Ben and Kyoko's "Below the water"
Updated on July 24, 2009
Diving Certifications: Ben and Kyoko were both certified in California. Ben was certified as an Openwater Scuba Diver (YMCA) in 1988, as a NAUI Dive Master in 1992, as a NAUI Instructor in 1994, as a NAUI Instructor Trainer in 1997, and now also holds SSI equivalent certifications. Kyoko was NAUI certified in 1990, NAUI Dive Master in 1995, and SSI instructor in 2000. Together we certified hundreds of divers, and we hope all of them are still enjoying this activity as much as we do.

Underwater Photography: Both of us are underwater photographers. Ben has won a few awards in various local beach competitions. Kyoko once received honorable mention in the Nikonos Shootout in Bonaire. But these are long time ago. We hope you are enjoying the photos we embedded through this web site. We finally updated our cameras to Canon G-10 and its Canon housing just before the Bonaire trip in July 2009. We are using Sea & Sea video light LX55, and LX25 for external lighting, but Canon set up is doing a great job without external lighting except macro. Kyoko still owns SONY miniDV PC120BT with Light & Motion Mako housing. We both started with Nikonos system, and Ben even went into SR housing with Nikon F90. Canon G-10 is giving us pretty amazing images, and we are pretty happy with it.

A good introduction for digital underwater photography is at http://web.canon.jp/imaging/uwphoto/index-e.html

Dive Equipment: Ben has Suunto Cobra and Stinger for computers, DUI CF200 dry suits, Xcel wet suits, SeaQuest ProQD for cold water and Oceanic Islander for warm water BCs, Apeks ATX100 and AquaLung Airsource regulators, and Apollo Biofin, Mares Quattro and Quattro Power fins. Kyoko has Suunto Cobra and D9 for computers, DUI TLS350 dry suits, Xcel wet suits, SeaQuest DivaLX for cold and Zeagle Zena for warm water BCs, Atomic B1 and SS1 regulators, and Atomic Split fins, Mares Volo Power and Volo Race fins. Actually Kyoko is a fin freak and owns 4 more pairs of warm water fins.

Marine Biology-AKA "What is that?": Ben and Kyoko took 2 Marine Biology courses from Tom Southworth at Alameda Colledge in early 90's. We like to know what they are and how they live. Hence we own lots of books on Marine creatures. Paul Humann's Reef Fish Identification for Caribbean, Tropic Pacific and Baja to Panama, and Coastal Fish Identification for California covers most of the fish we have seen. Nudibranchs can be identified using http://www.nudipixel.net/ or http://www.seaslugforum.net/. These sites are not particularly user friendly and you need to know a little bit about the nudibranchs to use these sites.

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