It was 8 AM and the day started out fantastic. I was feeling super and my life was on track. My boat was almost ready to put in the water, a cool rain was falling in the dry season and I had just come back from a great dive trip with Eric Friedricksen and we found more fish than we could shoot. My big toe was recovering from getting a metal post dropped on it a couple of days earlier, I was ready for a workout at the pool and I had a new muchacha coming to stay for a couple of days to try out for my housekeeper position. I was turned on and looking forward to a fun day and upcoming new adventures.

But I was not expecting the LIGHTNING BOLT ! 

I simply leaned over in a slightly twisted, off balance position to pick up a basket of laundry that I had just washed and ---------- Z A P !

A jolt of pain like 10,000 volts shot through my body as my lower verterbra shifted and pinched my spinal nerve. The instataneous pain that flashed through my entire body was so intense I almost passed out. All the muscles in my middle and lower back went into spasm and locked up and I fell across the washing maching paralyzed. I was stunned by the suddenness of the ZAP, and instantly aware that even the slightest move would bring great waves of unbearable pain. I broke out in a cold sweat with fear, knowing that I would have to move again to get out of this position.  I slumped across the washing machine for more than two hours thinking how suddenly my life had changed with the one second ZAP --- Cancel next dive trip, interviews, swimming, walking, doing anything fun. From a similar experience years before I knew that I was good for at least “four on the floor.” That is four solid days and nights on my back on the floor before my muscles would even start to go out of spasm.  As I write this on day four I am only starting to come back to the world but still can’t walk.  The only good thing is that this forced break will all allow me time to digest and share the most recent dive adventures.  However, the very strongest feeling I must convey right now is ------ that if you have your health, you have everything and you need to be happy and totally in gratitude NOW.  At any moment your life can be completely turned upside down by a one second, unexpected, Z A P.

Eric Friedrichsen had come down to join me for some adventure and we had just returned from six hard days of traveling and diving in the Coiba area. The area is now officially closed to spearfishing but every type of commercial fishing from long lines to green stick tuna fishing is in full force as well as the local panga fishermen in their 40 foot pangas that anchor up on the limited high spots and fish the places day and night until they are cleaned out. Spearfishing is equated with dynamiting. Clearly, this is another well-informed and effective government conservation plan.

The first day was warm up and we were fortunate with mild winds and relatively clear, forty to fifty foot vis. We dove a great ridge that extends out from one island directly into the current and when we could stay in the bait, the fish were there. Eric shot two bohala of about thirty five pounds for starters and had the opportunity to feel the power of these incredible fish.  We were diving one gun which I really enjoy. I get to watch the other person dive, I have time to breathe up, I see fish the other diver might miss and we are sharing a similar experience that is fun to compare later. The safety issue when trying to get a big fish under control is also reassuring.

Another interesting place we dove the first day was a quarter mile long ridge that comes up from about 150 feet to about 30 feet and the ridge runs right angles to the direction of current.  You can see the water rippling as the current hits the ridge but if you get in on the ridge you will never get forward.  So we would go upcurrent and start our drops into the nothingness of the deep water, and as the current carried us toward the ridge we would start to see bait, blue runners and salema.  If we were lucky and got in at the right place the bohala and pargo would show up long before we ever could see the ridge.  We shot a nice pargo and our icebox was full, but we made a few more passes just for the thrill of seeing these 20 to 40 pound fish as their curiosity brought them to investigate the intruders.

One day we decided to go to the island of Montuosa and that would mean about a 90 mile round trip in the panga.  We totally lucked out on the weather and got the wind with us for the two plus hours going there and later it conveniently switched directions and it was at our backs again for the two plus hours of the return trip. Very cool.  Since I did not know the high spots there, we went to one of the local 40 foot pangas anchored up and fishing one of the places, and asked the captain about us jumping in.  We told him we would give him a fish if we had any luck and he seemed happy as one fish can be worth fifty or sixty dollars when they sell it at around $1.50 a pound to the wholesalers.  The place was beautiful diving with lots of bait and clear water. Eric shot a huge blue jack which we kept for dinner.  After several good tows toward the bottom I donated a medium size bohala to the fishing panga anchored only 50 feet away.  Since we usually have to dive close to the anchored boat, a gift of a fish or two avoids bad feelings and I get to check out a new spot and put it in the GPS. Fair trade when your icebox is already full.

At the camp was an enthusiastic Swiss guy and his wife that had been hiking around Coiba for two days in the heat looking for wildlife and finding only mosquitos and chitras.  We told him he was looking in the wrong place and they should come with us if they wanted to see where the wildlife was. They had masks and borrowed fins but had never tried diving before.  We started in 6 to 8 feet of water and would go down and grab a rock and relax and just look to see what was around us. They were so enchanted they could have stayed there all day but we went to a new place where it was still shallow, but with a drop off, where they could see into the deep and see jacks, blue runners, etc. From there we took them to a cool place Eric and I discovered the day before, which is a shallow channel in the rocks where the white tips cruise through all the time. A short distance from there we went to a bigger drop off where they got to see two nice bohala come up from the deep water.  They were comfortable enough that it was time to break out the T-20 pistola for Walter.  I told him he needed to get a couple of pompano for dinner and showed him which fish they were.  Walter totally lit up when handed a gun and given the freedom to hunt for dinner on this, his first day ever, of diving. It was a rare and unusual experience that only the initiated can relate to.

After a half hour of chasing the fish he finally settled down and started stalking the abundant pompano. His first fish was a perfect head shot, and though small, these graceful, beautiful fish are fantastic eating. A few more missed shots and he scored on his second fish, enough for himself and his wife for dinner. Walter was totally stoked and said it was the best day of his whole six week vacation.  We all cooked up pargo and their pompano for dinner and he was a proud guy to have provided the fish on his first day of underwater hunting. Those indelible memories of what he got to see and do, the beauty, the freedom, the wildlife, and the wonder will linger in his subconscious and likely influence his next vacation choice. We might have even recruited a future new member into the tribe.

The last day we made another long run in the panga of about 80 miles round trip. This place is often dirty but we hit it calm, clear and almost perfect conditions. This place usually holds big pargo and bohala but the fish stay deep – forty feet and down. Eric shot a huge pargo dienton that went straight to the bottom and under a ledge, that was way beyond my depth, maybe eighty or ninety feet.  We tried for awhile to free the shaft but with strong currents and deep water it was almost impossible to get the right angle of pull.  I left Eric with the “lost shaft”, loaded up another and went upcurrent and started drifting back into the bait.  I stoned one pargo siguero and shot one bohala of 45 lbs out of a group of five.  I went back to check on Eric and was astounded that he was holding up the shaft.  He had dived to the top of the rock at 90 feet and freed the shaft but the fish was gone.  However, as he started up he was carried by the current into the rotor, or the down flowing water on the down current side of the massive rock.  As he kicked at 85 feet he could see the rock face, and see that he was not going up, but down.  In exchange for the shaft, the slip tip, floatline, and His Life, he decided to trade his weight belt.  Good Call!  He jettisoned his new rubber weight belt and after passing through the rotor, had a great relaxed ride to the surface. Of course the idea was to go back for it later but in my experience, if you drop something in deep water with fast current, it is probably a permanent donation. We were joking about how Neptune must look standing on the bottom in all the new gear we donated on this trip.  He has on our two nice weight belts, he has replaced his trident with a bitchin new pole spear and paralyzer point, and he is wearing a new pair of expensive shades and he is saying “Thank you and come back soon”. I ended the day with one more bohala of 56 lbs and as our cooler was full, the hunting was over.  We made more passes and the fish seemed to sense we were no longer predators and they would come much closer. At times we would have three or four big fish of forty pounds plus, within a few feet of us. That was an incredible experience and virtually light years better than what I am going through right now.

As I lay here on the floor, day six, having been shot in the back with a paralyzer tip, and unsure of my recovery, I ask myself, What is the message here?

Is It— Quit shooting fish?  So that the long liners and commercial guys can make a few more bucks?  I don’t think so.

Is it— Quit Chasing Chicks in the Sticks at 66?  I don’t think so.

The only message that I get is that Life is Constant Change. Unfortunately that means that even activities that we like most in life, like freediving, can suddenly be taken away. Our most favorite things will someday eventually change and disappear. So when I can dive again, if so blessed, I will amp up the volume on my level of appreciation and gratitude for ---- Every drop I make, Every fish I take, and for Every Moment of Health That I Partake----- knowing and remembering the fleeting and limited nature of these incredible times.  Change is coming for all of us. Appreciate Now the pure joy of our sport. Because when you least expect it -----------the LIGHTNING BOLT will stike -------------------------- Z A P !

Dix Roper
    April 2005
    dixroper@earthlink.net

PS.  It is ZAP plus 16 days and I am movin’ and groovin’ and out of pain. Look out fish—the purple predator with the death star returns.