Diving Gun Beach

When I first moved to Guam, I quickly learned that a good day around here was one when you had a reason to set the alarm clock... a day when you had places to go and people to see. Nine months into this shindig, I am having a lot of "good days" by that definition! At some point, I reached a level of busyness in which I had more things to blog about than I had time to blog about them. And this, my friends, is the lame excuse introducing why I am just now posting pictures from a dive we did President's Weekend. Yes, in February!


Named for the WWII anti-aircraft military guns that still hide aside nearby cliffs, Gun Beach is often dubbed the "best shore dive on Guam." Thanks to Propeller, Nick and I are not limited to shore dives or dive charters out here, but there is a certain ease and simplicity that goes along with walking from your truck into the water and following the shoreline down into the depths. As you can see, Gun Beach is an absolutely beautiful spot. The tricky part is finding it.

Zack & Alanna

So when our friends Zack & Alanna from church said they were going, we jumped at the opportunity to go with people who knew A) how to get to Gun Beach and B) how to get out to the reef. As I mentioned, the approach to Gun Beach is very tricky. Tricky in the sense that there is a huge "PRIVATE PROPERTY, NO TRESPASSING" sign that you have to drive by to get to this public beach. Rumor has it that property developers put up the sign to keep the public out so when the time comes to try to buy the land from Gov Guam, they can say there haven't been a large number of visitors to the public park. Rumor 2 has it that locals put the sign up to divert all the Japanese tourists stumbling around Tumon from invading their pristine fishing area. Take your pick, no idea which one explains the rude sign.

To start the dive, you have to walk along a fiberoptic pipeline that cuts through the reef. The water was so clear and beautiful that day. Once we started the dive, I could see why this site had received such high reviews. The visibility was fantastic and the sea life was both abundant and larger than other Guam reefs. In fact, it reminded me of the reef aspects I loved about Saipan. On the dive we saw many beautiful, colorful fish, including several new species I had not seen before. We also saw a big turtle, which Nick followed around and got video of for some time. We also saw, though neglected to photograph, a manta ray.

I wish all dives had water this clear!

Another creepy eel

Fish... unnecessarily difficult to photograph because they always swim away

The tiniest little starfish