Northwest Dive Club

Back in September I concluded a liveaboard trip to the Banda Sea with a stop over in Ambon before flying home. Vjw and I got in 12 dives in 3 days with Critterjunkies by divebluemotion. The dive shop is pretty basic and located on the shores of Laha. And, like most parts of Indonesia, sanitation is not at levels we experience in the west. So, the rocky beach was covered in plastic as well as areas beneath the water. However, many magical creatures make this area home.

The water was warm enough for comfort in a 5mm wetsuit for long muck dives and viz varied from 30-50 feet, although on the last day, after a harsh rain, viz deteriorated to 2-3 feet! The top of the critter list was the psychedelic frogfish (PFF) and I didn't expect to actually see one. But, our guide had found one several days earlier and we got to see it on the second dive! There is competition amongst the dive guides and operators to find PFFs so when we went to look for the PFF, our guide had one diver visit with the PFF while the others were off at a distance so other guides or boats couldn't figure out the location. It was like a secret mission. However, the PFF was in 6 feet of water and the surge and particulate made for really difficult shooting conditions.

Here's a video of what I encountered in 12 dives. Comments and critiques welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSdxnG93KOE

Stephen, that was simply EPIC DUDE. Wow. Blown away. Not just the critters, but the videography. Top notch my friend. Wish I could have gone. Dang.
I mean, PFF, and 2....2 Rhinopia. Are you kidding me.

Awesome!
My favorite scenes are at :41, 1:42, 2:12, 2:18, 2:25. Don't know what they all are, but cool!

What time is the pff at?

Great job!!!

Gdog wrote:Stephen, that was simply EPIC DUDE. Wow. Blown away. Not just the critters, but the videography. Top notch my friend. Wish I could have gone. Dang.
I mean, PFF, and 2....2 Rhinopia. Are you kidding me.

Thanks Gdog. For the record, it was 3 Rhinopia--purple, white and yellow! :-) Ambon rivals Anilao pretty strongly. But, there was no camera room, buffet, bar or lodging. Wish you could have gone too!

YellowEye wrote:Awesome!
My favorite scenes are at :41, 1:42, 2:12, 2:18, 2:25. Don't know what they all are, but cool!

What time is the pff at?

Great job!!!

Thanks Eric! The PFF is as 0:29. It's the most psychedelic looking thing in the video. :-)

0:41=Peakcock Mantis Shrimp
1:42=clownfish eggs
2:12=cuttle fish
2:18=Girdled Glossodoris
2:25=Ocellated Phyllidia

Holy Spock that's so awesome!!! Fantastic job!!
Here are my favs and the names I think they should be called.
41 Alien Circus Shrimp
55 baby elephant sheep nudi
1:03 hairy star
1:24 super cute baby orange fish & sexy dancing shrimp
2:003 flying tropical warbonnett
2:25 yellow nudi with spots
2:34 orange crocodile fish
3:19 zebra crab
I cannot wait to see the next one!! Also so excited to see VjWs too!

SM- that was awesome! You really dialed in the snoot on a lot of those shots. Loved it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Scubie Doo wrote:SM- that was awesome! You really dialed in the snoot on a lot of those shots. Loved it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Scubie. It helps to not lose the snoot on the first dive!

ScubaJess wrote:Holy Spock that's so awesome!!! Fantastic job!!
Here are my favs and the names I think they should be called.
41 Alien Circus Shrimp
55 baby elephant sheep nudi
1:03 hairy star
1:24 super cute baby orange fish & sexy dancing shrimp
2:003 flying tropical warbonnett
2:25 yellow nudi with spots
2:34 orange crocodile fish
3:19 zebra crab
I cannot wait to see the next one!! Also so excited to see VjWs too!

Thanks SJ! You'll be seeing these critters yourself soon!

Simply amazing wow!
Such flawless macro on that video!

Very well done not much I can add but I echo all previous comments. I’m also a night dive-aholic so these are great to see.

JJHACK wrote:Simply amazing wow!
Such flawless macro on that video!

Very well done not much I can add but I echo all previous comments. I’m also a night dive-aholic so these are great to see.

Appreciate your comments JJHACK!

WOW!

60south wrote:WOW!

Thank you sir.

Zooms and tilts were done in post?

derekcs wrote:Zooms and tilts were done in post?

The benefits of peak buoyancy control! Maybe some was done in post.

You out did yourself this time! My favorite is still the psychedelic frog fish, but the footage of the brittle star moving across and all the colorful nudibranchs are amazing!!
The rhinopias are fantastic - they remind me of Chinese dragons. Truly epic video!
And your summary of the trip was excellent too!

I echo Scubie...awesome snoot work my friend.

stphnmartin wrote:

derekcs wrote:Zooms and tilts were done in post?

The benefits of peak buoyancy control! Maybe some was done in post.

It was good editing and a lot of very good fish faces.

That was pretty amazing. Are we all sure that I'm not supposed to be paying money to see content like this?!

derekcs wrote:

stphnmartin wrote:

derekcs wrote:Zooms and tilts were done in post?

The benefits of peak buoyancy control! Maybe some was done in post.

It was good editing and a lot of very good fish faces.

Thanks Derek!

Sharkb8 wrote:That was pretty amazing. Are we all sure that I'm not supposed to be paying money to see content like this?!

Thanks Sharkb8! I forgot to put the video behind a paywall! Next time.

Beautiful! I love frogfish!

The amount of plastic above and below the water is pretty appalling, and it's everywhere. :( When we were in Belize, our house had a groundskeeper that kept the beach clean (by shoveling plastic-filled sargassum several times a day), but a lot down the beach was empty, and looked like a garbage dump. It was really sad.

Although the red sea was quite clean and nice. The land in Egypt is a giant garbage dump with more rubbish plastic and feces that I could possibly convince you of by writing about it. The pyramids and sphinx are littered with plastic bottles and rubbish inside and out.

Cairo is one giant heap of crumbled buildings, burned out buildings, piles of garbage and abandoned vehicles. This has got to be generational there is no way it's just now occuring and it can be this bad.

Sharm El Sheik is almost all russian tourist business and ownership, totally different environment. The Russians are running this area and its very nice clean and much more pleasant. The rest should just be bulldozed

Back to the topic of scuba diving in Ambon

I finally finished my video of the epic diving there.
Though nothing close to Stephen's work, we all have to start somewhere and keep trying to improve.
It's super fun getting to video underwater and getting to see it all again when you're putting the video together.

Enjoy these underwater highlights of the psychedelic frog fish, rhinopia, harlequin shrimp, and others. I highly recommend a trip there. (despite the trash).

https://youtu.be/54Hx_BN51NI

Gorgeous video Val!!!!

Don't sell yourself short. That is amazing footage of incredible creatures and awesome behavior!

That psychedelic frogfish is amazing. Just looking at him is enough of a trip all by itself.... (I wonder what would happen if you licked it?!?!)