Cryogenic Open Circuit Scuba

What? Doing a little rebreather research, I came across a pretty interesting site: http://www.therebreathersite.nl/03_Historical/cryo_pjotrr.htm. Basically, in the 60's NASA started experimenting with using liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen to make breathing air. Think of having a huge amount of gas (in the form of liquid) with you for a dive. You are breathing the "boil off" as the liquid gases are warmed up. Some folks say the system could easily provide about 5 hours of air at 33' without a weight increase from standard scuba.

I guess filling it would be the only downside. :-). It looks like rebreather folks have been thinking about how to do this for a while as well and have even built rebreathers that use liquid oxygen and then scrubs the carbon dioxide out by using the cold from the liquid oxygen to freeze the CO2 out. Pretty interesting stuff - for a dive geek. Greg

Random Formulas About Air Consumption

I came across a great list of formulas for helping calculate air consumption. If you have never calculated your Surface Air Consumption Rate (SAC or SCR), it is interesting to see how it varies from dive to dive. If you have an air integrated computer, this can be done for you automatically. Greg

Calculating Surface Consumption Rate (SCR) in PSI/MIN:
Salt Water: ((PSI used/Bottom Time) X 33) / Depth + 33
Fresh Water: ((PSI used/Bottom Time) X 34) / Depth + 34

Converting SCR from PSI/MIN to Cubic Feet/MIN: (note: this is how SAC or SCR is normally talked about)
Cubic Feet/min = SCR X Tank Volume (full)/Fill Pressure

Calculating Air Consumption at depth:
Air Consumption at Depth in Sea Water = Surface Consumption Rate / 33 X FSW
Air Consumption At Depth in Fresh Water = Surface Consumption Rate / 34 X FFW


Calculating how long a tank will last at depth:
Tank time = Tank Volume (cubic feet) / Air Consumption at Depth (cubic feet) OR
Tank time = Tank Pressure (PSI) / Air Consumption at Depth (PSI)

Random Stuff

Hey all- just got word back that viz on the Bayronto was 50' yesterday. We still have a couple of spots open on the boat this Sunday. Let us know if you want to go.

I pushed out the new website recently. Hope you all have had a chance to look at it. If you see anything wrong, or anything you want to add, drop me a note at: greg@floridaunderwatersports.com. Greg

New Website

Well you are reading this so you know that we have a new website. This website has been in the works for quite a while and the project has been driven by our own resident expert, Greg. I think that it is a great piece of work but then I am a bit biased. Let us know what you think. Take your time and look at all of the pages. We always appreciate your input. Also check out our new newsletter. If you don't get it via email you can go to the newsletter tab and click on the view the latest newsletter in PDF format. Nice work to all involved.

Carl

Get Started With Scuba Diving

Jeff Brown brought in an article from yesterday’s Sarasota Herald Tribune about getting started with scuba diving. The article, “Under Water” is on the front page of the classified section and it states that learning to dive is a process that can take several weeks.

For any of you reading this who are not divers yet, we offer eLearning. A terrific way to get certified in a short time. PADI eLearning can be done at home on your own time. When you complete the online part, you bring in your final test score and get into the pool for your first dives. You spend more time in the water and less in the classroom. And our class fee covers everything, instruction, materials, eLearning pass, top quality SCUBAPRO gear and certification paperwork. Our motto is: "No hidden extras". Bo

International Reef Cleanup and Donut Dive 19 September 2009

What a great turn out!! Thank you to all that helped out with the International Reef Cleanup. We had 25 divers one boat dozens of donuts and a gallon of coffee for this Donut Dive. In conjunction with PADI's Project Aware program we headed back out to Spanish Rocks off of Anna Maria Island in the Holmes Beach area. Several buddy teams scoured the rocks for garbage. There was a great variety of trash that was collected. Masks, Snorkels, fishing line, cast nets, weighted line, rope nets, wire cages, beer cans, beer bottles, monster energy drink cans and more. The cleanup focus on the inner two reef sections has been great and made a significant difference. We pulled an additional 100 lbs. of refuse out of this great reef. A future effort on the outer (Third) reef will need more boat attention.
The conditions were flat calm with inside vis at 5-6 ft. with 10 ft. out further. Please enjoy the photos and we will see you next month at Caspersen Beach in Venice, FL
Our Donut Dives scheduled the third Saturday of each month are free events to all that show up and the Donuts and Coffee are co-sponsored by our local Dunkin Donuts regional manager. Thanks Wagner for your help and contribution.

Carl

Service Club Park

Congrats to Sara Rae for getting certified yesterday! Had four good dives off the beach there. What was really fun was on the last two dives, I was working with a student doing his National Geographic Diver certification, which includes some navigation, buoyancy and exploration projects. We used a sand area to explore and it is amazing how much cool stuff there is out there. I had a lot of fun cruising along the reef out there (in the are with a couple of feet of relief) finding all of the different species of fish and inverts that there are.


Viz was actually decent at about 4-8 feet and the water was flat as could be and 86 degrees. Fun and relaxing diving conditions. Greg

When Buying Used Scuba Gear...

When you are looking at used scuba gear, if possible, bring it by the store before you make your purchase and we will check it out for you. Always have used gear serviced before you get in the water with it.

There are certainly bargains to be found, but, there are also regulators that you won’t be able to get parts for because the company was sold and the product is no longer supported. A customer brought in a first stage that was still in the box and looked new. On closer inspection we found that it was missing some intrinsic internal parts. Bringing it back to serviceable condition cost almost as much as a new unit.

With airtanks:
• If the cylinder needs a Hydro & Visual, figure that additional expense into your purchase price
• Check the exterior condition of the cylinder; if it is pitted or looks like it may have been damaged or repaired ask the owner for information about its usage and storage. If it is painted and has blisters, we will have to check these to see if the paint is covering up damage.
• Can you get it filled? Some tanks have expired permits because of manufacturing defects and are not safe to use

Watch our newsletter for free seminars on maintaining your dive gear. We want to help you keep your life support systems up to the job.    Bo

Boat Diving Tips

Hey all - went out to Silverooth today (flat seas, 10' of viz with a lot of algae) with a group of Open Water students. Congrats to Dana, Mccaela and Jill on getting certified!

A couple of quick things came to mind to help folks when they first go boat diving:

• Make sure your gear is efficiently stored. Once your gear is set up, use only the space under your tank for the rest of your gear and try not to spread out too much.
• Set up your gear before the boat leaves the dock to make sure you have all the stuff that you need.
• Keep a save-a-dive kit with you on the boat.
• Let the divemaster know if you want somebody to move your tank or gear. It is always acceptable to let them know you want to get in your gear in the water.
• As you approach the water to get in, make sure you are ready to go, weights in, air on, mask defogged, etc (the buddy check works really well here) to prevent delays in getting in the water.
• Drink plenty of water out there because you will become quickly dehydrated.
• Pack your gear in a mesh duffle that will drain on the way back, and then set the mesh duffle in a tub on the drive back so it doesn't drip in your car.

Also, if you are ever unsure, Boat Diving training is available and is fun since the dive skills consist of diving for fun and enjoyment :-). Greg

Bayronto Today!

A big thanks to Capt. Scott today for getting us out to the Bayronto. The seas were a little rough on the way out (1 to 3' confused), but the new Reef Dog handled it sooooo well. Once there we made two dives on the wreck. You can see form the video there was a lot of cool stuff. Tons of Goliaths, several sharks (Nurse and Reef), Cobia, and lots more.

Viz was okay - there was a thermocline - 84 degrees on the bottom and 88 above that. Above the thermocline, great viz and below about 20 to 30' of viz.

Ever so relaxing dives - slight current pushing over the wreck. On one dive did the bow and the second did the stern.

We're running this trip again on the 4th of September! (weather permitting :-)). Greg

USS Vandenberg Dive Trip August 2009

Up at 4 AM Meet Rick at 5 AM and head to Ft Myers. With time to spare Rick and I stop for breakfast on the way to the boat. We meet Ann and Mike and get on the Key West Express (KWE) for our run across the gulf. The Gulf is flat calm and the weather is wonderful. The KWE is a jet driven catamaran with three levels. We drop our heavy bags off on the Galley/Main deck for storage and head upstairs for the trip. After a quick survey we found the best spot on the boat for the four of us. It is a table with four facing chairs on the starboard side of the boat forward in the cabin. Low traffic and great A/C. A blanket would not be a bad idea. There is food not the best and DRINK from water to burbon on the boat. When we arrived in Key West we were met by the Double Tree Resort (DTR) for the ride to Stock Island and Hurricane Hole Marina and Ecoscuba. We met George and Steve and we had the boat to ourselves. Load up and go.

We headed out of Hurricane Hole and straight south to the Vandenburg. There were two other boats hooked up to the mooring balls when we arrived. A Live aboard and another boat. They had people in the water. While hooking up we looked down and could see the wreck. WOW 9o feet of vis. Geared up and ready to go George emphasizes that we need to hang on the tag line!!!

It is hard to describe the speed of a 4 knot current but let me put this into perspective. The mooring balls were leaving a considerable wake. Once we were in the water the goal was to drift back on the tag line to the mooring ball of the vessel behind us. All five of us were in position and had to swim the tag line to the mooring ball to hit our descent line. With an amazing amount of teamwork we finally got to where I could grab the mooring line and bring both the tag and mooring lines together in a death lock. The other divers swam/crawled over me to the descent line.

We rested a little and then headed down. The only way to go anywhere was to pull hand over hand down to the crow's nest. Once there we got into the eddy current behind some structure and had a great dive. My dive time was 19 Minutes. It was the hardest descent that I have ever had, and it was a great dive. We swam through one of the dishes, then went over the side swam up the outer gangway forward. We dislodged a very large Goliath Grouper and waved at some Barracuda. Then it was up and around the structure to our mooring line for the ascent. Amazingly my snorkel stayed with me and my mask was stuck to my face when I came out of the water. This was a fantastic, exciting and tiring dive. When we got back on the boat everyone agreed that it would be better to hit a shallow reef out of the current.

Only three quarters of a mile back towards Key West is a nice finger reef that we had an nice 55 min dive with little current and lots to see.

Steve the boat captain did a great job and George the Divemaster lead us on two great dives for the first day.

Then we headed back to the marina and left our gear on the boat for the next day. Steve and George suggested that we eat at Hurricane Hole for an off the path great place to eat. They were right! The hotel shuttle picked us up and took us back to get showered and changed. Once we were all pretty and smelling good we hopped the the shuttle for Hurricane Hole for dinner. The food was delicious, the drinks were generous pours and the service was excellent. Oh and the desserts, mmmm mmm mmm!!! Back on the shuttle and to bed.

The Hotel was great. Not only did they pick us up and shuttle us around but they stored our bags when we were diving and the service at the hotel was great too. The beds were very comfortable and they provided us with coupons for the breakfast buffet. More great food.

Day two: Sleep in and have an awesome breakfast. Check out of the hotel and ride the shuttle to Hurricane Hole for our 10 AM charter. Now on Saturday George said that he would not be there for Sunday because he had a prior commitment... That was changed because he liked diving with us so much and he and Steve took us out again to the Vandenburg. This time we moored on the second to last ball and drifted back to the last ball. Now I have a story to tell.

The current is a mere 2 knots. The dive briefing calls for us to drift down the tag line and then head down the mooring line behind us and meet the group on the wreck. George hits the water and takes up the DM monitoring position. I hit the water, grab my camera and start my drift. Wanting to conserve air I decide to let go of the tag line within 20 feet of the mooring line and head down to 15 feet to wait for the rest of the group. I am on target and hit my mark and hook and elbow to relax and wait for the rest of the team. Once settled I look up and see Rick off of the tag line facing away from me (remember I am hanging on the descent line in a 2 knot current) and he is fiddling with his camera. Did I mention that there was a 2 knot current? In my head there are several scenarios flashing by.... Hmm, you know Rick did go on the Dry Tortugas trip and he really had a great time, maybe he is heading back... Cuba is nice this time of year... Is there something nice to see beyond the stern of the Vandenburg? Now none of these things really seemed to be the right answer. Rick then looks my way, as I am holding the descent line with my left hand and extending my right hand out to help him make the hook-up. Surprisingly my arms are not long enough to bridge the gap. My wife would be surprised because she says that I have gorilla arms... So the only thing I can do is hook a fin on the descent line and (as Ann put it do the flying Whale Linda... I am not sure who she is but you can ask Ann) reached with my right arm and this is what I see. Sorry Rick. Rick has his knees bent and fins still and is trying to swim with his arms to reach me. Did I mention that there was a 2 knot current? I reach him and give him the universal index and middle finger wiggle to indicate that he should kick his fins... now the pressure on my hanging foot is too much and I release my foot hold and start kicking. Still wiggling my fingers to Rick. Kicking as hard as I can our progress in not in the forward direction. So I let go of Rick (again sorry Rick) and grab the descent line. I then do the original and left hand on the line I reach for and grab hold of Rick and pull then push him onto the descent line... I am thankful that my cats have taught me about balance and extension. Now everyone is here and we head down to the rounded stern of the Vandenburg. Once we are all in the eddy of the structure we head forward on the starboard side of the ship and were greeted by lots of bait and bigger fish flying around the awesome wreck. As we ascended we did a small swim through and hit the port side and found the equipment that Rick used to work on when he was in the Navy just a few years ago. We made our way back up the the crows nest and headed back to the surface. The best dive yet of the trip.

The final dive of the trip was amazing Steve put us in on the forward most mooring ball and then moved the boat back to pick us up at the stern. We headed down to the bow and looked down to the sand an mooring chains. As we turned to ride the current aft on the port side of the deck we were greeted by the largest Nassau Grouper any of us had ever seen, 150 to 200 lbs too much? I first thought that it was a Goliath but it was a Nassau, of course this is the dive that Rick and I left the cameras on the boat. We then crossed the cavernous elevator shaft just forward of the bridge and arrived on the starboard side of the ship. As the others took the stairs I floated up and met them on the deck outside of the bridge and we entered the bridge and went out through the collapsed port ceiling of the bridge. Snaking our way back and through and over the aft elevator shaft that falls to the keel at 145ft deep (no we did not descend the shafts). We worked our way back to the crows nest and headed for our safety stop. By far this was the best dive of the trip. I really can't put it to words.

We headed back to Hurricane Hole and had lunch and beverages. The food was great again. The shuttle picked us up and took us to the KWE for our amazing ride back to Ft Myers. During the sunset on the boat I saw my first green flash when the sun dipped below the horizon. I was in bed by midnight. Great trip with great people.

Special thanks to Ann, Mike and Rick for being great dive buddies. Rick KYFF....

Also thank you to George and Steve At Ecoscuba in Key West and Melanie and Debbie at the Double Tree Resort in Key West for great customer servic

Carl

Racing Day

My orders were to report to the store at 8:30 AM on my birthday morning, which I did.

Greg, Carl and I left the store and I had no idea where we going. The ultimate destination was Andersen Race Park and we were going to race karts, something I had not done before. What a blast with your butt about an inch off the ground, going 40+ mph and trying to stay out of the way of Greg and Carl.

It was beautiful, Carl, when you did those spins (seven) and trips out into the grass. Next time I will have to practice so I can keep up with you.

Andersen Race Park is a beautiful facility and the equipment is so much fun. Check it out on the web, AndersenRacePark.com.

OK, if you must know, 75.

Tom

August 2009 Donut Dive Spanish Rocks

It was an absolutely beautiful day today at Spanish Rocks in Holmes Beach!!! Clear skies, wind out of the East, minimal waves and even less parking. Thank you to everyone who fought the lack of parking and enjoyed Donuts and Coffee from Dunkin Donuts.

We had 24 divers in the water today. The VIZ was low but morale was high. A good time was had by all and nice long relaxing dives were the tone of the day. It has been a long time since I have actually been in the water at Spanish Rocks and I am truly pleased by the amount of coral and other growth that I saw. There was very little trash, I think that our efforts over the past and the lower viz about 4 to 5 feet had an impact on the gathering efforts.

There was a good mix of divers too, old die-hards that make most of the Donut Dives and some first timers.

I will be updating this post with pictures very soon.

Thanks to all that came out today,
Carl

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

Mote Scuba Camp 2.0

Arianne, Meghan and Alecia show off the huge hermit crab that they found while snorkeling in the grass beds near Mote. We all had a great time discovering the life that lies in the shallows. We also fought the heat a bit on their compass course. Then it was back to hard labor setting up and trying on Scuba gear.

Great find girls!!!!

Carl

Dry Tortugas!!!!!

So, I had these great intentions of writing up the trip in the evening, but.... this is as far as I got:

Day 1 - Seven dives, pretty tired, maybe I can just get up early and do this in the morning.
Day 2 - Wanted to get back in water, didn't have time to blog this morning, six dives, maybe if I take a short nap, I'll have the energy to blog today.
Day 3 - Wow - slept through the night, woken by the engines starting - time to get in the water.

So, the truth is that I was really focused on the diving and not the writing part of the adventure, so I'll recap for those of you that didn't make this trip.

The bottom line is that the bunks were small, the food was well... hot and plentiful, but the diving was fantastic!

This boat is a converted oil rig tender and is purpose built to be a work boat converted to a dive boat. The amenities are not plentiful, but it makes it easy to make 15 dives in 3 days well off-shore. I was really surprised by the diving and compare it to some of the best Caribbean diving that I have seen including Roatan's north side. The reefs themselves were in very good shape with large amounts of sea life. There are a large number of mooring buoys put in by NOAA so reef damage was minimal to none out there. I saw fishing line on one site and no garbage the whole time out there, which is a change form a lot of the other countries I have visited in the last couple of years. Viz ranged from 40' at it's lowest point to a little over 100'. One of the dives the water was so blue you would ave thought you were in the Indo-Pacific.

We left the dock at about 7:30PM and arrived on the site at 9:00AM the next morning. The sea was a little rough on the way out and I wedged myself against the wall of the bunk to get a good night's sleep. A good breakfast got us started and we made three dives before lunch, three after and one night dive. We moved into the lee of Fort Jefferson for the night and then out again to arrive on our dive site at about 8:00AM with three dives before lunch and three after. The night dive was cancelled because the crew thought there wouldn't be enough surface interval before the deep dive on the Baja the next morning. During the night we moved close to the wreck of the Baja and then at 6:45 on the nose, the engines started and they hooked into the the wreck. We dove the wreck and then moved to the nearby Air Force tower. After those dives, back into the dock at 5:00PM.

It had been a while since I had been on a liveaboard, and it take a day to fall into the routine of the ship and understand how the crew runs things, but being out there makes me want to go for a longer liveaboard trip again.

I did a quick edit of the pictures int he slide show to get them out. We are already planning another trip out there, so if you don't mind small bunks and hot food this is really a trip you can't miss. Greg

Mote Scuba Camp

Wow, what a great success! I am not sure who had more fun during scuba camp, the kids or the instructors. This week long camp resulted new National Geographic Open Water Divers! These young adults learned a lot while having a great time. Brianna, Devon, Eric, Helen, Ian and Jeffrey had a great time learning about scuba, navigation the aquatic world and protecting that world. there was some hard work and great teamwork and yes there were a ton of fun and games along the way. Congratulations to those new ambassadors to the deep! Greg and I both look forward to diving with all of these divers in the future.
Carl

Misc Viz Reports

Spanish Rocks yesterday - 6-10' with 87 degree water. Nice amount of life out there.

South Brohard today - 8-15' of viz with large sting ray and lots of fish. Reportedly a great dive.

M5 today - 30-35' of viz wonderful water, in closer 20-25' of viz and mill pond flat. Greg

Service Club - 17 June

Nice morning out there! No waves, good viz (10-15') and 86 degrees. Found an interesting place where I found a couple of nice meg shards. Both were gold in color and were in really good shape, except they were missing an edge of the root. If my other divers weren't low on air, I would have stayed out for a while longer.

We were just north of the stairs, just past the coquina. I was surprised at how close in the teeth were! Greg

Regulator Annual Service Day

Today we converted our classroom into "Service Central". The tables were configured so Greg, Carl & Tom could work and consult with each other. Tools were arranged and the 3 technicians started annual service on our rental regulators. You can count on Florida Underwater Sports for top quality rental gear that is maintained in prime condition.

Those of you who haven't been diving recently should have your gear serviced so it will be ready for you when you want to get wet. The water is warm and inviting now.

We service SCUBAPRO equipment on site and have parts stocked so we can promise it back to you in 4 days or sooner if there are no unusual issues. We always will keep you updated on the status if there are going to be delays. Other makes take 2 weeks; they are sent out to a professional technical service that we have used since we have been open. Bo

Spanish Rocks Clean Up!

First, I wanted to say think you to all those who showed up for the clean-up. We were able to remove approximately 300lbs of trash off the Rocks. Fantastic amount of stuff!

There were 46 of you at the clean-up - a great turnout for not the ideal dive day. Surf was 1-2 feet and viz was 3-4 feet. We had two boats there and Mike in the kayak. With the surface floats, everyone was able to get a lot of trash up.

We tried to make it easy for everyone by getting folks in the water as they showed up. Let us know if you think there is a better way to do the clean-up.

Lots of snacks, some prizes and some great fun. This dive site is important to us as a training site and we really love seeing all the trash we got off the reef.

Of note, we pulled four crab pot lids out of there leaving the encrusted crab pot bottoms there, but unable to trap any animals.

Thanks again for all the great work and fun out there. Carl and Greg

Mote World Earth Day

Today was a red letter day for Florida Underwater Sports. We sponsored our first Reef Clean-up and the World Earth day celebration at Mote Marine. The reef clean-up was a clean sweep of Spanish Rocks, Greg even got that pesky shrimp net out!

The Mote World Earth Day was a worthwhile and fun event for families. There were games, entertainment, food AND education. The wonderful Mote Aquarium is the place to learn about and appreciate our natural resources. We are fortunate to have this top tier research facility and aquarium at our doorsteps.

A huge "Thanks" to Josh and Allison Badgley and Tommy Fetterman for their help today! Congratulations to Stacy Alexander for putting on this super event!
Bo

Clean Up Day!

Hi all! Tomorrow is clean up day at Spanish Rocks. I've put a link to Google Maps below. Look forward to seeing all of you at 9:00AM. We know that parking is limited, so we will be running a shuttle to the Manatee Beach parking lot to the north.

We will have water and snacks and PRIZES! There will be surface support vessels and lots of staff there. Look forward to seeing you all there! Call us with questions at (941) 870-4461.

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=113086376350813641921.000467adc71834160f0e5&z=4

Viz and the News

Hi all - FYI, viz was 15' yesterday off the beach in Venice. Not sure what it will be this morning after that thunder cell moved through :-(

Also, I saw in the news today about the guy in Australia that was just sentenced for killing his wife/dive buddy underwater. Such a sad situation, but I think we can take some good lessons away from this happening.

You can never predict what is going to happen underwater. Although extreme, this is a good example of what diver should be prepared to handle. There is nothing you can do about somebody going crazy underwater and deciding to kill someone, but when I saw the picture of the victim on the bottom not moving I knew that there was something that could have been done. Having just finished Rescue Diver class (congrats to Dave and Marcus!), I thought about what I would have done if I had seen something like that.

In Rescue class we work on drills where the students react quickly to a distressed diver (in this case, she was laying on her back on the bottom in the picture). We learn how to take an unresponsive diver back up to the surface keeping their airway open. The key here is that we need to respond quickly to give the diver a chance to survive and avoid permanent injury. The idea behind the Rescue Diver class is to give people the ability to respond without hesitating. One of the things I preach in the class is think through as many scenarios that you can come up with and figure out how you would respond and then when something happens that is close to that you'll have a mental plan already in place that you can modify to the situation. This is how we avoid hesitating to do something.

Please don't take this as I'm saying the response to the diver wasn't adequate - I only have the news reports to go off of and I know that the news leaves a lot out. Please do think about what you would do in an emergency like this - seeing a distressed diver on the bottom and how you would react.

As always feel free to let me know your thoughts as well. Greg

Sunday is the DAY - Earth Day Reef Clean-up

We have been in business for almost two years and are thrilled to have the support of so many good local divers. Because of your great respose to the Earth Day Reef Clean-up, Spanish Rocks will be the cleanest reef around.

Have fun, there will be snacks and water and prizes. Although the real reward is a clean and healthy environment. We'll have a truck to transport your gear down to the beach, so that you can find parking and save your energy for the real work.

While you are out finding debris, fish net and things that don't belong in our waters; Josh, Allison and I will be out spreading the word at the Mote Aquarium World Ocean Day from 11-2 PM.

Bo

Viz Report

Wow - a great day at Service Club park - 84 degrees with 15-20 feet of viz and flat seas! After three dives I found two newly certified divers, congrats to Nina and Chad!!!!

Get out there while the getting is good. Great time to go diving. Greg

Florida - our new home

I know, you read our blog to learn about diving but I couldn't resist adding a personal note. Today was an important day for us. Tom, Penny & I have finally completed our move to Florida. We sold our house on beautiful Whidbey Island in Washington state and the moving van arrived today and unloaded an amazing number of boxes and furniture. We overflowed the 16' container we thought would hold the things we weren't going to be using for awhile. And, now the garage is stacked with boxes, tools and furniture. Where does it all come from? I must confess it was reassuring to see the furniture Tom carefully crafted, the sign Greg carved in workshop, the chair that Penny curled up in during cold weather, the tables my uncle made so long ago, the odds and ends of many years of life together. It should be really interesting when we start unpacking the boxes. Well, back to diving...Bo

Blue Grotto 21 May 2009

I went to the Grotto today and it was wonderful. Unlimited viz and not another soul in the the water. I did get a report from the staff there that several of the springs are flooded out though. Make sure you check where you are going to avoid disappointment.

Hoping that the rain ends soon and viz comes back the last couple of weeks has spoiled me.

Carl

DAN Seminar 20 May 2009

Thank you Dr. Alex F. Brylske, Ph.D. Alex is a DAN Training Consultant.
He presented Part 2 in the DAN seminar series entitled "Dive Safety: New Insights and Fresh Perspectives." Addressing a wide range of topics including: the latest information on out-of-air emergencies; how deep diving affects respiration and carbon dioxide retention; how gender and age affect diving and the psychology of decompression illness. This series is very informative and should be available soon via the DAN website www.diversalertnetwork.org
Again, thank you Alex for your time.

Thank you also to Chris, Seth, Casey, Bob, Jer and Chris H. for coming out and spending the evening with us.

Carl

Service Club Park 20 May 2009 Viz Report

You know that we are always glad to report great viz... well sorry, this is not the one that I like to post other than to give you a heads up... I was out with three students yesterday and viz was 1-3 feet. The rain that we so dearly need is clouding the waters. As this weather pattern starts to clear so should the waters. I will let you know how it is the next time I am out.

Carl

May Donut Dive!!!

(note: I'm sorry for getting this out so late, I know that blogs are relevant only if they are timely and will do better moving forward)

What a Donut Dive!!!! 24 people showed up and we all had a great time, new people to the dives, lots of good stuff and of course lots of donuts consumed. Next time there will be even more donuts (and hopefully divers :-). Below is a slide show of the dive. All the items pictured were found, which leads me to:

Air for Donut Dive: $4
Finding a Visa Classic on the bottom: Priceless

The card pictured expired in 2000 and had a few barnacles on it. It may have been down there for a while. That will be the last time they use a credit card to scale a fish on the boat...

Greg

Legend of Larry the Lobster

Great dives out at M5 and Silvertooth today. Viz was 25' at M5 and 15' at Silvertooth. Lots of stuff to see. Went cruising around the reef balls of the Burial Reef and enjoyed seeing all of the different growth in different stages.

But, most of all, saw a LARGE lobster hanging out at Silvertooth today - missing one antenna. Also saw a smaller one hanging out a little further up as well. Lobster at Silvertooth???? Greg

Community of Divers

Hit Service Club today - 82 degrees and 20' of viz. If you can get out this weekend, do it!

I had two divers getting certified today, Jenna and Jordan. It was a lot of fun since the conditions were really good and there were a lot of divers out. For me, the really fun part is seeing the community of divers together. We talked with a bunch of folks about what they were finding and what we were up to out there. When we came back in from our second dive, all of the divers congratulated Jenna and Jordan on getting certified.

It is a great community we are part of and a fun group of people. Greg

Diving is WOW!!!

Headed out to the ledges at 45' directly wnw of Longboat Pass. Top to bottom viz! 77 degrees! Lots and lots of fish. Tropicals included, triggers, butterflies, file and trunks. We headed over to the Orange Tug and had a great dive there with viz enough to see the whole tug. It was almost totally flat out there as well.

Thanks to Capt. Bob for a great day!!! Greg

Earth Day Clean-up Dive - Fun & Prizes

June 7, 9:00- 1:00 PM
Spanish Rocks, Bradenton

You can make a difference by joining our Earth Day celebration. We are cleaning one of our favourite spots for dive training. Spanish Rocks will be the location. We’ll be meeting at 9:00AM. If there isn’t enough parking, swing by drop your gear off and we’ll get you form the nearby public parking lot back to the site.

We’ll be giving away classes and cool dive gear as well for those of you who show up. We plan to complete by about noon which will give you time to drop by Mote’s celebration if you want to.

There is NO entry fee, so come out and have fun!!!
Join us for the Celebration!

Seal Team Distinctive Specialty Training

Yesterday the Seals worked just like NASA's Astronauts. They were shown a structure to build on the side of the pool then it was disassembled and the pieces and parts were taken into the pool and they assembled the structure underwater. They used great teamwork and planning to get the job done. When one piece came up missing they searched together, found the part and completed the job. Once complete they took every thing down and left no trace.

Nice work Andoni, Kegan and Miles

Carl

P.S. Kayda has video and I will post it when it is ready.

Service Club Beach - What a difference a day makes...

Wednesday I was back out at Service Club doing more check out dives and the vis was great!!! 20 feet! We had very little wave activity and great dives. I really wanted to stay out longer but that is how it goes... Three divers were certified, congratulations to Val, Eric and Brad on earning your certs.

More soon, Carl

Seal Team Wreck Aquamission

Last week we did the Wreck Aquamission for the Seals. These guys are haveing the time of their lives. They surveyed the wreck and logged the items that were strewn about the wreck. Take a look at the photos.


Great Job, Andoni, Joshua, Kegan and Miles on a very successful Aquamission.



Carl

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Service Club Beach Report

I have been out at Service Club Beach for the last few days and diving is great. Water temp is 75-76 degrees and vis has been steady 6 to 8 and seems to be getting better as time goes on. I am out of my three mil and wore my one mil today.

You know, it is hard living in paradise...

Carl

Sunday on M-8 and Silvertooth

Yea, yea, yea! Viz is really coming up quickly. Good 20-25' on the landing craft on Sunday (nasty seas though with the strong wind form the east and surprisingly good viz of 20' on Silvertooth. It was cool though when I was coming back on the surface, I could barely see the bottom (31').

Get out there while it is good! Greg

Service Club Today and Navigation

Great day to do an underwater navigation dive at Service Club - 5-6 feet of viz and 74 degrees in the water! Students did great. They are all working on getting their Advanced Open Water.

Underwater navigation is something that you start to learn, but only through a lot of practice can you become really good at it. Good question came up during class - "What makes a good underwater navigator?" In my opinion, there are a few things:

• Always knows roughly where they are at (even if they aren't leading the dive)
• Uses both natural navigation, estimation and compass to find his/her position in the water
• Knows the bottom topography
• Has a mental picture of the dive site in their head at all times
• Can estimate how far they will move in 5 minutes of dive time
• Knows which way the ordinal directions are (N, E, S & W)
• If they feel lost, they stop, take time, move in a safe direction if needed to locate themselves
• They are comfortable with their compass

So, finding yourself isn't that hard, it is really about practice and starting out with a solid foundation of the basics. let me know if you have any questions, or comments. I'm sure a few of you will have something to add to my list above! Greg

Cool Technology

Okay - so, I'm off topic here, but I really do enjoy when technology is used to do amazing things. One of the best uses that i have seen lately is www.kiva.org. Kiva is a site that allows you to make mirco loans to businesses in developing countries. What is amazing about this is that Kiva works with loan agencies in places where simply dumping aid into the economy has not worked. It allows people to start or grow their businesses and improve their standard of living.

You can actually read what people want to do with the money and you can check the history of both the person and the agency that is sponsoring the loan to figure out if you want to risk money. When the person repays the loan, it comes back with interest. I have had one loan repaid and made four more loans from the site.

Explore the site - check out all of the loans that are funded. It really is amazing to see how small amounts of money can make such a difference. Greg

The PADI National Geographic Diver Course - NEW!

Florida Underwater Sports is now offering the National Geographic Diver certification!

Join an elite group of divers who are more than tourists; they are explorers, adventurers and conservationists.

National Geographic partnered with PADI, the world’s leader in scuba diving training, to jointly create this program with the goals of encouraging public interest in recreational scuba diving worldwide and exposing people to the aquatic environment to help them gain a better appreciation of our underwater cultural heritage.

The insight and training you gain during this program will broaden your awareness and take your diving skills to a new level. You will complete a minimum of two dives during this certification.

What You Learn -
1. As part of the National Geographic Diver Specialty course, you fine-tune your buoyancy, then set off on your exploration project. Whether it’s a survey of plant life or a study of water temperature variation, this project is your chance to think, observe and document like those who dive for science and discovery.
2. On your next dive you’ll hone your navigation skills, and then dive into an aquatic life exercise – which may also be part of your exploration project.

• You will also improve your ability to observe your surroundings to get the best experience from each dive
• Get practical experience by gathering information and collecting images to create a visual representation of a dive site, detailing what you’ve discovered through your observations
• Improve your underwater navigation skills and ability to find your way around underwater by using a compass as well as natural reference
• You’ll be introduced to a multitude of aquatic species and be able to identify local plants and animals.

Bo

Buoyancy Clinic (or Floating Around the Pool)

Had a great clinic today. Everyone worked on configuring both equipment and weight distribution, amount of weight and then buoyancy fun and games. Lots of hovering, playing with the toypedo and navigating the hoops.

It is a lot of fun to see people have that "aha" moment with buoyancy. Sometimes, it is simply moving the tank up a couple of inches or distributing weight in a different way to help trim.

The next clinic that we will be doing is in May to get set for local dive season. Remember the clinic is free!!! Greg

Donut Dive for April

Wow - what a nice day on the water. Strong wind from the east and viz that was coming up (not great, but pretty decent) made for a great morning of diving. Also, everyone headed over to the Venice Shark's Tooth Festival afterword.

So, the viz was a good six feet or so, but the water was really calm and 74 degrees. Nice diving conditions for fossil hunting. We came back with bison, shark, horse and mammoth teeth. A bunch of femur bones (kind of weird how many nice specimens we found) and a piece of tuck as well - small, but still a piece.

Carl was out with his open water class getting people certified. It was great to see new divers and experienced divers meeting and talking about how much fun it is to get in the water.

And at the end of the dives, I was able to get a Divemaster Candidate back out to demonstrate his unresponsive diver rescue abilities to the crowd on the beach :-) Greg

Scubapro Regulator Museum

Check out this link - http://www.scubaproregulatormuseum.org/. Courtesy of Ocean Divers down in Key Largo they have put together the best display of Scubapro regulators through the years. The evolution of the regulator through the years is fascinating. Just like any piece of life safety equipment, evolution has been gentle. You can see a number of features in early regulators that still exist in regs today.

The 1964 Scubapro catalog featured everything the diver could want, including regulators, recompression chambers, and submarines. In 1965 the first version of the Jet fin first appeared. After 40 years the fin is still popular with technical and military divers worldwide and is one of the most copied scuba products ever sold. In 1966 the catalog also added the Automatic Decompression meter, a forerunner to the modern dive computer.
Greg

Reef Rakers on WEDU

Good piece on the Reef Rakers on Gulf Coast Journal. Good shots from underwater. And yes, I know they got my name wrong :-).

For those of you who don't know Reef Rakers is a teen non-profit that cleans up local reefs as well as travels to clean other reefs. It is great to see the kids out diving and having fun.

Click on the title or this link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1529573314?bclid=1532914250&bctid=17995796001

Greg

Silvertooth 13 April

Wow - was pleasantly surprised by the 10 feet of viz we had on Silvertooth yesterday. All that and had the entire site to ourselves :-). Little bit of surge and funny thing there was actually some current running south to north. Not much, mind you, but more than I have ever experienced at depth there.

Lots of life on the reef there, continuing to see more tropicals all the time. Greg

Viz Report

Hi all - first, let me say I'm sorry it has taken so long to get a blog post out. We have been really busy (which is great) starting 14 students this week on Open Water, 4 on Advanced, and several more specialties. Spring break has really had us running at fever pitch. The weather of course didn't cooperate, which sent us up to the springs (both Blue Grotto and Hundson Grotto) for a day. Hudson was salty and cold :-).

We headed out to M-8 today, not sure what to expect. With the viz off shore being almost nothing and the weather we had through, we weren't sure what we were going to get. Boy, were we surprised. A little swell out of the south, but flat seas otherwise. Vis was about 10-15 on the Landing Craft and the Tanks!!! It was a great dive! I got three more folks Advanced certified - congratulations Jeff, Adam and Rick!!!!

The cool thing was that on the landing craft there were a ton of tropical fish. Angels, Porkfish, Butterflies, Spanish and Cuban Hogs, Damsels and more. If you had thrown a Moray into the mix, I would have thought I was at Pompano on one of those wrecks there were so many colorful fish.

Monday and Tuesday, we're going out to Silvertooth and I'll post viz reports both days. Greg

Platinum Dealer Award!

Florida Underwater Sports is now a SCUBAPRO Platinum Dealer! Less than 5% of all SCUBAPRO dealers are awarded this designation.

We achieved this honor by:
· Representing SCUBAPRO exclusively and carrying the entire line of quality SCUBAPRO products
· Having a thorough SCUBAPRO product knowledge
· Having a well trained staff and service professionals
· Offering exceptional customer service
Each SCUBAPRO Platinum Dealer is considered a "diving professional”. Bo

Rough Seas and Good Viz?

Yesterday at Silvertooth, it was rough, but the good news is that the viz really wasn't that bad, 10-15 feet. Water temp has dropped back down to 66 degrees though. As this cold front passing through, we're hoping for some good diving starting next weekend and into the following week. Greg

Being A Dive Professional

I find myself often evaluating what is really means to be a dive professional. In this industry (specifically recreational diving), it really boils down to making it fun for people to go diving. There are a lot of parts of "fun" - safety, logistics, attractions, customer service, etc. For everyone who dives, this means something different.

What separates the true dive professional from the others? Good question. The scuba industry has more than its share of scuba bums out there and I'm sure everyone has a great story about running into a scuba bum divemaster or instructor at one time or another. For me, attitude is everything - and so I don't forget that, I dive as often as I can in a non-professional role.

What is that makes me not want to dive with somebody? When the dive becomes about them. I have two great examples:

• Instructor in front of his students when asked if he ever just goes diving for fun replies "I only get in the water if I'm being paid?"
• Divemaster after surfacing from a dive says "That wasn't the best dive."

Now, in the cold light of the day, both of these comments taken slightly out of context seem pretty bad, BUT I hear them from professionals in this industry all the time.

Understanding that this is a recreational sport and that if people don't have fun, we're not doing what we should doesn't really fit with the attitude if as a dive professional you find yourself saying either one of those things.

So something I look for in our staff is professionals that can make even a not so good day diving fun - because it is just that, a day diving. For a lot of people that beats a day sitting behind a desk, or dealing with everything that somebody normally has to. For me it is the most fun I can have and still be working and that is the same passion I want in dive staff, either the ones working for the store, or the ones that are taking me out diving.

I am lucky - I work with a lot of people that have a great passion for scuba diving. And unfortunately, I also have a lot of opportunities in the industry to get reminded of what the wrong attitude is. As a diver, you should always expect service that caters to you and expect a positive attitude, and don't be afraid to be vocal if you don't get it. Greg

Equipment Specialist

Congrats to Rick and Jason for completing their equipment specialist certification. The class is for Open Water divers (or higher) that want to learn more in depth how dive equipment works and what solutions there are for common problems.

The great part of the class is that students walk away with knowledge that will help them fix a small issue that would normally keep them from diving as well as knowing when a problem is serious enough to get professional service.

Part of the course includes disassembling common scuba gear, seeing what it takes to do a tank inspection, gear requirements for diving and how to set up a save a dive kit.

Scuba diving is a gear intensive sport and being able to solve the small problems makes it even more enjoyable. Greg

Donut Dive!!!! March 2009!!!!

Yes! What a great day for a dive. Viz was good, temp is up a bit (68 degrees) and all sort of life was out today. Thanks to all eight folks who came out (plus another six open water students) to fill up the Spanish Rocks parking lot with divers. It is really fun to see the whole group together. Our open water students benefit from seeing other divers on a dive as well.

Picture of a very happy Welk eating an egg sack.

Viz was great - about 20' on the sand and dropped to about 12-15' on the rocks due to algae. There was a lot of algae growth on everything down there. All of the hydroids and soft corals were covered and not visible. It was a little unusual to see some much quick growth.

Today's toll included 22 tanks of air, 26 donuts, 3/4 gallon of coffee and a bunch of happy divers.

Congrats to our new certified diver today! Max completed the course today in fine style and we are very proud of our newest 10 year old diver! Greg

Great Day to be an Instructor...

The day started in the 60's and warmed nicely throughout the day. I met with my student and headed to the beach for his dives 2,3,4. By the time we got to the beach the temp was in the 70's. We headed into the water and found 66 degrees at the surface and 64 degrees at 14 feet. Viz was 20 feet plus... Like I said great day. Devin completed two short open water training dives and was up for the third. With a fresh tank and outlook we quickly finished his skills and went to hunt for shark's teeth. Congratulations go out to Devin for earning his Open Water Diver certification!!! Three dives down a couple more to go.

Next it was back to the store unload/reload the FUSEmobile and head to the boat for a twilight dive on Lynn Silvertooth reef and Divemaster duties... We loaded the boat in the rain and the rain stopped just in time to head up the inter coastal to New Pass. We anchored on my favorite part of the reef and were greeted by at least ten Goliath Groupers. Viz was about 10 feet and the water at the surface was 66 degrees and 64 below 17 feet. I saw an amazing crab or maybe a shrimp hanging out on some fire coral. It was about three inches across and looked like it was made of orange white and green seaweed. It also had what looked like an anemone on its back. When I got closer for a better look it reared up and raised its claws to scare me away.... I tried for a couple of pictures but I am not sure if they came out. I will let you know. After the first dive we were greeted by an amazing sunset. We had some snacks and headed into the dark for our night dive. It was amazing to see all of those Goliaths sleeping in a group nestled into the corners of the structure. Sea hares were out in force as were other night critters. That crab that I saw was now out swimming about five feet above the structure, too cool.

Five Dives
One Certified diver
Great Friends
New Creature found

Like I said it was a great day to be an instructor

Carl

The Sea of Cortez

September 25 - October 3,2009

Imagine diving in a giant aquarium. The Sea of Cortez is a deep, narrow body of water full of underwater canyons that are home to plankton, the staple food for marine life. You'll dive with colorfull tropical fish and most exciting, a plethora of marine mammals. WOW...sea lions, dolphins, orcas, pilot whales, sperm whales, and more. Tom, Greg & I dived this area and still talk about being at 90 ft on a sea mount and looking up to see what seemed like hundreds of hammerhead sharks overhead. The schooling is considered a phenomenon because the sharks were not being predatory and none of the other fish on the mount acted as if they felt threatened.

The beauty of this trip is the variety of dives, the sea life and it is close to home. Bo

Details: 5 days of diving, 6 nights, 2/3 tanks per day depending on weather. Stay at comfortable Cantamar Beach Resort and enjoy relaxing in the fresh water pool. Unlimited beach diving. $1172 per person double plus airfareIncludes all meals, airport transfers & taxes, Dive park fee and port charges

To join: $200 deposit in by March 31, $400 due April 31, 2009. Final payment due July 30, 2009

Did You Say 72 Degrees!?!?!?!?!?!

Yes, 72 degrees off of Venice with 15 feet of viz. Need I say more? Greg

Go Shark Toothing!

Took some folks out toothing this morning at Service Club Park. How fantastic, water was 68 degrees for the first 15 feet and then cooled a bit. Viz was a solid 12 to 15 feet!!!!!

One of my folks found a beautiful 3" Meg tooth in wonderful conditions with great serrations, good root and almost flawless smooth surface. I found a smaller golden meg tooth, part of the root was missing sitting on the Coquina at about 16' like somebody had placed it there.

Other divers were have lots of luck as well.

If you like toothing, now is the time to get out there! Greg

A Bad Day in a Great Job is Still a Good Day

I had to laugh yesterday - what could go wrong did go wrong. I have to say though at the end of the day I still feel lucky to do what I do for a living.
Problems with the boat (electrical issues), burning myself on the battery, more electrical issues, late from the dock, a crab pot wrapped around the prop, getting an AI (Assistant Instructor) late back to the dock to teach a class, moving a lot of tanks, losing an engine on the boat just as I am docking, and not having any water on the dock to wash the boat down.

The funniest part of the day came though when I called Scott to let him know the issue with the boat and left him a voice message. A little later he called me back and I let him know that I didn't even wash the boat down. He said that is funny, I think I know what happened. I think the boat is in the wrong slip." I said "What?"

Yes, that's right, on top of everything else, I put the boat in the wrong slip. I could argue that the slips all look the same, and it was close (only two slips away), but really it came down to a long day and being tired. Off I headed and moved the boat to the right slip. Of course all the neighbors there had to come out for a good laugh.

Got two dives in, one on M8 and one on Silvertooth. It was still a good day!

M8 - temp 64 degrees, viz 20-25', lots of fish.
Silvertooth - temp 65 degree, viz 10-15', a lot of colorful sponges and corals growing there. Looking forward to my night dive on Wednesday.

Greg

The Gulf Is Getting Warmer

With that rise in the temperature, there is also an increase in the desire to dive.

Divers will be getting their gear together for the first dive of the season. Then they remember that the reg set had a leaky hose, hadn't been serviced for three years, and there was an unexplained leak out of the first stage. The BCD look like the dog had been using it for a winter bed.

It is time to have all your gear serviced. Don't wait until your diving buddy says "Let's go diving tomorrow." and you have to say "Sorry, Dude."

The service department will get very busy in the next feww months.

Bring in your diving equipment for needed service and tuneup. Beat the rush.

Tom

Seal Team 11 March 09

Another great day at Seal Team! Congratulations to Andoni and Joshua for completing their Seal Team membership requirements. They had a couple of skills to do then a full skill circuit. We then moved on to the Inner Space Aquamission. The boys all exhibited excellent buoyancy skills and are on their way to Master Seal Team status.

Thanks for the fun guys,
Carl

USMC Rocks!!!

Thank you to Franklin for the several pounds of snapper fillets that he dropped off today. He and the other men from the Corps were doing a little spearfishing today and in true Marine fashion they were right on target. I am going to head home in a bit and fry them up in a little butter and a couple of spices and have a great dinner... I may even share them with the wife and kids.
Thanks again Franklin.

Carl

Training at Service Club Park, Venice, FL

Nice, nice, nice... Caleb and I hit the water around ten this morning. There were 6 to 9 inch swells rolling in every ten seconds, other than that there was not a ripple on the water. The pelicans were fishing and the sun was shining. VIS was 12 to 15 feet and the water was 64 degrees. Congratulations to Caleb for earning his Open Water Diver certification. I will be back in soon, the conditions are only getting better.

Carl

A Beautiful Day Out at Lynn Silvertooth Reef

The sky was a bit foreboding to start but cleared nicely while we headed out to dive. The wind was down and the waves were non-existent. We anchored on a nice spot and got ready to do some training. The air temp at splash time was 74 degrees and the water was 64 at the surface and 62 below 17 feet. VIS was fifteen feet. Max and Mario were working on their Open Water course and Dave was working on his Advance Open Water course. Congratulations Mario on earning your Open Water Diver Certification!!!

The two dives were great, there was an amazing amount of Decorator pin cushion sea urchins and lots of Sheepsheads. Max's favorite part was holding a starfish.

Carl

Manatee Fun!!!! (well not many mantees, but some fun!)

Hi all - made it up to see the Manatees in Crystal River yesterday. It is close to the end of the season and there weren't a huge number of Manatees out and about. There were about 8 or so in the sanctuary sleeping, but despite us offering our best scratching hands, they would not come out and play.



There were a couple that did come out and were moving down the river, including moms with calves. The viz in the river at Three Sisters was fantastic. Also, the springs themselves were really pretty. We headed over to King Spring, but stopped early when there was a report of no manatees in the area. We jumped in the water at the point of the island with King Spring and found some manatees moving through the area. They were cruising through in low viz, so it was more by chance that we saw them.

I'm glad everyone made it up there and I'm hoping to go back earlier next year to see more manatees. Above is a slide show of the trip. Greg

Diving In Polluted Water

On Friday, a customer brought in his regulator set, Mk25 stage and S600 second stage, for service. He had to do an emergency dive at the bottom of an elevator shaft in a mixture of water and hydraulic oil.

Since hyraulic oil is so destructive to the rubber components of the reg set, to say nothing about being destructive to divers, it was imperative that the equipment be cleaned as soon as possible.

The customer did the right thing by immediately bringing the equipment to us for service. The cleaning process took about four hours for the equipment and was completed within 18 hours of receiving the gear.

We were told that cleaning the diver took about the same amount of time.

If your diving gear is exposed to destructive chemicals or substances, do what this fellow did and get it into us for service immediately and let us know the exposure was so that we can provide the correct solution to the problem.

Quick action can save your gear.

Tom

Service Club Thursday

Sorry for the late post, I did a couple of dives at SCP on Thursday. The water was a balmy 62 and the vis was two to four feet. There is still quite a layer of silt on the bottom that makes it very easy to foul the vis. the weather is looking great for the next week and we will be out at Lynn Silvertooth reef tomorrow. I will let you know how it is.
Carl

Congrats Chris!

Headed out and did three dives on Silvertooth today and Chris got certified! Was a great dive series, viz was about 10 feet (pretty green still) and the temp was 63 degrees. The good news is that the top five feet of water was 67 to 69 degrees. With this warm weather I am hopeful we'll go up fast.

I saw a fair number of fish out there, with some really big Sheepheads in schools. Greg

What is Discover Scuba?

Discover Scuba is an experience program that gives you a taste of scuba diving. It is a great way to introduce your friends and family to this amazing activity, in a safe and controlled environment. It is exciting and fun too. If you have someone you know or you are not sure if scuba diving is for you, you can give it a try with a very small commitment. The experience starts off with a short briefing, then it is into the pool for an hour or so. This is not a certification but if you choose it can count towards your open water class. It can be three different experiences.

1. Discover Only: An abbreviated briefing and pool experience with minimal skills performed in the pool. This is not applied towards the open water course.
2. Discover to be credited towards Open Water confined water session one: A longer briefing with more skills that can be applied to your Open Water course with more skills performed in the pool.
3. Discover to be credited towards Open Water confined water session one and Open Water, open water dive one: Longer briefing and Open Water course confined water one then it is off to open water (The Gulf of Mexico) for an open water dive.

Choose the experience that is right for you or someone that you know and we will get them wet.

Carl