Pumpkin Carving at Lake X, October 2011

    On Saturday, October 29th 2011, the NAS JAX Scuba Club held its underwater pumpkin carving and picnic out at the semi-secret Lake X dive site. The water and air temperatures that afternoon were roughly the same, in the 72-74 degree range, which was pleasant for the picnic and not too harsh for the diving. Underwater visibility was only around three feet if you DIDN'T stir up any muck from the bottom, but sitting on the bottom carving a pumpkin resulted in some pretty murky viewing conditions.

    Eight divers competed in the underwater pumpkin carving contest, wrestling with buoyant pumpkins at the bottom of the lake. (Click on each of the pictures to see full-sized versions of them.)

 

    First prize was won by Monster's Puking Pumpkin (Motto: No Guts, No Glory) which was dedicated to all those long dive boat rides in rough seas sucking diesel fumes and ending with a fish-feeding event. The judges obviously felt he captured the spirit of a good dive vacation.

 

    Second prize went to Mike's Pirate Pumpkin with the dive knife in its mouth. (Motto: Yaaarrr! Ow!) Some of the other divers noted that Janis did most of his decorating for him after he got out of the water, but the judges didn't seem to mind.

    Third prize went to Annette's Underwater Wildlife Pumpkin, which featured a shark, sea turtle, starfish, and various corals and seaweed. Annette was probably the most talented artist of the pumpkin carving prize winners. Monster pointed out that if the shark had been puking, she probably would have won first prize. The artist did not agree, so there you are: third prize.

    In the other pictures you can see the judging table with all the entrants lined up.

    After the judging, the participating and non-participating divers and their families enjoyed a terrific picnic potluck lunch. Not shown in this group photo are Annette (the photographer) and Monster, who was out cleaning off the mess left by his pumpkin on the judging table.

Happy Halloween!

- = M O N S T E R = -

Pumpkin Carving at Emerald Lake - 10/29/11

Well fellow Dive Club members, Vera and J.J. braved the cold waters at Lake X, just a little
under 72 degrees. Their were a total of 8 club members diving and carving. Underwater
visibility was maybe 1 ft before messing with the bottom. Didn't take any underwater
pic's but here are two of the pumpkins and our entry. We weren't in the top three but
its the fun of doing that counts. We all had a good time whether carving or bubble
watching. See everyone at the next Club meeting. J. J. and Vera

Thomas diving again on 14 Sep 2011

We headed out on Wednesday, thinking we would have the Peacock all to ourselves; wrong a group from Tennessee we doing re-breather training. They got in before us and we didn't see them until we were exiting and doing our safety stop. We did our first dive down to the Pot Hole tunnel looking for arrow heads or anything that we might find - didn't find anything. Finished the dive and got out and took a quick surface break and changed tanks. The second dive we headed down the Popcorn tunnel and got back to the lips area (that's what I call it) and returned to the entrance but looking in all the little holes for stuff. Didn't find anything but it was a good dive. I didn't get cold until we were doing safety stop but that's okay it's the end of the dive.

Thomas' go diving on 29 Aug 2011

We made another Monday dive and went to Peacock Springs at Peacock State Park. We thought we would have the place to ourselves again but there were a couple of vehicles in the parking lot- divers doing some long penetrations. We got in and headed down to the tunnel that goes to Pot Hole. We made the run and turned around at Pot Hole and took our time returning. Stopped along the way for Vera to take some cave photos. Got back up to the entrance and thought about going down to Popcorn tunnel but J. J. started getting cold - I guess my 5mm just didn't make it that day. After loosing about 50lbs I don't have the retention of body heat as I had in the past. We exited the spring but still didn't see any other divers only their vehicles. Nice day and a great dive.

J.J./Vera Diving at Orange Grove-8 Aug 2011

We went to Orange Grove at Peacock Springs State Park over by Mayo Florida. We went on a Monday and we had the whole springs to ourselves. We did the lower level and got to a depth of 101 feet. Found a opening that we could go deeper but we ran out of line on the reel we were using, we hadn't planned on going down any passage ways so the reel we had didn't have more than about 100 feet of line. On the way back to surface during out safety stop I found a quarter left by someone swimming in the springs. Did only one dive but it was a lone one and deep.

Venice Shark Tooth Diving

Having gotten the two younger ones off to two weeks at camp Alisa and I decided to head south for a little vacation; and what's a vacation without some diving? So I contacted Megladon Charters and booked a trip with them. I went out with them yesterday and was able to do two "typical" shark tooth dives.

The Hammerhead before we sailed yesterday.

We had ten passengers including myself. Most were return customers, though there were a couple of first timers. Knowing that Megladon had a history of putting out solo divers I thought I would carry a small pony bottle as a "buddy".  I never had to use it on either dive though (in the first dive) I did learn that I had to move some weights around in the Zeagle BC to compensate for the added weight on the left side and keep me from rolling. It wasn't enough to worry about on the first dive so I just waited till I surfaced and took care of it during the surface interval.

Visibility was typical at 3 - 5 feet and I was able to find a nice sharks tooth about 60 minutes into the first dive. The second dive was done a little further South of the first location, and again I found one tooth. The second dive though I did see a lot of marine life... stone crab, an eel, a rock fish, flounder and a sea turtle (my first).

The one on the top is the one I found 60 minutes into the first dive. The "partial" Megladon tooth and the othee one at the bottom I found on the second dive.

I might not have come up with a treasure trove of shark's teeth but I was able to get some bottom time, saw some cool marine life and everyone headed out on the correct heading... and made it back to the boat safely.  All in all a good Thursday of diving. The rest of the day was spent with Alisa and one of her HS friends on Siesta Beach (rated the #1 beach in the US). What a day... life is good.

Offshore Jax - 14JAN11

Hi all,

I went out diving with Rob C. last weekend and we had a great time. The vis was great (for NE FL) but the water was a little chilly. My computer said it was 49 and Rob's had it at 51 degrees on the bottom. The vis was 30-35 ft, which is the best I have seen it in Jax. I ended up getting 4 lobster, one of which was my new personal best weighing in at just over 8lbs. We had a great day out on the Atlantic and loaded up the cooler with sheepshead, flounder, seabass, and lobster. Not too shabby!

Cheers,

Patrick