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.....

Silt, Zero vis death traps....

While reading a forum I frequent (www.scubaboard.com) I came across an entry from a technical diver that was showing the risks of a controlled silt out. Long story short, people tend to under-estimate the potential dangers of silt, and just how quickly a scenario can become deadly. In this great demonstration the opening looks quite benign, and I can imagine would easily seduce a diver into its grasp.

Here is the video: http://vimeo.com/53944396

Here is a link to the blog:
http://scubatechphilippines.com/scuba_blog/silt-out-wreck-penetration-danger/

Finally here is the link to the original forum post:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/439617-silt-out-wreck-danger-graphic-video-demonstration.html

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. 

 

Turtle Beach- Donut Dive (Event)

Today I enjoyed my first Donut Dive, this is a monthly event sponsored by a local dive shop: Florida Underwater Sports (Sarasota). Today's theme was Halloween in nature and was an underwater pumpkin carving contest. We met up in the parking lot of Turtle Beach around 9am, a group of approximately 30 divers enjoyed free donuts (hence the name) and awaited the briefing from the DM. We hit the water in self organized dive groups and began carving pumpkins just offshore from the beach. Visibility was not the best around 2-4 feet with suspended particles, however just fine enough for us to work at the task at hand. IT WAS A BLAST! After the dive (no set down time) we met back at the same meeting area for voting. A winner was selected, unfortunately not me.... and 2 dive charter packages were handed out.

I highly recommend the "Donut Dive," great way to mingle, network, and of course dive. If your partner-less it is a great way to meet people, enjoy getting wet, and a new locale. I will have to re-dive Turtle Beach again and post a review on the spot, it lacked any structure from what I could tell and apparently has an abundant array of marine life. I was focused on an orange pumpkin so I cannot really comment on that. The dive was well organized and had a check in/out board for accountability and tracking. I have included a video of the dive and the link for the dive shop so you can find a list of events they are sponsoring.

www.floridaunderwatersports.com/

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.