Emergency Ascent
I`ve been thinking about this ever since that guy died last weekend after diving the Oriskany (see Oriskany Death). I still don`t know any details other than what was on the news. Popular speculation is that he suffered an embolism while coming up too fast... dunno. So anyway, I was wondering, do you bother to clear your ears at all during an emergency ascent?...
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Morrison Springs
Dive no.: 11 Date: Aug 19 2007Location: Ponce De Leon FLDive site: Morrison SpringsWeather Condition: Sunny, hotWater Condition: Crystal clear, and refreshingly cold Visibility: 10-15 feetWater Temp: 68 degEntered the water at: 8:56am Max Depth: 40 ftBottom Time: 28 min ---- Remarks: We met up again with the Scubaholics dive club early in the morning. Visibility was just amazing! The springs in this park remain a cool 68 degrees year round, so we all donned our wetsuits. This dive site is a very...
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Cinco Bayou
Dive no.: 10 Date: Aug 18 2007Location: Ft Walton Beach FLDive site: Laguna Park, Cinco BayouWeather Condition: Sunny, High 92 degWater Condition: Murkey and calm Visibility: 10-15 feetWater Temp: 84 degEntered the water at: 8:35am Max Depth: 18 ftBottom Time: 56 min ---- Remarks: On this day, we met up with a bunch of divers from our local scuba club, the Scubaholics. Dawn was teaching a class of new open water divers and invited us along. Visibility was better than usual for this popular provi...
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St Andrews State Park Jetties - Encore Dive
Dive no.: 9 Date: Aug 14 2007Location: Panama City FLDive site: St Andrews State Park JettiesWeather Condition: Sunny, High 92 degWater Condition: High Tide at 12:24pm Visibility: Good, 30 feetWater Temp: 83 degEntered the water at: 12:12 pm Max Depth: 47 ftBottom Time: 57 min ---- Remarks: It`s unanimous! This was our absolute best dive yet! We saw a lot of very cool marine life we`d never seen before. I think I`m starting to get a handle on my buoyancy control. I just avoided airing up my BC s...
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St Andrews State Park Jetties - Total Bust!
Dive no.: 7 Aug 1 2007Location: Panama City FLDive site: St Andrews State Park JettiesWeather Condition: Stormy, 84 degWater Condition: Jellyfish infested, Stormy WavesWater Temp: 81 deg High Tide at: 12:30Entered the water at: 11:15 Max Depth: That depends. 2 inches if you just count my face, otherwise 5ft 8 inches, if you include my feet.Bottom Time: 2 seconds ---- Remarks: Today was a character building day! We still need to allow for extra time preparing for a dive. Ready? Approaching Storm ...
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I`m thinkin...PINK!
The other day, Daniel broke his snorkel, so I went to Chuck`s Dive World to get him a new one...$40! OUCH! While I was there, I saw that Chuck had a bunch of shocking pink snorkles in his clearance bin. I understood why they were marked down. Well...who wants PINK? BLeh! Then I chuckled at the evil thought that had briefly entered my mind, but in the end I eschewed the pretty pink for a nice blue one, Daniel`s favorite color. After our dive the other day, we scrambled up to the pavilion to doff ...
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St Andrews State Park Jetties - Redemption!
Dive no.: 8 Date: Aug 3 2007Location: Panama City FLDive site: St Andrews State Park JettiesWeather Condition: Partly Cloudy, 84 degWater Condition: No tides today Visibility: Poor, 10 feetWater Temp: 84 degEntered the water at: 11:42 pm Max Depth: 41 ftBottom Time: 51 min ---- Remarks: St Andrews Jetties have been redeemed! Fortunately the lack of tides on this day forgave our team for our noobie organizational skills. Visibility sucked but we were still able to get some cool pictures. This was...
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Free Diving Vortex Spring FL
I just got a new underwater housing for my digital camera and last weekend we took it for a test ride at Vortex Springs FL. Not my picture. I got it from this website here Vortex Springs is a popular swimming park, but it`s primary customer is the hard core cave diver. (Also not my picture) It has a 200 ft basin with 68 degree water year round. Depths to 50 feet for the cavern dive and depths to 115 feet for the cave dive. A handrail leads back in the cave dive for 400 feet. Pretty cool... if yo...
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Destin East Pass Jetty
July 28 2007Dive no.: 6Location: Destin FLDive site: East Pass JettiesWeather Condition: Sunny, Clear 90 degWater Condition: Yellow and Purple Flags for Slight breeze and Jelly FishVisibility: 50 ftWater Temp: 81 degMax Depth: 41 ftBottom Time: 31 min ---- Remarks: High tide was at 9:41 am. We shot for 8am... but we finally entered the water at 11:26 am. OK so we (Team mom, Daniel and Ben) got a few minor procedural kinks to work out. Holy Friggin pain in the ass it was getting to the water! The...
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Lightning Kills Diver
I saw this on the news this morning. As a new diver--in Florida, The Lightning Capital Of The World--I`m concerned about this. I wonder about the hazards of lightning to divers in the water. We`ve always been told to get out of the water when lightning is in the area, but what about fish? What happens when lightning strikes the ocean? Does it kill them? Would it kill a diver under water? Local News Monday, July 23, 2007 Email this article to a friend Watch the video Lightning strikes, kills dive...
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St Andrews State Park Jetties
This is my very first, of hopefully many dive blogs. It`s been a year since we (my two sons, Daniel and Ben and I) got our open water diving certificates and we finally got back in the water last weekend. It`s our fifth dive and our very first dive away from our instructor! LOOK OUT! Unfortunately we forgot the underwater camera, so I googled some of the things we saw and am sharing them with you here. We met up with a few fellow members of the local dive club, Scubaholics, in the wee early hour...
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