Log lost update.

I’m seeing if I might be able to start over on this thing. You can check out www.ilivedownsouth.com to see some of my design work.

New Mask and Hood

I got a new mask today. 

It’s the most comfortable thing in the world.

And I got a hood too, the water is starting to get cooler.

Batman

DANG!

Man I don’t even really remember what my last post was about, but I do know it’s been one hell of a ride since then. The past two weeks have been an absolute blur. It started with divemaster week, so everytime we went out on the boat, we were acting as divemasters, helping the other team and any customers in and out of the water and trying to catch any problems we saw.

The highlight of that week was by far the night dive. We got to the reef and into the water around 5:15 so we could create a plan for the dive once there was no sunlight. The goal was as a group of four, to take one of the instructors down as a customer and then one at a time lead them through the dive. Needless to say, as soon as the sun was down our plan went to hell. We didn’t find the right start point and then we were all over the place, BUT… I did get to swim with and pet a big old turtle, saw a couple of gian green moray eels, saw a spotted moray free swimming, two squids, a stone fish, pufferfish, slipper lobster, a big nurse shark and the highlight of the trip….a 4 foot barracuda charged me and hit me in the arm. It felt like someone punched me as hard as they could. 

Another fun part of that week was leading a dive on the Thunderbolt, a wreck dive in 110 feet of water. Of course as soon as we got down there, my instructor swam off from me, so needless to say that was a stressful dive.

But I’m now a divemaster, certified on Nitrox (a gas mix with more O2 added to it), certified to teach O2 use, CPR, CCPR and First Aid. 

Next week begins prep week. We’ll be getting ready to actually instruct students the next week. So they’re going to be throwing all kinds of problems at us to see how we handle them.

I’ve only got less than a month until I’m a certified instructor and that’s kind of crazy. I also got a new mask today. It’s incredible.

Here are a few pictures I stole from the dudes who posted them on facebook. (I’m huggin Kyle cause the instructors where making fun of him getting his picture taken).

I’m the one with the yellow arm in the last picture.

 

Time for the long awaited update.

My apologies for the massive lapse of updates. The internet really doesn’t exist down here, which makes my life much more enjoyable and posting unlikely.

I just got done with video this week, which was an awesome week. We spent four days diving all over the reef taking video. Of course I don’t have any of the footage on my computer yet, but that’s part of my plan of stuff to do today. I got video of filefish, cowfish, hogfish, trumpet fish, cudas, grouper, grey and french and queen angel fish and to top it all off, two different turtles. So all in all it was one hell of a week in the water. Plus now the winter winds are here, so we get to deal with 6 to 8 foot seas. I think I’m one of the few in the class that actually enjoys that. I would be hooking us up to the mooring ball, getting thrown around the bow of the bow with waves crashing over my head and I’d just be hootin and hollerin. I absolutely love it.

But with the end of video comes the end of recreational dives for class. From here on out, all my dives with be guiding the instructors on the Thunderbolt wreck, Sombrero reef night dives, rescue dives and in about 4 weeks, instructing the next class that comes through. 

As for photos and video, I’m about to head into the shop and see what I can pull off the computers to upload onto here. So hopefully there will be two updates this weekend.

Week 2

Week two is over and done with. It’s nuts to me that I only have 10 more to go. Week two was underwater photography. Probably the best week I could ask for. Made two dives a day off the boat just diving and takin pictures of coral and trying to get fish in there too.

I was alway stoked to have a couple pods of dolphins surfing our wake on the way to and from the reef. One of them even had a baby that was at most four feet long. As for life under the sea, I ran across an eel that was about 3 feet from my face before I realized it was there, saw some conchs crawling across the sea floor which is funny to watch and saw the biggest cuda I’ve ever seen. Everyone else had the uncanny knack of finding cooler stuff like sharks, puffer fish, a manatee and a bunch of rays. I figure my life will be so water logged that I’ll see every thing I want to at some point or another.

As for the pictures from last week, I’m just waiting for a cd of all the photos I took, then I’ll upload them all here for everyone to see. 

This coming week is gonna be slow. It’s sales and ops so I’ll be working in the store everyday. At least in the morning I’ll be in the pool swimming, getting ready for the 900 and 450. The 900 is swam with fins, mask, snorkel and bc kicking only and has to be done in 18 minutes. The 450 has to be done in 10 minutes and can be any stroke except for the backstroke. Needless to say as much time as I spent sitting in a chair being lazy over the past few years, its gonna be a workout for me.

But seeing as this week there is no diving for class, I plan on doing some twilight and night dives just for fun.

Until next week.

Week one in the books.

Well, week one is in the books and I’ve got swimmers ear. It’s flown by, surprise surprise, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Week one is the week all the guys that aren’t certified learn to dive, and it’s a refresher course for us veterans. It was actually a little more than a refresher. I learned some new tricks I wasn’t taught the first time around. So the first day was all orientation and lecture in the classroom, followed by two days in the pool. Then we got out to the quarry, which was nice to a have 20 feet of  water over my head. Did some skills there, made my IT laugh a few times, all in all a good day. 

But the joy of it all was the last two days on the boat. I love being out there. Its such a great feeling. And of course the dives in the ocean were great. Saw a ton of parrot fish, quite a few barracuda and a crap ton of jellyfish. I got stung in the neck twice and once on the ankle, but the pain leaves after about 15 minutes so its no big deal. I actually got to pet a little fish while I was on the bottom, waiting to do my skills, but I’m not sure what type it was. I’ll try to figure that out for next week. But those last two days in the water gave me swimmers ear, which sucks, so I’m trying to get that all taken care of right now.

Next week is either photo or sales/ops for me, so I’m leaning towards sales/ops so I can heal up all nice and good. And then I can make a few night dives that week too. 

I love living down here. Life is slow and the sun is hot. I’ve actually got some color on my skin that isn’t ink.

Finally here, and just a catch up.

So I made it down here on Tuesday after quite a journey. I stopped in Melbourne and stayed with Granny for the night. I left there with 12 12oz sprite bottles, brownies and paper towels and a piece of chicken and set up down A1A to meet up with the sisters Weintraub in Fort Lauderdale at Hooters. Needless to say I was running late seeing as A1A is not a great road to travel long distances in a short amount of time. 

After lunch I drove on into Marathon and stayed the night in the Sea Dell Motel. Any assumptions you make based on the name are correct. It was painted coral orange, nice aquatic themed rooms and sand everywhere. I’d recommend it too.

I got to the dorm on Wednesday and it is as you might it expect as well. Slumming it up is always fun though. So far I’ve only met one of my classmates. But seeing as class starts tomorrow, I should meet the rest today. It looks like we’re gonna have either 12 or 14 folks in the class, which considering the one before us has 4, is a pretty big group.

Class starts up tomorrow and we’ll be spending the first week on open water certification, which is gonna be a good refresher and break some habits I might need to break. We’ll be in the pool working on Saturday, so it’s great that we get right to it. Week 2 is photography and stands to be one of the best I’ll have down here.

I don’t have the internet at the dorm, which is a blessing, so I’ll probably only be updating once a week if thats ok. 

I also felt like  a kid in a candy store the other day. I got a ton of new gear so I’m gonna be all flashy.