Hi Divers

[Alan Smithee 001]

I just joined the site today (infant member?). I like reef and wreck diving, so its handy that I'm living near Key West. I have PADI; Rescue & Nitrox. My favorite dives are the neighborhood patch reefs @ 18" to the neighborhood wreck, the Wilkes Barre (warship) @ 180'. I'm not tri-mixed up, but I'm OK with deep - air / deco, if done conservatively. The night dives here are great, but no-one else seems to think so. I do occassionally dive with the E-Divers, but do not have local buddies. I get divers from Indiana that have more dive enthusiasm than the locals, who tend to be spearfishermen or collect tropicals, the only 2 type dives I really don't do. Maybe some out-of-town woofs will want to get a couple dives going to the Spiegal Grove, A. Busch, or Looe Key somtime on thier vacation. Its not dive weather now, but it sure was 1 month ago! When its too windy to dive, I have a nice sportbike to play in traffic with though. Dive Hard!

 

[RiverRat]

jrst13 once bubbled...
I just joined the site today (infant member

Welcome to SB! I've been on the board awhile although I'm a newbie diver. I'm glad I decided on Grand Cayman for a dive in 3 weeks instead of Looe Key with Jim Wyatt (I think that's his name) I've been to the keys before in Dec. and the wind killed a snorkel trip for me. Jim was straight up on the weather. I'll probably do a keys dive sometime in the summer down that way.

Welcome aboard!

 

[Alan Smithee 001]

Hi Divers and RR,
It stayed pretty nice around here up untill about 2 weeks ago. The best dive days will tend to be Wed. afternoons, for about 3 hours every 2 weeks, for the next 4 months. So we just dive the sub-pens, which is better than nothing, or worse, cutting a hole in the ice. There was a spectacular night dive in late Aug., hope to get another one in soon. Dive Hard!

 

[Ron Brandt]

Welcome from Western Canada !

I did my IDC/IE in Flordia (Vero Beach)

One day I will get down to Jimmy Buffett land to dive!

You will love the board

Ron

 

[DandyDon]

Welcome to Scuba Board. :hi:

Yeah, I guess the locals would see diving differently than either visitors or new divers. I enjoy the artificial wrecks there enough to fly in from the far side of Texas and do them - Grove, Bibb, Duanne, Eagle, T-Bolt, and once - the Busch. I'm hoping to do them all again come March maybe, May at the latest.

180 feet down on air, huh? How many cubic feet of air does it take to get to it, visit it, and decom? I bet you use Nitrox for decom, or O2? Sounds like a thrill, but ldguy: at 56, I'm probablynot qualified.

don

 

[CBulla]

Welcome to the board jrst13! I love to keys dive, though I've not been that deep on a dive as of yet... I'm not shy of when to dive, day or night... perhaps we can hook up some time and make some bubbles on one of the local sites.

 

[SCUBAMedicBill]

Welcome to the board jrst13. I haven't been down to the keys in erons, though I do wave when I fly over. I'd like to get down there again, especially now that my son dives. Like to introduce him to the area. Are they still going to sink the carrier in the Gulf?

Look forward to conversing more with you.

Bill

 

[Alan Smithee 001]

Hi Divers, I'll attempt to thank you guys for the warm welcome en masse. very friendly and thoughtful. To answer a couple of specific questions; the future carrier wreck "Oriskany" will be faaaar off-shore of the Pensacola (panhandle area) IF INDEED it goes to a FLORIDA site. The final decision has NOT been made, although the certainty of it going SOMEWHERE soon, is getting it prepared for the old-maiden voyage.
Iv'e only dove the Wilkes Barre twice, but the best way to do it on air (disclaimer, alot of divers will say there is NO best way, only Tri-Mix), is double 80's or a 120LP, with a 40 - 50% Nitrox pony, and stay only about 15 min. max. I didn't even have a buddy for the last dive, so I just took the 120 and dove the Navy NDL table to the top of it (175), a whopping 4 min BT. You can get into horrendous deco times if you really are into exploring this very worthwhile wreck. I cannot argue that the dive is appropriate for re-breather or Tri, its just that under the right conditions, it can be a short fun dive, and the reason I don't tech dive is that if those guys are having fun its hard to tell. Then there is the lack of $8000 for training and equipment upgrades More later...

 

[Chris Red]

Enyoy the SB!
I hail from Toronto, Canada where things are getting a tad chilly. we had a bit of snow over the weekend, not that the weather would ever stop us diving.
I did my O/W dives in the Keys in 1990, sure was nice.

 

[Tractor Tom]

jrst,

We are headed out in the Pontiac tomorrow, from Central Michigan with a destination of Islamorada on Saturday afternoon. Will be taking an AOW (been diving on and off for 25 years and never did it...) with Ocean Quest starting on Monday. After diving in Higgins Lake a week ago, 22 degree air temp, 44 degree water at 40 ffw, any diving in the keys will be a TREAT! Can't wait to get down and find some clear, warm water and a tiki drink. Nothing beats escaping from the cold weather and snow and ice for a while and doing some diving. You are very lucky to be able to like in Key West, or anywhere in the Keys...