Snorkeling Lesson

Red Fish wanted Pop Pops to give her a snorkeling lesson.  We are going to have to upgrade to some larger equipment because the tiny kid stuff is too small.  She is prepping "to snorkel with manatees and dive with ship wrecks"- two goals for her future. When Red Fish turns eight she can officially start practicing her scuba skill sin the pool and she can be certified at age ten.  I think scuba is in her blood.

Bonaire

 We went to Bonaire on a dive trip while the girls stayed with my brother and sister in law.  The girls had a fabulous time with their cousins and we had fun scuba diving.  I didn't take hardly any pictures because I was too busy setting up dives and spending all of my time underwater diving off the coast of Bonaire and Bonaire Klein.  We did three-four dives a day.  We dove on Buddy Reef (the house reef at Buddy Dive Resort) multiple times.  We also enjoyed the Andrea I & II.  We dove Small Wall, 1000 Steps (a favorite), Kalli's Reef, Oil Slick Leap, Hilma Hooker (a wreck), Angel City, Rock Pile, Captain Don's Reef, Mi Dushi, Leonora's Reef, Just A Nice Dive, Sampler, Weber's Joy among others.  The diving in Bonaire is fantastic.  It is easy shore diving with beautiful coral and a lot of sea life.  We had a little truck to drive around the island and we really enjoyed our adventure together.

 While we were gone my kids were having a fabulous time with their cousins and aunt and uncle.  They didn't even want to talk to us on the phone because they were having so much fun.  I'm pretty sure it was one of the major highlights of their summer. They saw fireworks, played outside, went to the library and the park, had a giant slumber party every night and just generally enjoyed themselves.

Scuba Babies

 Just a cute picture of the girls trying out some gear with my Dad. This was taken while Two Fish and I were in Hawaii last month. Something funny to be remembered- my Dad tried to practice piano with Red Fish and they both happen to be pretty stubborn.  Eventually he got frustrated and gave up and my Mom ended up finishing with her.  When I got home Red Fish told me: "Pop Pops was practicing with me and he just QUIT on me.  He just GAVE UP.  Can you believe it?"  Hilarious.

Red Fish is really good about practicing but will dig her heels in if anyone tries to help too much or differs from the approach her teacher took.  She will practice on her own without being told just to avoid me "helping" too much but will ask for help when she knows she isn't playing it right (unless she is convinced that she is playing it right.)  It's pretty cool actually.

Also cute of my brother J playing with Red Fish while we were gone.

Anniversary Trip

 For our 10th anniversary, Two Fish and I escaped to Mauii for a week.  We had quite a collection of people watching the kids in order to make it possible.  It was a much needed break from the world.  We hiked, we read on the beach.  We swam in the pool and in the ocean.  We swang in a hammock under the stars and went out to dinner every night.  We hiked and went to the seven sacred pools and the top of the volcano (Haleakala National Park.)  We did a couple of terrible shore dives and we relaxed. The timing couldn't have been better.

It didn't occur to us that it would be cold someplace in Hawaii so we were the morons at the top of the volcano in wet bathing suits when everyone else was bundled up in coats and hats.  It was a meorable trip with the love of my life.  I'm so lucky to have him and our little family.

Happy Birthday Two Fish

Today is Two Fish's 33rd birthday.  We had a little party with my isde of the family on Sunday and this was the amazing cake my friend Nancy made at my request.  I've been wanting to get Two Fish a cake like this forever.  She did an AMAZING job.

 She even put a Hammerhead rebreather on the diver and a cave on the side of the cake.  It was perfect.  Everyone went crazy over it.

 Happy Birthday to the love of my life.  You are getting better with age.

and Happy Birthday to my awesome Dad and brother J.  I love you guys.

Scuba Santa Visits Again

"Scuba Santa lives in the South Pole.  He is charge of taking presents to the fish and octopus.  He isn't nearly fat enough to be like the Santa who lives in the North Pole. "  Only my children would believe in such a character.

Sidemount

While the girls went to the petting zoo and the swimming pool, the boys went cave diving.  Two Fish tried side mount for the first time and the boys laid gold line for exploration later this summer/fall for an episode of their latest project-

Celebrating

 On the Saturday before the 24th of July, my city has a huge celebration.  We used to go as children every year.  There is a parade, a fair, fireworks and fun.  This year, my family's dive shop had a portable pool set up in the park for people to try scuba diving for free.  I did an underwater interview on the news to help promote it using a full face mask.  It was the first time I've been interviewed underwater so that was kind of fun. I can't find the clip online unfortunately. 

 We got up early and attended the parade together.  The girls got bags full of candy and danced to the music from the bands, waved at every princess and hollered at the floats.  (Why are there hardly any floats anymore?  Lame.)  Next, we hit the fair.  Red Fish rode a zip line across the park.  She is a daredevil.  She also tried out a fire hose and some bouncy houses.  New Fish was too tired for pictures but she enjoyed the bouncy houses.  I love that this small town tradition has stuck around even though the city has grown so much.  It makes me feel like a little kid again.

This Year's Card

Has this picture on it.  And it is the 2nd year I have copped out and not actually printed cards.  I just emailed them out and put it on my facebook again.  Don't take it personally- I just couldn't handle one more thing on my to do list.  I do wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Red Fish asked Santa for - a puzzle (the girl loves puzzles more than anyone I know), a rainbow dolphin, a donkey, and a baby jaguar.  The three animals change on a daily basis.  I'm glad she forgot about the dollhouse she was asking for before.

New Fish asked for- CANDY.  No toys- just candy.

CCR Cave Diving by Two Fish

Ginnie Springs

Last week I went to Fort White, Florida to take a CCR Cave Diving course.  I went with my father-in-law and brother-in-law who were training to be instructors for the course.  We left on Friday afternoon and got there that night.  Our instructor for the class was Phil Short who is an instructor trainer from the UK.  The course was pretty stressful especially at the beginning, but towards the end of it I really started enjoying the dives. 

Maddison Blue

Peacock Springs

I missed my wife and daughters while there.  I wish they would have been able to come with us.  We were able to video chat almost everyday.


Unfortunately, since we were in a course we didn't get any pictures or video of us while we were diving.  I did get some pictures of the outside of two of the caves we dove.  The first couple of days I was concentrating so much on getting my gear set up, trying to remember all of the skills we were going to be doing and remembering where we were supposed to go in the in the caves that I didn't think to take any pictures.

On Saturday we did some lectures and line drills.

On Sunday, we went to Ginnie Springs and dove in the Ballroom which is a cavern where a lot of people do their cavern training.  We did a few drills like following line with a covered mask, finding the line with a covered mask, and swimming for 50 feet with out any regulator supplied air.  On Sunday afternoon, we went to a different part of Ginnie Springs to dive in the Devils Ear/Eye Cave System.  However, I wasn't able to dive because my dive computer on my rebreather had a small leak and wasn't working correctly.

The main line through the cave is called the gold line.  When going down the gold line you encounter plastic cave arrows every 50 to 100 feet that point towards the cave's exit.  You will also come across to cave arrows that are with in a couple inches of each other.  This means that there is another line close by that goes to another part of the cave.  When you want to go down the other line you attach a line to the gold line between the arrows and then swim to the other line and attach it so that you always have a continuous ways out of the cave.  Connecting the two lines is called a jump.   

On Monday morning we went back to Ginnie Springs and dove in the Devil's Eye.  We entered the cave and once we made it to the gold line I attached a reel to it and practiced using a reel through the Catacombs.  When we were done in the Catacombs we attached the reel back to the main line.  Then we continued into the cave and went about 950 feet into the cave to the Maple Leaf and made a jump to another line and then turned the dive.  On the second dive we went a little ways into the cave and made a jump to another line that went through the Big Room and Bone room and the came back where we had put in a jump on the previous dive by the Maple Leaf.  Since I was the last person on the team I removed the jump and we exited the cave.  While exiting the cave I removed all of the jumps that we had put in and we again went through the Catacombs where we practiced a no visibility exit and I removed the primary line back to the surface.

On the first dive I was really nervous since it was the first time I had been in a cave in over a year and the first time I had been in one on a rebreather.   I had to keep reminding myself to slow down and take slow deep breaths.  Also on the way in you are going against the flow of the cave so you have to pull yourself along.  The nice thing about exiting was that you could usually just float out with minimal effort.  Also on the first dive we went farther into the cave than I did in my entire open circuit cave course.  That is one of the benefits of CCR cave diving.  I think it really hit me on one dive where I looked at my computer and noticed that I had been in the cave for over 80 minutes and I didn't have to worry about running out of air.

On day 3 we went to Little River Spring where we did 2 more dives and went through the Mud Tunnel and the Merry Go Round.  I did most of the line laying and jumps again and removed them on the way out on the second dive.  Laying line and jumps seemed to be a common thing for me to do through out the week.

On day 4 we went to Peacock Springs.  Peacock is a little different from the other caves because there is no flow in the cave so you have to swim everywhere you go.  Unfortunately I made the mistake of not wearing the pair of socks that came with my dry suit under garments on the first dive and I got blisters on the back of my heels.  That made the rest of the dives that week somewhat painful.  We entered through the Peacock 1 entrance and and made our way through Olson Sink where you almost surface. Before you get to the Olson sink the gold line ends and you have to put in a line connecting it to the gold line on the other side.  From there we went all the way to the exit of the Peanut Restriction where we put a jump into it and then turned around and exited.  On the second dive we entered the Peanut Restriction from the other side near the Peacock 1 entrance and swam all the way to the jump we put in on the first dive at it's end.  We then removed that jump and exited the cave the same way we exited it on the first dive.   The total for the day was about 8000 feet.  Everyone was very tired after this.

On day 5 we went back to Ginnie Springs and did the Hill 400 circuit and the Rollercoaster circuit.  There was a lot more people at Ginnie diving that day than we saw the rest of the week.  On the second dive my father-in-law and brother-in-law took the dive off for various reasons but the dive was pretty awesome.

On day 6 we went to Madison Blue Springs.  When we first got there a couple of other divers had just finished.  They said that it was a boring dive.  They must have been crazy.  We went into the cave and did the Godzilla room Circuit and then continued farther into the cave and surfaced in Martz sink for about 10 minutes.  Then we went back into the cave until Half Hitch and turned around.  On the way out we practiced the lost diver drill and then with about 300 feet left I was told I was out of air and I switched to my bailout for the remainder of the dive.  Thankfully this was the last dive of the trip, because I was worn out.  For the week I accumulated 820+ minutes of cave bottom time and over 1000 minutes total which includs deco and safety drills.

On Saturday we had a few short lectures and a test.  Then we went to Gainsville for the evening and watched The Three Musketeers.  On Sunday we came back home.

Note from One Fish: This was the culmination of a lot of training for Two Fish.  He was certified with his open water course in 2004 when we were newly weds.  He started his Advanced when we were in Fiji in 2004, his rescue (not required for CCR but helpful) in Little Cayman in 2006, his Decompression Procedures and Advanced Nitrox in 2006 , Cavern and Basic Cave in 2009, Full Cave last summer, and his CCR course this last summer.  I never would have believed that he would get this into scuba diving!

CCR

My Dad and Two Fish in their rebreathers and dry suits

Two Fish finished up his closed circuit rebreather course this weekend.  He took the class from my Dad and brother on a Hammerhead CCR from Jurgensen Marine.    If someone had told me eight years ago that Two Fish would have gotten this much into scuba diving, I never would have believed them.   He has gone from hating the water to becoming a complete Dive Addict! 

 Two Fish took the girls camping up to the lake with him Friday night.  I think the girls really loved doing something special just with their Dad.There was a big group at the Lake and Two Fish met up with them.  My Mom watched them while Two Fish was diving.

My Mom and New Fish

First Snorkel Lesson

Snorkel baby!

 Red Fish had her first snorkel lesson in the ocean this week.  She was adorable in her gear and she saw a yellow sting ray, a trumpet fish and a few other little fish.  She was thrilled.  She hasn't quite gotten the hang of the snorkel yet but she enjoys wearing the fins and she loved being in the ocean with my brothers and their wives.

With Pop Pops

Getting some tips from Pop Pops and My Brother J.

New Fish was a little nervous about the ocean but she didn't want to left out of all of the action.

A few tips for snorkeling with a kid- 1. Practice in the pool and bathtub.  Kids love to try out the mask and snorkel.  2. Practice swimming with fins.  3.  Make sure the mask fits well.  It should be able to seal onto their face with a gentle inhale and no strap.  4. Show them how to clear a snorkel by blowing into the mouthpiece.  5. Explain that the snorkel must poke out of the water and make sure the snorkel is long enough for someone who doesn't float well.

Diving In Cozumel, Mexico

 We just returned from a diving/family trip to Cozumel, Mexico.  It was a nice trip with some relaxing drift dives.  We dove at Tormentos, Chakanaub, Palancar Gardens, Delilah, Columbia, Cedar Gardens, and  Santa Rosa Walls.  Two Fish did two dives off of the dock at Fiestamericana as well. The Columbia and Santa Rosa Walls were my favorite.  There was some beautiful orange soft coral and yellow sponges and some great swim throughs.  There was a lot of life on the reefs and they were buzzing with life.  We saw a lot of turtles, eels and lobster.  It was fun to be with my family and spend some time under the water. 

 M.E. and Doo

 My Parents

 Me & Two Fish

My fishlist for the trip: Graysby, Gray Angelfish, Tiger Grouper, Four-eye Butterfly Fish, Juvenille Spotted Drum (my favorite), Banded Butterfly Fish, Queen Angelfish, Great Baracuda, Trumpet Fish, Fairy Basslet, French Angelfish, Doctorfish, Sargent Major, Blue Tang, French Grunt, Ocean Surgeonfish, Rock Beauty, Bicolor Danselfish, Yellow Head Wrasse, Smooth Trunkfish, Filefish, Bluehead, Spotlight Parrotfish, Juvenille Midnight Damsel, Smallmouth Grunt, Blue Runner, Bluehead Wrasee. Juvenille French Angel, Yellow Tang, Needlefish, Midnight Parrotfish, Permit, Ocean Trigerfish, Highhat, Honeycomb Cowfish, Spotfin Butterfly Fish, Squirrelfish, Peacock Flouder, Porcupine Fish, Cowfish, Scrawled Filefish, Spiny Lobster, Banded Coral Shrimp, Jellyfish, Green Turtle, Arrow Crab, Black Durgon, Black Grouper, Bar Jack, Tuna, Nassau Grouper, Red lipped Bleny, Sargassum Triggerfish, Glasseye Snapper, Bermuda Chub, Green Morray Eel, Spotted Marray Eel, Nurse Shark, Loggerhead Turtle, Splendid Toad Fish, Lesser Electric Ray, Southern Stingray, Yellow Stingray, Viper Morray Eel, Soitted Trunkfish, Ballonfish,  Harlequin Bass, Tabacco Fish, Yellowtail Damselfish, Blue Chromis, and School master.