isla Guadalupe!
We had a very good day despite a slow start to the morning in the surface cages but we got rewarded for it with a full body jump! And while shark wrangling we noticed seagulls suddenly flying to another direction and landing on the surface, the reason was a predation! We are assuming a baby seal was killed by a great white shark due to little time to be consumed and only 150 yards away from the Solmar V, by the time we got to the area, there was not much left over other than  the stain of blood on the surface of the water! So we continued with shifts in the surface cages and the submersible cage onboard was a blast for divers! We had close encounters with sharks coming up and in from every where, and they were much more active! The water temp was 68F, vis did change from morning to afternoon averaging about 50' deeper than that in the submersible was a little better. We counted 6 different sharks all of which were male as is usual in August.
    Dive Instructor
    Daniel Zapata