Diving Recommendations

Horizon Charters, San Diego, California. I cannot say enough about Horizon Charters (HorizonCharters.com). As far as I am concerned, the Grivetto family has the finest, most accomodating diving operation serving Southern California and Baja California. I have been diving with Horizon Charters on their two liveaboard vessels Horizon and Ocean Odyssey since 1991, the highlight of which has been our annual Guadalupe Island spearfishing and diving trip that my partner Skip Stubbs has hosted since 1994. I have probably made over 1000 dives in the southern islands (San Clemente, Santa Barbara, Catalina), Cortez Banks and Guadalupe Island on the Horizon Charters boats, and have always come home happy with the diving, the comraderie and the photos. Since 2001, Horizon Charters has conducted the premiere cage diving trips to Guadalupe Island using both of their boats, offering amazingly consistent white shark encounters in clear, blue oceanic water. My September 2007 trip (my fifth to view white sharks at Guadalupe) aboard the Horizon was my best ever, with great food, large comfortable cages, super crew and lots of keeper photos as a result.

Great White Shark Diving at Guadalupe Island with SharkDiver.com. Patric Douglas, the man behind the Absolute Adventures' SharkDiver expeditions, works in partnership with Grivetto family (owners of Horizon Charters) to host a series of 5-day trips to Guadalupe Island to observe great white sharks from the protection of cages. I've been with Patric and SharkDiver to Guadalupe and returned with some outstanding photos, a cooler full of fresh tuna (the fishing is great during these trips) and great memories of huge white sharks close enough to touch. SharkDiver's expeditions are structured for anyone who would like to see great white sharks in person -- you do not need to be an expert diver to feel at home on these trips, and even those who are not certified for SCUBA diving can join. Of particular note are SharkDiver's huge aluminum cages -- the largest shark cages in the world, offering lots of elbow and head room underwater, especially important for photographers and videographers.

Freediving with Whale Sharks in Honduras with SharkDiver.com. Patric Douglas (see above regarding white shark trips) is developing a new expedition for shark enthusiasts, this time at a Carribean island off the coast of Honduras swimming with enormous whale sharks. The first exploratory expedition took place January 2004. Information about 2005 dates and itineraries will appear on the SharkDiver.com website soon.

San Diego Shark Diving. Paul Anes, owner of San Diego Shark Diving, has been in the sharking business a very long time. If you have seen divers on television in chain mail suits hand feeding sharks, you have probably seen either Paul Anes or one of his crew. San Diego Shark Diving is another top-notch operator of white shark cage diving trips at Guadalupe Island. San Diego Shark Diving trips are particularly well-suited to serious photographers, videographers and long-time divers, and have hosted a long list of today's most active underwater image makers at Guadalupe over the past few years.

Optiquatics. Joe Wysocki and Optiquatics offer a wide array of dive expeditions tailored specifically toward photographers and videographers. Joe brings a huge array of equipment for his clients to use/borrow/try out, and will develop your slide film right on the boat each day for immediate feedback. I joined Joe on a trip he conducted with San Diego Shark Diving to Guadalupe this past fall, thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to join him again elsewhere in the world.