The Judges' Results Are In!

Drop Zone Tahiti made the finals in the Blue Ocean Film Festival's International Film Competition!

The Blue Ocean Film Festival just announced the 2010 international film competition finalists. They received more than 350 entries in 19 categories submitted by the most talented ocean filmmakers from around the world.

The competition was intense, but Drop Zone Tahiti was selected as a finalist in the 'Ocean Sports' category. All Finalist films will be screened during the Festival (August 24 - 29) Monterey, California, USA in one of 6 Monterey Peninsula theater venues.

We can't wait to see what happens with Drop Zone Fiji!

Drop Zone Fiji!

Perfect...

Alex Gray

26 June 2010 -

Hello world.Perfect 5 foot cloudbreak, with four people out, for 5 hours, and for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee??? Oh Yea, that’s what went down town on our last day in FIJI. The coolest part was that we got to share it with Jon Roseman who, along with being one of my heroes, is one of the owners of TAVY.

Everyone ripped way harder than Aaron Checkwood. Thank you everyone for coming along this journey with us. Til next time………

You stay naked….. World

Another Nightmare!

Maria Del Mar Gonzalez

26 June 2010 -

We get back to the Sea Shell Cove and we went to Tavarua to get a boat and go surf to Cloudbreak. Again! It was bigger than the first day we surf it. I surfed for a couple of hours and in one wave another nightmare happened to me! The tide was getting low. I cut a wave all the way to the inside, I tried to hit it and I didn’t land it. I hit the reef with my knee and under the water I was feeling the pain. Then, I tried to do a duck dive and I was literally between the reef and rocks trying to do a duck dive. At that moment, I realized that I was over the reef, it was so dry. I walked the entire reef to get out of there. I have too many cuts. When I was walking I was trying to get to the Jet Ski thinking that I was almost there, but I wasn’t. A wave was coming over me again and dragging me more back to the reef. After three tries I said to myself: “Oook! At the next chance I will run over the reef and get out of here!” And I did it! There were a lot of coral’s hands trying to get me, but I got out of there. It was bad! After this, I finally got on the Jet Ski and the guy gave me a ride back to the wave. I wait a while and I got another wave and you know what happened? A contact lens came out from my eye! I am so blind so I went to the boat to get another contact lens, but we left because other boat was coming! What didn’t happen to me in this trip?! Everything!! But thank God, I survived again!

Final Surf at Cloudbreak

Cheyne Magnusson

25 June 2010 -

So we survived the shark dive and now we are headed to cloudbreak for our final surf of the trip. We have been travelling so much and waking up so early we should change the name of this project to insomnia zone. Anyways we got coffeed up and motivated to get out there. At first it was a bit choppy and wonky. We stayed out because we are troopers and it paid off. The heavens parted and the winds turned offshore and the waves started pumping! I got more sunburned than I have since living in Hawaii and it feels great. We all got tubed and slapped some high fives and it was a great trip ender. I’m super stoked and somewhat tipsy at the moment and this blog is getting annoying so I’m going to stop now. Cheers!

Bull Sharks Are Amazing

Holly Beck
June 25, 2010 -

Bull sharks are amazing. I’m on my third beer – a new type called Vonu which is much better than the standard Fiji Bitter – and it’s still hard to process the feeling of kneeling on the ocean floor 86ft below the surface while staring down an approaching bull shark. I added quite a few shark varieties to my list the other day which now includes whale, great white, white tip, black tip, grey, lemon, nurse, and bull. We had hoped to also encounter the illusive tiger, but at least I have a reason to return. Even without the tiger shark I was not disappointed.
Bull sharks have that classic shark look. Close your eyes and imagine a fat scary shark and that’s a bull shark. I had several swim right at me, our eyes locked, that came within a couple of feet to my face before turning to make another circle. I wasn’t scared. I did feel a few moments of adrenaline as my body reacted to the sight of a big predator headed straight at me, but it was fleeting. The enjoyment was too great. The only problem was that the dive was too short. Twenty five minutes of bliss then a big Fijian was giving me an aggressive thumbs up sign (probably because I had already ignored the last five “head to the surface” signs he’d given). I just didn’t want to leave.
We had two dives, the second at 60ft. In between dives I told the master that I am obsessed with sharks and had done multiple shark dives. I was hoping it would lead him to pull me closer to the sharks. Once the feeding started I was chosen first to kneel next to the feeder. The sharks made circles, took the tuna head on offer then swam right past me as he chewed and swallowed. It was awesome watching such a powerful creature that is so linked to man-eating and fear swim right past me, peacefully.
The sharks got closest to Cheyne. Either they liked the red hair or they could sense his fear and needed to look him over closer to see why he was afraid. After a few incredibly close passes, much closer than to anyone else, he gave the camera the “I’m over it sign” and cruised back to a safe distance.
I could go on and on about how much fun it was and how much I wish we got another chance. I could have stayed down there with the sharks all day…. but my beer is getting warm.

Craziest Dive of My Life

Alex Gray
25 June 2010 -


Hello world. Bull sharks have girth. That’s what she said!!!!!!!! Had the craziest dive of my life today with nurse, lemon and bull sharks. The feeding station underwater was like being in the nucleus of a mosh pit at a Pennywise concert. There was one point that I was being sandwiched by two lemon sharks and slapped in the face by a Bull sharks. What time is it? ALL

Crazy!

Maria Del Mar Gonzalez

25 June 2010 -

It is a new day! That is what I was thinking to get ready for the shark dive. We went to the shark dive. I was scared and little worried from the day before. So we went under the water and we were at the bottom of the ocean with bull sharks in everywhere. I was so close to some of them. Once you are there it wasn’t that scary. We came to the surface and we wait a while to go back. This time, there were more crazy sharks. We were shooting pictures and video and three sharks almost eat Cheyne. They went so close to him. That was insane! This was a great life experience for me. It is the best dive by far. I am so glad that I did it. I am not that scared to dive and see a shark, not anymore. It is a great experience! After this we went back to the resort.

At 4:30 pm we saw the Fire Walking, where some designed Fijians walk over burning rocks. There are two rules to be able to do it. First, don’t drink coconut milk for four days. Second, sleep alone for four days. These Fijians are crazy! They were hanging over the burning rocks while they were saying “Bula”, hello in Fijian language. These guys have their feet so black! Of course! They get burned. I couldn’t believe they do this!

Bull Sharks

Cheyne Magnusson
24 June 2010 -


Today I dove with bull sharks, on purpose. That sounds stupid. I actually think it is too. Bulls are super unpredictable and curious and they have a bite first think later mentality. If it was not for the Fijian divers surrounding us during the dive we would all be shark poop now. Those guys are super heroes. That being said the dive was one of the scariest and coolest experiences of my life. I have an even higher level of respect for sharks and their awesome power. It was an amazing experience and I will never forget it.



If you are ever in Fiji and want to be reminded of how small we really are in the big scheme of things go to beqa and do this dive!