Anyone scuba dive??

[Gralena]

It's official...today I became a PADI certified scuba diver!! I had my 2 final open water dives today. We went to a reef called Scarface first. It was about 63 ft and I got to see my first sea turtle!! (a hawksbill) It was amazing...and I was so happy I did not have trouble equalizing my ears.

Then my second dive (on Nitrox) was to the Zion wreck site, an 80 ft dive...it was so cool seeing a big shipwreck!! This is the last week of the Goliath Grouper season and we saw about 20 of them...they were AWESOME!! We also saw lots of stingrays, eels, lobster...it was gorgeous!

I did have a camera. I had never used it before. I took about 50 pictures. They all SUCKED. :crying: I was too excited and did not realize I had to hold still, all my pics were a blue blur. I am still posting a couple...one of the rainbow that was shining in the sky at the dive shop before we left (I figured it was God's good luck symbol), one of me, one of the entrance into the shipwreck that we entered and one of a couple of the groupers (that look guppy size,but these are 500 lb fish!).

YIPPEE!!!

 

[ratsncorns]

Congrats!! It feels good to get certified! You know, I take really crappy under water photographs too, so dont feel bad!

Love the groupers! When I went to Belize a few years ago... jumped off the boat and got in the water, a huge grouper was just hovering there, watching us. When we got to the Blue Hole (150ft) it was still there, watching us - like we never went anywhere! LOL Fascinating fish.

 

[Nanci]

This is me in Mexico. It's blurry because there is a halocline; a place where seawater and freshwater meet. It was in a calender.

 

[ratsncorns]

Cool picture, Nanci... that is amazing!

 

[Gralena]

Congrats!! It feels good to get certified! You know, I take really crappy under water photographs too, so dont feel bad!

Love the groupers! When I went to Belize a few years ago... jumped off the boat and got in the water, a huge grouper was just hovering there, watching us. When we got to the Blue Hole (150ft) it was still there, watching us - like we never went anywhere! LOL Fascinating fish.

Thank you! I would love to go to Belize...

 

[Gralena]

This is me in Mexico. It's blurry because there is a halocline; a place where seawater and freshwater meet. It was in a calender.

Wow, Nanci....that definitely took skill and bravery!! Cave diving is very dangerous, not an easy or quick route out...but the picture shows how beautiful it is!

 

[sweet~nichole~marie]

Congrats!!! I am so jealous that you have such easy access to warm water and cool reefs! Have fun diving!

 

[Nanci]

I forgot to say congratulations!

Here's a picture of me doing deco after diving the Jim Atria. It's by you somewhere...I am not into wreck diving that much but my friends wanted to go. I _think_ I had a set of aluminum 80's made into doubles so I could dive in a wetsuit. My normal doubles would all be way too heavey, even in the ocean.

 

[Gralena]

I forgot to say congratulations!

Here's a picture of me doing deco after diving the Jim Atria. It's by you somewhere...I am not into wreck diving that much but my friends wanted to go. I _think_ I had a set of aluminum 80's made into doubles so I could dive in a wetsuit. My normal doubles would all be way too heavey, even in the ocean.

wow, even 2 80's would be very heavy. I assumed you needed doubles for safety when cave diving? I used a single 80 with Nitrox yesterday.

 

[Nanci]

The doubles you use for cave diving are steel, 104's or 120's. I'm too short for 120's. Sometimes people use 95's, but you have a lot less gas, so that would be for "fun" dives. Generally, I'd just breathe stage bottles and have all the backgas for emergencies. You can do short cave dives in a wetsuit, (speaking of Florida, not Mexico) but if you're going to be in longer than an hour, you're probably doing decompression, so you _freeze_ in 70F water in a wetsuit, just sitting there.