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HEY BRUCE!! FREE DIVING !!!! Are you still here?


Konrad in Lincoln

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Hey Bruce, I got a hell of an offer today! :)

Today I was invited to attend a dive trip with an underwater salvage diver next weekend, in Table Rock Lake, AK.

He's hooking me up with the owner of Heartland Scuba, and this guy is trying to achieve some advanced teaching certificate or something.

So he wants me to go, because I'm another student that he can add in his tally of required students that he's trained, to qualify for this certificate.

He is going to get me the following: Advanced Open Water, Dry Suit Diver, and Wreck Diver certifications all for free. (except air refils) And it gets better. Because he's the owner of Heartland Scuba, he's going to loan me all the gear I need to go with him, again, for free. He's letting me into their pool on Sunday morning to help me learn bouyancy control with a dry suit. 8)

They are going down there to relocate 3 or 4 boats that have sunk to the bottom of the lake, to make them more accessible for recreational diving. Using lift bags and a surface barge with a crane on it. We talked about mixed gas, but we agreed the above certifications are quite a bit to cover already. If nothing else, I'm establishing a really, really good contact.

This is just too good of an offer to pass up. It's a group of professional salvage divers, so I could never ask for better company. It's sort of like a private pilot being allowed to fly an F-18 Hornet for a day. I'm completely stoked. They have a houseboat that we'll live on for the weekend. He says vis should be around 70 feet.

Nyeah nyeah... :D:D:D:D Free, free, free.... . . . . . .

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These guys are good at what they do.

I guess they specialize in cold water and ice diving.

Not sure if I'm into that though. :lol:

They've told me there is a wreck up in Lake Michiagan (I think) called the Cam Loop (or Kam Loop?) that actually still has a body on it!!! :shock: :shock: These divers say it's pretty unknown, because the wreck is quite inaccessible to most divers. (I imagine they're using mixed gas to get to it)

Something about the water chemistry and the water temp and depth of the wreck has caused the body to *not* decompose. It's the engineer of the vessel, and his body is somewhere in the wreck, I don't remember where they said it was at.

Can you imagine that??

That's some freaky crap.

Glad I'm not going there.

I'll take Table Rock Lake down in AK over that any day.

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I used to do a lot of cave diving... and there is one particular cave here in Florida which has a wetsuit floating on the ceiling and a mask sitting on the floor. It's way back in a spooky section of cave where the line is covered with 2" of silt. I heard it's been there since the 60s.

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Konrad,

The Kamloops went down in 1927 just off the north coast of Isle Royale in Lake Superior. There are a lot of sunken ships around Isle Royale and it is a popular place for diving if are qualified to dive in very cold water. Some of the wrecks are in shallow water (America went down in 1928 in shallow water). I've been kayaking there a couple of times. It's a great place to go if you ever get the chance.

Ed

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I have a co-worker that cave-dives and, if I may, that's friggin' nuts!!!!! He was telling me about one cave where he had to remove his tanks and push them ahead of himself so he could get through a passage!!!! He's got all kinds of video that I use to scare myself to sleep. You guys are a) fearless B) insane c) heavily medicated or d) any combination of a, b or c.

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Hi guys,

It's been a while.

I'm still managing to fight off the urge to build... OK, :oops: I mean start another boat. So I haven't had much to contribute.

I still lurk once in a while though.

This is still one of the best boards out there.

Sounds like a great opportunity, Konrad. Our next class will hopefully be Rescue Diver. They say it does more towards making you a better diver than any other course.

...Maybe this summer.

I have to agree with Tom Holder. You cave divers are all of the above.

I'll take my water salty, in the 80s, with good vis., and lots of reef fish. :wink:

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Im doing something similar,

I started diving a couple of years ago, I had started as a kid snorkeling in the local pond, bay, ocean. During my 20's and 30's I wasn't able to continue, so a few years ago I ventured into a dive shop and payed for my first cert and my personal gear and started on my open water. Without any problems with the skills I progressed very quickly. At this time I offered to "work" in the shop and on the boat for gear and certs. So far I have my divemaster cert that I received last fall, this is the card I really wanted. Now I assist an instructor, Il be divemaster on the shops new dive boat this season. hehehehhe all the wreck trips for free and they swim where I want to hahahahhahahha. I dive in R.I. conditions are cold water and low vis, low vis being a bad day 2-4 ' a good day 6-8 and a great day 15-20 great days are few and far between, but that makes strong navigation skills. In early Jan we went out to do an advanced students deep dive/drysuit dive. 35f deg water 50 feet for 45 mins air temp was in the 20's, when we surfaced all 3 of us were unable to speak and we were babbling ba bah bah babab bub blub its like leaving your face in a bowl of melting ice cream for 45 mins.

last fall we took a trip to the fla keys and dove the spiegle grove, we were the only ones on the boat and was able to swim the entire length, I made 132 feet on that dive. a very cool wreck dive, this boat was sunk as a reef and dive attraction, so its been made safer for all levels of diver. we then headed over to the bahammas and we did the shark feeding dive, lots of fun...

I agree that the rescue diver course is one of the best to have, it gives you more confidence and knowlege.

If you follow this link, Im the guy in the picture to the left of the sharks including the shop owner scuba steve :).

http://www.scubatoo.com

Jack

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Too cool!

As a kid I dreamed about being that kid on Flipper.

Then one year on a Florida vacation, we snorkeled in the Keys and I was hooked.

We moved here from the Midwest in November, 1975, and that Christmas there were five Scuba lesson gift certificates under the tree.

Thanks, Dad!

I kinda fell out of diving after I got married and lost touch with my old dive crowd. Then, a few years ago, the bug bit me again.

Some people I knew from different places. (Konrad is one of them.) mentioned that they had taken up the sport, and in a mid-life fit, I hit the dive shop.

They wouldn't put me in an advanced class without starting over with basic Open Water again. So I signed up for that, went home and told my wife, and instead of telling me I was nuts, she went and signed up too! :D 8) :D

We did Advanced Open Water the following year, and are having a blast.

We dove the Grove twice the summer the put her down. I gotta go back and see how the marine life is growing on her.

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You guys are making me jealous. After breaking my left eardrum twice (once surface diving and another time on an airplane), I can no longer equalize the pressure very well. I tried "Snuba" in Maui, and every time I tried to equalize pressure in my ears, bubbles streamed out of my left ear. The instructor hadn't seen that before, and it kind of spooked her. I had to cut my snuba session short (it was a pain anyway ... you have to watch other people's air lines all the time, so you don't get the freedom of movement you do with the tank on your back.

So I float on the surface with a snorkel and mask above reefs. Still fun, but I miss the days of diving down 10 feet or so and getting close up.

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