Some shots from cuba last week

[wetman]

Great pictures, what type of camera set-up do you use. I'm in the market so I'm curious.

Its just a C5050 with the pt-015 housing. I took a white 8x11 note board with me on every dive this trip though to use as a white balance sheet, so most of the shots that dont use flash I tried to white balance for the depth which seemed to work ok. I may try a red filter next time and see what the results are that way. But i found that in the upper 20 feet or so, you have to really white balance every 5ish feet when its sunny. For deeper depths, maybe every 10 feet or so. Seems to give you something better to start with. I found last year when i didnt white balance i lost all the yellows and other colors to the blue/cyan that you tend to get down below.

Its a real pain taking the white card but I think the results are worth it. Going to try it up here in our waters this year and see what the difference is.

steve

 

[H2Andy]

wetman, thanks for the pics. i was born and grew up in Cuba, and have been
to some of the places in your pics (i think i recognize a few of the Havana shots; not sure about the others).

thanks for the great pics

 

[Jetwrench]

Very nice wetman! Thanks for giving us a look above the water as well as below.

 

[justleesa]

http://www.sitecode.com/~shoughton/Cuba2004/index.htm

BTW, whats'up with the ambulance?

 

[wetman]

BTW, whats'up with the ambulance?

One of the guys we were with had back issues later in the week - just took the ambulance to the plane as a precaution.

s

 

[Scuba Sweetie]

Hi Steve,

I just came across this post from a few months ago. I was actually searching to see if anyone else had been shark diving in Cuba. I dove with 'Sharks Friends' in Jan. 2003, which is in Santa Lucia, Cuba. When the tide comes in, you dive down 90 feet to a ledge. Then you sit & wait while the dive masters entice BULL sharks with dead fish. We watched 4 bulls swarm & feed right out of their bare hands! Certain dive masters even have a 'promotional' video of the dive that you can watch beforehand, and ours even copied it for us for $5.00 to take as a souvenir. DEFINITELY worth it! The most amazing dive of my life! Just thought I'd pass this along.

Steph

 

[wetman]

You're killin me. It was the dive i was REALLY looking forward to all week and then we found out the sharks just werent around yet. Thought i'd finally get some decent pics of them. Oh well, good excuse for another trip with them somewhere else i guess.

Anyone know if there are many/any sharks in Turks and Caicos?

Hi Steve,

I just came across this post from a few months ago. I was actually searching to see if anyone else had been shark diving in Cuba. I dove with 'Sharks Friends' in Jan. 2003, which is in Santa Lucia, Cuba. When the tide comes in, you dive down 90 feet to a ledge. Then you sit & wait while the dive masters entice BULL sharks with dead fish. We watched 4 bulls swarm & feed right out of their bare hands! Certain dive masters even have a 'promotional' video of the dive that you can watch beforehand, and ours even copied it for us for $5.00 to take as a souvenir. DEFINITELY worth it! The most amazing dive of my life! Just thought I'd pass this along.

Steph

 

[bmaber]

Hi
I love those pictures!!
As a Canadian, I think I might just go to Cuba this winter, and get some like those. (Sorry to my American cousins). Where is the best dive sites? Who operates a good dive operation? Would like to find a good cheep hotel with great beach and lots of diving.


Blaine

 

[wetman]

Hi
I love those pictures!!
As a Canadian, I think I might just go to Cuba this winter, and get some like those. (Sorry to my American cousins). Where is the best dive sites? Who operates a good dive operation? Would like to find a good cheep hotel with great beach and lots of diving.


Blaine

Well, don't go to cuba for the resort food. That is for sure. We go down with a guy who grew up there, so we actually eat very well all week, but never at the resorts. Who knows though, you might get lucky.

So far, I've been twice but only stuck to the more western end of the island (varadaro in the north and directly 2 hours south in the bay of pigs). Bay of pigs diving is just excellent. Near Varadero its more shallow reef but very nice as well. The nice part about that area is that if you cant dive on one side of the island, you can on the other and the bay of pigs is almost always diveable. There are many different spots along that coast as well to just pull over, jump in and have a great dive.

steve

 

[drbill]

Even for us Americans there are ways to dive Cuba that apparently are perfectly legal. There are Mexican liveaboards out of Cancun that will take you into Cuban waters to dive for a week. These trips are apparently legal because (1) Mexican vessels have permission to enter Cuban waters freely and (2) you pay nothing to anyone in Cuba, only to the Mexican boat operator.

Anyone actually tried this?

Dr. Bill