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Manuel Menendez Hunting for Dinner

If I were stuck on a deserted island there is only one person I would want to be with in terms of survival and having "food on the table". When I was approached by a friend who was tasked by AJ+ (part of the Al Jazeera) to do a segment on "Hunting for Dinner" - I knew Manuel Menendez would be the person to feature.

Manuel is a Miami native who has been diving the South Florida waters for over 30 years. He knows where to find fish and how to catch them (pole spear, spear gun, hands, whatever it takes) while freediving. You go out with Manuel and you are pretty much guaranteed to have a delicious dinner and a better understanding of the SOFL wildlife.

We have been friends for over 5 years now and it is always a pleasure to explore the ocean with him - solid guy who will be there when you need it.

Below is the video that was featured on AJ+

Felix Leander 3/27/15 Felix Leander 3/27/15

Hawaii Skin Diver Magazine

Growing up I would anxiously wait for our subscription to Skin Diver and National Geographic (particularly for those issues that featured underwater photography). Of course National Geographic had a much higher standard than Skin Diver and over time - looking at divers with SCUBA gear on above a coral getting blasted with a flash was just boring.

For a short while there was Ocean Realm Magazine with absolutely stunning images - unfortunately this publication no longer exists. There were a few others that focus on Freediving and sharks but they definitely are definitely not top tier.

Freediving with sharks featured in HSD...

Enter Hawaii Skin Diver (HSD) - by far in a class of it’s own. Not only does the publication focus on spearfishing and freediving - the quality of the photos, design / layout of the magazine / articles are world class and award winning.

HSD became what it is today thanks to Sterling Kaya and Clifford Cheng. In 1999, Sterling bought the magazine and brought on Clif as a partner. Clif has an exceptional eye for design (he studied graphic design at the University of Hawaii). The team is extremely small and the magazine relies on help of photographers and writers that contribute articles from all over the world. And while the name of the magazine has “Hawaii” in it…it covers spearfishing / freediving from all over the world.

The magazine is published on a quarterly basis - if you do not have a subscription yet, I encourage you to subscribe.

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Anatomy of the OceanicDreams Logo

In 2003 we commissioned a friend and colleague at the time, Guto Nicolucci, to develop the OceanicDreams brand and website. The logo went through many variations, none of which really captured the essence of what we wanted it to communicate. I challenged Guto that the logo needed to represent freediving with a focus on sharks. We supplied him with a lot of photographs and hoped that the next round of creative would be on target…it was.

Guto combined elements of two images (see below) - the first is that of my father freediving in The Bahamas during the 70s approaching a large Great Hammerhead shark. The original photo was taken by a friend of the family - Lyn Nelson somewhere close to Nassau. The second element was taken from a photography my dad took in the Galapagos during one of his trips of a Galapagos Shark.

Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s.  Image by: Lyn Nelson — Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s. Image by: Lyn Nelson

Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands.  Image by: Wolfgang Leander — Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands. Image by: Wolfgang Leander

Both elements were traced and are the silhouette of actual subjects - in this case Wolfgang Leander in the 70s and a Galapagos Shark. The circle around both represents the connection between Wolf, the ocean, and sharks… and that is how the logo came to be.

OceanicDreams logo by: Guto Nicolucci

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Logan Mock-Bunting Captures Freediving Competition

Came across a Wired article about freediving yesterday that features the photography of Logan Mock-Bunting. Logan was in the Bahamas late last year to document the 2014 Vertical Blue freediving competition. He captured the ups and downs (literally and figuratively) of the participants - from the celebrations to the black outs.

Shallow water black-out.  Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting — Shallow water black-out. Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting

Be sure to check out his work at www.loganmb.com.

Please be aware of the fact that diving with sharks can be potentially dangerous. Do NOT closely interact with sharks, touch them, feed them unless you are very experienced and know exactly how to interpret their body language. While it might look easy and harmless to interact with sharks the way we do, we do NOT encourage this type of underwater activity.