Don Sup is about enjoying travel and adventure, be it local or far and wide. But, Don Sup is also about connecting deeper with your present environment, your immediate surroundings when you take a journey. Making a positive impact in the places you visit makes a difference, be it picking up trash while at the beach or hiking in the jungle, or even assisting a local NGO/NonProfit on one day out of your vacation. If and when you do, Don Sup wants to hear about it!
Mike, Don Sup heard that your love for scuba diving has led you to another passion.
Can you tell us more about it?
My passion these days is restoring our coral reefs. I have had the pleasure of diving for decades and now I want to give back. I know what are reefs used to look like but sadly, divers today generally do not. My goal, with my foundation I.CARE, is to begin the road to recovery so that when young divers today get my age, they can look back and see what I used to see.
What got you interested in scuba?
Many years ago on a trip to Mexico, not knowing what I was doing, I strapped gear on and went for a dive (without any formal training whatsoever!!). I was hooked and loved every minute.
Most favorite place you have dived?
Truthfully, for me it’s not location but experiences. I have dived with humpbacks, played in the water for hours with wild dolphin, been dazzled by numerous sea lions as they bark in my face asking to play, marveled at the intelligence of octopus hunting and outwitting a spotted eel as they competed for food, watched manta rays circle in front of me while feeding, been completely circled by thousands of barracudas and so much more. All of these experiences occurred in a different location. Funny thing though, I still marvel at the site of a healthy piece of coral. Coral always has been and still is to this day what I love most about diving.
Where would you love to dive next?
Huge list but I would like to dive with whale sharks and see, again, the soft corals of the south pacific.
I.CARE, www.icareaboutcoral.org, is a local program dedicated to restoring the reefs of Islamorada. We have partnered with local dive shops to transplant 6 coral species on over 5 square miles here in the Florida Keys. One can contact Key Dives, Islamorada Dive Center or Conch Republic Divers and join a trip and help with transplanting live coral!
