Reefdog

Can a conflicted dive leader keep from drowning amidst a midlife crisis, a break up, an attempted murder, and the changing of his beloved Hawaiian paradise?

Ravi Rockulz is a dive leader in Hawaii with good friends, good times, and plenty of willing female tourists. But something is missing, and rapid development is displacing the magic of his island home. The influx of new residents seeking Paradise and demanding modern conveniences is making things painfully similar to that scab on the earth, LA.

An unexpected heartthrob leads to sudden growth in a break-up and attempted murder. It’s enough to push a guy out of his rut: Tahiti calls, untrammeled and pure. Rediscovering reef love, passion and a keen eye through a lens, he seeks artistic expression. He captures aquatic life and social order in compelling portraiture, along with vibrancy and abundance long gone on the reefs of Hawaii. A mother-and-child duet of Moorish idols, brightly banded coral shrimp the local divers take for granted, Pyramid butterflies in a hundred-foot column, and massive muscular sharks drifting the passes at Rangiroa round out the spiritual flight.

Reef Dog delineates the tide rip between business and nature. Exotic characters and settings follow a scuba diver from Eilat to Hawaii, through the crisis of middle age. A man struggles to stay afloat, as livelihood and socially acceptable behavior become flotsam, providing marginal buoyancy in a world adrift. Then comes showbiz.

Robert Wintner has written twelve novels, including In a Sweet Magnolia Time. His most recent works includeBrainstorm: A Memoir of Love, Devotion, and Cerebral Aneurysm and 1969 and Then Some. He is an avid snorkeler, diver, and marine photographer, and is the founder of Snorkel Bob’s Hawaii. He resides with his wife in Kihei, Hawaii.