Steve Trek Prologue

This week I thought I would share a book excerpt.  Below is the prologue to The Galapagos Islands, The first book in the Steve Trek Adventure Series.

Steve Trek, a divemaster aboard the dive boat Under the Sea, is twenty-eight years old with twelve years of diving experience.  He has diving credentials as long as any diver in the Dive Traveler Company, including full instructor certification. Steve is a natural leader, the kind of person people gravitate to, confide in and just trust implicitly.  He has the typical ocean buff look: the sun-bleached hair, the deep tan, the very fit muscular body. His presence simply instills safety and comfort to all those around him.  His charm and good looks lead to all the ladies that dive from the Under the Sea to love him and dream of rubbing his washboard stomach between dives and during the romantic nights that happen at sea.  Steve has been diving on the Under the Sea since he joined the Dive Traveler Company in 1999 after graduating from Pro Dive Instructor School.  He has become the top divemaster in the company and is well respected in all levels of Dive Traveler.  

The Under the Sea’s current assignment has it sailing and diving the beautiful and sometime treacherous waters around the Galapagos Islands. The waters there have unbelievable diversity. On any one dive the tourist diver can see the surreal sights of marine iguanas scavenging algae from the ocean floor, to schooling hammerhead and Galapagos reef sharks numbering in the hundreds, to the enormous sight of a fifty-foot whale shark cruising by chugging the plankton-rich waters like a sailor on leave at the local bar.  That’s why the divers pay in excess of $5,000 for the weeklong trip. These pristine waters can also be as dangerous as any in the open ocean.  Raging currents can come up at a moment’s notice, switch direction, and, before you know it, you’ve been swept miles away from the dive boat. The water here is also cold to the average tropical diver. The water typically runs around sixty-eight degrees, which is quite cold compared to the eighty plus degree water of the Caribbean.  Galapagos is located along the equator, where the warm water currents from the Pacific join and merge with the cold-water currents from the Arctic creating the swirling currents and upwelling of plankton-rich water that draws in all the amazing animal life that divers have come to expect in Galapagos.

The Under the Sea is a 110 foot swath design luxury dive boat. This particular design helps minimize the wave effects on passengers, so very few ever get seasick aboard the Under the Sea. The swath design sets the main deck thirty feet above the water’s surface.  The boat has a dive deck that is designed to raise and lower from the main deck to the water’s surface so the divers may enter easily. The boat features luxury cabins for twenty-four passengers. Each cabin has hot showers, king beds, and window views that rival any beach resort in the world.  The boat is truly a luxury hotel on the water. Other amenities that the passengers enjoy during their week stay include the ten-person hot tub on the top deck, the exquisite galley with meals that would rival any top restaurant, and full photo studio. The main deck is beautiful, with the teak railing that glistens in the warm sun. There are eight other cabins for the crew. As you might guess, the crew consist of the captain, first mate, galley crew, chef, two waitresses and the divemasters-Steve, Doc, and Jeff.  The divemasters also act as bartenders and photo developers in the full photo lab that is aboard. 

For Steve and the other divemasters, life is good.  They met back at Pro Dive instructor school. After graduation each went different ways.  Jeff went to the Florida panhandle to explore the caves that have always fascinated him.  Doc, on the other hand, went off to Cozumel and worked as a divemaster for three years at Paradise Divers.  In 2002, Dive Traveler needed additional divemasters, as the operation was expanding into new waters. Steve called his buddies from dive school and they reunited as the top divemaster team aboard the Under the Sea.  In the four years since they have had wonderful times diving together, seeing things they only dreamed of as little boys, but what they prided themselves most for was that they had never lost a diver and have had no serious injuries to divers in their charge.  Today is June 2, 2006, and they are returning to port with another happy group of divers that just finished a week of successful diving in the great Galapagos Islands.

The book is now available via the link here on the blog and will be released nationally on May 5th.

Other Characters in Steve Trek Adventures

The Galapagos Islands - Steve Trek Adventures is now available for purchase.  You can get your pre release paperback or ebook directly from my publisher at http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61739-970-1  .  The books official release date is May 5th but you can get your copy early by using the above link.   Thank you so much for your support!  

Now to this weeks post.  

Outside of the main character, Steve Trek, there are two other divemaster’s that play key roles in the book, Dave “Doc” Sighter and “Big” Jeff Hall.   These two are Steve’s best friends in the book.  Just as Steve is built with traits of real people I have encountered in my life so are Dave Sighter and Jeff Hall.  Both Dave and Jeff are built on my two closest dive buddies.  

The real life “Dave” was one of my early dive instructors and actually certified me as a divemaster.   He is so funny.  He is the life of any party he attends.  I think as you read the Steve Trek series you will feel his humor, and passion for life.  

The real “Big Jeff” is an amazing guy.  Without a doubt he is the most passionate diver I know.   For his 50th birthday, he set a goal to make 50 dives in 50 days to celebrate the occasion.  I was fortunate to on a few of those historic dives.  The real Jeff is an excellent cave diver.  He regular travels to Florida to dive the expansive cave system there.  He is very funny, warm hearted man.   He loves giving you are hard time in a playful manner.

The three of us have made 50+ dives together, from lake dives in Arkansas, to ocean dives in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean.   Every trip we have every made has been memorable.  Our trip to Monterey, CA was no exception.  On that trip we dove the California kelp beds.  While the water is cold the views are so different than the tropical dives we have made elsewhere.  Huge Starfish, tall kelp flowing in the tides and seals that come out of nowhere to scare you to death!  I hope that the characters of “Big” Jeff Hall and Dave “Doc” Sighter can live up to the real divers and friends there characters represent.  

Down Under with Steve Trek!

In the Steve Trek Adventures, there are incredible diving scenes that I hope transport you into the undersea world.  Though, no words can truly do justice to the beauty encountered underwater. I’ve made hundreds of dives so far and each offered amazing sites.  Today I wanted to share a little about Scuba Diving.  I hear from a lot of folks when I talk diving, that they have snorkeled.  To me, snorkeling is more difficult than scuba!  I say this for two reasons, in my opinion breathing while scuba diving is easier than through the snorkel.  How many times have you had a wave pass over your snorkel filling it with water, gurgle, and cough or you simply dip your head and water goes down the snorkel.   Me and my dive buddies consider the snorkel a saltwater straw, though it does have its benefits I suppose.  In scuba those difficulties don’t exist.  Even though that first breath you take with a scuba regulator is nerve racking its also exhilarating.  The air is delivered almost effortlessly without the resistance of the snorkel and potential water issues that come with it.   I also find swimming under water to be freer and easier than fighting the surface tension and waves.  When diving you strive to be neutrally buoyant and when you are, your one with the sea.  You simply glide through the water column, easily maintaining your depth.  As you master buoyancy, you can hang motionless inches from the reef, rock, fish, wreck or any other object if you desire. 

Another common concern or fear some people have is about the pressure on their ears.  Probably all of us at one time or another have dove into a pool only for our ears to hurt when we reach the bottom, or pop violently.  While pressure does present unique issues for divers, pressure on the ears is a relatively small concern.  First in the pool example above, you are changing depth and pressure very rapidly and the air in your sinuses is at surface pressure.  When you dive into the pool the outside pressure on your ears is greater than the air pressure inside your sinus and ears creating that painful feeling.  In scuba diving, first you change depth very slowing, both descending and ascending and second the air you are breathing is constantly adjusting to the surrounding water pressure thus keeping a nice equal balance inside your sinuses and ears to the outside water pressure.  This equilibrium of air to water pressure prevents the ear pain people worry about with diving.  Your ears will feel the same as on the surface basically.  There are always exceptions, if you have congestion or head cold scuba diving is probably not a good idea as that congestion could prevent your ears and sinuses from equalizing properly.  However, in most cases, for people in good health, scuba diving will not be an issue. So don’t let that fear prevent you from giving diving a chance.  

Why I like scuba diving? Well, first I think it is very relaxing.  Though I see a lot of divers racing around the reef, flailing about, spending tons of energy and burning their air up, that’s not what diving is about.  When you dive you should just relax, enjoy the scenery.  All this helps control your breathing, tempo and gives you more time on the bottom to see all the things you came diving for anyway.   Second, its quiet.  All you can hear is the swish of air when you take a breath and the bubbles when you exhale.  If you really listen you can hear your heart beating.  That silence is golden to me.   Third, l love the views.  From the amazing macro animals you can see on a reef, to watching bass glide down a rocky ledge in the lake.  Finally, the excitement of seeing the unknown, when diving you never know when you might be nose to nose with giant Goliath Grouper, swim next to shark, or see a manta ray glide over an underwater peak.

  
My last dive was just such a dive.  I was diving with my son in Panama City, Florida on a sunken bridge span in about 45 to 60 foot of water.  We were the only two divers on the site.  The bridge span was teaming with bait fish.  So thick that our visibility was limited in the school to only a foot or two.  The fish bounced off our mask as we swam.  It was truly amazing.  Schools are mesmerizing as the fish dash to and fro seemingly as a single unit.  Eventually, we came nose to nose with a young Goliath Grouper.  Here is a fish, 7 foot long, 350 lbs, with a mouth big enough to swallow a full size beach ball.  Running into him was quite a shock.  Seeing something that big and being within a foot of him was awesome.  What an incredible fish the Goliath Grouper is.  

The Pictures here, while not pictures of the Goliath we encountered, give you an idea of what that fish looks like.  What was amazing to me about this, was how the thousands of bait fish swam all around this giant fish, within inches of his huge mouth, but didn’t seem to have a concern about being eaten.

Scuba Diving is an incredible experience and if you have ever thought about scuba diving, do it.    Find a dive shop near you, take the lessons, go dive. You will not regret it.  I think you will love it!