Pipehorse

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It has been cold and raining and we skipped the dive the day before. But on Sunday I thought it was a good opportunity to use my new custom made wetsuit I had made in Bali and go for a dive. I really wanted to get photos of the Costasiellas that a couple of the girls have been photographing. I got to the general area and noticed that one of my strobes wasn’t on. I had to get out of the water and change battery. I didn not check it before I got in the water. Pretty basic mistake.

I was wearing several new additions to my rig. It was a good time to test it all. The reg is uncomfortable; the airsource drags on the side stiring the sand around me, not sure if I like it. I also had to add 4 lbs to the original 14 and still that wasn’t enough by the end of the dive. I need to add more weight on the tank strap for next time.

Anyway there has been some exitement because Deb had found a mated couple of rare pipehorses. They are basically pipefish with the head of a seahorse and the tale of a pipefish. I looked from the distance when Deb pointed out one of them to Steve and I thought that I have seen them before but I tought it was and ugly frilly. I stayed around looking for the other one just to practice my “finding” skills. The pretty baby black seahorse was still around. A few minutes later Steve let me to the male pipehorse… I saw it curling its tale when it swims and stretching his snout like calling its mate…very romantic. It almost looks like a flying miniature seadragon. It moves a lot and it is a very difficult subject because all the fuzz around it. During lunch we found out that Deb first showed the female and somehow Steve went from shooting the female to shooting the male without consciously knowing. We were not sure how the subject swap happened and had a good laugh.

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Photos

colorful critter
I can't resist these guys when I see them