Category Archives: Scuba Fun

New Jersey, Day Two of Show…..

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One of the things about attending these shows is indeed the people you meet, especially the legends and pioneers of scuba. Because of the age range (and there are a delightful number of children in attendance), certain men and women were in the truly early days of scuba when technology was very limited. The entrance to the show has large-size photos on display of “Legends of the Sea”, many of whom are no longer with us, yet advanced the knowledge and understanding of scuba throughout their lives.

An individual who is very much still with us is Nuno Gomes. He was in the same presentation room as we were in, but on at an earlier time. Then by chance we were at the bar together at the hotel and I did not initially recognize the name. You can Google him to see the YouTube  videos that are amazing as he has gone around the world setting a variety of depth records. From Wikapedia: “He is the holder of two world records in deep diving (independently verified and approved by Guinness World Records), the cave diving record from 1996 to 2015 and the sea water record from 2005 to 2014.” Yeah, diving below 1,000 feet will get you into the records books.

Why, you may ask? Part of it is the, “Because it’s there”, and part of it is the incredible drive of certain individuals who want to stretch themselves to whatever particular boundary they choose to engage in; to say, “I don’t know, let’s see if we can’t go beyond that.” This is not some daredevil, thinly disguised death wish, but rather a carefully thought out reasoning of how to push and demonstrate human ability supported by technology. Aside from being an amazing diver, he’s an interesting guy to have a drink with.

NJ Trip, Briefly Lovely……..

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Ah yes, the one thing you really can’t do anything about. The clouds from yesterday disappeared, the sun shone, and the temperature shot up to 70, which for me was great. It was startling for others. The hotel where I am staying is a very short walk from the exhibition center and as if turns out, backs onto a retail/restaurant area that has several nice dining choices. Scheduling kept me from having a normal dinner last night, although that shouldn’t be an issue again. Lunch will be and that’s why I have a protein bar back-up. Anyway, in the relatively short time from when I came back into the room before headed to the evening presentation, the rain arrived. Not a downpour, yet definitive and that’s when I discovered the umbrella I brought is defective. It works, although it won’t stay open unless I hold it open with my hand supporting it from underneath, which is rather awkward. Ah well, at least I only have to go short distances. There aren’t many trees budding yet, although there are some in bloom and daffodils, those bringers of Spring, are brightly yellow and also bring a smile when you see them.

This area of NJ is actually where Richie Kohler “came to fame” as a diver, and he has been a “star” of this show for several years. Trying to keep him on schedule is a little tricky since everyone wants more of his time than he can give and still keep up with other people waiting. On the other hand, there are certainly worse problems to have. It will be a busy day.

Trip Ahead….

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Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

Well, I have been told that the big dive show, Beneath the Sea, in New Jersey is the largest consumer dive show in the country (and maybe the world). We’ve never attended because we see lots of folks when we’re at the Orlando show every other year and we generally travel (as we did) to Washington every March or April so turning around to make a second trip isn’t something we like to do. This year, of course, Richie Kohler is a featured speaker about exploring the shipwreck Britannic, and we’ll have multiple signings of the book. Hubby can’t go with me since it’s still very busy here in the dive community. Since I’m completely unfamiliar with the area, I’m going up on the early flight, but that was rather than me spending an extra day up there. Although I could have booked a flight back Sunday night, I’m not really keen on trying to leave out of a place and catch a flight that would then cause me to have to drive back from the airport at night after a long day. Not that I haven’t done it, but I try not to put myself in those circumstances unless it’s really necessary.

I also don’t have the faintest idea if I’ll be dining on anything other than hotel food. I will take protein bars as a caution to have one in my purse if I can’t do something like stop for lunch. Evenings should be fine and there could be several good restaurants around. So stay tuned for the adventures to be had at the Meadow Lands Exhibition Center in Seacaucus, NJ. According to the gentleman I spoke with earlier when arranging transport from the airport, at least the rain is supposed to hold off tomorrow. That was nice to hear. Now we’ll see what Mother Nature decides to do.

Day One, Chicago Trip….

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Cold of course. We did miss the snow so that’s nice for us. We tried the Clover Irish Pub out of D Terminal at MIA. It was good and there are a couple of other new places since I was last in that part of the terminal. The flight was slightly delayed while waiting for take-off, but no other issues with travel. This is the Our World Underwater Dive Show and we kick off tonight with book signing 6:00-7:30 and Richie’s film presentation at 8:00.

We have friends in the area and they picked us up for dinner. The lack of a baby sitter gave us a chance to meet their two boys and we all got caught up on what’s been going on. It will be a few years until they can be a scuba family, but the boys know all about it. Among other culinary aspects of Chicago, craft beers apparently abound and Hubby plans to try as many new ones as he can. We will have a chance to hit the gym today, but after that will be mostly walking and standing. It’s the nature of trade shows.

 

Totally Lost Track…..

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Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

I would say I can’t believe I’ve had this much of a lapse in posting, but the entire week last week was incredibly hectic. Many of you know Mystery of the Last Olympian, Titanic’s Tragic Sister Britannic, launched and I was involved in the Pioneer Museum Quilt Show over the whole weekend and we leave for Chicago Thursday. No, I generally don’t plan a trip to Chicago in February, but they hold a major dive show there each year – Our World Underwater. Richie Kohler will be one of the speakers and this will be the first major release of the book. All the pre-sale copies had to get into the mail as well as the copies for people who had contributed to the book.

It’s been quite the rollercoaster ride with last minute items and even though the Kindle version can of course be immediately downloaded, the print copies are running about a week’s time for shipping from Amazon. Yes, when I return from Chicago, I’ll have copies to send to some of you who have put in your order. I will post to the blog from the show as I always do. There will be some great people there and fortunately, there is an enclosed walkway from the hotel to the convention center.

Been Being Tour Guide…..

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I’m going to try to get a post off before I head out again. I’ve had family visiting since the evening of I January and also juggling the last requirements for the new book as we send it to the printer. One of the highlights of the trip was for my two second cousins (one a junior in college, one in her first year of law school) to take the Discover Scuba class. My first cousin isn’t into snorkeling, but she went along on the boat and I did at least get in the water to see some fish. When we planned the visit, Hubby was of course going to teach the girls, but he had a request to teach a rebreather course, and that does take priority. There are only a couple of instructors at the shop who can teach rebreathers and all of them can do Discover. The girls had a great time despite a drenching rain that overtook us between Dive #1 and #2. Full certification might be in a future trip.

The weather wasn’t as cooperative as I’d hoped yesterday with a lot of overcast sky and some occasional drizzle. We were going to drive down to Seven Mile Bridge, but traffic was also much heavier than anticipated, so we opted to do the History of Diving Museum after lunch at Zane Gray, then it was on to the Rain Barrel with the giant lobster. The plan was for us to occupy our time until we went to Big Chill for a sunset dinner. The clouds cleared up a bit to give some pretty colors even though we didn’t get the beautiful effect of the sun setting into the water. Ah well, can’t control Mother Nature.

Today will be probably lunch at the White Lion, Coral Castle, and Robert is Here, then get packed up for an early start to their two-day drive back to Louisiana.

Windy Woes…..

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Not having much experience with sailing, I don’t know the parameters for what size sailboats are impacted by small craft warnings. From a diving perspective here though (and probably sport fishing as well), most charter boats can’t go out. November and December have both been tough months for trying to dive and on a number of occasions, people who have gone out when conditions were on the edge haven’t had the kind of underwater visibility and pleasant boat trips Key Largo is known for. It’s inconvenient for locals, but we can reschedule without much difficulty. I always feel badly for tourists who have planned a trip for maybe months, come a fair distance, and are “blown out” for diving. If they’re here for a week which is kind of a standard time, there will usually be at least a couple of days they can salvage. Fortunately, if the issue with being on the water is wind and not rain along with high wind, there are quite a few outdoor activities that aren’t affected, so it isn’t as if the vacation will be a total waste. When you’re looking forward to spending time underwater though, and you travel to a dive destination, that’s pretty much what you really want to do.

There was hope for today and there are no doubt a few people who decided to brave the water, but most will have to keep their fingers crossed for some calm to settle in. When the wind is whipping above 20 knots, that just doesn’t tend to be much fun. On the other hand, I guess if you have a kite to fly, it works out well.

 

Wrapping Up the Dive Show…..

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When you attend a large tradeshow, one of the points is to not only catch up with old friends, but it’s to meet new people as well. We’ve certainly done both on this trip. (Oh, dinner last night was at a near-by Italian restaurant. Ciao Italia was a good place, and the excellent part was they had wild boar which my husband loves.)

Anyway, back to the show. For me, seeing the number of women, especially when they are engaged in the type of scuba many of them are, is terrific. I finally had the chance to meet Jill Heinerth (http://www.intotheplanet.com) who does amazing diving in a highly technical capacity. I also met Evelyn Dudas, who was the first woman to dive the Andrea Doria. (http://www.dudasdiving.com/about-us) Until technical diving advanced in the 2000s, that was considered the “Mount Everest of Diving” and is still quite challenging. The array of women here range from slender, lithe twenty-somethings to pioneers in the sport who are most assuredly past that age.

On the business side, pre-sales for Mystery of the Last Olympian (http://MysteryoftheLastOlympian.com) have been brisk and I allowed myself to be talked into something I said I wouldn’t do. I guess I’ll be going to the big dive show in Chicago in February. I mean, really – Chicago in February? I do hope it will be worth it.

Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

It’s Official………

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Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

Mystery of the Last Olympian is scheduled for a Feb 2016 release.

I can finally give details about the non-fiction book I’ve been working with. Mystery of the Last Olympian: Titanic’s Tragic Sister Britannic can be seen at the dedicated website, http://www.mysteryofthelastolympian.com

The book is scheduled to be released in February, but we have started pre-publication sales because the huge, international scuba tradeshow is in Orlando next week. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for me and when Richie Kohler (from the book, Shadow Divers and the TV show, Deep Sea Detectives) asked me to co-author, I was thrilled. We’ve been on an ambitious timeline because 2016 is the centennial year of Britannic’s sinking. In a nutshell, everyone knows Titanic. There were actually three Olympic Class Ocean Liners built – Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic. They were the largest ships ever built (at the time), but two of the three met tragic fates. Britannic, the final Olympian, was nearing completion when WW I erupted. She was converted to a hospital ship and on her fifth voyage, an explosion ripped into her and she sank in less than an hour. This was twice as rapidly as Titanic and after a number of modifications had been put into place to strengthen her. Fortunately, they were inbound for the 3,000 ill and wounded passengers that would have otherwise been aboard. As it turned out, only 30 men were killed and among the many ironies of the ship, Violet Jessop, a young stewardess, had also been aboard Olympic and Titanic. She survived both disasters.

The ship sank to a depth of 400 feet in the Aegean Sea and her location was entered incorrectly into the official record. As underwater exploration advanced, it was Jacques Cousteau who found her again. He and his team made some daring dives, but it was another twenty years before scuba and submersible technology made further exploration possible. Beginning with the famous Dr. Bob Ballard (the man who located Titanic), there have been a series of expeditions by teams; many of the members pioneers in scuba. Each team uncovered different clues and in 2003, they thought they understood what caused the rapid sinking, but they didn’t have quite enough proof. In 2006 they came very close, but the expedition was shut down due to a major misunderstanding. In 2009, Richie Kohler and Richie Stevenson succeeded, but a tragic accident halted the expedition and the film they’d taken didn’t turn out. This past summer, Richie Kohler and three other individuals were finally able to go back and achieve what had eluded them for so long.

The three-part book takes you through this entire journey. The California, UK, and MA trips I blogged about were all for research for the book. Meeting people I had seen in documentaries and knew by reputation has been great. I can now answer any questions you might have, so fire away if you wish.

Three Generations of Divers…..

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Juvenile Spotted Drum

Juvenile Spotted Drum

There are certain experiences that I don’t get to enjoy personally, but I do so through my hubby. Yesterday was one of them – well, technically it was Monday when it started. He went to the dive shop expecting to work with a certain individual and they had to do a schedule shuffle as sometimes happens. In this particular case, there was a family where the father was taking one type of training, his son was taking another course, and his parents – as in the father’s parents and the son’s grandparents, were actually taking the basic scuba course. I didn’t get all the details as to why, so my assumption here is going to be that the father became a diver and that interested the son and at some point the parents. This is not the first time that my husband had trained grandparent/grandchild combinations, although it is more common for grandparents to already be the divers and they bring along the second, and more often now, the third generation.

Scuba is a great family sport and when you step back and watch it is fun to see the interaction between the generations as they share their perceptions of the dive they have just completed. Here they are, decades apart in age and yet all a part of the joy of slipping underwater to see the marine world close-up. Technically speaking, since scuba became sort of mainstream in the early 1970s, and there are divers in their 80s and 90s that are still active, I suppose you could have four generations worth in the water, but I haven’t personally see that. It has no doubt happened somewhere and of course, is likely in the not too distant future now that diving has been embraced as a family sport.