Underwater Freedom

SCUBA Buddies

Hayden & Korey

After starting back in late August with their studies to become PADI Open Water Scuba Divers, the boys finished their training dives in the crisp October waters of White Star Quarry and submitted all paperwork in November to make it "official".

I had always hoped that son, Korey, would take an interest in scuba diving...after all, he was my only hope for an immediate family member buddy as the girls would NEVER be divers.  Korey had an interest in the water, in snorkeling, and had tried the Discover Scuba Diving several times over the years with friends & at resorts.  But I certainly didn't want to "push" him.  Early in the spring, as I knew his 16th birthday would be upcoming in a few months, I again mentioned that he could take the course whenever he was ready.  I even suggested that if he didn't want "Dad" to teach the course, that I would have no problem speaking with my scuba instructor colleagues to see who would be able to help.

As I look back at it, there were probably two factors that prompted Korey to one day ask, "How can I get one of those SCUBA books, Dad?"...neither of which I had any control over.  The first was during the summer when Korey came to a confined water pool session I was instructing just to watch and swim a little.  I really think this peaked his interest again and he saw the fun the student(s) were having.  The second was his buddy from school, Hayden.  Hayden had an interest, encouraged by his parents, in taking the course.  That was really all the convincing that Korey needed because now HE had a buddy his own age and not just his dad!

The boys did fine and are now both certified scuba divers!  I hope that they (we) will have many chances to dive together in the future.  Who knows, maybe it will be an avenue for new opportunities down the road for them.

Sandusky City Fire Department, Rescue Class

I recently had the chance to spend three days with a great group of guys from the Sandusky City Fire Department as they were working on their Rescue Diver PADI certifications. After a full day in the classroom, we met up at White Star Quarry for two additional days of training.  All six of the firefighters did a great job and are soon to be receiving their c-cards!  Thanks, guys!

City's Dive Team trailer...sweet!

Not only were we able to have some fun, but the dedication of these firefighters really came through when they were asked to roll play serious scenarios in potential dive situations.  Thanks to Carla, Bob, Barb, and Vince for assisting with the class!  I know that the citizens & visitors of the City of Sandusky are in good hands.

You can check out more photos of this class, taken by Carla Beard, at her FaceBook photo page by clicking here.

Open Water Student...finally

Well, it took a good bit of time.  First there was the studying of the course.  Next,  we had the reviews and tests.  Then came the unexpected delays of spring track, work, medical delays, and family schedules.  But FINALLY in the late summer, David completed his course as an open water scuba diver.  I hope that he will continue his quest in diving & that we can buddy up for some scuba diving in the near future!

David @ White Star Quarry for training dives.

Throwing $$ Money $$ into the Ocean

No.  I did not buy a boat.  But, if you ask my wife, my scuba diving adventures and expenses can sometimes resemble the throwing of "hard earned" money into whatever body of water I happen to be in.  Today it was again White Star Quarry in Gibsonburg, Ohio.

It has been a number of years since I have had the opportunity to dive with my friend Marshall Karp, but I was happy to be able to get together today with him.  While the visibility was less than White Star-like due, no doubt, to the storms in that area over the past days, we still managed two dives from the northern step off area.  We visited the traditional spots, including the cement block house, crusher pit, sail boat, buoyancy course (PVC tubing), platforms, police cruiser, and more.  But what really got my attention more than the 15ffw visibility and 56ºF water below the thermocline (thank you DUI drysuit) was that I had the privilege share in Marshall's 100th dive...and this quarry-bottom object that caught my eye:

Maybe my wife is right??

East Breakwall Barge

What a beautiful day on Lake Erie!

photo courtesty of MAST & Linda Pansing

After 16 years of certification, diving OTHER Great Lakes, the Caribbean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean (not to mention numerous inland bodies of water), I finally made it to Lake Erie which is just over 50 miles away from my home!

While I have no underwater photos of our two dives, I can tell you that we had calm waters, about 80ºF air temperature, and a smooth ride on board the Holiday.  My dive buddy for the day, Zach, and I were assigned the southeast section of the wreck between the 0 to 20 foot mark.  While visibility at 40' depth (mid-50º F water temp) was tolerable at up to 10 feet, it took only the slightest sculling to 'silt up' the area.  Our two dives were complicated with several technical difficulties and we certainly could have accomplished more of our tasks.  Nevertheless, the beautiful north coast views of Cleveland's Lake Erie and about 20 MAST members working together on the project made for a good day.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

I've just returned within the past few days from a week long vacation in Mexico.  While the purpose of the trip with my wife of 25 years wasn't diving,  I managed to share a suitcase with her for my clothes and to pack dive gear in the second piece of luggage to Wyndham's Viva Maya Resort in the Playacar area. Hmmm.
My first diving with ScubaCaribe was about five years ago when I first visited Viva Maya's all-inclusive resort.  Since that time, they have grown and have partnered with Underwater Technical World to expand their diving and water related experiences to snorkeling, cenotes, trips to Cozumel, fishing trips and, of course, technical diving as it relates to Mexico's cavern and cave diving adventures.  For me, I stuck with the local diving options as it was closer to get to the dive sites and, therefore, involved less overall time away from the resort.  The daily schedule for local diving started with an 8:30am deep dive, then the option for a 10:30am shallow dive, followed by a break for lunch and finally an opportunity to do a 3:00pm shallow dive.  Let's just say that this was the printed schedule and remember that things were on MEXICAN TIME.

Wed 15 June-After a few days to settle in at the resort, I had a disappointing first dive. Wearing a new 3mm full wetsuit and in salt water for the first time in almost a year, I was under weighted.  When I had finally received enough weight from the boat to descend, the dive master candidate had lost the group.  Nearly all the dives in this part of Mexico are drift dives, so staying is one spot to wait for the others isn't always possible.  After five or six minutes of searching, he signaled to return to the surface.  Whether it was my (polite) ranting in Spanish to the dive master and the first mate about the store manager's suggestion for my needed lead (lack thereof) or just luck, UTW agreed to credit the dive and give me another.

The afternoon started with snorkeling with my wife and our friends.  It was an adventure for her, but I am proud of her for agreeing to try it for just the second time ever.  Upon returning--tired--I hopped on the afternoon boat around 3pm to Jardines (gardens) shallow dive site. This was a very gentle drift dive where we bottomed out at 37' in the 86ºF waters for a 44 minute dive.  Along the way, partnered with Omar, we saw the first of our Caribbean lionfish along with brown rays, numerous flouder, angelfish, parrotfish, trunks, and lots of fan coral.

Thurs 16 June-Two dives today included a deep dive at Las Tortugas (The Turtles) and shallow Chun-Zumbul.  Again nearly one hour late to begin, I dove with a German national, Michael, who was staying at Viva Azteca.

Las Tortugas was a nice drift dive with a decent current.  Dropping down to an initial depth of about 60 feet, we immediately spotted not turtles, but two lionfish...and saw close to 20 on the 33-minute dive.  Nevertheless, the dive site did live up to its name.  In the dive briefing the divemaster apologized for "only 50-60 feet visibility", but this was due to increased plankton and other nutrients in the water that attracted turtles to feed upon, along with many reef outcroppings. While not as plentiful as 15 years ago when turtles were numerous, we did see 5 or 6 green sea turtles, as well as several small rays, honeycomb cowfish and more.  I recorded a maximum depth of 91 feet (averaging 57') and had a toasty reading of 85ºF at depth during the 33 minute dive.

Chun-Zumbul is said to be the longest and most shallow of all the reefs in the Playa del Carmen area.  This second morning dives had vegetation and coral overhangs in its 33 feet depths.  We enjoyed many schools of fish inhabiting this area and spent a 42 minute dive exploring the nooks & crannies in the 86ºF warm waters.

Fri 17 June-I did three dives on Friday, as a strong weather front was forecasted for the weekend and the dive shop anticipated the harbor being closed on Saturday (it was, and on Sunday, too, due to the chop & size of waves...good call).

The morning deep dive took us to Pared Verde (Green Wall) and a maximum depth of 98 feet with equal visibility.  This wall is different than the classic "drop off" reef as it has sections of walls that are split by sloping sand hills.  The multilevel dive took me to maximum depth, and still 83ºF, within the first 10 minutes.  Staying at this depth for less than 9 minutes, we made our gradual ascent for 16 minutes (70', 50', 30') and then gradually ascended for the remaining part of the dive to our safety stop.

In addition to a fly by green sea turtle, we saw a 4-5' green moray eel, spiny lobster, and huge barrel corals.  A great dive!

Dives two and three were repeat locations from the previous day, but this was no problem.  The 49 minute Jardines dive took me to a maximum depth of 35' with 86ºF temps at depth.  

While a shallow one, this dive saw rays, a camouflaged stonefish or rockfish, spotted eels, and other interesting life such as the below coral banded shrimp and the small sand crab that the instructor leading the dive spotted.

  And while again a repeat dive, the final dip in the Playa waters netted a 46 minute afternoon dive after nearly a 3 hour surface interval.  This time, I recorded 86ºF at a maximum of 32'.  Trumpet fish, sea spiders, sea cucumbers...and more that I didn't view just a day earlier.                                                                          

All said, the six dives over three days were all nice dives.  I hope I don't have to wait five more years before returning to the Playa del Carmen area for scuba diving.

Julie dressed me??

So, it's true...I had another woman dress me.  Apologies to my (current?) wife of 25 years.  But honey, it's not what it looks like...

The true confession is that I completed dives seven & eight on my new drysuit.  And as I am taking advantage of the DUI zip-sealed dry gloves while the water is still a chilly 44ºF at the tubes (Gilboa Quarry, Ohio @ 62 feet), I haven't quite figured out how to feel my way around all the clips, snaps, and necessary tucks.  Julie, of the Ohio Quarry Divers, was one of my dive buddies on June 8 and graciously-- like the mom dressing the young kid--assisted me in "getting dressed".  Thanks, mom.

Along with Julie--Lauren, Ryan, Ozzie, and I took off on our first dive.  We visited the plane and helicopter just off the last dock, feed some fish at the school bus, and headed towards the tubes.  We even had the chance to see the silhouette of the paddlefish...my first time ever to do so in person.  Again, thanks, Julie!

John B joined us on our second dive and we headed in the opposite direction (east?) toward the shallows of the quarry.  I had the chance to try out, underwater, my JVC HD video/still point & shoot camera in its Ikelite housing...quite the challenge, again, with my oversized, cumbersome (but warm) dry gloves!  I also have a filter on the camera, so I'm trying to play with it to see the various effects at different depths as well.

All in all, it was a fantastic day weather-wise and dive-wise.  I hope to get out to the quarry again with friends in the near future!

MAST In-Water Workshop

After a weekend of classroom training back in April to become an Advanced MAST student, Saturday was the in-water training date.  As an advanced student, I was given the responsibility to "plan" data gathering on a newly found wreck.  To start the process, my buddies Aaron, George, and I went to set the dive flags/floats on the wreck (at White Star Quarry) and to do in-water preliminary drawings.

I was given the responsibility of organizing two different teams.  Each of the teams where given different tasks to complete on various sections of the sunken vessel.  After finishing their dives, the teams filled out dive summaries, and transformed their "wet notes" (from really cool tri-laminate or underwater paper) to dry notes.  From here, the teams had learned basic triangulation skills and were to transfer their measurements onto grid paper to recreate the underwater wreck and possible artifacts. Bob & Tom--one of my teams--are working to this process to the right and below.

 As with all diving activities, safety is a high priority.  Not only did teams check in and out with times and air pressures, but also had MAST guidelines for how much or how long to do their given tasks.  If tasks were not all completed within their 30-minute time frame (or 500 psi remaining), there will always be another dive to gather more information.

All in all it was a good day, as seen here by team #2 Frank and Bill from Canada.

Whether diving wet or dry, experienced diver or less advanced, this is a great workshop and I would recommend it for all.  The real duty of MAST is to take these trained volunteers to authentic wreck sites, mostly within the Great Lakes, and to collect data on some of our closest historical sites...underwater.

May Dive

Leave it to me to pick the coldest day of the entire weekend!

I headed off the the Fremont YMCA this morning and met up with Patrix Heschel who was working with a group of open water students.  Knowing that he would have some free time, we had arranged to work on some full face mask (FFM) skills.  I have had an Ocean Reef Neptune FFM for nearly two years, since winning it in a dive related drawing.  Once I got some pointers and worked on a few skills, with Patrix's help, I really love the mask and can see that I'll be enjoying it quite a bit this summer!

After the pool sessions, I headed around the corner to Gibsonburg and White Star Quarry where I met my dive buddy Josh L.  After getting an air fill and getting geared up in my dry suit, we headed in and oriented along the south quarry wall where we dove both small boats.  From here, we headed north along the east quarry wall and investigated the platforms (two of the three still on the bottom) and went to the wooden swing set and buoyancy course.  We then, after a short 3-minute safety stop, headed back into the shore.  While I was quite warm, my dive buddy was getting cold feet--literally--in his 3mm booties and 6.5mm wet suit.  My profile included a maximum depth of 41feet, for a total of 23 minutes bottom time and a water temperature 49ºF.  The second dive didn't happen as the wind and air temp made Josh even colder.  Not to worry.  I'll be out again soon.

GLHS/MAST

For the second straight year, I attended the Great Lakes Historical Society Dinner in conjunction with the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team training weekend.  The dinner, held in Elyria, was on April 30, 2011 and included a delicious meal, silent auction, guest speaker, and lots of opportunities to visit with old friends and meet new ones, too.

Scott Pansing and Patrix Heschel @ MAST dinner

Representing Canada, Doug B and Jeff O!

Among the awards presented this year was the MAST Volunteer of the year.  Fellow PADI Instructor, Vince Frodl, was given this award for his time and service to the organization!                                                  

Vince (center) with wife, Anita, and Ken of MAST

As an "advanced" student taking the workshop this weekend, I had the opportunity to help teach and work with two basic/beginning MAST students, Bob Vincent & Tom Gonya.  Below, they are working with triangulation to map out various points on our "wreck".  As always, it was a good weekend and Carrie and the MAST instructors put on a good weekend!

                 

ScubaFest 2011

Columbus, Ohio...ScubaFest 2011...another great weekend for all who attended Ohio's combination of a mini-trade show, professional conference sessions, business displays, and travel companies offers.  But don't allow that serious  description turn you off, because there was also plenty of time for horsing around!

Linda, 'horsing around' in front of the GLHS/MAST exhibit

But, for many, one of the key attractions was this year's keynote speaker, Sean Fisher.  Sean is the grandson of treasure hunter Mel Fisher who was key in the discovery of the Atocha, a Spanish Fleet wreck filled with gold coins and silver bars that sunk in the 1600's off the Florida Keys. Along with a number of presentations and the main program at Saturday night's banquet, Fisher brought just "a few" treasures from the wreck, including at least a 3-4 foot length of golden chain, and over a million dollars in gold discs, coins, spikes, and emeralds!

Sean & participant gaze at a special emerald find!

Make plans to attend next years ScubaFest now!

February Dive Planning

My initial plan was to actually DIVE every month of the new year, 2011.  Unfortunately, it looks like I have missed my chances for February.  Ice diving in the early part of the month was not to be as plugged ears and sinus issues have prevented me from even getting into the pool.

So, as at least a backup plan, I have been involved with SCUBA related activities in the past month.  Along with firming up some plans for a Discover Scuba Diving Day at the local YMCA (click here & go 1/2 way down the page to see their advertisement), we have also made plans for two different open water classes in April and May.

While I have not had a full scuba class to teach this month, I have had two individual students.  One was a gentlemen from the Belleville area, Andy, who needed to get some of the tests & book work out of the way.  The other, David, has been working with me one-on-one, and we are nearly finished with all the knowledge reviews, quizzes and tests.  As soon as the proper paperwork is completed, we'll be in the pool!

Upcoming events

I met, Friday, with Ms. Christie Auck, Aquatic Director at the Bucyrus Area YMCA.  After discussing many options, we have decided to begin our "SCUBA relationship" with a day-long Discover Scuba Diving Day on Saturday, March 26, 2011.  While this is still over 2 months away, I'm excited about the possibilities and  hope that we will have a good turn out.  Who knows...maybe we'll even get enough interest to start up some open water classes, too!

1st Day, 1st Dives of 2011

1-1-11.  While I knew it was the first day of the new year, it really didn't sink in until I was filling out the familiar pink registration form at White Star Quarry.  Not only was today the first day of the year but, of course, it was my first dive of the new year...AND a first time I had been diving on January 1 of any year.  Thanks to my dive buddy Scott Willard and assistant Bob Beard (although Bob didn't dive today), we were able to experience 2 exhilarating dives with not less than 75 feet visibility.

Scott and I took our first dive of the day along the south quarry wall and visited a platform, both sunken vessels, the graveyard, American flag, and cannon.

While my simple point and shoot underwater camera doesn't do justice to the clarity, it was fantastic to dive the quarry and to see all the various items WITHOUT needing to navigate through the algae bloom to find your way.

We took our 38 minute dive to a maximum depth of 44' and registered a chilly 38ºF water temperature.  

After tank fills and a nice and breezy surface interval, our second dive was a bit shorter.  Our second dive of a total 33 minutes, went to a maximum depth of 43 feet and took us along the east wall to visit the crusher pit, block house, sailboat, and more.  Again, from the block house, we were able to see to, and beyond, at least the first crusher pit circular hole.  While diving drysuits, Scott had wet gloves and could really feel the elements--literally.

Overall, today was a great day.  Although the air temperature decreased dramatically as the afternoon passed, the cold nip in the air was a reminder that I was alive and able to feel the elements.  Thanks to my wife and family for letting me spend part of my day away enjoying these two dives.

While I'm not much for resolutions, were I to make one, it would be that I am involved in at least one dive activity each month of the new year.  If I'm not able to dive each month of 2011, at least I hope to be involved with a specific diving activity throughout the new year.