Best of Eleuthera – Ocean Fox Diving

Back to the Best of Eleuthera series – it’s been a while – and a look at Ocean Fox . Plenty of people who come to Eleuthera want to experience the beauty of the underwater world – and Ocean Fox is a very popular choice amongst our own renters at Governors Estate for doing just that……. They offer a great service for Scuba diving and fishing as well.

Scuba diving – do you know that SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus – was made possible by one time Windemere Island resident Jacques Cousteau who co-invented the system with his partner Emilie Gagnan. It is now a very popular and extremely well supervised sport and Al Curry who owns and operates Ocean Fox is a great example of how to do something well – safety is one of his key concepts – vital in a sport that is potentially dangerous.

Al and his team operate 2 boats out of Davis Harbor in the south of the island – obviously because the deeper water there offers the best diving.   They offer snorkeling, deep sea fishing, beach combing, scuba diving, wall dives and Al’s great passion – shark dives.

When I spoke with him about what he wanted me to get over in this blog he spoke of how this area offers opportunities for world class diving – and with virtually no-one else around ! And of course he spoke of the shark interaction dives – his speciality is educating divers about how to be comfortable when there are sharks around. Watch his videos and be inspired ! To do a shark dive you do need to be a certified diver – check with Al before you come here to make sure that you qualify…….

Al has operated this business here in Eleuthera for five years so he knows all there is to know about diving around here !

So I hear you asking have I been on one of Al’s dives ? The answer up to now is no – but I think that I will do a refresher course sometime in the future and then experience diving here.

I did learn to scuba dive 22 years ago on a trip to Thailand. At the time the trip was so Bob could brush up on his diving skills – so when I heard myself telling the dive instructor on the first night on the tiny island we went to that yes I wanted to do it as well, no-one was more shocked than me ! Around that time I had learned a lot of new skills that were about conquering fear – and this proved to be another as I was scared of even putting my head right under the water – a bit of a drawback when learning to dive !! Anyway I persevered and did get my PADI open water dive certificate. I was new to Buddhist meditation at that time and it quickly became apparent that both of these newly learned breathing techniques could open up whole new worlds and experiences for me. When I managed to forget that being under the water was not my natural state  – I was totally enchanted. The coral on the reefs in the Gulf of Thailand was simply spectacular – but one of the hardest things for me was not grinning when I saw these beautiful sights – it made my mask ride up and fill with water – guaranteed to make me panic…….

So maybe that refresher course is beckoning me !

Check out the Ocean Fox website for all the information you will need …….

ALL PICTURES COURTESY OF OCEAN FOX.

Do check out the amazing videos that Ocean Fox have – here is the link –  http://oceanfoxcottonbay.com/gallery/videos.html