A sort of Blog about my second favorite hobby - Scuba diving.

[Prages]

Just because…It's gonna be fairly long...you've been warned.

In 2002, my wife and I went on a Carribean cruise. The cruise we were on left out of Fort Lauderdale, Fl and spent 3 days at sea before docking in St. Martin. Since neither myself, nor Mrs. P are big gamblers, she decided we needed something to fill up our time on the ship. I mean, yeah, the food was GREAT and there were about 10 different bars on the ship, but one can not spend 3 days doing nothing but eating and drinking (at least Mrs. P can't, I could probably manage just fine).

So, this ship happened to have a scuba instructor on staff who taught an open water scuba certification course onboard. So, for the three days we were at sea, the mornings were spent in a classroom learning about all the dos and don'ts of diving, and our afternoons were spent learning techniques in one of the ship's onboard pools. To complete the course, you need something like 5 contained water dives and 4 open water dives. So, we finished all 5 contained dives in the three days we were at sea, and then, when we ported in St. Martin, we got on a dive boat and headed out to a couple of dive sites to do our open water checkout dives. Of course, since it was the first time we had dove, we weren't really able to take in the scenery as much as we'd have liked to, and though we did take a cheap disposable under water camera, very few of the pictures actually came out as anything other than a blue blob. I don't have any of those pics uploaded. So, we did two dives in St. Martin, then boarded the ship again and our next stop was in St. Thomas, where we once again boarded a dive boat and did our final two checkout dives. We didn't get to spend more than about 2 hours above water at each port, and we were concentrating so hard on the dives themselves that we really couldn't appreciate the beauty around us, but at the end we were certified open water divers.

More (with pics to follow).

[Prages]

After we got home from our cruise, we were terribly excited about our new hobby. However, life got in the way. We bought a house, both of us were working a lot, and we didn't have a whole lot of time or money to spend taking trips to dive. We didn't know any other divers, and we didn't really know where to even start when it came to planning a dive trip. So, for the next three years, we didn't dive at all.

Then, in January 2005, Mrs. P says "We're going to Key Largo to scuba dive." I didn't know what to say, so I said "Okay". We took a refresher course at a local dive shop which basically consisted of jumping in a pool with an instructor and making sure we still knew how to do the basic skills. After the course, it was about a month before our trip. By that time, Mrs. P had been so excited that she'd bought us regulators, masks, wet suits, computers, and fins. We were all set. We flew to Miami, took a bus from Miami to Key Largo, checked into our hotel room, and then the fear set in.

We had never been in the ocean without an instructor. On commercial dive charters, you're on your own after you jump out of the boat. There is always a Dive Master on board, but he does not leave the boat. We were unsure of our navigational skills. We were unsure of our ability to control our descent and ascent. We were unsure about everything. We were scared to death that we'd get down there and lose the boat. :o

However, we weren't alone on the boat. There were other, more experienced divers and we were able to keep them in our sight so we knew that if they got back to the boat, we would too. We did 6 dives over the next 3 days, and by the end, we were feeling much more confident in our abilities, and we were enjoying ourselves more and more with each dive.

[Prages]

When we got back from Key Largo, I knew we were hooked. Mrs. P found a forum called www.scubaboard.com and registered. Through that board she met a group of people from North Carolina who were putting together a dive club. They were the closest group to WV, so we kind of attached ourselves to them. The first meeting with that group was in May of 2005 when about 6 of them made the drive from Raleigh NC to Summersville WV to dive in Summersville Lake. It would be our first freshwater dives, and the first time we'd dove in cold water.

Well, the diving was pretty lackluster. The water was cold (about 50 degrees at 30 feet) and the visibilty couldn't have been more than about 10 feet (compared to 100 feet or so in Key Largo). That said, we still felt that the dive was a good learning experience and it further honed our skills. We also me a great bunch of people. We ended up camping and diving the entire weekend, and everyone had a great time.

Over the next year, we made several trips to NC and Southern VA to meet up with that group, which eventually had about 50 members ranging from novice to expert cave divers and dive instructors. We learned so much from that group that you couldn't even imagine. We also started a tradition of going to Key Largo at least once a year (though we aren't going to make it this year). :cry:

So, by this point, we've both got 50 dives or so under our belts, and we're feeling pretty confident in our abilities. We also got a nice digital camera with an underwater housing, so we could start taking some decent pictures.

[Prages]

One of our first trips after getting some confidence was back to Key Largo. We went with 2 other members of the NC dive group and had a great time.

We got lucky and picked a really great dive operation called Silent World. The staff and crew were very nice, very professional, but very fun at the same time. We did several shallow reef dives over the next 4 or 5 days. Some pics would be good now.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/BlueParrotFish.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/CoralandBlueFish.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/CoralandCuda.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/Coral.jpg

OMG!!!! SHARKS!!!!

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/AnotherSHARK.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/LotsaSharksandCudas.jpg

Ohhhh Barracuda!!!

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/BARACUDA.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/Prages/SelfPortrait.jpg

[Mark Wein]

Very cool. I've never done more than some snorkeling in Mexico....scuba diving would intimidate me at first, I think...

[Prages]

The next several times we went diving, it was either in a quarry in southern VA or in Key Largo.

We were kind of getting burned out on the shallow reef dives, and wanted to do some deeper wreck dives. The only problem was that we were only certified to go down to 60 feet with our OW certs. Solution: Take an Advanced Open Water course. :D

We did this course in a quarry in Ottowa OH called Gilboa Quarry. The course consisted of more advance navigational skills, better boyancy control, deep dives, and night dives. There was no class work. We went over concepts on land, and then did the dives to practice them. Once this course was finished, we would be able to dive to 120 feet, which is the depth limit for recreational diving. After this course, we went back to Key Largo and got to go on some of the deeper wreck dives. The pictures that appear to be darker blue are in deeper water. The bluer they are, the deeper they are. It's not a filter on the camera…water filters out the colors of light, with reds being filtered first and blues being filtered last. So, these pics range from 20 feet deep, to about 120 feet deep.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-011.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-014.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-019.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-022.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-030.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-042.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-053.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-079.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-116.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-138.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-139.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-157.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-1571.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/Picture-205.jpg

That's Mrs. P hiding in the corner. :p

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/IMG_0775.jpg

[xqqmytude]

I can see those but not the earlier ones. ???

[Prages]

Now, at this point, we've been to Key Largo about 5 times in 2 years. :o

So, in 2007, we switched it up a little.

First in early August 2007, we went to a little town in NY and dove Lake Erie. Unfortunately, we didn't take our camera on this trip. It was VERY coold. The water has layers of silt in it, which block out the sunlight, but once you get to about 80 feet the water is crystal clear. You have to carry a good dive light on these dives because it is pitch black, even though it's the middle of the day. We did 4 dives over two days. All the dives were ship wrecks and all were in 100-120 feet of very cold (40 degree) water. The stuff wasn't as colorful as what you see in the ocean, but the wrecks were perfectly preserved, and there were many large and interesting fish.

In late August, early September, we did a 4 day liveaboard on a houseboat on the St. Lawrence River. That was a GREAT time. It wasn't really a commercial trip. Sort of an under the table type deal where a friend of a friend set the thing up and the owner/captain of the houseboat took a group of 12 of us out for 4 days and nights and fed us and gave us booze…all for $175/person. We even had a compressor on the boat, so we never had to change out tanks. Just get out of the water, take the gear off your back and hook it to the compressor while you're doing your manditory surface interval. It was very, very cool.

We dove a bunch of ship wrecks on this trip. They were mostly ocean freighters that had run aground in the narrow shipping channel of the St. Lawrence, but a few were old wooden Schooners. I think we did 15 dives over 4 days on this trip.

There are a bunch of pics in this album, so instead of posting them seperately, here's a link to the album.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/StLawrence/

[Prages]

I can see those but not the earlier ones. ???


The first batch is on photobucket. The rest are on my site.






Oh, I forgot about our cavern course.

In July of 2007, we went to northern Florida and took a cavern diving course. It was okay, I guess. The skills we learned were good to have, but honestly, I don't see the appeal of cavern or cave diving, and neither does Mrs. P.

We did get to meet Brian Krashpad on that trip though.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/GuitarPics/MeAndBK.jpg

[Prages]

In late 2007 we made two more trips to Key Largo.

The first trip was in October with some friends from the NC Dive Group. We had a new diver with us on that trip, so we stayed shallow. The conditions weren't the best for that trip, but we managed to get I think 6 dives in over 4 days. We were supposed to do 8 dives, but we got blown out one day.

Here's that album.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo10.07/

The second trip was just me and Mrs. P. We hadn't been on a trip with just the two of us for a couple of years, so we didn't tell anybody we were going and we spent a long weekend diving in Key Largo.

And here's that album….and a few of my favorites from that album posted individually.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Duane/IMG_2252.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Duane/IMG_2258.jpg
Those big long fish are all barracuda.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Duane/IMG_2266.jpg
The lovely Mrs. P.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Duane/IMG_2278.jpg
Another 'Cuda

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Speigel/IMG_2432.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Speigel/IMG_2443.jpg
I'm pretty sure this guy was choking.

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Speigel/IMG_2454.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Speigel/IMG_2465.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Speigel/IMG_2473.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Speigel/IMG_2503.jpg

http://www.thewindtunnel.com/DivingPics/KeyLargo12.07/Speigel/IMG_2506.jpg


Sadly, since that trip in December, we've been diving only once, and that was in the quarry in Va. We kind of blew about 3 years of our vacation money in 2007, so we had to really cut back this year. We went to California in January and New Orleans in July, but didn't take any scuba gear.

[Prages]

Very cool. I've never done more than some snorkeling in Mexico....scuba diving would intimidate me at first, I think...


It is very intimidating at first. I mean, I didn't really feel intimidated while we were doing our checkout dives, because I knew we had somebody with us that knew what he was doing. Those first 5 or 10 dives in the ocean with no instructor though, our nerves were pretty ragged.

After about 20-25 dives, you really start getting comfortable enough to relax and take in the scenery though.

[Phil513]

Absolutely breathtaking dude.

I never really considered doing it, but those pics make me want to try it out.

[Prages]

Absolutely breathtaking dude.

I never really considered doing it, but those pics make me want to try it out.


It's one of those experiences that is really hard to describe. I mean, you can watch it on TV and look at pictures and think you have a pretty good idea of what it would be like, but when you try it, there are so many other things to it that seeing it in pictures or video just can't capture.

I highly recommend that if you ever find yourself on the coast and there's a 'Discover Scuba' trip going out, pay the money and get on the boat. It's an experience that you can never fully comprehend until you've done it. Even then, it takes several dives to fully experience it. You're so overwhelmed with just breathing underwater at first that you can't really take in everything around you.

[Phil513]

Its looks wonderful.

As with others, i have snorkled a few times, hawaii and cancun. But this looks like a completely different world.

[Denverdave]

I have only snorkeled near Playa del Carmen once....that's it. I could claim it is because there is not a decent body of water in Colorado worth diving in (and I would be correct...), but amazingly enough Colorado has one of the highest percentages, population wise, of divers in the US. Strange for a state with almost no water....

Beautiful pics Prages! And thanks for the back story...

[Prages]

Its looks wonderful.

As with others, i have snorkled a few times, hawaii and cancun. But this looks like a completely different world.


When we took our carvern course in northern Florida, something kind of funny happened.

I hadn't snorkelled since we got our scuba certs. Well, a bunch of the springs in North Florida are state parks and they don't allow diving after 5 PM. On the first night we were there, we got to a spring after 5. We couldn't dive, but we were allowed to snorkel.

Now, the water in these springs is absolutely the clearest water you've ever seen. I mean, you can stand at the surface and look down to the bottom of the cavern and think it's 20 feet deep and it's really 100 feet deep.

So, we get our masks, snorkels and fins out of the car and hop in.

Now, when you're diving, you inflate your BCD (boyancy control device), jump in the water, signal that you're okay, then dump the air out of your BCD and sink as quickly as you want to. There's no safety concern with descending quickly, so long as you breath regularly and your ears don't clog. So, it's not uncommon to jump in, give an okay signal, and then descend 20 feet in a matter of seconds.

I forgot that we were SNORKELLING. I jumped in, signalled I was okay, released the air out of my lungs and started do descend. It wasn't until all the air was out of my lungs, and I was about 20 feet deep, that I realized that I didn't have a tank on my back. :eek:

Luckily, it only took about two strong fin kicks to get back to the surface.

It really is amazing how the mind gets accustomed to things over time. Before we started diving, breathing underwater was a completely foreign concept. I realized on that little snorkelling venture that I've gotten so used to breathing underwater that I think I can do it even when I don't have an air tank strapped to my back. :D