60 feet down and nearing the end of our second dive, I looked up with all my scuba gear on and saw it. A manta ray was flying through the water, gracefully flapping its wings. It looked like a freakin’ pterodactyl (not gonna lie, I had to look up the sp. on that one!)!

Thank god I had one of my underwater cameras. Sometimes when I dive, I carry my iPhone in this underwater case, or I use my Cannon camera with a Canon Waterproof Housing . It was pretty big, about 10 ft. long with a 15 ft. wingspan. It looked so graceful that I didn’t realize how fast it was moving. It passed us by in about 25 seconds, but I was able to grab a few pictures.

Divers often tell you that being underwater is peaceful and lets you free your mind of what’s going on at home and work. It’s zen-like. Yeah, that’s not how I feel. No matter how many times I dive, I am always freaking the eff out. I’m clutching my regulator with my teeth, holding my octopus with one hand, and watching my depth and air in my other hand all while listening to all the crazy cosas that my brain is telling me above the noise of the darth vader sounds of underwater breathing. Yeah, not so relaxing for me. More like a 40 minute adrenaline rush where I think I’m going to die the whole time. Anyway, that manta ray made it all disappear for a hot second. I was just living and enjoying the moment and loving life, and that’s what diving is all about. It was nice while it lasted. After it passed, someone took a picture of me and my eyes were all bulged out because I was on death watch again.

Fun fact: The word manta is Spanish for cloak or blanket. When swimming, the manta resembles a spread-out cape.