Salty Dog Productions
We bring images to life...
This page will be changing as time goes by, so check back now and again for more cool Utila stuff!
Our Town
This is an incredibly personal video for me. It is a bit of a mishmash of clips, showcasing the people on the rock when I was there.
It is way too long, I know - but once I got started, I found it quite impossible to stop!
Please note that the footage is quite old and there are lots of digital dropouts throughout.
Also, all the aerials I chose to use, represent Utila in 1994, before most of the development happened. I hung out of the plane with the door off in Selene's plane, with a high 8 camera . It is not the smoothest footage.
I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do.
Utila
Salty Dog Productions was born on Utila in 1996. Rick and I had moved to the Island 1993, with the idea that we would retire. Well, it did not happen that way. What did happen for the next decade, was an adventure of a lifetime.
7 miles long and 2 miles wide - Utila proudly boasts its ancestry from some of the most notorious pirates who ever sailed the seas, and they would be right. Tales of stashed treasure continue to lure adventurers from all over the world!
The scuba diving is extraordinary. Vertical walls, fringing reefs, sea mounts galore, more corals and sponges than anywhere else in the Caribbean, tons of fish, year round whale sharks and SO many other noteworthy pelagics!
The Utilians are a proud people with a rich and colorful history. They are also incredibly sweet, generous and welcoming.
And for the record... not a day goes by, that my heart does not go to Utila and those wonderful people. Not a single day in 20 years!
.jpeg)
Skye Ranch
Our home for a decade, Skye Ranch was located about a mile outside of town on a sandy path. Skye Ranch Reef right in front, with swim thrus, brain and elkhorn coral mazes, tons of fish, and a 90 foot sloping wall.
Oh yeah... no electricity!
Rick and Skye (Jones) Reno
We both became instructors and taught loads of people to dive.
Rick is a brilliant educator, and has a very special way about him, when imparting knowledge.
Rick went on to become the first resident Course Director on Utila, and I opened Salty Dog Productions in 1996.
This entire page is sort of a scrapbook of videos, photos and stories highlighting a few of my experiences and memories of events, people and places, whilst on the rock.
Photo credit - Rocky Jones 1993
Rick hates this photo - but I love it because Rocky took it one night at Blue Bayou!
The Last Voyage of the Halliburton 211
This is one of my favorite Utila movies. It's a big story and if you have thirty minutes to spare and want to get a better feeling of Utila and the way it was; this is a good video to watch.
This video is centered around 3 men I have always had a soft spot for... Jim Engel, Rocky Jones and Ron Janssen.
Toss in the largest hurricane of the last century, and the sinking of a freighter and it's epic! Well, I think so anyway.
Photos from The Halliburton plaque placement
The Aquatic Realm of Utila
Another way too long video! That said, it represents Utila diving from 1995 to 2003. For any instructor or hardcore diver on the rock back then - you might even recognize some of these aquatic creatures.
They were after all - our friends!
Hurricane Mitch Day 3
Raw Footage
This is the raw footage that I shot on the 3rd day of Hurricane Mitch. There was a brief eye over us when I shot this. Mitch went on to wallop us again that night.
Ever grateful how cataclysmic events really do create a bonding experience. Oh yes... we were all bonding on the rock for those 3 days and nights, that's for sure!
The nights were the worst. Remember how loud it was?
Cool and colorful people doing cool things on the rock...
The Utila Sea Turtle Project
Utila has a dedicated group of people, committed to protecting the Island and its amazing and diverse natural resources.
This video highlights their efforts, to protect the Sea Turtles of Utila.
Glenn Pederson and Shelby McNab, through The Bay Island Conservation Association, spearheaded this fantastic endeavor, bringing the whole Island and the turtles together. The educational and general awareness benefits for the local Utilaians, has been invaluable.
This project is extra special to me, in that the baby turtles were raised in the little champa at Blue Bayou. very near Skye Ranch; so we were part of the feeding crew. Every morning a fish would magically appear on our porch to take down to the little turtles. Letting them go, as you will see at the end of the video, is a heart grabber for me, every single time I watch this video.
To this day, Glenn lives near the turtle nesting sites; and in the season, continues to monitor and chart the nests and the hatches.
After rescuing every backyard creature imaginable, and having all the furry pets one could as a kid, I finally got a small fish tank. That was a turning point.
Somehow, this introvert worked his way up from his first 10 gallon aquarium, to managing the aquarium shop, building and installing reef systems that just kept getting bigger, caring for and training marine mammals in even larger tanks, performing with these animals in front of thousands of people in 3 different countries.
These days I get to see almost every sunrise from a Caribbean beach with my best canine friends and live on an amazing Island with the best people on earth.
After 3 decades and more than half my life on this little rock, I often pinch myself, feeling I must be the luckiest man alive.
The reef is still protected. The baby turtles I rescued together with a pile of Island kids are now coming back to lay eggs - tens of thousand of them! And the kids are bringing their kids and even grandkids to watch all these baby turtles run to the sea.
Full