Creature Feature

By: Linda Lawless

 

For those of you who do not remember your first certified salt water dive I hope this jogs your memory…

The day dawned cold, clear and sunny with an air temp of 75 degrees and swells of 3-4', which weren't too bad. We were so excited we couldn't stand it. Fondly known as Team SBS (although Jennifer did eventually manage to blow our cover), Instructor John McGrath and his trusty assistant Ben had been preparing us for this very moment. Wildman Boomer had his bait bucket ready as he made his neat stride into the seas and Frazier followed suit to film the special and to be frank, slightly insane "Creature Feature". Both in class and at the Deep Six Dive Shop we had been regaled with fish tales (or so we thought) of Wildman Boomer feeding the fish which include but are not limited to sharks, barracudas and a miniature submarine sized 150lb Jewfish. Man Alive - the tales were true!!
Boomer and Frazier were first to descend with myself then the Donald to follow. Boomer was nice enough to loan us a camera and as the Donald was behind me, he remembers thinking he'd best take a couple of farewell pics as 2-3 curious sharks were quickly making an approach to investigate me. After muttering "Crap" into my regulator, my intensive scuba training kicked in - Thanks to John & Ben - I gently settled to a sandy patch on the bottom, tucking away my fingers and just watched. What a thrill - they soon lost interest in me and pursued the other members of Team SBS - the Don, Jennifer and Steven before returning to Boomer and his Bait Bucket. Frazier was everywhere with his too cool underwater video cam. Boomer fed the fish and beganto handing us sharks to hold, until they wanted to go. They are truly remarkable creatures. Don made it clear via hand signals that he has a 2 shark limit!
A huge thanks to Wildman Boomer!!!
Out of nowhere, appeared Bruiser. Now, this is a fish to behold, he makes both a grand entrance and exit, his position is center stage. Boomer told us that he was found about 5 years ago, since becoming a very welcomed member of the renowned "Creature Feature". Although he leaves from July - November either to the cooler waters or to find him a female companion who knows?? Maybe both… Today he appeared as though making rounds of intros, us serving as his personal team of remora - scratching his scaly body clean of debris. He caused an amazing current on exiting to meet his next new pal. He couldn't get enough of us, or us of him. Okay, so I lied. You did tend to shove him away at times as he tends to act like a lap dog - sans the little, cute or furry part. He is awesome and grand. Following the "Creature Feature", which Steven, Jennifer, Don & I agree we could experience every single day, we went to explore the reefs. Steven & Jennifer elected to go find Boomer, and while the Don & I had the same plan we promptly ditched it in lieu of finding a remarkable ledge teeming with marine life. We discovered the usual array of parrot fish, yellow tails and 'cudas. We were pleasantly surprised to find a small ray skimming the bottom. The hues of color and contrasts were eye candy. The most beautiful colors are provided by nature, today being of no exception.
The worst part of this dive was coming up…Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.