Dive Report 11 August

Yes, from time to time I live at the bridge. What a fun day today. My open water students were very comfortable in the water and we looked everywhere at everything. It's so much fun once students move beyond survival mode. The water was eighty-two degrees. The vis was between fifteen and twenty feet. In 3mm full suits all divers were very comfortable for our one hour, fifteen minute dive. The bright sun made the good vis all the better. Three of our open water students ages 10, 12, and 14, were all over the dive site. The excitement of seeing so much meant lapses in awareness of buddy proximity; Carrie got a good work out keeping the students corralled. As a buoyancy exercise to end the flapping of hands, I gave two of the students a camera to share. One of the students took the picture of the manatee. What an incredible thrill. One of the students also took the octopus picture. I wish I had more cameras to loan. You should see their trim and buoyancy now. Carrie and I feel like grandparents; we get to play with the kids and then return them to their parents. I love it. Get in the water, Ham

Dive Report 10 August

It was a parking lot trifecta! A weekday, an early-morning high tide, and rain showers combined to leave plenty of space for premium parking! Nice! There was a pretty good chop resulting from a gusty south wind. For instruction it was perfect for simulating offshore conditions. When on the surface, fully inflate your bcd, keep your mask on, your regulator in your mouth, and your back to the sea. A student only has to suck down a little sea water to understand the wisdom of those guidelines. Underwater conditions were very good. We had 15' to 20' of vis (quite a bit better than yesterday) and the water was 82 degrees. Our students, Carrie, and I did a one hour, forty-eight minute dive time. That is the longest dive I have done with students. In 3mm full suits we were all quite comfortable. The students were much more at ease today and really got to see some of the special critters the bridge has to offer. We had a very good time! Get in the water, Ham

Dive Report 9 August

Better and better! We had a little better vis today, 10' to 15', and 82 degree water. At 7:00 am on a Monday morning there was only one car besides ours in the parking lot. The high tide was at 8:06 am. My open water students arrived late so we actually started the dive at 8:03 after doing our predive safety check. We had to go straight out to the channel to run the skill set, but as is often the case with younger and smaller students, ears would not cooperate. Skill set incomplete, we started back after the ebb had started. The water became increasingly greener and the tidal flow became stronger. My students struggled with the current until we reached the relative calm of the water off the beach. I figure there is nothing like experiential wisdom to understand why we dive the slack high tide, and that it does not wait for us. I didn't have to say a word. Now they know better than they would have from any explanation from me. We'll be back tomorrow morning (well before slack high tide I'll bet). Get in the water (on time!), Ham

Dive Report 7 August

When there is eight feet of vis at least we can know that it could have been worse; it could have been three feet as it was the day before. (I wasn't at the bridge on Friday. An instructor relayed that information to me.) With eight feet of vis the dive was at least doable for open water students who really wanted to move through the course. I was glad to see the radar showing thunderstorms moving through Riviera Beach before I left the house for our 5:30 pm rendezvous because I figured that would clear everybody out of the park and make parking that much easier. A rainy day on the weekend is by far preferred by me, especially when the high tide is in the late afternnoon or early evening. Parking can be a real challenge. Despite the storms there were many people there! They had simply moved their picnics under the bridge! I got a parking spot easily enough, but there were many cars there, many more than expected. The heavily overcast skies and the late (7:00pm) high tide made the vis even shorter than the eight feet it would have been on a sunny day. Toward the end of the dive it was very much becoming a night dive and I had no light. My two open water students had trouble equalizing to the point where I figured it just wasn't going to happen, at least not in the next several hours when the beach would be long closed. By the time we got back to the beach it was much more evening than it was afternoon in terms of light. My students and I were in 3mm full wetsuits having heard about the very cold offshore temperatures and anticipating water colder than the recent 86 degrees we have enjoyed. The water temperature was 82. We were all very comfortable for our 54 minute dive. A highlight of the dive was the little web burrfish, "rare to uncommon Florida" in the Paul Humann book, but not rare to uncommon at the bridge! There is always something special. Get in the (not as cold as I thought it was going to be) water, Ham

Dive Report 3 August

Clear and warm water! We had 40 feet of vis today in 84 degree water. None of us were in wetsuits for our one hour, thirty-minute dive and none of us were cold. A little eel attacked my camera; I'm not sure if it was a spotted eel juvenile or a purple mouth juvenile. A pipefish in the sand was easily seen by my open water student. Several sharptail eels entertained us as they hunted. Parking was no problem and it felt really good to get in the water and out of the summer heat. Get in the water, Ham