Dive Report- Sharks tooth dive

I was personally unable to make a dive today due to my tanks being at my local dive shop getting filled/viz/hydro-static inspections. A friend of mine Angie and her brother went diving off of Alhambra and had a very productive sharks tooth dive turning up all these beauties. The report today: Depth: 23ft. 81 degrees and viz was 5-8ft Water looks beautiful from topside.....

Palm Island Ferry

We have attempted two times now to dive the Palm Island Ferry. Previous attempts were foiled by boats on the dive spot, and today was no different. However there was a big enough chunk to call our own and we decided to drop and do some diving. We used the following coordinates N 26° 49.236'  W 82° 31.951' however due to using a friends boat out of Boca, we did not have a depth sounder (smacks head into wall) So we dropped in the area and hoped to run into reef/bottom. This was not the case and all I got to see was flat sand bottom about 60'... however we had a blast shooting Amber Jacks, we ran into a school and had our choice of the litter. My friend fired into one and did not stone him, he pulled with great force dragging us all over the place until we were able to brain him with our knife. I could not even imagine getting into his big brother (AJs get quite big). Visibility was around 10'-12' and we walked away with a couple keepers to end out the AJ season. Overall awesome dive, however not quite the best review on the reef. We will make another dive on this location and I will post pictures of the structure/video if I can.

Sunset Cruise with Rocket Launch

Friends from Maryland came down for a weekend prior to them boarding a cruise ship and going to the Caribbean. They asked me to take them out on the boat and I obliged with a trip to Stump Pass. We arrived around 4pm and enjoyed beaching the boat in Ski alley, drinking a few beers, watching wake boarders/water skiers.  We decided to go to the Stump Pass Tiki Bar and enjoy their food specials, which is never a disappoint, great views/food/prices and service. We then went back to our slice of heaven to attempt to witness the Green Flash (sunset phenomenon) which we unfortunately did not get to witness this time. We began our journey home and the skies were a beautiful pink/purple hue as the city scape lights began to become dominant. Prior to us passing under Englewood bridge we saw what appeared to be an airplane trail almost perfectly vertical pink as well, when we realized it was a rocket being launched by NASA in Cape Canaveral. What an unexpected surprise. All in all yet another perfect and beautiful day on the water.

Picture does the night sky no justice.....

Blue Wild Expo and Jupiter Diving

I was approached by a friend of mine from the Fire Department, if I wanted to go on a two day weekend trip. When I found out we would be attending the Blue Wild expo in Ft. Lauderdale, spending the night and bug diving the next morning there was no reservations I took the days off, and made arrangements for my daughter to be watched by my father and ex.

The drive over to Ft. Lauderdale was awesome, sharing stories of diving, and talking abou the industry. Local dive shop drama, and tales. Stopping to get beer for our drive and arriving at the expo around noon. We walked into a conference room filled top to bottom with amazing dive gear, and raffle prizes that we could enter with purchased tickets. Walking around were celeberties in the dive community; Sheri Daye, Manny Puig, Daryl Wong and many others I posed for pictures with many of them, listened to a thrilling conversation with Manny about his trident spear he uses underwater and for hunting wild boar on land (what a bad ass man). I took pictures with the Deep dive girls, and enjoyed looking, touching and feeling all types of dive gear. I even made a purchase for a handle for my Gopro which was a fantastic deal. Towards the end of the night we all united and I even won a "Ballenita Racks" speargun rack... not bad for 20$ worth of raffle tickets.

We then drove to a friend of a friends house and spent the night, playing Call of Duty for awhile and enjoying a fantastic steak dinner. The anticipation for the dives of the next day were looming.

Waking up on dive day was a thrill like a kid on Christmas, we met up with John owner of Koah Spearguns and Owner of Hypnautical Charters. Leaving the home port and exiting Jupiter pass I noticed water had top to bottom viz...... (OHHH YEAH) We filmed and did a total of 3 dives that day. 100' 40mins, 80' 40 mins, and 75' 40 mins..... water temp was around 73* at the bottom, vis was around 40' phenomenal for Florida. The entire boat (3 other divers) caught about 6 bugs, and I did not get any :( First time out, I landed on a honey hole of about 5 monsters but could not loop them or grab them out of the hole. (I guess I will practice and have to return) Overall the dives were relaxing, exciting, and the dive operation was top notch. There was not a lot of hand holding as John understood our level of experience and basically just let us do our own thing. The boat was full of friends and everyone knew eachother which was also something new to me and amazing on a charter.

I plan on attending next years expo, and when I get the dive charter off the ground may even attempt at having my own booth at the expo.

Dive on.....

Mares X-Stream Fin Review

I wanted to wait before I wrote a review on my new fins. Prior to a diving trip to Cozumel Mexico with Scuba Board (Invasion), I was in need of fins. My old fins had been used and abused for the past 7 years and were cheap, old, outdated, and I felt extreme fatigue with my long surface swims that we have in Venice Florida when shore diving. I was researching fins and was really intrigued how fins could vary from 60$-200$+ and all of the options. Scuba Board typically helps with reviews but even there I was hitting a dead end, with a conclusion I would wait till I went on the invasion and won a pair. I walked into the drawing the day of the contest and told Roxanne (the drawer) that I was going to win, and boy did I.

I have waited about 5 months to put about 20 dives on these fins before I gave any recommendation. I can say I have owned 3 pairs of fins my entire diving career and these are by far the best I have owned. They are easy to on and doff with a thick rubber retention strap. I ordered (BLACK on BLACK), and found the fins to be light weight barely noticeable when on. The make up of the fin has both solid and soft plastics, and an interesting alien style shape/influence. The foot pocket has not lost shape at all (I store without the plastic inserts) and has holes in the pocket that I find prevent your boots from getting stuck inside with suction like my old pairs. The Mares X-Stream fins appear to have created a balance between soft/hard split/solid fins and I feel give me the best of all worlds. The surface swims for shore dives are a breeze and instead of stopping and beginning my dive feeling exhausted from the swim, I stop when I want and dive with less exertion.

Now in all honesty at a current price tag at 180$ I would have passed on these fins simply because I did not see the value of the price point. I can assure you after diving these fins and seeing the night and day difference in exertion alone, I would not hesitate on recommending these fins and am in love. Mares you have a new customer.

Perfect Storm

Well the weather in the Venice area is getting cooler, which is bittersweet for me. It means busting out the 7mm wet suit, hood, gloves and freezing after long dives, but it also means that the clarity of winter is coming due to a lack of algae growth in the water (less "snot" or suspended particle). With the hurricane that is hitting the North East we have seen an increase in wind and wave action which again is a mixed bag of feelings. I am excited due to the teeth I am sure the rough surf are bound to uncover for me to find :) I am planning a dive as soon as the water is safe to get into, before everyone has a chance to pick over the fossil beds, expect a post soon of that adventure. 

 

Spear Fishing (Venice Reef)

Today we were planning on going 15 miles off shore and attempting a shipwreck that I will write about later. However when I woke up today I found out that there were 15 MPH gusts offshore, which was upsetting, because I had looked forward to diving. I decided to go ahead and attempt a basic dive on Venice Reef (2706.29 8228.904). My friend, my Dad, and I anchored up with ease and were greeted by tons of birds on the water, and dropped down with visibility being about 10-15 feet. We found TONS of life which is amazing because we have been experiencing red tide the past few days. We had a few shooters today, and attached is a picture of my friend holding his prized keepsake. I saw a few dive charter boats out anchored which reminded me of my trip to Mexico, just seeing the life and energy out on the water. During our surface interval a local Kayak sharks tooth diver swam up to us and clipped onto our boat to take a break due to all the current. We exchanged some numbers and stories, and went for our second dive. Although the second dive of the day did not produce any keepers to get any shots off at I still enjoyed the millions of bait fish and marine life. I love the calm that comes over me during these periods of visiting another world.                                         

Brendan (Author) preparing for the dive/ Dave with his hog fish

M15 Reef

M15 Reef (27° 05.001’ 82° 32.524’)

I have had the pleasure of diving this spot several times. About a week ago a friend of mine and myself decided to spearfish a few of the local reefs looking for something to shoot. We arrived to find a few fishermen on the spot and passed it to go to M16. On our way back in we dove M15 which is mainly concrete rubble, we were unable to find any shoot able fish on this day, however the colors of fish/reef are beautiful and always proves to be a very enjoyable dive.

Sharks Teeth

Ramble Post:

Yesterday I had the privilege of diving Alhambra via beach. My boat has been broken this entire week and I actually had to get Tow Boat U.S. to come get me out of Lemon Bay a few days prior. I almost thumbed the dive, due to what I felt was too windy of conditions (winds from the SE 8knots) with what appeared to be strong top surge. However when I walked to the beach I saw crystal clear top to bottom viz. OHHH YEAH!!!! I went out to about 20 feet of water straight east of Alhambra and attempted to locate the bone yard  ( a well known fossil bed ) I loved the dive, it was approx 8 feet of viz and very easy to find teeth, fish, structure. I had a fantastic time. My SAC rate has seemed to drop and I blame it on Insanity the work out program and my latest training with the Fire Department, I ended up spending about 1 hour at 20' with 2/3 of my tank leftover... HOW AMAZING :)