Tina and I had been contemplating doing a GUE Fundamentals or “Fundies” as it’s been known, for quite some time. We actually had contacted Meredith Tanguay sometime in spring of 2014 and tried to get a Fundies class scheduled for December during Tina’s break from teaching. Fortunately we decided to hold off for a number of reasons. A big reason… Read more »
After our last two dives on March 28th 2015 we were able to drop some weight from our rigs. However it just seemed that we were fighting the weighting issue. Both Tina and I were using about 24 and 26 lbf of ballast respectively. Our AL80 tanks have a swing weight of about 6 lbf and end up positive 4lbf…. Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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, 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 »
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 »