First day of diving:No current no fun! or, “…OH…MY…GOD…I’M GOING TO DIE DOWN HERE!!!! I’VE NEVER BEEN IN A CURRENT THIS STRONG!!!! Oh, look a Clown Fish.”

Look at the colors, man..the colors

Ok, so back to the Fiji trip, I know that’s why my readers log on (all 3 of them…hi mom!). So after the first day at the resort, where I was mistaken for Vin Diesel… ok, have you stopped giggling?… anyways, the next day I was up early and ready to go underwater. Had a good breakfast at the resort’s restaurant, and grabbed my stuff, basically a towel and my hat, Kai Viti Divers, who are on the resort’s property, actually came up to my room the day before and took all my gear down to the boat, once it’s down there, you don’t have to worry about it AT ALL while you dive with them, they wash and dry your gear at the end of every day, and at the end of the trip, they’ll bring your gear right up to the transportation area, I know that’ll appeal to a a lot of you lazy mofo’s.

Kai Viti's boat and the crew getting ready for a day of diving

I get on the boat, meet the other divers; Tom and his daughter Kinsey down from Sacramento, Justin and Heather from L.A. too, friendships that will grow through the trip.

Kinsey, Tom, me, Jessica, Evan, Justin, Heather...quite a good looking bunch of divers

The boat flew out to the first dive site…ok, bear with me, I tend to NEVER remember dive site names, I mean NEVER, so you won’t be hearing any names, sorry….so the first dive site is out in the Bligh Waters, we suit up, get our briefing, and jump in, me with my Light and Motion Bluefin HD Housing, which I realize, acts like a HUGE sail when one drops down into a current! Ok, not just a current, I dive in California, I’ve handled currents, this was more like a raging underwater river! Hit 40 feet, am kicking like mad, and I’m wearing ScubaPro Jet Fins, and I’m waiting for the dive master to drop us somewhere that the current isn’t hitting. Instead he’s got us above the reef, pointing out stuff, seemingly unaffected by the current (Later we discover his favorite saying is “No current, no fun!!!”…um…yeah) He points out a few things, but I’m really not paying much attention because I’M TOO BUSY RUNNING AN UNDERWATER SPRINT!!!!

The group going under

He points out a shark, which I nod my response to but I’m not into it…”huff, huff, huff…shit, this is hard…damn, housing…wha? yeah,yeah, yeah, it’s a shark…huff, huff,huff…man, I’ve got to stop eating so much Jack in the Box…wha?…yeahyeahyeah, it’s an eel…I wonder if I should just let go of the housing…wait, am I starting to blackout?” I look around, and thankfully I’m not the only one kicking like mad, now I know what a salmon must feel like while swimming up a river!

Finally we get back up to the boat, and I’m breathing HARD! Now, I push weight 3 times a week, I take part in fight training 3 times a week, I RUN twice a week… I’m kind of in shape, and I was sitting on the boat sucking air and feeling like I was going to pass out! Now, am I saying this dive sucked? NO!!!! I never say that, because I was underwater…in Fiji…so it didn’t suck…but man, I wasn’t looking forward to doing that again!

Ok, before I go on, you might be wondering “Wait, Reuben’s an underwater videographer, he had his camera with him on this trip, but all I’m seeing on this blog are photos…why is that? Oh, and he’s such a wuss, that current wouldn’t have bothered me!” To that I say…screw you! Oh, and I did shoot video, except that on the second day, after our last dive, my camera basically FLOODED! The trip that was supposed to be all about me getting stock footage and a story for the Travel Channel, suddenly became a very expensive vacation…by myself, since my wife wasn’t there with me…do you know how boring that can be? I mean it was great diving, and the friends I made and had meals with were awesome, but you’re in Fiji at this amazing resort with beautiful sunsets and you’re spending your evenings wtrying to watch movies on your iPod, because they had no tv’s!

So, my camera is being repaired right now, at Computer Works Technologies in Burbank, AND, it’s being paid for by my insurance company, who I now whole-heartedly endorse now: H2O Insurance They were great about handling my case quickly and efficiently! I should be getting it back this weekend and I’ll post videos later next week. For now, enjoy the photos!

Clown Fish... I don't see what's so funny?

Giant Clam..c'mon guys, keep it clean!!!

More colorful reef

Tom with his underwater camera...his didn't flood...

I’ll post more about Fiji later!