Getting Started

8:39 AM Rick



























Bay Island Beach Resort Boat dock. Dive boats await the arrival of Tropical Storm Gamma!




I have some friends that have decided to get certified this spring so they can go with my wife and I on a trip to a tropical paradise. The plan is for them to get certified this spring and then get some experience locally. They should have plenty underwater time and be comfortable with their gear before making their first ocean dive.

I think that is an ideal situation for new divers. Having logged possibly a hundred dives in less than ideal conditions before my first trip made my first reef dive that much more enjoyable and stress free. My wife on the other hand, decided to do her certification in the most inconvenient way. Two weeks before a trip to Cozumel in '05 she decided she wanted to get certified. I was rather upset at her last minute decision because it usually takes 2 weeks to do your class and pool sessions, and then another weekend to get to the open water check out dives. Not enough time. We took a trip to our local dive shop which a buddy of mine owned. We bought the course book, got her some mask, fins and snorkel and headed home for some home school crash course studies. We made arrangements with the dive shop that I would help her with the book work and pool work on her underwater skills. The pool work proved difficult because she doesn't take instruction from me very well but we managed to cover all of the necessary underwater skills successfully. She did her own book work. I helped her with questions and demonstrations.

We met a class at a pool for some follow up with an instructor who agreed she was doing skills correctly. The night before we left she took the written test and made arrangement on line with the dive shop in Cozumel to do her check out dives there. It was pretty stressful for both of us but we managed to get her up to speed in two weeks. Her check out dives in Mexico went well and she is now an accomplished diver with 10 dives under her belt and a max depth of 80 feet!
























Looking up the wall at a diver

I wouldn't ever recommend anyone getting a certification in such a hasty manner. The skills you need to get etched in your mind are not fully there yet. It has been 5 years since her last dive and were going again soon so now she has to "review" her skills in a pool. Now she will be nervous and unsure of herself all over again. She classifies herself as a warm water diver only which is fine but living in the Midwest, doesn't offer much skill development. Now that our friends are getting certified she might push herself to do some local diving and refine her skills.

What my wife doesn't realize is that sooner or later something will go wrong on a dive and she has no practical experience with gear or problem solving underwater. The thought of her mask getting bumped off her face or regulator getting torn out of your mouth is a reality so I'm not sure how she will reacts to these situations at 50, 80, or 100 feet. Most new divers don't plan for such circumstances but they will happen. In my nearly 20 years of diving I have had many scary, if not life threatening situations to deal with. Some were my own stupid mistakes, others were someone elses cause but regardless, it takes some fast thinking and rationalizing to get yourself through it. Stupid mistakes , bad decisions and panic will get you! I witnessed a very experienced diver (much more so than me) make one bad mistake and it killed her! She left a husband and two young children. I keep her obituary in my log book so I don't forget what can happen!

You don't have to be an extreme technical diver to be a good diver. I am a recreational diver with only 5 certifications. I don't even have a rescue diver certification but I know divers that do who are no better in the water than I am. Its easy to get the certification cards by passing courses and some planned water exercises , but it how a diver handles real life scenarios that proves their worth. That comes with experience. I have saved two divers from severe consequences of their bad decision making or for not paying attention to their situation.



















Conch Pile. Roatan, Honduras

Everyone gets spooked underwater at some point. Wether in fresh water of in the ocean there is much that can scare you. Its having confidence in your abilities and skills that will get you through it and keep you coming back for more. It a real rush to explore these underwater realms that surround us. BE SAFE

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Going Deep

7:02 AM Rick
Feather Duster worn








I had been diving for a couple of years and had logged quite a few dives in all kinds of conditions but still hadnt been any deeper than 50 feet or so. My dive buddy Don and I got involved with a local group of divers and one of the couples had a place at Table Rock Lake in Southern Missouri and they invited a bunch of us out to dive there. We jumped at the chance to see some new waters. We had heard that the lake had some good diving, with ledges, walls and even a few boat wrecks.
Mark and Helen had a great set up for diving and water sports. We had aquired a couple of pontoon boats to dive off and great accomodation to stay at for a weekend of diving. Our first dive site was at a place named Breezy Point. A rock outcroping where boaters like to stop, climb up a cliff and jump int0 the water. We tied up just down from the jump point and dove along the steeply dropping bottom. I easily surpassed my 50 foot mark (my previous depth maximum) to 80 feete as we cruised along a jagged rock and log slope towardss the point. We got to the jumping point and settled to a smaller ledge at 90 feet where there were several divers already sifting through the bottom looking for whatever the jumpers might have lost. As usuall they were finding sunglasses, money and some watches. Just like my home dives at The Offsets.

Divb buddy Gary

Our second dive of the day was to a boat wreck in a channel between an island and shore. It was only in 50 feet of water but what you had to submerge by the island and follow a rope to the wreck, then follow the rope back. There was too much boat traffic to surface at the boat so safety was an issue if something happened and someone had to emergency ascend to surface. It was erie with boat noise overhead and some murky water conditions at this site. The wreck not so impressive , just a stripped out 45 foot boat with no real features left on it.

On a later trip to the lake I managed to break the 100 foot mark on a dive near the first one. The water was dirty above 60 feet so a light was needed to go deeper. Below 60 feet the water was nice and clear so the light would illuminate what looked like a barren moonscape of rock and logs on a steep slope. I got passed 100 feet and began feeling some mild effects of nitrogen narcosis. I was nervous about what I had read abpit it but it turned out to be just some mild tunnel vission and a little extra paranoia mixed in. I noticed it took a little extra effort to breath due to increased pressure on your lungs to expand. I maxed out at 126 feet on that dive. Still my deepest lake dive to date. This was nowhere near the bottom of this lake which is supposedly around 250 feet. Way to deep for my training level to get me. Hawksbill turtle feeding



Onother dive there is perhaps one of my most memorable of all the freshwater dives Ive ever done. To this day it is still etched in my mind. We went to a place called Enchanted Forest a short ways from the dam. It is stand of giant old forest trees standing upright in 130 feet of water. We stayed at about 90 feet swimming through the branches still strong and reaching out into the water , just as they would look in a winters' forest with no leaves. The water was a green haze from the lack of sunlight and there were miles of fishing line strung between all the branches from fisherman getting snagged. There arent any fish at 90 feet so I dont know why the fisherman were fishing that deep. I had to use my dive knife to cut my way through it or else get stuck myslef, like a fly in a spiders web. I would compare this to waking through the woods at dawn but with a green sky above. Someday I would like to go back an do that one again .

I leaned about the physiological and psychological effects of deeper diving that summer. To dive safely at depth (any depth really) you have to be able to keep your wits about you because things can go wrong FAST down there and a panicky person could get themselves in serious trouble if they are not able to stop and think about what is wrong and how to remedy a situation. The effedts of nitrogen narcosis only amplify those reactions in people. Ive seen divers panick and almost get themselves hurt pretty bad when they could have easily resoved their problems by thinking them through.

I dont have any pictures from those day so I'll jus post more form other trips.
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Why I dive

6:52 AM Rick

Sooner or later I usually get asked how, or why, I got into scuba diving. Since we're not near any oceans or reefs, scuba diving is not extremely popular here in the Midwest except to the very adventurous souls or those that travel. I must credit my sisters' first husband Eric to introducing me the hobby. First I was introduced to the hobby of marine aquarium keeping where I spent hours watching and learning about marine life. I watched amazing things happen inside the confines of that glass box and wondered what it must be like in the actual ocean, but I still had no plans to join Eric in the water . It was a passing thought that maybe someday I would try it. Erics family owned a business in Jamaica and he often traveled there and had been diving for some time. It wasnt really in my plans or goals to travel with him there or to learn to dive. Through an unfortunate turn of events Erics was killed in an auto accident and for several years his dive gear sat in my sisters closet unused. I thought it was a shame that the gear was just wasting away there and began researching what it would take to learn to dive. I found a local dive shop and convinced a buddy of mine to get certified with me.

We got certified and dove locally where ever we could get underwater. We were both enthusiastic about diving and the thrills of discovering what was at the bottom of all the lakes an quarries around us. I began planning how and where I would make my first trip to the tropics. I didnt have the good job yet so I knew I had to wait and save while my buddy make several trips without me. It took me several years to save up enough disposable income to go diving and it was well worth it when I hit the waters of Roatan for the first time! It was better than I ever imagined it would be....a truely giant aquarium! So much to see...so little air. From then on I was hooked and my future vacations would revolve around getting to the reefs. I didnt think much about going to Disneyland , Grand Canyon or the other typical vacation destinations. I wanted to get back to the ocean! Again...I must credit my late brother in law for opening up that door to a completely different world that was beyond the cornfields and shopping centers of the midwest. Dont get me wrong though....my midwest , farm heritage is strong but the call of the ocean is almost as strong. What I wouldnt give to livw on farm where the cornfields and woods end at a beach and some good reef diving!
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Gear problems

7:22 AM Rick

I went to the local dive shop yesterday to pick up some gear for an upcoming trip. Its a new shop and owner is very helpful. I left a camera that I no longer use with the shop to try to sell. Hopefully it sells and I can put money towards some more new gear I want. My problem I have is with a Uwatec Alladin computer I bought a few years ago from a buddy of mine. Its battery died on me a couple of years ago in the middle of a dive. Luckily I was only in 20 feet, in very familiar waters, so I was comfortable finishing my dive knowing my dive time and bottom time were well within my no decompression limits.
When I took the computer to get the battery changed I find out that since my buddy hadnt bought it through a dealer (he bought it on line) that the free battery change wasnt covered and it was on me. I agreed and asked how much. The cost to ship the computer to manufacturer and have them do it in the hundreds of dollars! I was rather torqued off to say the least. Now I have a six or seven year old computer that I was completely satisfied with but costs more to have a new battery put in that it is worth. I could scrap it and buy a new , more modern computer for less than what I paid for this one. Somehow I dont feel that should ever have to be the option for something so simple as a battery change. I have an older Oceanic Prodigy computer that has and still works just fine and all it needs is a $2.00 battery from Walmart that I can change myself.
Although it has been a couple of years since all this happened I still look at the Uwatec sitting on the shelf, lifeless, and get aggrevated with it. It was suggested to me recently t0 take it apart to see if I could do it myslef. I took the back cover off and discovered a sealed compartment that has to be cut apart. I stopped short of tearing into it but I just might after it sits a while longer. I'm still holding on to a glimmer of hope that I can save it somehow.
Now I know I will never buy a piece of electonic dive gear that I cant service myself! I dont care how good of a piece of equipment it is. My Prodigy will have to suffice for my upcoming vacation or rent a Nitrox capable computer if I dont want to use air! Hopefully before my NEXT trip I can upgrade my BC too.
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In The Begining

6:04 AM Rick
I have to admit when I first got my open water certification I wasnt a good diver. I was typically overweighted because I hadnt yet learned the tricks of going under. I tended to hold my breath as I submerged instead of letting the air out of my lungs, thus I thought I needed that much more wieght to get down. I wasn't comfortable in the cold, murky waters of the midwest lakes and quarries that we had to pick from. My dive buddy Don and I suffered through our learning curve of experiences as we logged dives wherever we could get wet. Don was more bold and carefree about it, I was the nervous and sometimes overly cautious greenhorn.



During our certification process our instructor advised us that the more experience, and more comfortable we got with diving in the cold and low visibility conditions of our home area the better we would be once we got to our ultimate goal.......the ocean.



Together Don and I logged possibly a hundred dives in our home area in Missouri. Our favorite, although far from the best, is a little known spot about an hour south of St Louis known as The Offsets, or Mine La Motte . It's a open pit lead mine , which actually predates the infamous Bonne Terre Mine, and is surrounded by rock cliffs anywhere form 5 feet to 60 feet in height. Its is privatelly owned now and has become a popular hang out spot for youth from all around the area. They pay their entry fee, sign a death waiver and make a day of it. Its more like a stationary float trip scenario with music, libations, bbq's, and lots of fun.



As far as the diving goes at The Offsets , it is possibly some of the worst we've ever done at times. Water temp was usually hovering around the 50 degree mark and visibility was usually 2 feet or less (sometimes ZERO) but the reason we came back time and time again (and still do!) is because of the cliffs! The cliffs are a magnet for the kids to jump off of and whatever they had in their pockets was left at the bottom about 35 feet down. This is where I discovered the fun of treasure hunting in the water. You NEVER knew what you would find at the bottom of the quarry. In the 17 years I've been diving there I have found items I still havent figured out what they are. Jewelery , money, wallets, credit cards, checkbooks, car keys, drugs, drug paraphanalia, cell phones, cameras, sunglasses (thousands of them!) and lots of dive gear.



The Offsets has been a training ground for divers for years. Not so much anymore since many other more diver friendly places have opened up but many a new diver has left their fins, mask , knife, or dive light at the bottom. I have also fallen victim and left a mask and weight belt there for someone else to find. The Offsets still is a good training ground for newbie divers, though not many go there anymore. It offers a shallow pool with some interessting features underwater. You can learn how to handle the very cold bottom temperatures and get comfortable in low visiblity in realative safety. I will continue to dive there as long as it is open to divers and swimmers. I honed my skills there for a lot of the low vis diving I would do in my future and I am glad I did it too.



My then dive buddy Don has moved on with a family so his free time to dive is taken up by his 3 daughters now. I moved on to a new buddy that I introduced to Mine La Motte and now Jason and I regularly scour the bottom for hidden treasures. I'm actually looking forward to this years season to begin. I will post some pictures of the quarry if I can find them.
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Spring Fever

12:53 PM Rick

Winter is almost over and I'm getting ready for a planned trip to Cozumel in April. Ive been digging my gear out of storage and checking it over to see if I'm missing anything or if it still fits....such as my wet suit. It seems I put on a few pounds since last summer!

Currently it has been 5 years since our last dive trip and my wife Tracey and I are anxious to go again. This will be her second dive trip since being certified in Cozumel. I think I should find a pool to get her into so she can familiarize herself with

What will be interesting about this trip is that my parents are going with us. This will be their first trip to Mexico and they are also excited. Now that they are retired they are traveling more spending my inheritance!

In the next month I've got a lot of planning to do and checklists to go over in preparation to get all the gear checked out and packed. We've got a pair of fins on order, some new booties to get as well.
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