Pike. 't Veenmeer, the Netherlands.

It’s an underwater photographer’s worst nightmare: a red light on your underwater housing blinking frantically, screaming: LEAK! LEAK! LEAK!

Yikes! I just had a leak for the first time during a dive to test a new drysuit. A scary amount of water got into the camera housing in the few seconds it was submerged, but luckily all the electronics escaped unscathed — the leak alarm saved the day.

With the camera and housing left to dry in the trunk of the car, I took the drysuit for its maiden dive in the lake. The visibility was spectacular. In the evening sunlight I found myself swimming through the biggest school of perch I have ever seen. I couldn’t see where it started or ended. Just me and the fish. All of a sudden the school opened up to make way for a leviathan of a fish. A huge northern pike passed by me slowly, unafraid, giving me a subtle reminder whose turf I was on.

I love coming to this place. Even if I nearly drowned my camera and missed a nice photo opportunity, doing a quick dive here after a busy day is the most wonderful thing. Right now I’m packing up for another trip to Zeeland. In the mean time, I’ll leave you with this photo from another dive, another day. The lake isn’t going anywhere… There will be more dives, other days.