Article Author:

Kevin Preble
Open Water Scuba Instructor

Another great weekend in the books! We had trips to all of our favorite places in both Key Largo and Islamorada. Every one of our boats were out there taking divers to the reef on what turned out to be an awesome weekend of great weather.

We had the pleasure of having another trip from our friends at Sea Ventures. They visited Snapper Ledge, FireCoral Cave, The Benwood at Night, The Spiegel Grove, and Christmas Tree Cave just to name a few. We want to congratulate the newly certified divers in the group!! Great job Amanda, Lizzie, Brandon, Taylor, Quinn, Ted, Andy, Nicole, and Max! And also say ‘Hi’ to a few of the regular group leaders like Jeff and Mark with Claude assisting them. Let’s not forget the other divers who were already certfied but came along for the adventures (Becky, David and Glen). Look forward to seeing you guys again in November.

We also had George and Mel in from Team Divers with about a dozen students. Islamorada was also wonderful this weekend. They had about 80 feet of visibility and calm waters all weekend. Hope to see a report from our shop a hop, skip and a jump to the south. They could be bringing you a report from Crocker Wall and Davis Reef, which was the Sunday trip that Captain Bill drove. The Divers all got out of the water and rated it an A plus plus. Someone said “Best dive I’ve ever done”. We love to hear that and sharing our wonderful reefs with the divers from around the world.

See you soon!

Article Author:

Owen
Master Scuba Diver Trainer

Hi gang,

 Just a quick report to congratulate one Mr. Steven Gaub on completing his PADI Digital Underwater Photography Specialty today. It one of PADI’s newest classes and it’s really a lot of fun. They had the old photo class, which of course was on film, but this is the newest update and it features all the new exciting digital possibilities. 

If you are interested in taking the class, it’s easy to combine with the Advanced Open Water class, because you only need 1 extra dive with the camera to complete the specialty. Even if you are already AOW or don’t want to take the AOW class, it’s a really fun two dive specialty that you can complete in just one dive trip. No exam, no tests, you don’t even need your own digital camera, just use one of ours and fire away and return home with a CD full of your photos. Hey, they might even end up on our website like the ones you’ll see below. Steven’s photos turned out great, and we even snapped a couple of him in action!  Enjoy, and we hope to see you in one of our PADI Digital Underwater Photography Specialty Classes soon!

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi everyone,

We’d like to give a big shout out to a brand new PADI Open Water Diver who finished her class this weekend. April came down to our Key Largo shop with her boyfriend Jared. April she did a fantastic job on her checkout dives even in the face of less than perfect conditions. On her first two checkout dives, the weather conditions were not so cooperative. It wasn’t bad, but 2-3 foot waves, some current and below average visibility make it a little more challenging than we’d like for a brand new diver. Anyway, she did great and then for dives 3+4 we got back to normal on the weather. Visibility went way up, someone turned off the current machine, and the waves were just a gentle roll. So congratulations to April on her certifcation.

We’d also like to say hello and thank some of the other folks who were along on these trips. Another newly certified diver (got certified back home, but was making her first dives with us) Jennifer and with her was boyfriend Don. Also accompanying Don and Jennifer were thier two friends Mary and Raymo who were doing the PADI Discover Scuba class! A lot of new divers, and everyone did a great job and had a great time (or at least that’s what they tell us!). Looks like Jennifer and Don want to do the PADI Advanced Open Water class sometime next week (they live up the road in the Ft. Meyers area) while Mary and Raymo are going to join in the Open Water Class and become certified Divers. I think it’s safe to say they really liked the Discover Scuba Class. We look forward to seeing them again.

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi everyone,

Hot off the presses for this weekend! Rick Smith, Martin Watson and the Reef Rakers have visited us again for a reef cleanup project. Over 70 lbs of garbage was collected on one single dive trip out to French Reef in Key Largo. The Rakers collected beer bottles, beer cans, many feet of monofilament (fishing line), a brick, rope, broken lobster trap pieces, tin cans, bottle caps, plastic bags, and a bunch of other junk. All in all, it was hard to believe when you actually look, just how much human impact we have on the reefs. Shame on the people who throw that stuff overboard. As always they are a great group and we enjoyed having them once again. We shot a little video of the cleanup and the diving. Please check it out below.

George and Mel from Team Divers were also down with some of thier students. Everyone did a great job and there are some new Open Water divers as of today!

Conditions on Saturday were very nice, but Sunday someone turned on the wind machine and it made some waves. We visited lots of reefs this weekend, including Molasses Reef, French Reef, Benwood Wreck, Spiegel Grove, Snapper Ledge, Pickels reef, Hens & Chickens, Christ Statue, and Banana Patch.

Click here for the VIDEO!!! (requires Flash)

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi everyone.

Bringing you a report from Islamorada today. A very nice day for sure. Sun was out, clear skies, a light Northwest wind that allowed us to have very flat sea conditions. Visibility was very nice running about 60-70 feet. We visited Davis Ledge and Davey Crocker, and as usual these locations delivered big time for our first time divers Katya and Oleg who were diving with Kevin in his Open Water Certification Class. Kevin is being assisted by Tim who is in his Divemaster class. They got to see Spotted Morays, Nurse Sharks, several Green Morays, Stingrays, and tons and tons of fish in big schools in nearly every direction they looked. Katya and Oleg are doing great and will finish checkout dives #3 and #4 tomorrow afternoon.

Check out the pictures. My favorite one is the over head one of the divers before they desend on the anchor line. Nice clear water, looks like a swimming pool. We were also diving up in Key Largo today, but I’m not sure if someone will be posting a report. Hopefully tomorrow!

Article Author:

Shaun
Rescue Diver

We had almost perfect conditions out on the Spiegel Grove today. The water was flat calm, there was no current, the water was warm, and the only thing that could have been better was the visibility. I would put it at about 60 feet, so not too shabby. Take a look at the pictures and you can see just how flat calm the water was. The biggest waves were from the wake of other boats. We had a small trip. Just a few divers and a couple of us from the crew.Who knew October has such great diving? The rest of the crew keeps telling me stories about awesome October diving in the Florida Keys. Now I finally believe them. We swam through the wreck on several decks, and spent nearly 100% of our time inside the superstructure of the ship. It was an awesome dive. The best one I’ve done yet on the Spiegel Grove.

I look forward to bringing you more updates on Rainbow Reef Dive trips in Key Largo and Islamorada.

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi everyone,

Well, the first week of October has brought us a lot of wind, which of course causes waves, and makes it a little rough out on the reef. The wind was so high this Monday and Tuesday that we had to cancel the trips because it was sure to be very wavy with limited visibility. If we have winds higher than 20 knots, and it’s coming from the East, SouthEast or South, it really makes the sea conditions uncomfortable, and certainly more challenging than we are used to. All this wind is certainly the exception, and not the norm. We just haven’t had the chance to get out there very much, so there really are no great reef or diving reports to bring you!

Never fear, the weather report is much better for this weekend and we will be sure to bring you some reports and pictures from our adventures out to the wonderful reefs and wrecks of the upper Florida Keys. In the mean time, if you are thinking of visiting us this fall, be sure to take advantage of some of the incredible hotel rates we have from now until December 15th. Key Largo hotels are as low as $69.00 per night, and Oceanfront in Islamorada starts at $99.00. Combine that with the low fall airfare and you can certainly put together a quick 3 or 4 day getaway package and do some great diving. Check our packages and specials page for the latest deals we have to offer.

Until next time, here are a few pictures of the re-power we did on the Tropical Voyager earlier this year. We had to take our old motor out, ship a new one in from Texas. It does not sound like much but keep in mind that the motor and transmission weigh over 6,000 lbs. The crazy part was that the shipping company LOST the motor during shipping so it was late (by 6 days, it was in Oklahoma City) and once we finally got it, we had to drop it in and hook it up in record time. We literally sea trialed the boat at 11:30am for 45 minutes and then immediately drove it down to our dock for a 1pm charter! Talk about cutting it close! We left on time, and no one but the crew knew that we had just spent the last two and half days and nights putting the new motor in. Hope we don’t have to do this again any time soon!