Category Archives: News and Articles

My Journey To Better Dive Fitness

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I’m not ashamed to admit that I like to eat and partake in the occasional adult beverage.  But when life gets busy I tend to eat more and exercise less. Unfortunately my early to mid thirties have been a very busy time for me;   and consequently I’ve not  maintained a very healthy lifestyle of exercise and proper diet.  Hey… Read more »

GUE Cave 1 Training-Day 6, Sweet Sweet Ginnie

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It was day 6 and we arrived at the front office of Ginnie Springs just before 8am.   We waited a few minutes for the staff to open up but we were the only ones in the parking lot.  We quickly checked in and everyone there was very nice.  They gave us our “Cave 1” arm  bands and we headed over the the… Read more »

Thinking About Switching to a Back Plate and Wing?

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When I first started diving in 2009,  I didn’t realize there were many many choices for scuba gear.  And I didn’t even realize the back plate and wing existed.   The shop we went through had a good selection of quality recreational gear,  but like most shops they are limited to what agreements they have with manufactures and what makes sense to… Read more »

Halcyon Focus Dive Light-Gear Review

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We have been using the Light Monkey 9W 5.2 canister light for a few years now and it’s been pretty good for what we needed. And what we needed was to have a reliable LED light to dive in the murky Texas lakes,  and on night dives.  We used the 9Ws mainly for communication if we got separated enough that… Read more »

The Great Migration-Moving to Florida

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Tina and I decided that we needed a change to shake things up a bit. We had been tossing around the idea of moving out of Texas for a little while,  but it was always a fleeting discussion.  Let’s face it, moving sucks!  The process is stressful and the comfort of living and working in a familiar area turns into chaos of… Read more »

The Annual February Blue Lagoon CHUM Dive

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Wow what a difference a year makes.  This time last year Tina and I did our last wetsuit dive with the CHUM club at the Blue Lagoon Dive Lake in Huntsville TX.  It was memorable because we had already ordered our drysuits but were just waiting for them to arrive.  The water temp last year was 49° F and we… Read more »

2015 Year In Review

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We find ourselves at the end of another year. Where does the time go?   Since becoming a diver in 2010; this year, above all the previous years has been the craziest.  It’s also a year that we didn’t get to do much fun diving despite having been in the water a lot. The training and gear changes have basically… Read more »

Get rid of the post-dive ear funk with “Ear Beer”

  EAR BEER: 1 Part White Vinegar+1 Part Isopropyl Alcohol=Frothy critter killin’ goodness.  I get a sore ear if I’ve been diving a lot.  I was a swimmer as a kid so I’ve had swimmers ear before and normally for swimmers ear I’d go the pharmacy and get some special drops to make the pain go away. Rarely do I actually… Read more »

Threatened Sharks On The Menu In Houston

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  I had an opportunity to visit McCormick and Schmick’s sea food restaurant in Town and Country,  (Houston) and discovered that they are serving Mako Shark on the lunch menu.  Don’t eat sharks. First of all, the shark meat often contains high levels of mercury because they are at the top of the food chain.  And it’s just plain bad news… Read more »

Home Made Go-Pro Camera Tray

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I needed a reliable way to film our underwater adventures and I stumbled across the above video that someone made, and it inspired me to make my own home made Go Pro camera tray.  I used 1″ pvc pipe, two elbows and  a junction box along with some plumbers pipe glue and came up with my own version.  I added some… Read more »

How We Became Divers

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Tina and I started diving mainly because of a trip to Puerto Rico.   But my passion for diving started long before that.  I have been in love with the underwater world since I was able to walk. My mom had me in swim lessons basically as a baby and as I got older,  I remember watching underwater documentaries and thinking how amazing it… Read more »

Trip Report- In Search of Santi: High Springs, Florida

  Wanting to eliminate weather as the main determining factor to where and when we could dive, we decided on making the jump from wet to dry. After weighing pros and cons of all available dry suits on the market we chose Santi. Since dry suits are a big financial commitment and involve a bit of a learning curve, we… Read more »

Trip Report: Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

In August 2014, we were fortunate enough to dive in a hidden treasure within the Gulf of Mexico. The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is situated ~115 miles directly south of the Texas/Louisiana coast. Encompassing 56 sq. miles (36,000 acres), the sanctuary contains incredible reef systems that are absolutely teaming with life. After an overnight trip in calm seas… Read more »

5th Annual New Years Day Dive 2015

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The C.H.U.M Club AKA City of Houston Underwater Mariners (chumclub.org) does a yearly challenge called the Dive A Month (DAM) and the rules are pretty simple: Basically a member of the club needs to complete 1 dive per month for an entire year. Unfortunately for 2014 we only started our diving season in June because of some other commitments.  However… Read more »

Lionfish: Invasive Predators of the Deep

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  Native to reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, the lionfish is a member of the scorpion fish family. Growing upwards of 45 cm in length and 1.3 kg in weight, it is an aggressive, territorial species with very few predators likely due to the fact that they are venomous. Large spines located within the dorsal, anal, and pectoral fins are… Read more »

World Oceans Day: Why it Should Matter to All of Us

Did you know that 8 June is World Oceans Day? Like all days of designated observance, World Oceans Day was started to bring a yearly awareness, in this case to the state of our underwater world. Although water makes up ~70% of Earth’s surface, our seas remain one of the most unique, important, and yet unexplored parts of our world…. Read more »

Sea Otters: A Species Under Threat

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With the new challenges wildlife faces daily, it is no longer enough just to survive.  To ensure species longevity, individuals must learn to quickly adapt.  Although a lot of attention is given to the conservation of the large, iconic creatures of land and sea, it is often those species that reside in the middle of the food chain that play… Read more »

The Bottled Water Dilemma

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How many bottles of water do you drink every month?  What about in one week?  How much do you consume in a single day?  Did you know that in the United States alone, over 50 billion bottles of water are consumed annually?  And of those more than 50 billion bottles less than 20% are recycled?  But the bottled water dilemma… Read more »

The Ocean: Where Life Begins and Ends

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The ocean, for most, represents a great blue void.  It is sometimes hard to imagine that an incredible world, much larger than the space terrestrial beings inhabit, lies beyond the shoreline and below the surface.  The Censes of Marine Life, completed in 2010 by 2,700 scientists from 80 countries, identified more than 1 million species that call the ocean home. … Read more »

Shark Finning: The Global Attack on Sharks

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Used as a tasteless thickener in soup and an inconclusive cure all in Ancient Chinese Medicine, shark fin, or more specifically shark finning, claims the lives of more than 70 million sharks annually.  Think about that number for a moment; more than 70 million sharks.  Portrayed as mindless, blood-thirsty killers in Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws, sharks are persecuted not on… Read more »