The Blue Edge
In this near mystical journey, the author returns to the once bountiful Sea of Cortez he explored as a free diver over thirty years ago. Finding it lacking, he continues on to a distant archipelago, one rumored to hold great fish and sharks by the thousands, soaring manta rays, and breaching whales. Here on the ocean’s edge, he takes the reader on breath-hold dives into an extremely dangerous yet magical realm.
Carlos Eyles became deeply connected to the ocean world as a child growing up on the beaches of Hawaii. His life, as first a free diving big game spearfisherman and now as an underwater photographer, has covered much of the planet’s oceans and seas; a lifetime journey, which has also paralleled the decline of the ocean’s great wealth. He has written eight books and countless articles about his ocean experiences.
“His underwater photographs are found in major books and publications worldwide. He recently returned to Hawaii to live and teach free diving. From the foreword The Blue Edge invites the reader into Carlos’s almost mystical interaction with the ocean’s inhabitants. His encounters are extraordinary…his insights come from the heart. He takes us to the very soul of the natural world.”
— David Smith
“A masterful story by Carlos Eyles who reveals in an absorbing tale the plight of the seas. Beautifully written with fascinating depictions of sea life. As important a book as Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us.“
— Clive Cussler
“Readers are treated to spine-tingling shark encounters, manta flights of fancy, and underwater hunting struggles contrasting with moments of deep intimacy with the ocean. Carlos is an underwater guru!”
— Dale Sheckler, Publisher, California Diving News
“While tanks full of scientifically calculated gas mixes can take a diver to the edge of technical diving limits, packing air into those Godgiven doubles inside the the chest can take a diver to the edge of human endurance. Carlos Eyles established his free-diving credentials decades ago in The Last of the Blue Water Hunters. In The Blue Edge, he returns to the Sea of Cortez after more than 30 years only to find the once bountiful waters greatly depleated of the marine life they once had held. He continues on to a distant archipelago to find abundant sharks, soaring Mantas and breaching whales. Author Clive Cussler found the book to be “a masterful story… an absorbing tale on the plight of the seas. It’s beautifully written with fascinating depictions of sea life that’s as important a book as Rachel Carlson’s The Sea Around Us.” Breath-hold diving internalizes the underwater experience, and Eyles draws on this perspective to explore the soul of nature.”
— The International Technical Diving Magazine
“In his latest book, Carlos Eyles recounts his near mystical journey to the once bountiful Sea of Cortez he explored as a free diver over thirty years ago. Finding it lacking he continues on to a distant archipelago, once rumored to hold great fish and sharks by the thousands, soaring Manta rays and breaching whales. Here on the ocean’s edge, he takes the reader on breath-hold dives into an extremely dangerous yet magical realm.
Carlos Eyles became deeply connected to the ocean world as a child growing up on the beaches of Hawaii. His life, as first a free diving big game spearfisherman and now as an underwater photographer, has covered much of the planet’s oceans and seas– a lifetime journey, which has also paralleled the decline of the ocean’s great wealth. He has written eight books and countless articles about his ocean experiences. His underwater photographs are found in major books and publications worldwide. He recently returned to Hawaii to live and teach free diving.”
— Shipwreck Diver
“After a multi year layoff from writing, Carlos Eyles returns with a book chronicling his life and his struggle to stay connected to an ocean and a lifestyle he bonded with as a young child growing up in Hawaii. Focusing on a trip to photograph sharks in the Revilligigedos Islands, Eyles weaves tales of his life, trials, and tribulations into the narrative Staving off aggressive sharks with only a camera, stuck in Baja when another spearfisherman refuses to go home, and waking up paralyzed on a remote Fijian island are some of the highlights. His deep need to stay in the ocean costs him marriages, jobs, and friends, but liberates him from a lifestyle that focused on material needs. In the end the book is an exploration of what Samuel Johnson wrote in 1769: “It matters not how a man dies but how he lives.”
— Spearfishing Magazine
THE BLUE EDGE
By Carlos Eyles
360 pages 5-1/2×8-1/2, paperback 16 B&W photos
Price: $16.95
ISBN 1-881652-27-0
Pub date: 15 December 2000
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