Fit To Dive!

Are you fit for scuba? It is almost the new year and time for those pesky resolutions. Being “fit” always seems to be a priority and if you are fit for diving you know you will be fit for your other activities.

I was looking through a book review on “Fit To Dive” by Dr. Jessica Adams. It talks about how “a strong back can have a profound impact on your scuba diving experience”. Your back muscles are relied upon for climbing ladders when you exit from your first dive, you also use these muscles when you carry tanks to your entry point. A strong back during dive prep will save your effort for the dive itself. Developing your back muscles may help prevent injuries and the increased muscle tone will burn more calories and promote weight loss!

Whatever series of exercises you do, it is recommended to:

1. Avoid using momentum, you always want to rely on your muscles to do the work in a slow and controlled manner.

2. Remember to breathe throughout the exercise. A common method is to exhale on the lift phase and inhale on the lowering phase. The timing is not as important as the breaths themselves. Holding your breath during a lift causes your blood pressure to spike. Bo

Bayronto 29 Nov 09

It was a beautiful day on Sunday. Calm seas, cool temperatures and a fast boat made us bundle up for the ride out to the Bayronto. We anticipated colder water and were pleasantly surprised to find the water at the surface at 73 degrees and 75 degrees down closer to the wreck. This was my first time on the Bayronto and we all had a blast. Scott and Michael did an awesome job placing the anchor ten feet away from midships in the sand.

We hit the water and headed down the anchor line. There were a couple of huge Goliaths lots of huge jacks and thousands of smaller fish. Vis was 35-40 feet. Check out the video.

Carl

Keep your tanks from rolling around in your truck!

Our clever friend Harry, who designed and produces the handy Diver's Platform, has come up with another innovative product. The STTS keeps airtanks from rolling around in the bed of your pickup. It comes in two models: the PRO is 48" W, 30" D with a 4" lip formed up on three sides and holds up to five high pressure steel tanks or six aluminum 80's. The DOUBLE is smaller and holds two tanks with room for your soft weights.

The unit has a unique 2" lip folded down to capture the back end of your truck body to insure that the STS will stay in position when you brake.

Come in to the store and see the two tank model!

Next week - we'll be here and there

Next week is the diving industry trade show, DEMA. It’s the time when dive centers, instructors, manufacturers, training organizations and all of us involved with bringing quality experiences to our divers get together and network, see the latest gear, meet the scuba travel experts and much more.

Some of us will be here ;-) to keep the store open with full service during our regular hours: 9-7 Monday-Thursday and 8-7 Friday & Saturday and 8-4 on Sunday.

Happy Halloween and other things

We have treats in the store, so bring your goblins and ghosts in.

Think of it…Halloween means the end of the month, the November newsletter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will be fully-stocked and ready with some new items for the divers on your list. Watch for extended hours and more vacation-time charters.

Come to our Christmas open house on December 3, from 4-8 PM. FUSE and our next door neighbor, A Good Yarn, are having a party! We’ll have our traditional hot cider and cookies and a diver’s gift registry.

Weeki Wachee 24 Oct 2009

Weeki Wachee Pumpkin Carving and Costume Contest

We headed up to Weeki Wachee Saturday for some spooky fun. We were invited by our friends from Clermont at South Lake Divers. We arrived a bit early and walked around the park, went for a boat ride and caught a mermaid show.
Time to gear up for the pumpkin contest. Good thing that it was a shallow dive. Most of us took about an hour to carve our pumpkins. They were then put on display for the mermaids to judge. We surfaced to change tanks and don our costumes.
Leeann had a great kelp costume that flowed with every movement. Shannon was Super Girl. Allison was Ugly Betty and I was just an old lady looking for her dog... We all had a blast. After a bit the mermaids made their choices. Larry from South Lake Divers won for his skull and crossbones pumpkin. For his effort he took home a new aluminum 80 cf scuba tank. As it happens Larry also won the DC1000 Sealife camera for his portrayal as Dumble Diver. He won the heart of the mermaids with his underwater magic tricks. Congratulations Larry, we will have to work harder next year. The mermaids also picked Shannon's pumpkin to be placed on the head of David of the Deep statue for the nighttime mermaid shows
Carl

Interning at the dive shop and my experience so far…

As someone who is new to the diving world and community, I really take pleasure in and enjoy all aspects of the diving lifestyle, and as you could assume, im absolutely delighted to be interning at a place were I get to explore my passion and further my skills in the diving world and in life in general. I met the FUSE staff when I got certified as an open water diver before leaving for a trip to the beautiful Florida Keys the summer. Upon arriving to the store, I could feel that this was a much more relaxed, friendly, and just a overall better environment (and yes I have been to most of the other dive stores in Sarasota if not all). I was astounded by the ease and convenience of getting open water certified and soon after I was in the Keys and putting to use my new skill and loving it!!!! As school approached I came to Florida Underwater Sports for a possibility of being an intern for them so I could possibly further my skills as a diver and at the same time get a great learning experience out of it. So a few emails latter and some paperwork and I was part of the team. I began with learning how to fill tanks, one of the most important and time consuming jobs there is, I have come to learn filling tanks is like an art, you can’t go to fast you can’t go to slow, you have to be just right. But filling tanks is just one part of my internship, besides tank filling I help with the displays, assemble scuba equipment, help out on dives, all kinds of general work, brainstorm new ideas for the store, blog (obviously), oh and not to mention I help out on the dives that we host (that’s one of my favorites). I would say my experience so far has been incredible and one of a kind. It is absolutely one that I am going to cherish and remember for the rest of my life. I also hope to continue gaining experience and knowledge in diving and obtain more certifications witch will help me work towards my divemaster certification.
Till next time Jamie guy (intern)

Where is Greg?

Exciting news for FUSE3, Greg is attending one of four IDCs (Instructor Development Courses). This is the first step toward his goal of attaining the highest and most respected professional rating in recreational scuba diving, that of PADI Course Director.

After the IDC, he has to pass a stringent screening process that examines his experience and training. Passing the screening qualifies him for the competitive and demanding Course Director Training Course (CDTC).

The Course Director designation means that Greg can conduct instructor-level training. I see this as a positive way to expand and promote diving in the Sarasota area. Study well Greg! Bo

Donut Dive Dedication

From Donut Dive Oct1709

We headed down to Caspersen Beach in Venice, FL and had some great donuts, coffee and conversation. There were lots of waves when we arrived and they continued to build as we talked. There were heavy enough seas to strand a sailboat durning the night. Needless to say we did not dive but we had 16 of us there to watch the waves. We will be headed down to Caspersen next month to give it another try.
Carl

From Donut Dive Oct1709

Tec Diving

Hi all - I wanted to do another post on recreational level technical diving. There are some changes in the way that the DSAT (Diving Science and Technology) courses are going to be taught which breaks them up into several different levels. These changes will make it easier int he long run to get Tec certified. The breaks in the course are based on depth, amount of deco time allowed and the gas mix.

What is interesting to me is that the first level of the course will allow deco dives on your computer. The courses progress all the way to 65 meter dives with tri-mix.

If you have any interest in doing this type of diving, let me know and I have a great trainer that I will refer you to up north. I've included the basic list of gear required for Tec courses below. Greg

Double cylinders with isolator manifold
Primary & secondary regulators for doubles
One with a seven foot hose for air sharing
One with an SPG
(2) Stage/deco cylinders with regulator, SPG & staging kit – properly labeled
Back-up deco gas as required
BC, back plate & harness (dual bladder or dual wings unless drysuit diving)
Dive computer (single or multi-gas), and either back-up computer or timer & depth gauge
Back-up decompression information (computer, dive tables, etc.)
Exposure protection (dry suit use requires prior dry suit diving experience)
Weight system (if needed)
Lights as necessary, including primary and backup
Jon line (for current diving environments)
Safety reel
(2) Slates, (1 wrist-type)
Compass
Z-knife and back-up cutting device
Spare clips, pull-ties, tank wrap bands & other rigging accessories
Back-up mask (optional)
Lift bag (100lbs min)

Underwater Pumpkin Carving and Costume Contest

We are headed out to Weeki Wachee Spring for an underwater pumpkin carving and costume contest. It will be at Weeki Wachee Spring October 24, 2009.
Divers cost is $55 Non-divers $13 Adult $5 Child admission.
Have your friends and family come out and watch the underwater knife work and see some amazing costumes. Allison (My Daughter) and I will be there and I am going to be in full costume. This is going to be great fun!!!
Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest first prize of a new 80cc aluminum tank and an underwater costume contest first prize of a new Sea Life DC1000 underwater digital camera.
The park guests will be the judges. The contests will run from 2:30-6:30pm. Come and enjoy the park, the haunted house, the spooky new mermaid show at 7pm and the dives.
Let us know if you are going to attend.
Carl

Sea Hunt On-Line!!!!

Okay - cross post with Facebook, but too good to not post. Sea Hunt (the TV show) is on-line at: http://www.hulu.com/sea-hunt. Thrill to Mike Nelson's underwater adventures. I just watched an episode where one of the divers got the bends and they used in-water recompression and a pressure suit for a jet pilot to save him! Waaaaaaayyyyyyyy cool. Greg

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

View Album

Get your own

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