Our magical week at Cocoview is almost over...

It seems like Tom and I just got to Roatan, and now we are confirming our flights to head back to the states. What a great week! Our 2nd trip to Cocoview had a few surprises, but for the most part, was low-stress and very relaxing.

I was the most dive winner this week...24 dives! I logged 3 dives at over an hour long and all others were at least 45 minutes or longer. I did 3 night dives and dove 6 days, finishing up with 2 dives this morning. I was not cold on a single dive. I cannot say that about any other dive I have done in the last 2 years.

We explored a lot of dive sites, most of them within a 5 minute boat ride of the resort. One of my favorites was Calvin's Crack, a swim-thru dive that allowed us to explore "cracks" in the reef. These are actual cracks that formed after earthquakes over the centuries. The reef has grown the deep crevases into slivers over the years creating beautiful reefs for fish and other creatures to live in.

Roatan has discovered 7 Lionfish that have moved into the island. 1 was discovered while we were here and 2 of these invasive species were living in a fish tank in the dive store. This fish is taking over the Caribbean quite quickly and it is being monitored carefully by the folks at REEF.

My personal discovery on this trip is my love for underwater photography. I am not very good, but I am learning more all the time about compositition and lighting. I am looking at a new camera and flash in the future, but before I make any kind of investment, I want to know more. My first step is to get a good photo editing software and learn how to use it effectively.

As for the diving, it is amazing. Roatan has gentle currents and beautiful reefs with sharp dropoffs. Most of my dives are 70 feet or less. There are beautiful coral and seafans, something you don't see in Belize or Cozumel due to hurricane damage. The reef has millions of fish, now getting bigger thanks to the efforts of the Underwater Refuge here on Roatan. There is no fishing on the reefs for the last 4 years so now the fish are repopulating the reefs and they are much bigger than 2 years ago. More lobster and manta rays. My favorite part about diving the reefs are hanging over the steep ledges at 60-70 feet and not seeing the bottom...only deep blue sea. My only regret is not seeing a single shark or turtle. We spoted a Hawksbill on the surface on the way back but none while diving.

So, Tom and I continued this endless game we play called "I can go deeper than you while we are in warm water on vacation". Yeah, it is a silly and a little stupid, but we always are thinking safety first. (disclaimer...newer divers, do not do this. Only for experienced divers who have dives deeper than 120 feet.) So yesterday, on Newman's Wall, I hit 102 feet. He hit 101. So, we go to 107. So I hit 118 and my computer is screaming at me (on 32% EAN) and he is on air. He hits 119. I start singing (yeah, I love being narced) and he starts laughing at me. Mark Romero decides he is going to follow us on the adventure and just shakes his head. We starting a slow ascent while I am doing my best eagle ray imitation. Once back to about 65 feet, Tom grabs my computer and starts his own UW happy dance. Tom wins this round but we will play again some time.

As for our group, everyone had a great time. Tami played with my camera and I think she is hooked. Mark Romero learned that peeing in your shorty isn't such a bad thing. Janice doubled the amount of dives she had under her belt. Mark B discovered he really loves his new flash. Ed has gotten really good with his strobe and Tom was able to do what he loves best...just float with the fish swimming around him and think about nothing but how amazing it is to scuba like this.

Final notes on Cocoview. The bugs in August are brutal so bring the bug spray. If you are going to come here, it is so much more fun with a group that by yourself. We had our own private boat, with divemaster and captain. Because of the experience of our group, we were able to go to sites that others were not. Nitrox is wonderful but not necessary. I loved diving it this week, but Tom, Mark and Tami were fine without it. If you are reading and wondering how can you join us next time, just give me a call at the store and I can let you know when the next trip is.

Welcome to Cocoview

Our first vacation in 2 years is off to a great start! We left the sweltering heat of Seattle on an all night flight with Mark Romero, Tami Stein, Mark Beaubien, and Janice Kolts. Beth and Ed Farrell met us in Roatan. The resort was as wonderful as it was last time we were here. Tom and I got the same room as last time...13. We didn't waste any time and we jumped in and dove in the front yard that afternoon. We played around the wreck of Prince Albert and rediscovered all the greatness of Cocoview's front yard. Of course, I forgot my camera.

Got up and did 4 dives on Sunday! First dive was at 2 Tall, 2 Small, a wall dive with a lot of interesting coral and fish. The biggest difference is the fish are a bit bigger, and there was some significate damage to the reef from the Earthquake a few months ago. Cocoview Wall was our second dive. After a nice lunch, we did Gold Chain and Newman's Wall. I liked Gold Chain a lot; at the end of the dive we saw a school of squid. Newman's wall was a lot deeper than I remember and it was fun poking around and doing macro photography. However, I lost my difusior so most of my photos are overexposed, or blue. I am going to try Mark's Sealife arm tomorrow to see if that helps.

Mark B has a beautiful Canon and Sea and Sea 110y external flash. I am very jealous! He is also shooting in RAW so his stuff is coming out very nice.

We have lots more diving this week ahead of us, including Mary's place on Thursday. More than anything, we are relaxing and enjoying this vacation...so far!

Salt Water State Park

This old shore dive used to be a favorite with divers back when I first started diving. I never dove it in the early days...not sure why. It had a old, sunken barge and a bunch of tire reefs. After the earthquake in 2001, I heard that the barge had really fallen apart and not really visible.

In 2008, this dive site was re-born! Most of the old tires were removed and 3, long, rock walls were put in, along with some long, concrete poles. The 3 reefs were set 100 feet apart, running shallow to deep. 4 cans were put in to mark the site and a row of concrete blocks, running parallel to the shore, 10 feet apart, to help divers navigate between the rocky reefs. Most of the reefs are made up of medium size bolders, with small rocks on the shallow ends.

The first time I dove here, the vis was so bad I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. The 2nd time, the vis was so amazing that I thought I was in Canada. I swam quickly between the reefs to figure out the entire dive site. I then did a few more dives here and have fallen in love with this dive site.

It is located in Salt Water St Park, and is only open from 830am-830pm every day. Great parking and restrooms with outdoor showers right there. The walk into the water is easy, but depending on the tide, there is either a very long walk or a very long swim to the drop point. It is flat and few bolders so it is very easy.

It takes about 20-40 minutes to explore each reef, so on most dives, you typically only get to explore 1 reef. I have named the reefs...South, middle and North reef. The north is my favorite. It is a little deeper but has a little bit different layout that the other two. However, most of the cool life I have found has been on the South Reef. The last dive I did here was with Ellyn and Scott; two of my staff at A-2-Z. We spotted a couple of octopi, including a Giant Pacific Octopus on the top of the deep end of the reef. Tons and tons of Rat fish were swimming about.

With the exception of that first, low vis dive, I have had very good visibility and very little current. Thanks to a map made by Jeff Schroeder, one of our instructors, it has made this site easy to navigate and explore. Hope you can come dive with me sometime and explore this cool site.

Dive and Travel Expo, 2009

April 24-26 was the 2nd Dive and Travel Expo in Tacoma.

This was a crazy weekend, with planning taking place over a few months. The weekend actually started on Thursday, with a 2 tank boat dive on Bandito Charters. I dove with John from Manta fins and Glenn and John from Hono Divers from the Big Island of Hawaii. 2 awesome dives and the wolf eels didn't disappoint me this day. I had wolfeels eating out of my hands and playing with me. It was very cool. It also gave me an opportunity to meet Sarah from NW Dive News. The day ended with dinner at the Ram with Jeff and Shawn from Cramer Decker and the team from NWDN.

Friday started off with a bang. Tom went and picked up Dane from the airport. He flew in for the weekend to help us. We had a lot of our divers, diving at Treasure Hunt too that morning. Dane and I went and sat through a seminar for IST, and then set up our booth. Tom and I had dinner with Rick and Kathy from NWDN.

Saturday was very, very busy. Lots of people stopping by the booth and divers in the pool. Scott and Mark worked the pool and Kandi, Nikoal, Brandon and Jason helped on on the floor. Dan worked the Seasoft booth and Dane, Ellyn and I worked the booth. Alison also stopped in and helped for a while. Dane worked the store in the afternoon and Tom ran errands. We attended the film festival that evening, which was okay, but we were disappointed that they didn't show local photos.

On Sunday, Robbie came and worked the booth with me. Alyssa helped out, along with the rest of the team. I also had both Dan and Dane in the booth too, so it gave me a chance to wander the floor a bit, and talk to vendors. Ellyn won a dive trip to Hawaii. Josh Arnett came in 2nd place with his photos he entered in the photo contest. Sunday was a bit quieter, but we still connected with a lot of divers.

Overall, it was a great weekend and it was nice having Dane home, even for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone and talking to so many divers. Looking forward to next year already.

Doing some boat diving...

Got an invitation to dive off one of my instructor's boat yesterday. I haven't done much boat diving this year yet, (I haven't done any this year actually) so I figured it would give me a chance to do some fun diving and relax. So, took Sunday off and headed down to the marina to hook up with Scott, Kandi, Neil, Susan and Kelly for a fun day of diving. Josh was on the boat as "captain for the day" watching over us.

Scott has a pretty nice boat. It is 36' long and very comfortable. As we left the harbor, it was evident that it was going to be a nice day. Considering the crappy winter we had, the warm sun felt so good. By mid afternoon, I was enjoying the rays topside. He and Kandi had plenty of food for us and were awesome hosts for this great day of diving.

His setup is pretty typical of private dive boats I have been on. We gear up on deck and giant stride with a bit of a drop into the water. He had a nice ladder to climb up and we lifted our gear from the swim step, upto the main deck. While water is the true equalizer, getting out of the water proves how good of shape you are in. Unfortunately, I need to spend a few more hours a day to be able to master that part of the day.

3 great dives...Dalco Wall, Z's Reef and Sunrise. I saw 1 octopus but was skunked by wolf eels. Everyone else had fun too. It was still pretty cold in the water (45-46 degrees) but it is evident that spring is here. The top 30 feet was full of algae...a bloom ready to happen. The one thing I really noticed was the amount of scallops in the water; especially at Dalco Wall. The lack of GPOs surprised me. At Z's, Canary Rockfish seemed to be everywhere and hiding in the holes normally saved for GPOs and Wolfeel. Lingcod season is also fast approaching because they were everywhere too. Sunrise Reef never disappoints; always tons of cool stuff to see there. Because of water temps, my dives were about 45 minutes long. I just get too cold; no matter what suit I am diving to stay down longer.

Thanks to all my friends who made yesterday's dives and day off work so enjoyable.

Divers and their pets

This week, one of our instructors lost their beloved dog. She went everywhere with them, and she would swim out in the water while she was diving. I was so sad because 5 years ago, I lost my faithful companion too. My Sadie would swim to me after diving and even towed me in a few times. For 9 years she was my best friend and it broke my heart when I lost her. It got me thinking...many divers have pets they love too, and have great stories about them.

Many on our staff have pets they love...Dan has Gigi, his lab/whipit mix that is very fast and is very lazy, as you can see in the photo above. Karyn has Petunia and Yuri, a pair of pugs that love to chase each other around. Alison has Geisha, a tiny brown and white dog that has any dog bigger than her running scared. Chip has a dog named Oreo, Brandon has Maggie and Sherman. Alyssa has Frank. Tom Carlson has Stevie. Ellyn has cats...that all act like dogs.

Tom and I have 2 dogs, Lucy and Bradee. Tom got Lucy about 11 years ago has a puppy. We haven't been able to figure out what kind of dog she is except she is one of the truest mutts I have ever seen. Bradee looks like a brown lab when you first see her, but she is actually a pointer that is very fat. Both dogs are older, but very healthy. We also have a cat too, that seems to rule our home and the dogs.

I hope all who are reading this blog today hugs their pets and enjoy the fun they have with them.

Underwater Easter Egg Hunting

The day started out with snow on the ground, but by mid morning, the sun came out and we had a beautiful day down at Les Davis Park in Tacoma for the Underwater Easter Egg hunt. This year, Divemaster candidates Alyssa Johnson and Ellyn Carmichael were the hosts and emcees for this fun event.

After a winter that just never seems to end, it truly felt like spring on the beach today. There was a light wind, but a blue sky and sunshine! It actually felt warmer too. Kids and dogs were out running on the beach; enjoying the negative tide too. My son was playing too and it never fails: by the end of the day, he was sandy and muddy from head to toe!

We had 6 divers in the water collecting about 8 dozen easter eggs hit by Josh Arnett and Karyn LaBonte. We had kids on the beach gathering eggs too! This year's grand prize was a Night Diver specialty, won by Jessie Miller, who was just certified this year. While underwater, a few "collectors" snapped some photos. Dave Washburn got this cool shot. Apparently, divers aren't the only ones that like easter eggs!

Divers never seem to disappoint when it comes to a potluck lunch. We had chicken, chilli, chips and all kinds of side dishes. There was even some cool little dive flag cookies for dessert. Thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed the sunny day with us!