Guadalupe Island 2 day trip?

Anyone know of 2 or 3 day trips out to Guadalupe Island?

I just got back. Since it takes 20 hours to get there from Ensenada, there are no 2 or 3 day trips that I know of. I did a 5 day (a travel day on each end, 3 days at the island) through Shark Diving Int'l aboard the Solmar V. I know the Nautilus Explorer goes out there, as well as others out of San Diego. 3 days was a decent amount, although I would have been happy with another day. It's addictive! We had excellent conditions and got to meet Mr. White up close and personal PM me if you want more info.

Phil

Cool!!

Nice shot!! I just got back a few weeks ago, I just love that place. Definitely a long ride out, so 3 days at the island is minimum...Id do the 5 days if possible.

Nice shot Phil.

I'm headed out there in a few weeks.

Interested to hear your thoughts on lens selection.

Peter

Hi Peter,

I shot the 1st day with the Tokina 10-17, then switched to the Canon 10-22 for a little more reach and I still ended up cropping many of the shots. Seemed like the sharks would often start to veer away from the cages at about 8-10 feet or so, although sometimes they came a lot closer ( ) depending on the crew's wrangling skills, so it's nice to have the zoom. I will admit that when they did come real close, I was usually too excited to remember to pull back wide on the zoom, so I had several cut off tails and just plain missed many shots. I agree with Mike that 3 days is the minimum. At that point, I was just starting to get the hang of things and started getting some really good shots, so I would love to go back. A couple more:

You can see the rest at http://gallery.me.com/philsokol/100182

Have a great trip!

Phil

Awesome shots and thanks for the info. Sounds like 5 days is ideal.

Awesome shots and thanks for the info. Sounds like 5 days is ideal.

What were your thoughts with respect to strobes? I head out next week - so definitely interested in anything you can offer.

Depends a bit on cage design. You need some freedom to move around in the cage for different shots. Having a strobe hanging off the housing makes this a lot more difficult in most cases. With a strobe you'd probably be limited to what's in front of you. If you have a corner position in the cage you'll want to move from side to front & back again to track a shark. If the boat has a deep cage setup then a strobe would be more useful.