Article Author:

dale
Open Water Scuba Instructor

Hello everyone,

My name is Dale, I am an instructor here at Rainbow Reef and I handle some other jobs here as well, So getting me to post on the web is a big deal! So here it goes and hopefully I will have the time to post many more times so you can all enjoy my pics.

This past month here has been great for diving as well as all of the students that I have had. they were all great and were openwater students or advanced openwater. I also had a few discover scuba diving and one lady who did a refresher and did a great job when she was in the water.

I would like to congratulate alex garcia, shane trittler, patty hundt, the devlin clan, and molly eliezer as our newest open water students. they did a great job and i look foreward to seeing them in the future. my newest advanced openwater students, vahe and anais and also the drankoski family who were great. and michelle gutiard was great and promised to dive a lot more now.

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi everyone!

We had one of the best weekends of the summer! The conditions were great, and we had lots of divers enjoying it all. George and Mel Yates from Team divers were doing check out dives as usual, but they had the youngest diver we’ve ever had on board doing his certification dives. He finished on Sunday and he as 10 years old and 3 days. He started the class on his birthday three days ago! That is virtually as young as you can possibly be and get certified! Congratulations to Juan and his family!

We had a great gang of wreck crazy divers from Scuba Quest in Orlando, you can see them in action in the video and see the unbelievable conditions they had on the Duane Saturday morning. Special thanks for Jairo and Warren for making everything so smooth with the group! Dave Humphrey who has been diving with us many times came down with Scuba Quest and he snapped an awesome shot (seen below) of the Voyager and a rainbow! He’s got some of his own pictures and video and info on his blog which is located at www.davescuba.com

It was my birthday on Friday so I had one of my friends visiting the Keys to celebrate with me and she brought her friend, so naturally, we had to put them in a Discover Scuba class. They had a great time with Jeff (one of the awesome RRDC Instructors) out at Hole in the Wall and Fire Coral Cave. You can see them in action in the video and get a better view of some of the outstanding conditions we had. My new HD camera setup really captured everything in vivid color and clarity, I think you will enjoy it since I figured out how to use it a bit better.

Cliff Boehm and Mike Boehm were in all week with a big chunk of the immediate family. They arrived earlier in the week when the waves were kind of big, but the visibility held up and the waves calmed down so they got some great trips in. We want to congratulate the Boehm/LeCompte/Grissom clan on 4 new PADI Open Water Divers, and one new PADI Deep Specialty diver.

The season is almost over and we want to thank all the divers who visited us all summer. We dodged the hurricanes so far, basically there were none. We hope you will come and discover how great September and October can be. The summer crowd thins, lots of room on the boats and honestly, we have some of the best conditions of the year when there are no storms, which there usually isn’t, regardless of how sensational they make it sound on the news.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE HD VIDEO FROM THIS WEEKEND!

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi gang,

I know it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to post to the blog, but we’ve had such a busy summer I really haven’t had time, so in a way, that is probably a good thing.

I got a new HD video camera and housing from Light and Motion and I was anxious to try it. Since I had a friend in town doing the Discover Scuba class, I figured it was a perfect time to take it on a test dive. I didn’t expect much since it was a new camera and a new housing, but it came out ok. Still working on getting the right white balance and colors, but so far I love the housing and controls. Tatyana had a great time on her first dives with her Instructor Jeff, and she also did a great job being a good student and making it easy for Jeff! I know he always appreciates that.

We went to French reef because there was a lot of current on Molasses Reef that afternoon. Vis wasn’t bad, probably about 50 feet or so, but we didn’t have current. The wind was blowing a bit so the waves were 2-3 foot so it made it a little bit more challenging, especially for the new divers. Captain Bill was also in the water teaching his Open Water students, so all things considered with the weather everyone did great..

Hope to get back to posting regularly and getting some other people at the shop more involved in keeping the blog up to date!

I hope you enjoy the video!

Click here to watch French-Reef in HD

Article Author:

Owen
Master Scuba Diver Trainer

Mike Fonda, from the upstate New York/Albany area is PADI’s newest Open Water Diver to be certified in beautiful Key Largo, Florida. Mike endured some rough surface conditions, and had to periodically deal with some current and flow, but he performed his skills like a champ, and successfully completed all four of his Open Water dives to complete his certification. Mike was congratulated for his efforts by some of the native inhabitants of Molasses Reef. Namely a couple of Nurse Sharks, a Green Moray Eel, several large Barricuda, and an Eagle Ray. Congratulations Mike!