Article Author:

Owen
Master Scuba Diver Trainer

New Yorker Mary DeSantis spent her first Winter in Key West. Now she can add Scuba Diving to her list of new experiences. Mary took a PADI Discover Scuba course and was treated to great visibility, a calm surface, and warm, sunny Key Largo weather. The highlight of the two dives was a 600 pound Goliath Grouper at Fire Coral Cave on Molasses Reef. Mary showed exemplary skills for a new comer exhibiting good buyoancy and low air consumption. She will return to Key Largo next winter, and hopefully will continue her diving adventures.

Article Author:

Adriana
Master Scuba Diver Trainer

Nicole Fasano of NJ came to us for a Discover SCUBA Diving class while her dad, Al Fasano, did a full refresher. She enjoyed her DSD dives so much she just had to go ahead and finish her Junior Open Water certification. She was a top student.

She had some great dives on Molasses Reef. At Eagle Ray Alley she saw a black tip reef shark TWICE!!! not to mention a nurse shark, sting ray, green moray eel, spotted moray eel, and all the other abundant tropical fish.

Our last dive in her certification was at Fire Coral Cave. We saw an impressive sight of SEVEN spotted eagle rays swimming very close to us. And her last wish was to see some turtles and not only did she see one but we were lucky enough to encounter two different turtles at Fire Coral Cave. Luckily her dad was there to get some great shots of the experience. I hear that Nicole is just waiting to come back real soon!!! We look forward to diving with you again.

Article Author:

Captain Bill
Master Scuba Diver Trainer

Hi everyone,

�It’s Spring Break, and you know what that means! Tons of people in town for the last 10 days. We’ve been so busy with trips, it’s hard to get a chance to post to the blog! The best news was that the weather has started to cooperate with us! For some strange reason, it’s litterally been 20kts from the East� and NorthEast for what seems like 2 weeks. For those of you who don’t know, East is a little too close to SouthEast (the worst wind direction for us)�and it made some waves, and made it more challenging than it needs to be.��The divers who made the trips were rewarded with great visibility, no current, and saw lots of great critters on the reefs and wrecks! Good riddence to all that wind!

Other exciting news is some new divers have joined the ranks! Mr. and Mrs. Bart Case brought their daughters (Kimberly and Rebecca) down from Georgia to the Keys for Spring break to get certified! Mom was a bit nervous (we see this happen a lot!) about her kids, but they did a great job and had lots of fun! Kimberly recieved her PADI Jr. Scuba Diver certification and Rebecca recieved her Open Water Certification! It was certainly our pleasure to have them as guests and we hope to see them again soon.�

We’d also like to welcome our old friend Simon Dixon from the UK back to the Keys. He’s been gone a while and we missed him. D.J. and Simon jumped in with the video cameras and filmed some class,�some critters, and some reef. It was our first splash with an HD camera and a new housing, so in this video you’ll see a different aspect ratio, and even though it’s a web streamed broadcast, it looks sharper than normal. �

Ok, so check out the VIDEO!!! (requires Flash) and be right there with us on the dive!

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hello everyone! We saw 3 Whale Sharks today, 2 Great Whites, and 1 Scuba Diving parrot today, and it’s all on video. Click here to see it!

Ok.. April fools!

Seriously.. Welcome to April. We haven’t had too much to report at the end of March, the winds have been pretty high, but thankfully they’ve been coming out of the NorthEast and not the Southeast, so the waves and conditions haven’t been too bad. It’s literally been NE to E winds at almost 20kts for nearly 2 weeks. Still have nice diving if you can take a few waves. Most days have been about 50-70ft of visibility, in blue water, and no currents with lots of sunshine and warmer water. As usual we’ve seen lots of great critters and everyone has had lots of fun. The ratio is seasick people is just a little higher than usual!

If you haven’t been diving with Jesus (an RRDC Divemaster) �in the past, then you might not understand this next part, but if you have… You’ll know what we mean. Sometime about two years ago an inside joke started with�a couple of customers�who didn’t know Jesus was pronounced “Heysoos” and not like the J.C. guy who was said to be born about 2007 years ago on December 25th.� So after diving with him, these customers�were pronouncing it wrong, and then the next day they came in and said “We want Jesus to be our Guide”.. We had a good time with that, and then a few days later someone had a t-shirt, with the effigy of Christ saying “Let Jesus be your Guide”. So the legend began. So we started saying it all the time in a tongue in cheek kind of way, and since he’s a great DM and Guide, I think people really fell into the grove on it. Soon we threatened to get different diving t-shirts made with the saying on it! It has finally happened!� Two of RRDC’s favorite repeat customers (Jackie and Hank Bernard)have sent us a picture of brand new t-shirts they just got! Also they sent along a picture of their dog “Ringo” who accompanies them on all of their dive trips. He’s a very cool pooch, and we love when he visits! Incidentally, they stay at Marina Del Mar (one of the hotels we work with in Key Largo) which is pet friendly. If you’ve got a pet and you want to dive, choose Marina Del Mar and for a nominal fee added to the cost of the room, they welcome your pets.