Magic Hour

Typically the hour between sunset and darkness is filled with treasures. The views are beautiful with an assortment of colors painted across the horizon. It is also a time to squeeze in everything you forgot to do during the day. Today was no different and spearfishing was the neglected activity. Let me start by saying spearfishing is a dangerous sport. There are many ways to be killed, led by the possibility of drowning. We were solicited by a cute British girl named Alice to catch dinner off a reef close to her house. She played our ego. There were red flags everywhere. I heard a coastguard mention it was the roughest seas he has ever seen off the coast, It was high tide, we were in unfamiliar waters, there was no rescue boat, I was wearing my back-up fins (shorter and torn), but we went anyway. Swimming a quarter mile to the breakwater, I remember thinking... “damn this is far... even if I did shoot a fish, it is a long swim back and the sharks would more than likely take my dinner.” We had heard stories of 12-14 foot hammerheads in the area and over 10ft tiger sharks. Either way, I figured we may see some good fish and it's always worth checking out. We approached the edge of the reef and the rip seemed strong. I turned to Bret who was following Alice. “Rip is pretty strong,” I said. “Yup” was his response with a slight smirk. We figured this Alice girl might want to turn around but she started looking at us as if we should have already shot a fish. I thought... Damn, Ok, big fish are in deep water. I took a dive and scanned for a trough. Nothing. This sucks... Alright, where did those two go? I thought I could hunt right on the edge of reef where it dropped off into deep water. The strong current would also attract big fish. I creaped to the edge and dove. The current was 6-7 knots screaming out to sea (surfers call it a riptide) I went down and was sucked into the deep water. I held onto a big chunk of reef on the bottom and it broke off with the pressure. I was flying out to sea underwater. Kicking hard, one of my cheap fins purchased in Mexico ripped at the foot. Alright, this is bad. One fin, being pulled out to sea... what are my options. There are many reactions when a person faces a life threatening situation. Panic and immobility are the most popular. I must have been blessed with a lower IQ than normal, because I seem to process slowly in these situations. Drop the gun and swim for it was my first thought. No, darkness is quickly approaching and this gun is my only protection. It can also act as an anchor with 200ft of nylon rode. Keep the gun. I was already 200 yards from the chunk of reef that ripped off and disoriented. Which way do I swim? Hmm... Ok, we swam out the channel... that's the deepest water, rips take swimmers straight out, swim toward shallow water and less current, but parallel to land to escape the rip. I swam hard but paced myself. The last thing I wanted was to be exhausted and floating out to sea, see an opportunity and not have the energy to go for it. The opportunity did arise. A finger of reef stuck out and I found bottom again. With a shot fin, I could not swim fast. I dove and held onto the bottom and as the tide surged I made my way forward. First by only a couple feet after each dive and re-surface but the distance improved as the depth reduced. Back on the reef, I saw Bret and Alice. They chose not to explore the riptide and were content swimming in the breakers. Alice looked worried but Bret appeared undaunted as he swam closer. "Nice current" he greeted between sets as we were still being pummeled by waves. "Yup", I replied.