NEW DIR Trip in Palm Beach

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danvolker

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Lake Worth, Florida, United States
# of dives
I'm a Fish!
We are planning a very cool new trip the week of June 6 to 13th....The will be a DIR Adventure Dive trip, I will get Halcyon Demo gear and some well known DIR divers :) to be on the dives with you...and the dive sites will be largely 70 feet or less in this trip to accomodate single tank diving....( I "could" switch this to deeper and doubles based diving if enough of you really prefer this--and we have a boat spectacular for doubles, with room for a second set of doubles under your seat, and massive room to walk around and not be crowded--this boat is Narcosis..you can find it in South Florida Dive Journal > Home ).

My initial plan, is to take you guys to the most colorful and vibrant reefs Palm Beach has, notably Horseshoe, Pauls and parts of Breakers and DelRay that are really spectacular.
For many of these reefs you have our classic multi-level potential, where you can get dropped on the offshore side at 90 or 100 or so, spend 5 minutes, then begin swimming up the slope of the offshore walls, and reach the crown in a minute to 3 minutes at the 37 to 40 foot depth range.....the crown is about 50 to 100 yards wide over many of the reefs we would be at, meaning you can swim leisurely across it, looking for sea turtles, lobster, and the life found in this extremely lush area....and as you reach the west( inshore side), you hit the inshore ledge--typically 45 feet on top, to 55 to 65 on the bottom of the ledge where it meets the sand.

These reefs are a dream for u/w photographers, and for DIR people, these represent many cool issues for you to play with.....when we swim across the reef crown, across the drift current, this is incredibly effortless when done flat horizontal, with jet fins ( or my freedive fins)...sideways to the current will create some challenges for non-DIR divers using biofins and some forms of splits, that don't work well sideways to current---certainly we can find some split fin lovers to help us with this "research project" :D

The shallow crown allows DIR ideas of deco to be exercised, between the deep first few minutes, and the choices the diver makes on the remainder of the dive.

If we have a day with the correct wind conditions, we can run the boat out to the "weed mats" durring the surface interval, where something like a Sargasso Sea can be played in--you get under it, either with snorkel, or tanks with 1000 psi ( or lots less) and discover the outrageous camoulflaged life that lives in these mats..you are not more than 3 feet deep, and can come up through the mat if you need to--to surface, but usually you would swim to the side first, and come up outside of it.

Below, the vis can run to 400 foot visibilty---deep gulf stream clear water over 500 to 1000 foot depths. As we drift under the mats, massive schools of Bonitas or other pelagics will often visit the mat...and we can hang the flashers that blue water freedivers use to pull these vast schools up for a look..... Again, this is just one possible thing we can do, out of MANY.

We can have some groups do some scooter diving, with their own flags, and we will have buddy teams doing exactly the dives they want to do....there are many choices--you will sit down with me, go over what you like most, and we will plan it.


We will have the Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park on some of these days, considered as an after diving or part of unlimitted shore diving after the boat dives....

The Hilton on Singer Island is giving us an even better deal than before--this will be UNDER $120 per night for our group!!! And, they have a new DIVER DOWN CAFE menu they created for the diving market--our nutritional needs, our ideas about how much meals should cost, and how good things should taste :)
The Hotel Shuttle service is operating now, so NO ONE will have to get a rental car....the Shuttle takes you to the boats, to the other attractions on the island, to the Ocean mall, and to the BHB...even as far as Seasons 52 if desired. For NON-diving family, there will be an enormous range of activities and things to do--so it WILL be a fun vacation for them as well.

If interested, and if you have questions, email me at
dan@sfdj.com


Also know, Pura Vida Divers will probably be running a special color management workshop for U/W photographers during this same time period ( they brought in an incredible expert at this)---it will be about how to make your printer print the same colors and lighting you see on your screen ( from Lightroom or photoshop) , along with some special u/w specific training in LR and PS....This is separate, but there could be "interplay" for some of you if you like.
 
Man, I wish I could make this one -- the floating mats sound like an utterly unique and fascinating dive!

For anybody who is on the fence about doing the trip -- I was amazed at how good the diving off West Palm was. The hotel is one of the friendliest I've ever stayed at, and the food, even before Dan worked with them, was quite good and for a hotel, already pretty inexpensive.

Unfortunately, I have a June trip that was scheduled over a year ago. But if this goes next year, I'll be there!
 
Dan

I like everything on the agenda for this one! I thought I was the only one diving the gulf stream weedlines (the ones way out, 20 miles or so) when I started 20 years ago! It is everything you say and more because some pelagics are also there (I love diving with dolphin and rainbow runners!)

Due to work, I might only be able to make the 10-12 or maybe 10-13.

I would be interested in deeper diving with singles if there are wrecks or hole-in-the-wall. I would rent an HP 100 or 120 for that, but no decompression profiles.

Might also be interested in the color profiling workshop. I will contact Pura Vida about that one.

there would be two of us. I am pretty advanced (400+ dives with deep dives on air and deco on O2 down to 210'). My wife is newly certified (20 dives) but has been down to 85' on a couple of dives and is doing just fine and becoming very comfortable in the water and is also getting to enjoy drift diving. I would feel comfortable taking her to 100-110 if conditions are good. Our gear setup is DIR so we can fit in with the group.

I will have a new camera rig this week!!! (Oly xz-1 with two strobes and video light) so this would be a great time to work with as well.
 
Dan,

That sounds like a great trip. Like Lynn, I was floored by how good the diving is in the area. Wish I could make this trip as well.

I will have a new camera rig this week!!! (Oly xz-1 with two strobes and video light) so this would be a great time to work with as well.

That sounds like a very nice set-up. I've been eyeing the XZ-1 since it was announced. Let's know how it works out.

Henrik
 
Henrik

I will be shooting the rig tomorrow night and on Monday morning at the Blue Heron Bridge. Will let you know how it goes. Looks awesone just around the house.
 
I'm interested, but because of school may only be able to do one or two of the days, the 11th and 12th look promising.
 
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I too am interested but I will not know when my days off are during the summer (in the same boat as rox). At least till around the 25th of may
 
I have been busy on new articles for SFDJ.com over the last 2 weeks, and did not really get a chance to discuss all the things we want to do with this 2nd DIR Adventure Trip. I think moving this to the end of June is the better way to plan right now, but the more of you that have some date ranges you want to suggest, the easier it will be for me to pick a good time to do this.

Diving is getting warmer almost daily now....Sandra is down to a 3 mil from her drysuit last month, and I used a pair of shorts and a shirt Sunday--and was warm !

One of my interests is doing some Sailfish photography.....and one of the Palm Beach boats said that they are interested in doing a few dives like this as well....Sailfish are plentiful very close to the Palm Beach inlet, and they are not in water any deeper than we typically dive in...in any case, you see them near the surface. The fishing boats spot them, and find them, and I think we should do this as well.
I can't be the only one doing this, so I would like a few others who would like to jump in the water with some sailfish.
Other unique dives we are planning....Sandra needs to shoot Horseshoe reef right by the Horseshoe, and Pauls Reef by the Islands....normally boats drop you so you have a 60 minute swim.tour...These would be dives where we are dropped at the principal /defining feature, and spend the whole dive just shooting it. This could sound boring to non-photographers, except that huge clouds of life swim by these areas all the time--everything will come to you...
So, it will be big on bottom time, and no one will have to be annoyed at anyone for swimming too fast :) Any of you are welcome with us on any of these dives.

As to the main DIR trip, are their any wish lists of things you guys would like to see on a dive in this hemisphere ?
 
GuyHarrisonphoto:
Sandra and i should be doing a charter boat dive thursday , and also the night dive Sunday at BHB ( high tide 7:30P, sundown 8p) with the tide one of the highest by far in a long time--very clear water usually.
Would you like to join us on either?
 
Dan,

Maribi and I will be at the Sunday night dive for sure! We can get together and maybe have a bite to eat afterward (Brass Ring burger?). I would love to see the frogfish that has turned up and maybe we can locate it.

I have to work Thursday but give me the details of the boat dive and maybe Maribi might be able to go.

Guy
 
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