Black Flag Dive Center

Question of the day… 🤿
How long without diving is too long before someone should take a refresher?

Next up… SEA LIONS. 🦭🤎
This one was a bucket-list moment for me.

I have wanted to get in the water with sea lions for SO long. They’ve always looked like the most ridiculously fun, curious, chaotic little creatures to swim with, and getting to finally experience them in the wild was everything I hoped it would be. They are basically underwater puppies with zero concept of personal space. 😂

Watching them twist, turn, zoom around, come investigate us, disappear, and then pop right back up again was so much fun. They’re incredibly graceful underwater while simultaneously being complete little goofballs, and their personalities absolutely come through when you’re in the water with them.
Another bucket-list encounter officially checked off… and Baja still has more to come. 🫶

Side Note: Can we also appreciate that Baja’s water was warm enough that I got to live out this particular dream WITHOUT PUTTING ON A WETSUIT?! 😂🙌

Question of the day… 🤿
Should Nitrox certification be included with Open Water, or should it remain a separate course?

Next up… the fin whale. 🐋
The second-largest animal on Earth, and somehow one of the most peaceful animals we got to spend time with in Baja.

This wasn’t just a quick sighting where we saw a blow in the distance and watched it disappear. This whale stayed in the same area with us for over an hour, and we got to just sit back and watch.

It would surface, take a breath, and rest peacefully at the surface for a little while before slipping beneath the water and disappearing into the deep.

Then we’d wait.

About 10 minutes later, it would come back up again. Another breath, another few quiet moments at the surface, and then back down it would go.

Over and over for more than an hour. 🥹🐋

There was something so incredibly peaceful about it. No rushing around, no chasing an encounter, just sitting on the boat in the middle of Baja and watching one of the largest animals on the planet go about its day.

Every time it dove, we’d stare at the water waiting to see where it would appear next, and every time that massive back broke the surface again it felt just as exciting as the first.

For an animal that can grow to around 80 feet long, there was something almost unbelievable about how quietly and effortlessly it moved.

Some wildlife encounters are exciting and chaotic. Others make everything around you feel completely still.

This was one of the still ones. 🤍

An hour spent watching a fin whale breathe, rest, dive, and return. Nothing dramatic needed to happen. Just being there to witness it was enough.

Next up… Risso’s dolphins. 🐬

This was one of those encounters where you look around and genuinely don’t know where to point your camera because they were EVERYWHERE.

We came across a massive pod of around 200 Risso’s dolphins traveling together, and seeing that many of them at once felt completely unreal.

Risso’s dolphins are one of those species you just don’t hear about or see nearly as often as some of the more familiar dolphins, which made getting to experience a pod this enormous in the wild feel even more special.

One of my favorite things about them is their appearance. As they get older, their bodies become covered in scars from interactions with other Risso’s dolphins and from their prey, especially squid. Over time, some adults can become so heavily scarred that they look almost white. Every animal looks like it has its own story written across its body. 🤍

And then imagine seeing 200 of them.

Looking out across the water and watching dorsal fin after dorsal fin break the surface, then getting into the water knowing we were surrounded by this huge pod… it was one of those moments where Baja once again reminded me just how wild and incredible the ocean really is.

Photos and videos will never quite capture the feeling of being there, but I’m going to keep trying. 🥹🌊

📸 Chase Dickinson Photography

Question of the day… 🤿
Do you currently carry DAN dive accident insurance? Why or why not?

There were so many incredible encounters on this trip that there’s no way I could put them all into one post and do them justice. So I’m going to share them one species at a time, because every single one was magical in its own way.

Starting with these guys… Pantropical spotted dolphins. 🐬🤍

There’s one video toward the end that I really want you to watch with the volume UP. 🔊

I was just floating there on the surface, completely still, taking everything in. The beauty of where I was, the sounds underwater, the dolphins moving around me, the fact that this was actually happening…

And then you can hear it.

Click, click, click, click. 🐬

One of the dolphins was right there, clearly curious about me, making the cutest little sounds and clicking away as it used its echolocation to check me out.

There’s something so surreal about realizing that while you’re completely fascinated by this wild animal… for a moment, it seems just as interested in figuring you out.

The sounds, the interaction, the beauty of being surrounded by these animals in the wild… I don’t think a camera could ever fully capture what it felt like to be there. Everything about this encounter was pure magic. 🥹🌊

And somehow, this was only one of the incredible species Baja gave us the chance to experience.

So we’ll start here, with the Pantropical spotted dolphins 🐬, and over the next few posts I’ll keep sharing the animals, the footage, and all the special moments that made this trip something I’ll never forget.

Baja, one species at a time. 🤍🌊

📸 Chase Dickinson Photography

Question of the day… 🤿
What scuba certification agency did you choose, NAUI, PADI, SSI, SDI, RAID, or another and WHY?