Diving History Museum

The Classic... A Navy Mk. V Helmet

I stopped off at the Diving History Museum in Islamorada (mile marker 83) on my way down to Key West today.  The museum itself is a modest size building on the bay side of US-1 and is adorned with a David Dunleavy mural.  Although it's a small museum (even the most inquisitive guest will take less than an hour to see all the exhibits), their collection of historical and contemporary diving equipment is impressive.  With artifacts ranging from ancient Greek amphorae to civil war era diving helmets to modern day helium and rebreather apparatus, this place has it all.  The exhibits take visitors from the earliest mention of divers (the Epic of Gilgamesh, ~2700 BCE) through the development of diving bells, helmets, surface supplied diving, the development of the demand regulator all the way to modern diving, including mixed gases, rebreathers and 1 ATM suits.

I eventually made it all the way down to Key West, which was neat, but the museum was definitely the highlight of my trip.  Right behind that was driving on the stretch of US-1 featured in so many quality films like 'True Lies' and 'Mission Impossible 3'.  Key West itself seemed a little overdeveloped and touristy, not really my ideal vacation spot, but the Keys are unique and (for the most part) beautiful, and I'm glad I had a chance to check them out before I left.

A Shark Named Babycakes

I've finished my Divemaster yesterday, so today I thought I'd take it easy and do some relaxing reef dives in the afternoon.  I figured it would be a good opportunity to practice using my camera and film some fish, especially since I didn't have many chances to take pictures or video while I was working on my Divemaster. 

The first dive we did was North North Dryrocks, which has become one of my favorite reefs in the area.  Visibility was a little poor, but I got plenty of good practice in with my camera, and hopefully a few keepers.  After the first dive we decided to hit up Key Largo Dryrocks, better known as Christ of the Abyss.  An 8.5 foot tall bronze statue of Jesus Christ was placed in about 25 feet of water near the reef in 1965 by the Underwater Society of America.  It's one of the better known local "land"marks so I took some video of it, and then tagged along with Jen, one of the other divemasters towards a lesser known patch reef nearby.  

After a few minutes of slowly finning over the sand towards the reef, we passed over a few coral heads and came across a nurse shark in the sand.  By this time, my camera battery was nearly dead, but I did manage to capture a few minutes of footage of the shark.  Once I get my hands on my new hard drive I'll be able to post some video.  Jen thought she recognized the shark as Babycakes, a nurse shark that's normally found 4 miles from Christ of the Abyss on a wreck called the City of Washington.  It certainly seemed like he recognized Jen.  Once he realized he was being watched he rose up off the sand and swam around us, disappearing behind the coral from time to time, but never straying too far.  He was probably between 5 and 6 feet long, and very beautiful.  It was probably one of the largest sharks I've seen in the wild, definitely a memorable experience.

Divemaster!

I finished my Divemaster today, meaning I'm officially a 'professional' diver (scary huh).  I'm planning on heading back to the High Springs area on June 26th to work on a documentary with Wes Skiles, so I have a few days off to do some fun diving and explore the Keys.  Hopefully I'll make it out to the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum in Islamorda and get down to Key West for at least a day  I only wish there was some swell up so I could go surfing...

Key Largo

I'm currently down in Key Largo, hangin out with Captain Spencer Slate, who owns and runs the Atlantis Dive Center (check it out).  I've been working on my Divemaster for a few days, diving and exploring the keys.  I drove all day on Saturday to get down here, and arrived at Captain Slate's Atlantis Dive Center at about 5 pm, expecting to just be able to chill out, grab a bite to eat and relax.  I was way off.  Less than an hour after I arrived I was on a boat running out to do a twilight dive on the Spiegel Grove.  It was an incredible.  We were the only divers on the huge 510-foot wreck.  The current was almost non-existent and the visibility was probably a little north of 80 feet.  Luckily I managed to set up my camera wrong, and not realize till I was already halfway down the anchor line.  I'll have other chances to dive the wreck, so I'm sure I'll be able to get some good video, but I doubt I'll have another chance in conditions as perfect as that.  I've spent the rest of my time here hanging out with Hunter, Slate's 7-year old son (reminds a lot of my cousin Eric) and working on my divemaster with my instructor Skip.  I'll post some more photos and maybe some video when I get a chance.  I've also added some pictures to my Picasa account so check them out.

'Coooba Divin

I just finished a week in Ginnie Springs with a group of divers from DAN, working on a new training video.  The shoot was lead by DAN's new media manager, Ken Berry, who acted as director/producer.  Eric Douglas and Brian Harper from DAN were also there, the director of photography was Tom Holden (a USC graduate), Simon from Karst Productions was in charge of lighting, Donald Tipton was in charge of still photography, and Abby, Billy, Holden and myself were 'talent' and grips.  Although this was the first time most of the people working on the shoot had met each other, everyone got along really well, and it ended up being an incredible week.  Tom, Simon and Donald were incredibly talented and friendly people, and it was really a privilege to work with them, and pick up a few tips on lighting and photography from them.  Ken did an incredible job making sure everyone was happy and productive (a well-fed crew is a hard-working crew) and Eric, Abby and Holden were great to hang out with.  Billy is involved with ROV design and construction, a field I'm interested in.  Brian reminded me a whole lot of my friend Jeff from USC, and we found out at the wrap party that Wes Skiles held for us on Friday night that he was quite a musician.  Everyone involved was incredibly fascinating and intelligent, and it was one of those weeks that just ended too soon.  Luckily I'm pretty sure I'll have a chance to meet up with almost everyone again, either at DEMA or at DAN.  I'm rapidly running out of hard drive space, so until my external drive arrives, I've posted just a few unedited, reduced quality clips.  That's Brian modeling the fashionable Tar Heels speedo at the end...

A Week in Wilmington

I've just arrived in High Springs, Florida, after finishing my first week on the road as the 2008 scholar.  I spent the week with Doug Kesling (NA Scholar 1983) in Wilmington, North Carolina.  It was great to kick off my year with a former scholar and Doug was a terrific host.  I spent most of the week sitting in on Doug's scientific diver course at UNCW, working to finish my rescue diver certification.  It was really a great week because not only did the other students and I get to dive and hang out with Doug, but Scott Fowler and Glen Taylor from NURC and Ken Oots also helped out with the class, and it was a lot of fun hanging out and diving with them.  I really liked my classmates, and Doug's job at NURC seems really rewarding and enjoyable (for the most part).  Hopefully I'll have a chance to meet up with Doug and/or Scott later on down to the road for some diving, or maybe even to take a look at the Aquarius habitat.

While I was in Wilmington, I also got to meet up with Stef Misner (NA Scholar 2002) and her husband Ian.  Besides taking me out to dinner and to the beach, Stef arranged for me to visit the NC aquarium.  I was lucky enough to be able to dive (with sand tigers) in the aquarium's largest tank.  Stef also gave me a personalized tour of the entire facility and introduced me to the aquarium's diving officer, Brian.  It wasn't the biggest aquarium I've ever seen, but the exhibits were incredible, and it's focus on local ecosystems was really great.

It was tough to leave North Carolina.  The people I met and dove with were great, and it reminded me of California (in a good way).  I started trying to learn how to use my camera, and there are a few clips here, just to give you an idea of what I've been up to.  I'll put some stills up when I get a chance.  So far I'm having an awesome time in Florida, so keep checking back!