Article Author:

Suzette
Advanced Open Water

Well, another weekend has come and gone in Key Largo and we had a great time at Rainbow Reef. We were pleased to welcome George Yates from Miami with his students today and we also had the pleasure of taking out the University of Miami Dive Club- a big thanks to Jeremy and his bunch for choosing us. We had the distinct pleasure of welcoming some frequent fliers- Nancy and Jerry are here for a visit and Elva came along for the ride on their dive trips. The Easter Bunny made an appearance this morning on the docks and brought us gummy easter eggs and hoppy Easter wishes.
Do you watch the Rainbow Reef Dive Center webcams? You never really know what you’ll see. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I tuned in and caught Jeff and Josh re-creating a scene from Titanic on the bow of the Tropical Adventure. As you can see, spring is in the air and everyone has caught spring fever and the cheery moods reflect that. Nancy and Jerry insisted that I post this picture- let’s see if the boss lets me keep it on here or not

Article Author:

Suzette
Advanced Open Water

If you’re been waiting for nice weather and good conditions to arrive to break out your dive gear, stop waiting- you’re missing out! Captain Zach shot this photo over Molasses Reef where our divers enjoyed 72 degree water (it’s warming up!) and beautiful clear visibility. Heading tomorrow morning to the Spiegel Grove wreck and to the Benwood and the conditions should be beautiful then as well.

Gorgeous waters tempt our Key Largo divers

Article Author:

Suzette
Advanced Open Water

This fantastic video was taken by Bob G from Sea Ventures dive club in GA- He says:

“The Loggerhead was located on the first deck (70′ deep) on the edge of the starboard side just outside of the central swim through on the top deck.”

He is reported to have a head the size of a football- he’s just a huge resident turtle that apparently doesn’t much care if you want to take his picture, although he appears annoyed at one point- watch for him taking a swipe at Bob’s camera!

Click here to see Bob’s Spiegel Loggerhead in action!

Article Author:

Suzette
Advanced Open Water

More good news from Rainbow Reef- the Tropical Voyager is back on the water thanks to the hard work by the crew over the winter.  She is good as new and went out this morning to French Reef, where we got this report from Captain Zach:

Capt. Zach: on French Reef and Molasses Reef we have 30 ft. of visibility, no current and flat seas. What a beautiful day!!

That’s what we want to hear.  Instructor Josh congratulates Laura, our newest Open Water diver and says that she’s diving like a pro already.  Pam B says that the MSDT prep was completed today and that Molly and Rick are great instructors!

Just for fun, here are a few pictures snapped from the Tropical Voyager this morning thanks to Captain Zach.  As you can see, the big thaw has finally hit Key Largo and it’s time for fun in the sun.

Article Author:

Suzette
Advanced Open Water

As mentioned earlier, we were pleased to have Sea Ventures Dive Club with us over the weekend.  Some pictures have started to filter in and I wanted to share some with everyone.  Special thanks to Claude and Rosalyn who helped make sure everything ran smoothly.  Extra thanks to Bob for the great pictures.

We always enjoy having Sea Ventures visit us, and this weekend was no exception.  They did 3 days of diving and even a night dive on Saturday under the light of a Key Largo full moon.  We look forward to seeing them all again soon!

Article Author:

Suzette
Advanced Open Water

We had a nice weekend of diving at Rainbow Reef.  We were pleased to welcome Sea Ventures, a dive club out of Georgia who enjoyed themselves very much.  Some of them saw a Hammerhead shark while drifting on Molasses Reef, which I’m sure was quite a sight.  They enjoyed a beautiful night dive on Saturday, which included an appearance by a large loggerhead turtle that swam with the divers.

Congratulations to Rick and Morris, our newest dive instructors to complete the IDC program.  Great job!

There were a lot of classes this weekend- Bob, Franz and Ed got their feet wet with Jeff in a Discover Scuba Diving class, and young Daniel did so as well- he was especially excited to show off his DSD card to his friends.  We had 2 new Open Water divers as well- Young Megan and her father Ralph did their Open Water Certification with Molly and had a great time.  Megan is only 10 years old and showed amazing skill and aptitude- she has her Jr. Open Water Cert now and will get her full Open Water when she turns 15- we look forward to diving with her as she explores the new world she discovered this weekend.

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi Gang,

We’ve been having some good weather and some bad weather over the winter, and as I’m sure many of you up north can attest, it’s been mostly a cold one. Several days we had lots of people in town who wanted to dive but when it is 48 degrees at 8am, you get some people who are thinking about drinking hot chocolate, not diving! It always warmed up, so that resulted in lots of afternoon trips once the sun showed up and saved the day, so other than a few windy days, we’ve been having fun.

Speaking of fun.. If you ever wondered how the boats get maintained, modified and set up to use all season long, the answer is simple, we do all of the “fun” stuff in January and February when we are in the slow season. There is always a long list of stuff to fix, change, scrape, sand, and paint and this year was no exception. I’ve included a few pictures of the “fun” for the Tropical Adventure which we worked on a few weeks back..

We are working on Tropical Voyager right now and she will be back in the water next week.

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi gang,

Laddie Atkins the leader of special projects for the Reef foundation was kind enough to vist us last week for a seminar on the LionFish problem that is starting to crop up in the Florida Keys.

The point to the seminar which was highly informative was to learn all about the LionFish and how it threatens our local underwater environment. If you don’t know anything about the LionFish, here are few amazing facts that help illustrate the threat to our fish and reefs:

• They lay 35,000 eggs every couple of days.
• They have no natural preditors, in our local eco-system.
• They are voracious eaters and devastate the local fish population.

If you want to know more, please read more about it on the Reef LionFish invasion Page, and donate if you can.. If you go to the seminar, you can sign up for a special permit from NOAA to allow you to catch them inside the marine sanctuaries.

The Lionfish population is out of control in the Bahamas, Cayman, and many other places around the Caribbean, everyone at Rainbow Reef was at the seminar and we plan to capture them anytime we see them to do what we can to control the population.

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi Gang,

It’s been a little while since the last video blog, so here is the latest special presentation for you to enjoy!

Jim Elliott from the DiveHeart foundation visited us January 27th with a very special guest. Marine SGT Greg Rodriguez who is an vet from Iraq and suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving our country during 2007, came with Jim for some diving in the Key Largo and to test the Pegasus Thruster underwater propulsion vehicle.

Sue Cocking from the Miami Herald came along with a photographer friend to document and write an article about Greg’s experience. I shot some video which you’ll be able to see below.

If you don’t know who or what the DiveHeart foundation is, in a nutshell they provide the opportunity for disabled children, adults and vets to build confidence and independence through the sport of Scuba Diving. You can read more about them, at www.diveheart.org and if you’d be so kind to do whatever you can to support them, I’d appreciate it!

We had some good dives and lots of of the gang from the dive shop out with us. Pam Bradley is our PADI and HSA Course Director, along with Josh who is already an HSA Instructor had Jo and Jardin (Training to be HSA Instructors) helping Jim take Greg on his first dives in Key Largo.

Good time had by all, and it was fun to test out those Pegasus Thrusters.

Join us for a few minutes to meet Greg and see our dive trip with him this afternoon. CLICK HERE to Dive with Greg

Article Author:

Suzette
Advanced Open Water

Well, it’s a rainy day in Key Largo. The day started out just gorgeous but a storm rolled in and we’re getting a good soaking.  Fortunately, the fish don’t care if it rains!  Josh was good enough to send me pictures of the dive he did this morning with Jo and some other folks and it looks like it was a fine time.  He captured a great picture of an eel swimming around, a turtle with Jo in the background and a shark that seems to think “if I can’t see him, maybe he can’t see me!”

Also of note, congratulations to Chris H and to Molly, the newest Rainbow Reef instructors!  Great job both of you, we’re all very proud of your hard work.