Australia

Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef

There is no other country or continent in the world quite like Australia. The geology of the local rocks goes back some 4.8 billion years, and the land has changed very little since the slow 50-million-year separation from Antarctica which ended 30 mya, “million years ago”. The last big change happened 12,000 years ago when glaciers around the world melted and rising oceans filled in two key lowland valleys; one that essentially separated Tasmania from Australia on the southern side, and then again 10,000 to 8,500 years ago when New Guinea became isolated from the north eastern side from the rest of the Australian island-continent. In 1606 Willem Janszoom, a Dutch explorer, named the continent New Holland. Of course, the local indigenous population who had migrated here some 65,000 years prior to the European naming were not consulted. In 1770, Captain Cook took another step forward and named the east coast “New South Wales” and claimed the land for England. By 1817, a map declared the world’s smallest continent and the future 6^th largest country as “Australia”. Later, Europeans settlers brought deadly diseases such as small pox and the Aboriginal population began to decline. Apparently, depending on who you ask, sometime within the last 50 years the country’s name was informally changed quite possibly due to some Men at Work to “Down Under”, while other Aussies started calling their homeland “Oz”.

Queensland, which is one of the six states in Australia and is comparable in size to Mexico, is home to the Gondwana rainforest, forested mountains, deserts, beautiful beaches, some 900 islands, isolated atolls, cays, archipelagos, and basically 1,240 miles of the Great Barrier Reef. To give you some perspective, The Great Barrier Reef could easily stretch out along the entire length of the east coast of the United States from New York to Florida. There is no way to physically visit every dive site along the Great Barrier Reef even on a single prolonged and adventurous excursion. However, we can mention a few favorite dreamtime dive sites that you might like to try while on your next Australian walk about.

Starting out From Cairns or Lizard Island, you have to take a liveaboard trip out into the Coral Sea to Visit Osprey Reef. This atoll resting on a seamount has ten dive sites with North Horn being the most famous for feeding sharks and sightings of giant potato cod measuring up to 6ft long. There are more than a dozen different sharks in the area including hammerheads, silkies, nurse sharks, silvertips, and reef sharks. Moreover, Australia is home to 125 species of sharks, 1,500 species of fish, and over 400 species of coral. One of the world’s smallest fish, Schindlera brevipinguis is found on Osprey Reef. False Entrance is the place to find large pelagics, such as rays, turtles, Napoleon/Maori Wrasse, and Jack tuna. Just past The Abyss and Big Blue at 2,625ft of depth glass sponges, brachiopods, and stalked sea lilies have been discovered. We should also mention that from June to August you may see dwarf Minke whales here as well as Humpback whales from June to November, and coral spawning’s from October to November. Dugongs and mantas don’t seem to follow calendars as closely as other aquatic species.

Lizard Island itself is a great place to do a night dive. You can also do day trips to some dozen dive sights including Cod Hole on the northern end of Ribbon Reef on #10 reef. Here they feed potato cod while flowery cod, yellow tailed fusiliers, red bass, sweetlips, trevalley, and coral trout try to steal the bait. We should also mention Steve’s Bommie on reef #3: this pinnacle is full of sea creatures. Pixie Pinnacle is by reef #3. Yonge Reef is another popular dive site you can visit from lizard Island. This is a colorful drift dive and snorkeler site. Dynamite Passage and Big Softy are both wall dives with sharks and pelagics, but big softy has more crevices to explore whereas Dynamite Passage is known for garden eels and cuttlefish.

Closer to Cairns are such notables as Norman Reef, and the two sand cays; Michaelmas and Upolu Cays. Michaelmas does have some flora as well as 20,000 pairs of birds. Fitzroy Island is great for snorkelers and divers for day adventures, and Green Island has several guided only dive sites. Here the visibility can be 9-60ft, whereas while out on the liveaboards visibility can go up to 150ft. South of Cairns is Flynn Reef, Miln Reef, and Flinder’s Reef. North of Cairns is Port Douglas and Lord Howe Island and Ball’s Pyramid and the 5 Agincourt Ribbon Reefs.

Down near Townsville there is Magnetic Island and the 74 Whitsunday Islands complete with fringing reefs. Hamilton Island is where most of the dive shops are located. Farther south we have Heron Island, Lady Elliot Island and off Bundaberg is the 358ft long SS Yongala which sank in 1911. Just south of here off of Mooloolaba is the HMS Brisbane, a 399ft long destroyer sunk purposely in 2005. South of here we have Brisbane. Off shore, yet close by, is Morton Island and North Stradbroke Island. There are over 20 dive sites here. Stradbroke Island is known for day and night dives at Shag Rock, while Morton Island is known for Gotham City, Cherub’s Cave, and the Tagalooma Wrecks.

Besides all the great diving here, you may wish to spend time fossiking: looking at dinosaur fossils on the Capricorn Cave walls, or checking out dinosaur stampede tracks such as those at the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways. Mount Morgan is a great spot for fossiking for gold, or you may wish to take a Sapphire Gemfield tour. You might also like visiting the lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. If you are down on the Sunshine Coast you can visit UnderWater World, or Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. Now, we didn’t mention everything to do in Queensland in this article, but you wouldn’t expect to find everything mentioned in one article on a country the size of Mexico either. All the dive sites mentioned here should keep you busy for a couple of vacation stays. After that, there are 5 other states in Australia and you might like to try diving with whale sharks, wobbegong sharks, great white sharks, New Zealand sea lions, and leafy sea dragons.

North American Aquarium Diving

There may be times when you find yourself in a another city either due to work, visiting relatives, or just because you wanted to get away, explore, and play. If this happens to you, and you can’t bring all your dive gear, and yet you are looking for something a little more exciting than viewing goldfish in hotel lobby aquariums then we thought you might like the following list of relatively convenient yet definitely unusual dive sites.

Sure, this list is all about aquariums, but ones so big, diver friendly, and filled with sharks and other exotic creatures that you may have to rethink how you classify the seven seas. So, starting off our list of potential dive sites in a semi-random pattern from east to west this is what we have discovered so far.

Long Island Aquarium. This must be one of the easiest dives in the world. They provide everything for you including a mask with underwater communication abilities and you don’t even have to be a certified diver. A trained shark dive instructor goes with you inside a shark cage, which is lowered, into the 120,000 gallon Lost City of Atlantis shark exhibit. Besides a 12ft long trident, pillars, and remnants of the lost city, you just might see sand tiger sharks, nurse sharks, moray eels, grouper and a 300lb turtle named “Jaws”. This adventure also includes a souvenir beach towel and an emailed photograph of you diving. www.longislandaquarium.com

Baltimore’s National Aquarium. Be a guest diver in the 335,000-gallon Atlantic Coral Reef Tank. This is an authentic fabricated oval reef with some 500 plus fish, rays, and sharks. The 13ft deep dive is operated by Atlantic Edge scuba school and dive shop in Gathersburg. You must be certified and bring you own wetsuit, mask, snorkel, and fins. After the dive don’t miss the new 225,000-gallon Blacktip Reef exhibit with 793 different fish and sharks.www.aqua.org

North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island. The “Dive with the Sharks” program allows you to dive with sand tigers, sandbar, nurse sharks, and a replica of the USS Monitor ship in a 285,000-gallon “Graveyard of the Atlantic” exhibit. You can have photos and a video made of you experience. They have two dive sessions each weekday and one session on Saturday and Sunday. All gear is supplied and you must be a certified diver.www.ncaquariums.com/roanoke-island

The Georgia Aquarium. Here you can dive with whale sharks, the largest fish in the world, in the largest indoor habitat that we know of. The Ocean Voyager exhibit built by Home Depot is 284ft x 126ft and 20-30ft deep and holds about 6.3 million gallons of seawater. It’s a chance to dive with up to 4 whale sharks, rays almost 9 feet wide, and 1,000 other fish. They supply all the gear, but you can bring your own mask if you want and you have to show your dive certification card. www.georgiaaquarium.org

The Epcot Dive Quest at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The Caribbean Coral Reef is 5.7 millions gallons of saltwater fun and includes over 6,000 sea creatures, which is more sea life than you might see on a natural reef. For swimming with sharks and rays you need to have a C-card, but not the for the Dolphins in Depth program. Diving here is one of those “book early, book everything, and book often, adventure sites”, but would you expect anything less from a Mickey Mouse operation? https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-divequest/

The Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Florida. The Dive with the Sharks program operates in a 93,000-gallon tank called “Sharks Bay”. The dives are 3 times daily and you can basically kneel in the sand and watch the teeth glide by you. Were talking teeth attached to sand tigers, zebra sharks, nurse sharks, and black tip sharks. A paired Florida Aquarium divemaster makes sure you have a fun and safe dive. Bring a mask, towel, swimsuit, and C-card. www.flaquarium.org

SEA Life Minnesota Aquarium at Mall of America. SEA Life has two really cool exhibit dives. Atlantis is their Saltwater dive and you will swim in a tank of sand tigers, nurse sharks, huge bowmouth guitarfish, large sawfish, wobbegongs, white tips, zebra sharks, and more. You glide right over the tunnel of people peering inside the exhibit and it’s fun to pick shark teeth up right out of the sandy substrate and show the families walking through the tunnel what you found. The second dive in Sturgeon Lake is an unexpectedly fun dive, especially if they are feeding the turtle and fish. You’ll never experience outdoor lake diving with this degree of clarity nor this docile concentration of alligator gar, walleye, sturgeon, and bass. Bring all your dive gear including C-card, gloves, and a hood. SEA Life supplies tanks and weights. After the dives you get a souvenir T-shirt and you can keep all the shark teeth you find.

www.visitsealife.com/minnesota/experiences/

Great Lakes Aquarium, Duluth, Minnesota. The “Dive-N-Feed Experience”, may not be found on the website, but it’s still occasionally offered on special request with plenty of advance notice. Here is a chance to feed freshwater fish and dive in a two story, three chambered, Isle Royale exhibit with Steelhead, kamloops, brown, coaster brook, and lake trout. Also, Siscowet lake trout, burbot, Atlantic salmon, coho salmon, sturgeon, walleye, longnose suckers, and American eels. They have over 100 Great Lake species in all. Bring your C-card and dive gear to keep you warm in the 52ºF 45,000-gallon main tank. Caution, diving here may lead to you becoming an active volunteer diver too. http://glaquarium.org/

Downtown Aquarium, Denver, Colorado. There are several ways to dive this aquarium, but all are done in conjunction with A-1 Scuba and Travel. For certified divers you can dive with the fish in the “Under the Sea” exhibit, and Dive with the Sharks in the “Depths of the Pacific” exhibit. If your not scuba certified, dive students training with A-1 Scuba and Travel may complete open water dives 1 & 2 at the aquarium, so call A-1 for more information on any of their aquarium dive programs. www.divedowntown.com

Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada. Their “Dive with the Sharks” program is available for guests staying at Mandalay Bay. Now just about any marine biologist or batfish going blind from nematode infection will tell you that Shark Reef has had several unfortunate die offs in the last unlucky seven years from eels, sea turtles, schooling fish, and sharks. Fortunately, after the main circular lobby tank sprang leaks, the fish and sharks from this exhibit were transferred to the tank where the cow rays recently died off, so it all looks good to passing tourists, but concern about alleged reports about a shark left on the loading dock over a weekend and becoming injured, to not being able to dive 48 hours in the salt water after being chemically treated for parasites, and sharks with visible signs of parasitic infection, or showing signs of abnormal behavior still seem to plague Shark Reef, but hopefully a team of marine biologists can turn all this around soon, as Mandalay Bay Resort is one of the best beach resorts in Las Vegas. www.mandalaybay.com

Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, California. Daily dives into the 350,000-gallon Tropical Reef Habitat ;swim with over 1000 fish, use an underwater camera, and get a souvenir towel and memory card all combine to make this a fun dive. All equipment is provided, but you can bring your own mask and booties. Must be certified and see age restrictions. www.aquariumofpacific.org

Oregon Coast Aquarium, Newport, Oregon. People come here annually to this 23-acre Pacific marine wildlife attraction. Passages of the Deep is considered the best shore dive on the Oregon coast. This was the former home of Keiko the Orca whale and the site was transformed into three ecosystems so you can dive 26ft deep at Halibut flats with skates, sturgeon, and rockfish, or sit on a 13ft ledge or dive with the big sharks like the 10ft long Broadnose Sevengill shark at the Open Sea Exhibit. Eugene Skin Divers Supply operates the underwater dives. Must be open water certified. http://aquarium.org/

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Tacoma, Washington. Their “Eye to Eye with Sharks” program just started last year, but it’s a big hit with those that have experienced it. They actually have two dives in this 240,000-gallon tank, one is a cage dive for non-certified divers, and a scuba dive for those that are certified divers. The sandbar tiger sharks, nurse sharks, and even the wobbegongs here are some of the biggest you may ever see close up and personal. Dives are available Fridays through Mondays up to four times daily. All gear is supplied for these dives, and you will wear drysuits, so you can wear street clothes on underneath and keep them dry without need of a towel except for hair, but they’ve got that covered with a souvenir towel! No personal cameras are allowed. www.pdza.org/dive

Maui Ocean Center, The Hawaiian Aquarium. The Open Ocean exhibit has 750,000-gallons of salt water, 20 sharks, stingrays, and thousands of fish. Open to divers three days a week except holidays. They supply weight belts and tanks; you bring everything else. Why dive an aquarium in paradise? Guaranteed sightings of sharks! A constant rotation of sea creatures with those in the nearby natural native waters makes every visit here unique. Reservations required and you get to keep the shark teeth that you find in the sandy substrate. www.mauioceancenter.com

Now it’s quite possible that this list is ever changing and hopefully forever expanding. Keep in mind that available days of diving and the frequency of dives may change for any location. Most locations give you a tour of their backstage areas and a glimpse of other animals not normally seen by the general public. This includes breeding pools of fish, and species specifically raised to trade with other zoos and aquariums. A briefing on the dives and in depth information on fish, sharks, and local ecosystems may also be provided. The total tour time could take 3 to 4 hours. Sharing these dives with family members will create life long memories whether they go on the dives with you or look in from the other side of the clear acrylic wall. We hope you get a chance to take part in some or all of these unique diving opportunities.

We Dove or Did We Dive That Dive Site?

We dove or did we dive that dive site?

Recently, at a well known dive destination, we overheard two scuba divers talking about a dive site where one of the divers dove the other day. The other diver happened to be an English major and insisted that dove was not the past tense of dive. The first diver disagreed saying that dive and dove were like drive and drove and divers have routinely used the word dove for more than the last 50 years. The English major countered that dove refers to a type of bird use in a Prince song as well as a chocolate covered ice cream bar and a brand of soap.

You could not say we dove the Titanic, but that we were diving or went diving on the Titanic. In an old fashioned way, the English major had a point, but English is a dynamic ever changing language that continuously allows us to form new nouns, verbs, and change words as we deem them needed. Eventually, certain words are used in certain ways so frequently that they become officially accepted by leading contemporary English Dictionaries. Television shows, Movies, Internet, and Pod casts seem to only increase the accumulated speed of new words, verbiage, and jargon.

Take a TV show like “Finding Bigfoot,” although the one thing you will never see on this show is an actual bigfoot, you will pick up a whole array of words never before known to those outside the bigfoot community. The cast of the show routinely makes comments that have reference to Sasquatch; the Northwest First Nations word for Bigfoot. In the show, they hunt for squatch or go squatchin in the squatchiest places they can find and the squatchiestness of a site determines how close to finding a bigfoot they ultimately almost get.

In the popular show “Call of the Wildman,” Instead of saying rat raisins, porcupine scat, raccoon excrement, or animal feces, Turtleman calls everything “Pootie poot or poodie poo.” You might even hear someone on the set yelling, “something was pootie pooing in here”, and by now there is no one in Kentucky or anyone who watches the Animal Channel on a regular basis who doesn’t know the meaning of Pootie poot. By the way, for as far as we know, this word has no affiliation with the “Pootie-poot” nickname former President George W. Bush gave Mr. Vladamir Putin of Russia.

Now some words have fought hard not to become generic words that we take for granted. Take the word “xerox” for example. In the seventies everyone was making, taking, viewing a xerox of some other piece of paper. Xerox was a noun, a verb, and a corporation, but now that anyone can make a copy by using almost any copier/printer, we have a whole generation of kids that may not even know what a Xerox copy machine looked like or how enormous it even was.

On the other hand some words seem to have lost the battle no matter how hard they tried to keep pure a trademark brand. The Kleenex Corporation put tons of money into the words “Facial tissue”, but despite their best efforts, people still find it more convenient to say, “Hey, pass me a Kleenex,” and blow their nose without any regard as to what specific brand of facial tissue that they have truly just desecrated.

Now we could continue on with other innovative and new words, or you could Google a few more of your own: Oh, we mean search for words online using a well-known yet definitive free web browser service. We googled “dove” and found plenty of references towards scuba diving, but I guess the people employed at certain definitive dictionary companies are not into scuba diving, sasquatch, or pootie poot, as much as other niche groups of people are, so it could take another 50 years for the word “dove” to become officially sanctioned as a proper word.

Then again, some words will never be officially acceptable such as the word “ain’t”. This word is used by hundred of millions of people yearly, found in countless books, and occasionally slips from the lips of past presidents, senators, and congressmen alike, but it is loathed more than the nine words that you can’t say on public, non paid, free access TV or radio. Ain’t is just one of a few select words that could potentially break the backbone of the English language and ruin the livelihood of countless English teachers: just the mention of this word can cause acid reflex in some social groups. We hope that the duel or triple meaning word “dove” is not as loathsome to those in power as the word “ain’t”, but ultimately that’s not our call.

Even here, our work is not done, as scuba instructors routinely tell students, “Inflate your BC!” and seldom do you hear anyone say,” Inflate your buoyancy compensator!”, or shout out even the more less used and outdated phrase, “Inflate your buoyancy compensating device.” By the time you spit out all these old antiquated words, everyone has surfaced and they are heading for shore or they have already stepped aboard the boat.

So tell us where you last dove, and do you plan to dive there again?

Nuclear Missile Silo Diving

Are you looking for a dive that’s almost one of a kind, a dive site that relatively few divers have ever had the opportunity to explore and/or a dive site with such historical significance that it almost changed the fate of the world? Well, we have not one, but two dive sites just for you. It turns out that during the 1960’s the United States government was busy digging holes in the ground, lining them with cement, steel rebar, and epoxy resin and covering them with heavy steal blast doors at $15 million a shot. Inside each silo stood a vertical missile. In case of emergency, the previously RP-1 (Kerosene) fueled missile was last minute fueled with highly corrosive cryogenically stored liquid oxygen, then elevated to the surface where it would blast off and head towards The Soviet Union. In the meantime the Soviets would be hypothetically sending their missiles towards us.

Mutually assured destruction (M.A.D.) seemed to work well in the 1960’s and it was all the rage in the early nuclear age. To make sure we had the best ICBM system for wiping out the other half of the planet we invented the Atlas F series missile system complex and as a back up measure we introduced the Titan I missile complex system just incase the first system was too complex and didn’t work as devastatingly as expected. Fortunately, to get our money’s worth, we were able to use these two types of nuclear warhead missiles for a whole two years before they became obsolete. Working with liquid oxygen was dangerous and there was more than one fatal mishap, but what really made the silo programs obsolete was that it could take 10 minutes or more to get the rockets fueled, elevated to the surface, and launched. The new minuteman missiles just like minute rice could be ready and launched in just about one minute, and they were mobile too. Add Polaris missiles to submarines, and you now had a system that could blow up the Soviet Union at anytime from anywhere land or sea in less time than it takes to boil a cup of radioactive free water in Denver.

The underground complexes were salvaged for almost all the like new parts and metal materials and then the surrounding land and hardened concrete silos were sold off in some cases for what appears to be pure copper pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, in a couple of cases when they turned off the electricity and started the salvage process, the pumps were also turned off and water started to seep inside the silos.

This is where Mark and Linda Hannifin of Family Scuba Center in Midland Texas come into the picture. They bought 11 acres of land twenty miles southwest of Abilene, Texas that contained an Atlas F missile silo that was formerly part of the 578^th Strategic Missile Squadron at Dyess AFB. The man made ballistic pool is an easy 60ft diameter cylinder and 130ft deep, but that’s where the word easy leaves the scene.

To dive here at “Dive Valhalla”, you have to take your gear and go down several flights of stairs, turn right, turn left, make another right and walk down a corridor to the former control center and living area, which is now the gearing up room. Once geared up, it’s time to head down a corridor and step down 33ft on a stairway that leads to a floating platform complete with a T-38 “pool” ladder. Instructors here teach deep diving, altitude diving (2,420ft above sea level). Night diving, rescue diver skills, and technical diving skills. The water is 60° F warm and clear and there is a small inertial guidance shack at around 60ft of depth, plus some debris at the bottom of the silo. Reservations for dive clubs and dive shop groups with instructors to train and dive here are required; visit www.familyscuba.com for information.

Up in the Pacific Northwest in Royal City, Washington exists a Titan I missile silo that also flooded once the shiny missile was removed and the power went off. The site is currently leased by UnderSea Adventures in Kennewick, WA. Way more fixtures are still visible at this dive site including multiple High Voltage boxes and signs, lighting systems and a complete eye rinsing and shower station. The dives at this site are for Advanced divers and beyond.

Access to this site is down an emergency hatch into a staging room. You can climb down with gear on or use a bucket and rope to lower your gear down. Once underground you can set up your gear on benches in “the ready room” and when ready head down a corridor that is waist deep full of water that is 38º F, but that’s what one might expect from Cold War spring fed water seepage. Wearing a drysuit is the only way to go down here. The metal plates from the flooring have been removed/salvaged in the corrugated tunnels, so you have to walk precariously on pipes to make your way towards the launch silos. There is a spot with flooring where you can put on your fins and other last minute gear before you enter into Silo #3 which is 44ft diameter, 160 ft tall; 110ft of which is filled with water. The water is clear, but you’ll need lights to see every sign, pipe, bolt, brace, beam, and at least one salamander that is reported to haunt these waters. On one dive it is possible to see Silo #3, an equipment room, and Silo #2. For technical divers, there are completely submerged passages leading to rooms filled with electrical equipment and more interesting artifacts. For advanced and technical divers, to obtain information on this Titan I nuclear missile complex visit www.underseaadventures.net

The USA built some 72 Atlas silos and 54 Titan I missile silos. After they were made obsolete as ICBM’s, Atlas rockets were used to launch satellites and Titan rockets were used to launch Gemini projects and other heavier payloads for quite some time. Diving into some of the most expensive holes ever built may not be for every Adanced diver, and for those that would like to stay dry and see an intact, but inert Titan missile in a silo, we recommend visiting Sahuarita, Arizona. This Titan II museum has blast deflection channels built right inside the silo, so when it was operational, it didn’t need to rise to the surface before lift off.

As you can clearly see, deep down that is, diving a former nuclear missile silo may not be for everyone, but with the right training, and a little historical background, you might just find that diving where nuclear missiles were stored, but never fired in the past, is now a down right blast.

A Mermaid Minute: Linden Wolbert

‘Out of the sea… wish I could be… part of that, world…’

What if we told you we found a girl who longed to be part of the undersea world? Who quit her steady 9-5 to fulfill her dream of becoming a real mermaid.

We’re not nuts! Though it sounds a bit odd, this is exactly what Linden Wolbert did. And some of us here are a little envious! As divers, free-diving with a fish-like tail is the closest you can get to comfortably experiencing the ocean as the undersea creatures do.

So, what’s her story?

As a kid Linden loved movies like “Splash” and “The Little Mermaid” she’d also spend most of her time watching wildlife documentaries. Linden’s even got a bachelor’s degree in film and science from Emerson.

Photo Courtesy of Yahoo! Shine

Her goal? To become an underwater wildlife documentary filmmaker like Jacques Cousteau.

She ended up with a 35-pound, 6-foot long hydro-dynamic tail that’s probably worth more than some of our dive equipment… She’s also got a few more and one in the works by famed fashion designer Evey Rothstein.

Her tails aren’t just for show. Each tail is ‘swimmable’ and allows her to make differently in the water. This little mermaid can also dive down about 100 feet and hold her breath for five full minutes.

There’s so much more to her story, work and charity work, and her online show The Mermaid Minute.

Check it out at Yahoo! Shine’s What It’s Like to Be a Real-Life Mermaid>>

Diver Fashion: Why You Should Suit Up in Color

Recently we verified that almost a third of divers are female and an increasing percentage of women are being certified yearly. You would think with the growing number of ladies trading in their heels for fins, we would see some pink wet suits, and other styles we recognize from fashion magazines. Whether you’re part of the one third of female divers or part of the other two-thirds, you may want to reconsider that black wet suit and fins.

Picture This

You’re on a boat, getting suited up for your first ocean dive as a beginner diver. You’re nervous but excited as you slip into your black wet suit. You don’t know what to expect and you definitely don’t want to get separated from your group, so you ask your instructor, “Hey, what color are your fins?”

Your instructor responds, “Black.”

For a second you pause and notice, “Everyone’s wearing black!”

ScubaTubeSocks

This was Suuz Martines of ScubaDoRags experience on her first open water dive. After searching high and low she couldn’t believe no one had yet created a line of identifying products for diver visibility and safety. So she decided to create one herself.

What initially started as a solution for a safety issue turned into a full-blown variety of colorful custom scuba gear to deck divers out from head to fin! From her first ScubaDoRag to her ScubaTubeSocks, Suuz wanted to minimize diver distractions while diving. She also wanted divers to have the option to express themselves and have fun with what they wear!

The ScubaDoRag

The ScubaDoRag

The ScubaDoRag is a patented head covering that serves scuba divers as a hair wrap. It contains and holds hair away from the face (and gear) during underwater activity. Made of high performance fabrics in vibrant colors and distinctive prints, it provides high visibility at great depths and on the surface of the water. The ScubaDoRag even contains a hidden pocket for storing charms, I.D., a room key etc.

Suuz and her quirky alter ego, CoCo Cheznaynay, are revolutionizing diver fashion -understanding the power of colors and the importance of individuality. “Color is very powerful, it can even change your mood,” Suuz tells us. Her ultimate goal is to have every diver express his or her unique and colorful personality while exploring the just as remarkable ocean.

What Others Are Saying About the ScubaDoRag

Here is what Larry Wilson from Joelton, TN says about the ScubaDoRag: (that’s right, guys love em too!)

“I recently returned from the Bahamas where I went diving for the first time. What an amazing experience! At the suggestion of a friend, I had purchased a few ScubaDoRags for the trip.

I wore one while snorkeling (saw a HUGE Barracuda) and it prevented any burning to my head (the hair is starting to get a little thinner these days).

Larry in his ScubaDoRag

Your ScubaDoRags are well worth the money and I will be getting more of your products as I go for my open water certification! I just wish someone here in Nashville carried them!”

There’s more to diving than meets the eye. Colorful reefs and gorgeous hidden treasures are waiting to be seen and discovered and every diver is just as vibrant and unique. Suuz and CoCo invite you to trade in the black for a pop of color and embrace the sea.

For more on Suuz and CoCo Cheznaynays ScubaDoRags and other dive fashions click here.

Dive the Florida Swamps With a Leap of Faith

Courtesy of Jill Heinerth from ScubaDiving.com

We’re sure you may have heard or come across a diver who has explored Florida’s swampy treasure and wondered – WHY would you dive into a muddy soup to maybe find a gator or two? Truth is, if you enjoy muck diving and want to explore some of the rare sights Florida has to offer, grab your mask and fins because this is the dive experience for you.

Orange Grove Sink is one of two major springs in Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State Park which boasts nine other sinkholes and springs, and a long slough, meandering down to the famed Suwannee River. Peacock Springs also offers divers the chance to explore one of the longest underwater cave systems in the United States.

Enticed by your adventurous side yet?
Click here to read more on Diving Peacock Springs | Other Florida Destinations

Scuba Diving Myths – and REALITIES!

SCUBA diving is one of the most beautiful and enjoyable activities on the planet today. If you’ve ever explored the underwater world by snorkeling or trying SCUBA, you would have to agree.

Photo courtesy of DiverWire.com

Despite the beauty (and challenges) that go with SCUBA diving, there are still many myths out there keeping people out of the water. Here’s a brief look at some of the SCUBA myths AND the realities!

MYTH: Diving is a very dangerous activity
TRUTH: When done within the guidelines you’ll learn about in your open water certification course, diving has an extraordinary safety record. Diving is an exciting activity that combines all the thrills of exploration and adventure, with a safety record that compares favorably to a sports such as bowling.

MYTH: Diving is complicated and difficult to learn
TRUTH: Learning to dive is easy today. Professional diving instructors use all the learning materials and proven strategies to make it simple and fun to learn. Before you know it you’ll be breathing underwater and using all the cool “toys” that make diving easier than ever before to learn and participate regularly.

photo courtesy of PADI

MYTH: You have to be in top physical condition to dive
TRUTH: Like any active sport, diving is more enjoyable if you are physically fit. And you do need some basic swimming skills in order to learn. But it’s nothing extreme; if you are comfortable in the deep end of a pool, can swim, and you can walk for several minutes without getting winded, you can probably learn to dive.

MYTH: The ocean is full of dangerous animals like sharks
TRUTH: Most divers actually consider a shark sighting to be a special and memorable occasion, since it is rare to see them. While such critters as sharks and barracuda should be respected and treated as wild animals, the vast majority subsist on a diet of things considerably smaller than a scuba diver. In fact, most sharks and barracuda are somewhat intimidated by divers; with our long fins and other equipment, we appear big to them which is something they don’t want to mess with! Besides, it’s a myth that sharks are perpetually hungry or are always on the attack. It is not uncommon at all for a shark to go two weeks without hunting, and in one documented case, a healthy shark did not eat for better than a year.

Photo courtesy of DiverWire.com

MYTH: It expensive
TRUTH: When you put it up against other leisure activities, such as owning a quality mountain bike, golfing, boating, or skiing, diving compares very favorably. And the more you dive, the more true that becomes. Dive gear, for instance, is very durable and can last for many years. In fact, after a short while, the cost of your gear can work out to just a few pennies per dive.

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