What did you do/se this weekend underwater?

[MikeJacobs]

A shore dive and a boat dive.

This is not an ad... I like *all* the Fort Lauderdale area dive operators (except one, who has clearly become jaded over the years, and I don't dislike him - I just feel sorry for him).

But we dove with the American Dream II, a new boat out of Pier Sixty-Six in Ft. Lauderdale, and had a great experience. Todd & Chris are terrific hosts and their boat is nice and stable - of the size I'm used to after many years of California dives.

It's a big boat, and naturally we'd call it a 'cattle boat.' I admit I expected the worst, but you'd have to see how things were organized and how smoothly they ran to understand my change of heart.

There were a couple of large classes on board. Our hosts made sure that we went down first on the Tracy (wreck) and changed my reel out on the flag before dropping us in a "private" spot for the reef dive. We only saw two other divers on the reef... how they accomplished that I have no clue.

So, they were extremely sensitive to the needs of both classes *and* certified divers, and successfully managed us both.

Part of the credit for the GREAT trip goes to the instructor leading the largest class... she probably had a dozen students and she herded them expertly - they took up the space of much fewer, especially on the wreck on the way back up the line.

I've seen a lot of classes on boat dives over my 20 years blowing bubbles, and I've never seen anything run so well.

So, what did you do this weekend?

 

[showboat]

to hear that you enjoyed A.D. II Mike. I do agree that Todd & Chris will take care of you as Joni and I were were on with them last month. Are you still going out again with them later this week again or a few beach dives.

Let me know when is a good time for a beach night dive soon

We never did make it out for our sat night dive in our hot spot

;-0

 

[MikeJacobs]

showboat once bubbled...
SNIP...Let me know when is a good time for a beach night dive soon

You know the spot...(shhhhh). Tuesday night at 11:00 pm, and in the water by 11:30 or so. We need to make sure our tanks are topped off and that each group will have a flag, lights, sticks, nets, etc... and don't forget that license! They're sure to be checking THAT spot lol...

 

[m1diver]

this weekend got a little messed up for me. for the first time and last i had my local dive shop book my dive for me. so it got booked and paid for, he tells me the time the boat departs and its all good, im ready to dive. i drive to west palm from orlando at 4:30 in the morning get to west palm after eating breakfast at around 8:15.....BOATS GONE...local dive shop guy told me the wrong time...so its either wait 4 hours for the boat to get back and do the afternoon dive or head to ft. lauderdale and try a shore dive. so we decided to do the shore dive and it was pretty good. not real good visibility but we saw some baby loggerheads...2 huge nurse sharks..an eel, and speared ourselves 2 hogfish. oh yeah and i found 2 huge sandollars in perfect shape for my girlfriend. =] all in all i think we salvaged the day rather well. logged a little over 3 hours of diving...im happy =p

 

[Atticus]

I managed four dives this weekend, but the one that I will remember forever ...

A friendly face from the shop showed up with his family just before sun down. After they'd started their dive I stripped out of my dry suit, grabbed a mask, fins, 4lb pool belt, and a stage bottle and went skinny dipping with the stage under my arm.

I particularly enjoyed the amused looks when I swam by nearly naked and w/ no BCD

On the downside, Tahoe is a bit chilly, even in the summer. =-)