Scuba

[chefchris]

Anyone here scuba dive? Sarah and I are going through the class at the beginning of May.

[john51277]

Have been certified since 93' It is a whole new world. It is the best thing I did. Once you get certified go on a nice dive trip. Akumal Mexico is awesome. The palancar reef is the second largest, and there are alot of "current" dive as well as wreck dives. Watch out for fire coral though. Good luck.

John

[Kass]

I've been once, it was awsome. I wanna get my certificate soon though.

[Lopaka]

I've been since 01

[jiaguy]

dove a few times not certified with NOX yet...its fun worth the efforts

[Cabaiguan Juan]

been since '98. I love it and want to get certified to be a Dive Master or Instructor so I could teach it. Good retirement plans. Night diving is amazing.

[roscoe]

I was first certified in the Marines and got my first civilian certification in 1966. I dived throughout the world but did most of my diving offshore NJ/NY on the thousands of wrecks here, including the U-Boat 853 off Block Island, RI. I used to mate on a diveboat also.

I retired from cold water diving and now dive mainly in the Carribean. Great passtime. I was mainly a lobster hound but always took my tools with me in case I saw a nice piece of brass.

Roscoe

SCUBA:
Some
Come
Up
Barely
Alive

[Bassfever]

I have wanted to for so long now but my ears hurt diving to the bottom of the pool . Good luck and hope you enjoy it

[hex1848]

I got PADI certified back in highschool in 1996, I then took a college class at FSU and got Advanced Open Water NAUI certified in college back in 99 or so. Its been a few years since I've been diving, I was actually just having this conversation with a buddy of mine and we both agreed to take a refesher course somewhere before the summer gets here. I remember most of the basics, but you don't want to fuck up a dive table on a 100 foot dive :-)

Another good friend of mine got cave certified and dove many of the sink holes and got to help stage a drive into Wakulla Springs.. he has some bad ass videos.

Something about sweezing yourself and three tanks through a 3x2 hole 300 feet under water just does not sound right...

[nhcigarfan]

NAUI myself. Haven't gone in years.

[ashauler]

Got my first certification in the Navy, and did the PADI certs up to Rescue Diver starting in 93. Got the cavern specialty, which is really just baby cave diving...can't go in past available light etc....

I have been diving primarily fresh water lakes for years and love it, much different from warm-water ocean diving.

[roscoe]

Dive on Spiegel Grove wreck off Key Largo turns deadly for 3

sun-sentinel.com
Posted March 16 2007, 4:30 PM EDT


KEY LARGO -- Three divers died on Friday while diving on the Spiegel Grove ship wreck, the Monroe County Sheriff's office said.

In an e-mailed statement, Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for MSO, said the three men were part of a four-man team that was diving on the popular wreck from the commercial dive boat Scuba-do. All were reportedly advanced certified divers and planned a penetration dive into the sunken wreck. That's when something apparently went wrong.

`These wrecks can be very confusing inside,'' Herrin said. ``There's a lot of places to go wrong.

None of the four divers were immediately identified but Herrin said all were from New Jersey. They were not related, but were friends traveling together.

Herrin said the four divers dove on the Spiegel Grove wreck the day before. They did a penetration dive at that time as well, she said.

Here's what Herrin said happened on Friday:

One of the divers was stationed at the entrance of the and the other three went inside. The release did not say how deep the divers were. The ship was sunk about 5 miles off Key Largo in the Atlantic.

The diver left outside the wreck began to run out of air, according to detectives. He surfaced safely.

Two divers from another boat went down to look for the others. They surfaced with one diver who was in distress. That diver was taken on board a Coast Guard vessel where CPR was performed. Paramedics met the boat at shore and transported the victim to Mariner's Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The two other divers did not surface and initial searches of the wreck failed to locate them.

Just after 2 p.m., a dive team from Key Largo Fire Rescue that was searching the wreck located their bodies inside. According to detectives, the bodies are so deep inside, it will be difficult to recover them. More divers from that team will be deployed to the wreck on Saturday and will make another attempt at recovery.

Names of the divers were not released pending notification of next of kin.

The USS Spiegel Grove was a Navy Landing Ship Dock that was sunk to create an artificial reef off Key Largo in 2002. The vessel is 510 feet in length and 84 feet wide. When it was sunk it went down on its side. In 2005, underwater currents caused by Hurricane Dennis shifted the ship upright into its present underwater berth. The highest point of the ship now sits 40 to 60 feet below the surface.

[pub spears]

Padi certified since ? Wrecked my knee and quit diving. Basic Openwater is not a hard class for anyone comfortable with the water and half a brain. The only remotely hard part I can remember was treading water, and that really wasn't bad. Upon being certified, lots of people say "I wish I had done this years ago."

[SandPiper]

Anyone here scuba dive? Sarah and I are going through the class at the beginning of May.

Been diving since I was 16 (1989). Finally talked the wife into getting certified in '98. We moved to FL so we could dive more...then we started having kids and that cut my dive time waaay back.

P.S. - I guess it's not proper 'netiquette to make a post before an introduction...I'll get around to that later today.

[guado]

Been diving since I was 16 (1989). Finally talked the wife into getting certified in '98. We moved to FL so we could dive more...then we started having kids and that cut my dive time waaay back.

P.S. - I guess it's not proper 'netiquette to make a post before an introduction...I'll get around to that later today.

You got that right! LOL

Aren't you on the new site that just started in tampa? tapsclub.com or something like that? Your name looks familiar

[SandPiper]

You got that right! LOL

Aren't you on the new site that just started in tampa? tapsclub.com or something like that? Your name looks familiar

Yep. It's tapsclub.org (Tampa Area Pipe Smokers)...I also smoke/collect pipes. I'm just recently returning to cigars a little more. I was basically a cigar kinda guy until a few years ago, when I switched to pipes. I have still had the occasional cigar because several of the guys I hang out with are predominantly cigar smokers. In any event, I still love my pipes, but wanted to focus on cigars for a while...the pipe and pipe tobacco stashes are in good shape. I'll put up a pic of my tobacco cellar some time. If you're not familiar with pipes at all, don't think fruity, sweet aromatics. The natural (non-flavored) english/virginia blends are more akin (albeit different) to cigar smoking, and age beautifully in the tin. So, I've accumulated a few decades worth. Since this has pretty much turned into an intro, just a couple more details. I'm originally from East TN, but now live in Central FL (about 40 miles N of Tampa/St. Pete). I travel the state for work, from Florida City to well out into the panhandle. As I mentioned above, I've been mostly out of the cigar world for several years, so I'm at ground zero newbie-hood. That'll hopefully change by gleaning the info around here.