finally made the leap

[tycoonelyk]

Every now and then here in Destin FL I would see dolphins swimming in the waves. I've swam out to them before and attempted to "swim" with them, but as soon as I got about 10 meters away then disappeared :/

 

[monkeyhatfork]

kinda toss it back and forth. when they get it theyll show off too kinda play hacky sack with it theyll release it from theyr mouth and catch it with a pectoral fin then drop it and catch it with theyr tail.and back

 

[BatRay]

Awesome pics. I'd love to hear the long story, by the way.

 

[cdavis]

tycoon,

Wrong kind of dolphin. Those are bottlenose, and usually don't have much to do with people. I've tried a bunch of times to get them to play, with little success. You might have better luck if you ever see them milling around a specific spot. I and my crew got to dive with a group of them that were feeding on something in the bottom(that we could not see). The juveniles were fairly friendly, but the big (and I mean BIG) adults pretty much ignored us, very different from spotted dolphins or the spinners Monkey dives with.

Connor

 

[cdavis]

Josh,

Do the spinners react differently to monofins rather than bifins?

Connor

 

[monkeyhatfork]

my mono fins have not arrived in hawaii yet. had an epic morning wait till u see the pics ill have-em up later its gonna take a while to go thru them and i just got out of the water but i got a combined pod of spotted and spinners they chilled and played for about three hours i was setting up a shot cause i could see one of the spinners was setting up to jump and as i was trying for that, one came from directly behind and breached over my head i swear it traveled a good forty feet amazing how high and far those guys can buck themselves

 

[monkeyhatfork]

not lying this guy started this jump behind me flew right over my head, if you look closely u can see to the right his buddy just beginning a jump. heres also a pic of one of the pan tropical spotted dolphins. its gonna take a while to sort threw todays stuff it will be up later at www.joshspahr.com - Dolphins

 

[monkeyhatfork]

heres a spotter from kona yesterday (left) contrast too bahamas spotter (right) from a trip a few years ago

 

[tycoonelyk]

tycoon,

Wrong kind of dolphin. Those are bottlenose, and usually don't have much to do with people. I've tried a bunch of times to get them to play, with little success. You might have better luck if you ever see them milling around a specific spot. I and my crew got to dive with a group of them that were feeding on something in the bottom(that we could not see). The juveniles were fairly friendly, but the big (and I mean BIG) adults pretty much ignored us, very different from spotted dolphins or the spinners Monkey dives with.

Connor

That makes a lot more sense now! I never knew certain types of dolphins reacted differently to us. I hope one day I get lucky and they stick around for at least five minutes!

 

[monkeyhatfork]

stuck inside today waiting for ups to bring my go-pro3 black. heres some from yesterday turned out ok in spite of horrible vis

 

[tycoonelyk]

What kind of fish is the one in picture three and four? Great pics btw! And the Vis doesn't seem to bad..

 

[monkeyhatfork]

oriental flying gurnard, they can fold those pectoral fins up and walk with them like legs, pretty rad

 

[monkeyhatfork]

a few moments from this week

 

[monkeyhatfork]

gopro 2 started leaking an hour in today? so put it on shore and just when out and played with camera settings on the three to see if i could get something decent out of it and finally some decent pics.

 

[monkeyhatfork]

oh yeah saw an eel eat other eel, the pic isnt the best but the video is good

 

[spaghetti]

Well done Monkey! I wish you to never turn back.

PS. If edible, I'd have banged the big eel in the pic...

 

[monkeyhatfork]

thanks spaghetti. there will be no turning back, only way I would even consider leaving this island would be for another south pacific island.

 

[monkeyhatfork]

fairly large waves pounded the coastline new years eve many spots by my house not accessible so rode down to place of refuge thinking it might be spared nope double overhead shore break pounding south tip of the bay huge surge and vis about 6ft but dolphins were out playing so why not? happy new year everyone

 

[cdavis]

Having done a fair amount of body surfing, "double overhead shore break" sounds completely insane. How do you get out through that?

Connor

nice pics

 

[monkeyhatfork]

wasn't breaking inside the bay but on the edges so just had to time the surge well getting in and out the normal entry point was not doable. I've gotten thru big shore break before bodyboarding and bodysurfing not sure i would risk my long fins if too big but with a pair of lifeguard fins u just need to time it right and get a running start spear the wave with your body as its breaking then get fins on quickly i always found that cleaner than getting thru turbulence of whitewater then again I'm talking about california not hawaii- the wedge can get big and violent breaks allot of necks but still has a nice sandy bottom here u risk getting slammed onto reef and hundreds of nasty spiny urchins. saw a handful tourists get pretty tore up the surge would drag them up over the lava then suck them right back pulling most there gear off in the process whoever goes there when the vis clears up is gonna find a dozen or so snorkel sets on the bottom. heres a pic of the shore break it arches up much higher than in the pic but couldn't time it with the lag time on my phone camera