Scuba

[helomech]

Got my book work done, and my first pool dives. Just have one more pool dive, then open water on Saturday. Had a blast, spent about 4 hours in the water today. Can't wait till the open water.

[Sniper-T]

That's awesome. I love being underwater!

[helomech]

Finished with the pool diving today. First open water dive in the morning.

[Fidel MD]

Next month I'm taking a vacation...going to the Caribbean for a week of diving....

It's a great experience - like swimming in an aquarium.

[helomech]

Got 3 of our open water dives done today. Two more tomorrow, then just fun dives for the next 3 weekends.

[Sniper-T]

rock on dude!

I have over 10,000 hours logged underwater... let's go play!

[helomech]

Damn that is a lot. I got just over a hour.

[helomech]

Well we are certified recreational divers now. Yeah, only took me 20 years.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Hoo-Yah dawg! Way to go, congrats to you and yours! I got my "basic scuba" card back in 76, been blowing bubbles ever since. Going Navy was the worst thing I could've done, had my gear with me almost everywhere I went. GO FOR IT, be safe! My daughter took me diving with the whale sharks thanksgiving weekend at the GA aquarium.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/sardog87008/a_zps4xoe7bud.jpg (http://s85.photobucket.com/user/sardog87008/media/a_zps4xoe7bud.jpg.html)

And now ya know what I look like!
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k48/sardog87008/b_zpsqs3tknpj.jpg (http://s85.photobucket.com/user/sardog87008/media/b_zpsqs3tknpj.jpg.html)

First time I'd blown bubbles in 10 years I learned I'm blind as a bat. Can't see my watch or read my gauges. Might as well put a handicap sticker on my ass..............

[helomech]

Don't have many pics yet, but just ordered the new Go Pro hero 5 and will have it before this weekends dives. Here is one of the few I got from my instructor.
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii247/helomech1973/Scuba/GOPR6204_zpsftruxa7p.jpg (http://s266.photobucket.com/user/helomech1973/media/Scuba/GOPR6204_zpsftruxa7p.jpg.html)

[Sniper-T]

Damn that is a lot. I got just over a hour.

I used to be a commercial diver... I worked underwater for a living. adds up the hours mighty quick!

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Ahh, I see. Me being Navy (not Navy Diver), I know that being a workin diver takes all the fun out of it. Me I jumped at the chance for work, I'm a junk diver, I always have one eye on the ground. Brought home a thing or two over the years and a story or two. My kid was just down in Mexico (cruise) and was supposed to go diving while they were there. The storm was so bad they were to even pull in, dives were canceled. Too bad, great water down there off the Yucatan. Sorry she didn't get to experience it.

Note to Helo..........Don't go fuckin spear fishing off that rig and get your ass tangled up and stuck there like a scuba mummy against one of the pilings.
Pick your prey wisely and don't bite off more than you can chew. (the bigger they are the farther they will drag you)
Always have a "dinner bell".......... meaning? Have a weighted line attached to a bell topside. To hook your fish to, they haul it it you shoot another one and they drop it back down for your next fish. Keeps the blood out of the water. Well, at least that's how we did it............

[helomech]

Would love to go do that one day.

[Sniper-T]

Just remember... mermaids are mammals, not fish

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

I've been a sand crab for the last ten years......................one does get "sea sick" from time to time.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

So I know you guys have to be planning a dive somewhere right?

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

I just saw on some channel where they "commercialized" the sea bottom again. OK, some of the best visibility and reef, sea life I have seen has been off the Yucatan peninsula. We anchored in about 60ft off of Isla Mujeres, a little island off the north eastern tip back in 97. The water was so clear I could see the anchor and the chain when we dropped and set the hook. Capt. wanted to know how I could tell so soon, I said, "Cause I can see it." A buddy and I dove right off the ship and did some selective fishing, rigged the "dinner bell" did a fish fry on the fantail for the duty section, GROUPER!

My point.......Oh yeah, well they put all sorts of sculptures on the bottom now somewhere off the Island for people to go dive on. Like what's the big deal about that? I never went diving to look at junk someone put down there. I go diving for food, exploration and TREASURE, artifacts and what nots. It's just being in the other world and becoming one of the fishes for 30 to 40 minutes is worth it. Face to face with any of these creatures that out weigh you is always a treat.

OK bottom line, the island is trying to draw in tourists now with underwater sculptures, big damn deal, that's junk! That's not Greek amphora's that were laying there from a ship wreck a 1000 years ago like in the Med. That's history! Yes, it can be dove on, Port Royal, Jamaica had an earthquake in the 1640's I want to say and half the town slid into the sea, it's still there, it's diveable...........with permission from the government. But hey these are the kinda dives that I like, shipwrecks, caves, etc.

Shipwrecks are not junk..............

[helomech]

So I know you guys have to be planning a dive somewhere right?

We did have some dives planned, but the wife got bronchitis. She is feeling better, but we just did some snorkeling till she is ready. Hopefully next weekend. Then the following weekend we are hoping to go snorkle with the manatee in Tampa on our way home.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

DO IT, do it all while ya can!

[helomech]

Going to depend on weather. If it is warm, the manatee will not be in the area.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Yup, they only come inland during the cold months and we haven't had any. I took my daughter when she was about 7-8 with her best buddy over to Crystal River. I think we used "Scotty's" or Capt. Scott" something like that. We had great luck it was just us on the boat. We hung out with a cow and calf at the spring and then ran across a few that were hanging out in an area of where the channels came together so I bailed over the side. The kids wouldn't get in cause they couldn't see the bottom. I got caught in a manatee sandwich, it was horrible, I was never the same since.................actually they said I was laughing pretty hard through my snorkle. They probably thought I was a dolphin............no wonder.

Oh well, don't know if that will be in your egress route.

[helomech]

A friend recommended one in Tampa.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Cool, I know we did an over nighter there at the marina. The restaurant had an outstanding french onion soup! Now this was almost 20yrs ago. No telling what's happened since then.

Just go have fun while you can, hell go cave diving!....................OK, maybe you're not ready for that one yet. Training.

[helomech]

Not interested in diving in confined spaces. I am claustrophobic.

[Fidel MD]

A friend of mine loves cave diving....crazy SOB. I don't do caves that are dry, scuba diving in one is way the hell beyond anything I'd ever do..

And I've jumped out of perfectly adequate aircraft, ejected out of one that wasn't, climbed very tall mountains, done mixed gas diving (to very deep depths)...I just don't do caves.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

My first checkout dive was at Alexander Springs in Florida..........I was doomed ever since, I did caves up in Montana when I was younger got hooked then but underwater? OH, it was over for me, hey the dive shop had Mastodon bones that were recovered from caves, shark's teeth, all sorts of stuff! The owner was Hal Watts, he was the cave diving guru back then.

Airplanes! Once, that was enough for me. Yeah there's something about falling, you guys can talk shit all you want. I have my limits. I did my 20/20's out of helos over the deep blue, that's fine, jumped from boat booms, eh, but a perfectly good aircraft? There better be a good fuckin reason is all I have to say.

Actually never did the mixed gas thing after these years, never had the need I guess.

[Fidel MD]

There is no such thing as a perfectly good aircraft.....At best they are perfectly adequate.

[eagle326]

There is no such thing as a perfectly good aircraft.....At best they are perfectly adequate.

As long as the plane or Huey got us to the drop zone was all we cared about. If not we'd just jump early I guess. :cool:

[helomech]

Been a helicopter mechanic for lots of years, and the aircraft is always more reliable than the pilot.

[Fidel MD]

And any aircrew or mechanic that can't find something wrong isn't doing their job

[helomech]

Always something wrong with everything if you look hard enough. But not flight safety items. Very few crashes are because the aircraft failed. 90%+ is pilot.

[Fidel MD]

90% get blamed on the pilot because they can't figure any other reason.

[helomech]

Not true, at least not anymore. Everything is monitored. We fly many thousands of hours a month and I can't remember the last time a mechanical item caused a crash. We have had pilots run out of fuel, fly into zero visibility, land in water because a rotor tach failed, he actually killed a running engine because he got a light, had a pilot land a 76 in the water because the auto pilot failed. These where all pilot error. I can go on and on with this list.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Being Navy, I can attest to that..............but then again, we have had "mechanical" failures as well. Watching one fail and splash and then go in to "recover" is no fun to clean up as well. Seen rotors come apart, bird trying to make it back to the barn, and didn't. Out at sea there's no where to go but these little bitty flight decks when you get into trouble, like making a bad judgement call. Same goes for those platforms, or maybe sustaining a little gunfire from a little camel shit in the desert.

[Willie51]

Songbird and I have logged many dives in open water and caves. I will say getting cave certified is a different world than open water. Did y'all know that Florida is the cave diving capital of the world? We've dove the Cayman islands, Bonaire, Mexico, FL Keys, Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico to name a few. We also took our youngest son to Crystal River several times and luckily found a mom and calf manatee to swim with...what a great experience! :-) Have fun and be safe!

[helomech]

We are going snorkel in Tampa Saturday to swim with manatee

[Sniper-T]

not exactly 'cave diving' but I have been 2500' inside a 16" pipe, and have been 6+ miles into a 10' aquaduct...

[Fidel MD]

I'm glad there are people who will willingly do such crazy things - else someone might want me to do them.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

not exactly 'cave diving' but I have been 2500' inside a 16" pipe, and have been 6+ miles into a 10' aquaduct...

I did slide up inside the intake of this giant jet drive of a "high speed catamaran"once. I had to clear out over 600' of line that got sucked up in there. That was a mess, my only fear was someone turning that thing on and me turning into chum. There's a story that goes along with that but I can't go into detail. Doesn't qualify as a "Shawshank" dive that's for sure.
Hoo-Yah, Sniper!