June Journal Entry

            The beginning of June found me leaving Washington, DC for Wilmington, North Carolina, where I stayed with Doug Kesling, NURC’s advanced diving technology manager.  NURC stands for National Undersea Research Center, and is a component of NOAA responsible for running all of their advanced diving, ROV, and AUV projects, including the Aquarius habitat in the Florida Keys.  Besides having a really cool job, Doug was also the North American Rolex Scholar in 1983, so it was really nice to start off my travels with someone who knew exactly what I was up to, how I was feeling, and the kind of things I might be interested in.  Most of my time was spent working on my rescue diver certification with one of Doug’s scientific diving classes at UNCW.  It was fun diving with the other students in the class, and I really enjoyed meeting some other NURC people like Scott Fowler and Glenn Michaels.  Most of our skill work was done in the pool, but we moved out into open water for our last few dives, which was a lot of fun.  I also really enjoyed Wilmington; it seemed like a fun place with nice people, good restaurants, music, and beaches. 

            I had one final cool experience lined up before I left Wilmington.  Stefanie Misner (NA Scholar ’03) had arranged for me to visit the NC Cape Fear Aquarium and take a dive in their largest tank.  It was really cool to see how the aquarium was run, how divers worked both behind the scenes and in the public eye, and to have a chance to learn a little about the aquatic ecosystems in that area.  Stef also took me to the beach and I had a nice relaxing weekend with her and her friends.

             After my week in Wilmington I was headed further down the coast towards a little town called High Springs, Florida.  The average person would probably have a hard time finding High Springs on a map, but it’s a place well known to cave divers.  Although I wouldn’t be doing any cave diving during this visit to High Springs, I would be visiting Ginnie Springs, a collection of freshwater springs in the High Springs area with a group of divers from Divers Alert Network.  Eric Douglas and Ken Berry had invited me to work on a video shoot for a DAN training video.  Officially I would be working as a grip and as an actor, but it was also a great chance for me to learn about video production both above and below water.  Ken, DAN’s media manager, did a great job keeping everyone happy and on task, and the photographers, Tom Holden and Donald Tipton were both incredibly talented and friendly.  Everyone working on the shoot got along really well together, and I think that despite the inclement weather we had to work with, we got a lot of good footage in the can.  It was a shame that I was only able to stay with the shoot for a week, but luckily I’ll be able to meet up with almost everyone involved either during my upcoming visit to DAN or during DEMA.

            After my week in High Springs I continued my journey south, all the way to the Florida Keys.  I’d be spending almost two weeks at the Atlantis Dive Center, working on my divemaster certification and diving in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  After a long day of driving, I pulled into the parking lot to meet up with Captain Slate, my host and owner of the Atlantis Dive Center.  Right away he asked me if I wanted to jump on a boat for a night dive on the Spiegel Grove.  From that point on I spent most of my time either in the water or in the classroom with my instructor Skip, working on my divemaster.  It was challenging adapting to take responsibility for other divers, but very rewarding.  After I finished the DMC I took a few days to relax, practice shooting video and travel down to Key West, stopping off at the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada.  Slate, and the other Atlantis divers I had a chance to hang out with were a lot of fun, and the diving was incredible.  Before I arrived in the Keys I didn’t really see how a spot so close to a huge city like Miami could have beautiful reefs and such outstanding diving.  Staying with Slate and working on my divemaster at Atlantis was a real treat.

            On June 26^th I made my way back up to High Springs, to stay with filmmaker and photographer Wes Skiles for a while.  I’m beginning my cave diving education with Jill Heinerth, and hopefully we’ll have some great adventures in the springs and caves that are so abundant in the area.