Dave Collins This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. aboutus

   www.immersionadventures.com/ab - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/16/2008   Last Visited: 1/16/2008

   After leaving Wyoming to teach humanities and ESL at a private high school and college in Colima city, Colima, Dave Collins founded Immersion Adventures in 2000 to help promote ecotourism, environmental research and conservation in Mexico. He received his M.A. in English and B.A. in anthropology. He had taught whitewater and sea kayaking extensively and internationally for a decade before, in addition to competing as a professional whitewater kayaker and writing freelance. Dave continues to write, run Immersion Adventures, and is in the process of setting up a Mexican non-profit-Costa Alegre Conservation Alliance and Land Trust-to work toward conservation on the coast. He believes, like J.R.R. Tolkien, that, "not all who wander are lost."
   ...
   Dave Collins

2. 2. WaveLength Magazine - October / November 2004

   www.wavelengthmagazine.com/200 - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/1/2004   Last Visited: 12/13/2006

   I ask the proprietor, Dave Collins.
   
   "The crocs stay in their lagoon," he assures me. "I've been kayaking here for four years. It's safe."
   
   We get to talking and Dave tells me he started whitewater kayaking in Wyoming when he was twenty. After a couple of seasons of competitive freestyle, he took up guiding in Yellowstone Park, then after finishing university in Mexico, he started Immersion Adventures. His passion is guiding students on week-long ecological study trips, but his bread and butter is day tours and rentals.
   
   The next morning I rent a kayak from Dave to check out the rocky shore along the south side of the bay.
   
   Launching off the beach between waves, I'm soon gliding over clear water, like gently undulating glass sparkling in the morning sun. I find the sit-on-top kayak stable and relatively maneuverable and soon slip into an easy paddling rhythm, serenaded by the rippling bow wave. In the distance, some porpoises breach but disappear. Two blue footed boobies standing on a rocky outcrop gaze around nonchalantly as I paddle past them towards the towering cliffs, alive with seabirds. A gentle onshore breeze ripples the still water.
   
   Dave Collins and the authour's wife Stephanie
   ...
   A couple of days later I join a group of five others for a tour with Dave through the mangroves. Dave and his assistant Paco load the kayaks onto a trailer then drive us out to Tenacatita beach at the north-western tip of the bay. After launching, we paddle past a sleek hundred-foot yacht, our images dancing on her polished blue hull.
   
   "Did you see the whales?" asks one of the crew, pointing to the horizon. We didn't. Sometimes it pays to be higher off the water. We pass by red sandstone cliffs to a small cove where Dave guides us ashore amid white foam swirling on the rocks. He spreads out a mid-morning snack on a small beach while Paco explains that the base of coral reefs, formed when the ocean covered the isthmus that is now Central America, is the same as in the Atlantic.
   ...
   Before Dave drives us back to La Manzanilla, we sit around a table in a beach restaurant with jugs of fresh lemonade, eating fish rolls (a local delicacy made of an assortment of seafood wrapped in a tortilla and bacon) and reminisce about our day.
   
   IF YOU GO

3. 3. WaveLength Magazine - October / November 2004

   www.wavelengthmagazine.com/200 - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/1/2004   Last Visited: 9/27/2006

   ,Is it safe to paddle around here?, I ask the proprietor, Dave Collins.
   
   ,The crocs stay in their lagoon,, he assures me. ,I,ve been kayaking here for four years. It,s safe.,
   
   We get to talking and Dave tells me he started whitewater kayaking in Wyoming when he was twenty. After a couple of seasons of competitive freestyle, he took up guiding in Yellowstone Park, then after finishing university in Mexico, he started Immersion Adventures. His passion is guiding students on week-long ecological study trips, but his bread and butter is day tours and rentals.
   
   The next morning I rent a kayak from Dave to check out the rocky shore along the south side of the bay.
   
   Launching off the beach between waves, I,m soon gliding over clear water, like gently undulating glass sparkling in the morning sun. I find the sit-on-top kayak stable and relatively maneuverable and soon slip into an easy paddling rhythm, serenaded by the rippling bow wave. In the distance, some porpoises breach but disappear. Two blue footed boobies standing on a rocky outcrop gaze around nonchalantly as I paddle past them towards the towering cliffs, alive with seabirds. A gentle onshore breeze ripples the still water.
   
   Dave Collins and the authour's wife Stephanie
   ...
   A couple of days later I join a group of five others for a tour with Dave through the mangroves. Dave and his assistant Paco load the kayaks onto a trailer then drive us out to Tenacatita beach at the north-western tip of the bay. After launching, we paddle past a sleek hundred-foot yacht, our images dancing on her polished blue hull.
   
   ,Did you see the whales?, asks one of the crew, pointing to the horizon. We didn,t. Sometimes it pays to be higher off the water. We pass by red sandstone cliffs to a small cove where Dave guides us ashore amid white foam swirling on the rocks. He spreads out a mid-morning snack on a small beach while Paco explains that the base of coral reefs, formed when the ocean covered the isthmus that is now Central America, is the same as in the Atlantic.
   ...
   Before Dave drives us back to La Manzanilla, we sit around a table in a beach restaurant with jugs of fresh lemonade, eating fish rolls (a local delicacy made of an assortment of seafood wrapped in a tortilla and bacon) and reminisce about our day.
   
   IF YOU GO