Viz and a Good Lesson

Quickly - viz yesterday at Silvertooth was 6-12' with a lot of algae in the water. You could tell that the thunderstorms had stirred it up a bit. Off the beach at Service Club on the sand the viz was a solid 15' and dropped a bit to 10' over the clay. Had fun doing some shark toothing.

The good lesson for the day - when one of my divers came up from the dive and we were swimming back to the boat, he suddenly started to sink. And was the classic picture of a diver in trouble - splashes, choking and obviously struggling to stay on the surface. I responded quickly and tried to inflate his BCD. As the air went in, I saw it coming right back out again. The entire head of the BCD had fallen off leaving a big hole in the inflator. This is the second time I've seen this happen with this brand of BCD (and no, it was *NOT* a Scubapro BCD). The diver was continuing to struggle, so I reached out and removed his weights which brought him back to positive and he was able to swim to the boat.

The lesson here is don't hesitate to ditch those weights. If you start to think "maybe I should get rid of my weights" that means you should already be ditching them. Also as a diver responding to another diver with an issue, what are you going to do? How do you support somebody at the surface that can't float? More on that later... Greg

Jupiter Diving!!!

What a great trip! Dave, Marcus, Amy and I headed to Jupiter for 6 great dives on the reef there. We saw lots of turtles - including what Dave and Marcus reported as a Leatherback Turtle (we never got confirmation though, so we're still wondering if it was as big as they say).

First things first, we went over to Jupiter Dive Center and I wanted to say thanks to Gerry, Capt. Mike, DM Chris, DM Les and the crew for a great diving experience. I was impressed with the focus on safety and enjoyment that the crew provides on the boat. We went out on the Republic IV over two days and were very happy.

Five of the dives were on reefs and one was on three wrecks. The current was moving, so every dive was a drift dive. Even with this, Marcus and Dave were able to complete their Deep Diver certifications. Congrats!

For me, the highlight of the trip was the Manta Ray that swam with us for w while. I learned again why you should always put fresh batteries into the camera and the ray came in to swim with us and the camera died. Below is the video I did get however.



I was really surprised by one thing that happened on our last dive. We had descended down and as we were cruising the ledges, we saw a nurse shark. A older diver (who shall go nameless) came over to look at the shark and when he got close he pulled an old style dive knife that was about 12 inches long. I laughed when I saw him do that as the shark swam off and came nose to nose with a swimming turtle. We kept going and I saw another Nurse Shark under a ledge. I signalled the DM and dropped down to get some video. The same guy swam do on top of me, kicking my camera, took out his knife again and grabbed the shark's tail!!! So, I don't wish a shark bite on anyone, but if it had bit him, I wouldn't have been surprised. There he was shark tail in one hand, big knife in the other. What a goof! Oh well - you can't always pick who you go with.

We'll definitely be doing this trip again! Greg

Deepen Your Dive - Yoga for Divers

Florida Underwater Sports regularly offers free seminars on things of interest to local divers. Thanks to Shannon Lyons, R.Y.T., who gave us tips on breathing techniques that scuba divers can use to extend their underwater time and get more out of their dives. If you missed this talk, Shannon left some hand-outs for us, so stop by the store to get one.
Thanks to Josh & Allison for setting up the classroom for the “Yoga for Divers” talk. Bo

Wednesday Nite Diving - the best yet!

This is from last night's dive with Chris Howe:

Just got home from an Awsome twighlight and nite dive at S Brohard Park.
Viz was around 10 - 15 foot. We saw two large Stingray, Big Grouper and a Manatee.

The reef was full of fish. One of the best dives I have had in the Gulf, and so close to shore. David and Marcus had a good time.

It should make for real good diving on Saturday.

Chris will be leading regular Wednesday night dives, the perfect way to celebrate the middle of your week. Bo

Sun Coast Clean Up

Thanks to Mike, Anne, Chris, Eddie, Tommy, Chris, Jerrad and Scott!!!!

Great time at the clean-up. There were 85 divers total that headed out to pick up trash on the reef system. I was so proud of the crew on our boat who safely and efficiently were able to pick up the vast majority of all the trash brought back to Mote by everyone. We picked up 8 bags of trash, 2 anchors, several sheets of Masonite, and one newer crab trap. We were also able to "decommission" 4 other older crab traps as well.

For those of you who don't know - we will take old crab traps out that haven't become and artificial reef of their own already. If there is too much growth on them, we'll knock out the break-away hole in the trap and if possible, we'll break the top off the trap as well and leave it in place.

The best part of the day was going out on the new boat though - as it gets set up more and more for diving I am amazed at the boat's comfort, space, usability and speed as a dive boat. This boat will be one of those "must" dive boats. The good news is that in another week, it will fully be in service as charter boat. Congratulations to Captain Scott and Reef Dog on this great addition!

How to Pet a Penguin

Josh, Allison, Maddy and Bo spent a day at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa. It’s a neat aquarium with many fun and educational things to do, but we specifically went there to pet a penguin.

Really! We went “Backstage With the Penguins”, a rare and unique opportunity to touch and play with these delightful birds. It’s not often, if ever, one gets hands-on time with exotic critters.

We found that they are very social and love to play with their toys and be petted. Penguins see more colors than we do and just like little kids, these guys even had a TV in their home. Our guide said that it is funny to see them standing around watching TV. They like nature programs...

Check out the special programs that our own Mote Marine and other local aquariums offer that allow you to interact with and learn more about our oceans and their inhabitants. Bo

Karting with Eddie Kish of Andersen Racing

Greg and I were lucky enough to be invited out to run some laps on the track at Andersen Race Park in Palmetto . http://www.andersenracepark.com

When we arrived Eddie showed us around the beautiful Headquarters for Andersen Racing and then it was out to the track and Pit Row. We toured the Pro Shop, the pit area and the new observation tower. When we emerged from the Pro Shop there were three identical Karts ready for us to hit the track in... well on... First order of business was for Eddie to get Greg and I bigger helmets, I am not sure what that is all about... With Eddie in the lead kart and Greg and I in trail we started off. On the first lap I got a bit wide in a corner and was passed by Greg, so I charged hard and made and pass when Greg opened the door. I swung past Greg and carried my momentum to and past Eddie... (that was the only time that I passed Eddie) Eddie then passed me and was setting a great pace. Um, I think that Greg had spun out by now... LOL. I was thinking wow, I am keeping up with Eddie pretty well... That was the last time I was close to him. In less than a lap he had opened the gap to half a lap. There goes the need for the XL helmet. It was not too long after that that I had disabled my own kart and was standing at the side of the track beside my only slightly disabled horse. (No bullet needed for the horse or the rider) Eddie stopped and gave me his kart. Greg and I were back into the racing, and spinning and laughing and well I think that you get the idea. We had a blast!!!

Thank you Eddie from both of us for a truly great time.

Carl

Note: Please use the link above for more information about Andersen Race Park and Andersen Racing. We will have fliers in the store for Andersen Race Park but feel free to contact them to see what you need to do to run on the track as it is not an arrive and drive facility.

Manatee Induced Panic Syndrome

When experiencing Manatee induced panic during an open water training dive, please adhere to the following procedure:

1. Scream loudly and repeatedly into your regulator
2. Grab your instructor's arm and squeeze it until he/she cannot feel their fingers
3. Repeat steps one and two until the Manatee gets tired of being scratched and leaves

We were out at Service Club today (6-10' viz, with 1-2' breakers btw) working on Kellie's open water certification and just as were about to do the very last skill of the dive, a medium sized adult Manatee swam into the middle of our little group. The Manatee hung around a bit to get scratched and then swam off. Kellie, who was a real trooper today, doing her last two open water dives was - let's say a little scared. She hung in there and the Manatee swam off. After some slowed breathing, Kellie completed her last skill and was certified. Congrats!!!!!!

I just wish I could do that for everyone's certification dive. Greg

Viz

So, we went out on the inside of Coquina Boat Ramp with the scuba camp girls from Mote. Viz is about 4-6 feet. Funny thing was it was actual a pretty good dive. Nice and relaxing, some stuff to see on the bottom. Congrats to Arianne, Aleicia & Meghan on joining all of us certified divers!!!!! Greg

Silvertooth VIZ report

We headed out on Reef Dog for the maiden voyage. Wow what a beauty. Lots of room and great ride. We splashed and found not to our surprise that viz was down a bit. Five feet is all the viz the Gulf was giving up. Less rain more viz.....

Keep Diving
Carl