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Hey Mouth Breathers, as this fun filled summer comes to an end why not remember your fantastic dive summer with these great looking I’m a Mouth Breather Hats! 

Not only will you be reminded of the great summer of diving you had each time you put your new I’m a Mouth Breather hat on, you will so be able to get your hat without paying any shipping charges!

That’s right rock stars, while supplies last the men and women’s dive hats will be shipped to you without any added shipping charge. 

 The shipping  is on us!

Catch you later.

Celebrate the Lifestyle

Are there Sharks on the North Wall while Scuba diving in Grand Cayman you ask?  There sure are Mouth Breathers! 

So, I just returned two days ago from a two week stint in NY to see family and show off our little one year old girl.  Her name is Landyn.  Cool name.  Thanks.  

Wake up the next morning psyched to get back in the water to go diving, and sure enough the company I work for, Deep Blue Divers, is diving on the North Wall here inGrand Cayman!  Sweet. 

Show up, fuel up, greet our 6 guests and off we go.  New engine by the way.  Even better. 

So, to cut to the chase, the first dive was great and we are getting ready to jump in for dive two and the dad of the group goes on and on that he really wants to see a shark on this dive.  We all were on board with this request.  Naturally.   

No promises, but you never know.  

Don’t you know, twenty minutes into a fantastic top of the wall dive, we are greeted by a 6-7 foot hammerhead shark!  Real close too. 

I could have plucked the remora fish that was having a ride with it!  Real Close!!!

She hung out with us for a bit and off she went into the big blue!  Awesome day. 

Day 2.  Dive 2.  North Wall Grand Cayman again.  This time I’m doing a one way dive.  Start between two dive sites and head to another!  Great way to cover ground with experienced divers. 

Same divers as yesterday, by the way.  This time the son is pleading with us to see another Hammerhead.  Pressure is on us now.  So off we go into the big blue.  

First thing, two Lion Fish, Bam!  Took care of them.  Then, like clock work, a Nurse Shark comes swimming by us.  About 6 feet in length.  Real close. 

Great, took care of the shark request!  Wait a minute, what is that thirty seconds later?  Reef Shark baby!  Real close to him as well! This reef shark had to be 6 feet as well.  Back and forth with it for a couple of minutes.  Outstanding!! 

What a great dive.  But wait there is more!!  Yep, as the reef shark left our site, over the top of the reef a saw a huge dorsal fin go by us!  What!! 

I fin up a bit and it is a Hammerhead Shark!  Two days in a row we see a Hammerhead.  This big fella was easy 8 feet long.  I just about went nose to hammer with him!  We all saw it as it glided along side of us.  Outstanding. 

That is what I call a dive instructor appreciation dive!  I loved every minute of it.  As did our divers! 

Safety stop at the end and the rest is history!

 Catch you later!

 Celebrate the Lifestyle.

So, I’ve got seven divers on the boat today in Grand Cayman, all new to me.  They are all certified and have dived this trip, just not with me.  Oh, I tell a lie.  Three are there divers who are here for the first time this year.  

Anyway, I brief the dive in order to allow plenty of time under the area of the boat just in case one of the divers, who I haven’t been out with yet, (which is all of them) goes through there air quicker than the rest.  

By doing this we are all close to the ascent line and we all do not have to detour back to the ascent line to the boat, we are near by already. 

Ok, I’ve set the stage.  Here it comes.  

We are all enjoying the dive, just over the wall a little.  At about 80 feet.  Having a great dive. The boat is close, everyone is comfortable, visibility is grea,t the coral and sponges are fantastic.  Sun beaming through the water column, just amazing.  

Then, ten minutes into the dive it happens.  In from the reef, heading towards the edge of the wall we all see a six to seven foot Hammer Head Shark!!  

That’s right, I said it, a Hammer Head Shark on the West side of Grand Cayman,Cayman Islands.  Unheard of on this side!

We were all able to hang with it for about a minute and a half.  Underwater this is a long time looking at a huge creature like a Hammer Head Shark!  I would say I got within twenty feet from the beautiful Hammer Head.  

The beauty finally had enough of us and swam off the wall into the blue! 

Outstanding!! 

Now I’ve been diving down here for the last 12 years, living here year round for the last 5 years. 

I have never seen any type of shark on the west side ofGrand Cayman,Cayman Islands(not including the Nurse Shark by the way). 

We all finished our dive, surfaced and began going crazy about it.  Especially to Denise who is an instructor/dive master as well.  She was the surface support on this dive. 

She was not fortunate enough to be only one of eight people onGrand Cayman,Cayman IslandstodayMarch 21, 2012to see this particular Hammer Head Shark today! 

Sorry Denise……NOT!  

What a great experience for all of us!  Thank you Mother Nature!!

 Catch you later!

 Celebrate the Lifestyle

What a great week of diving here inGrand Cayman!  I was even able to get my wife Farron out for a two tank dive!  You see she spends a lot of her time in the swimming pool or gym.  She owns a company called Swim and Trim.  She teaches anyone and everyone how to swim and get fit down here in the Cayman Islands.  Business is great for her ever since she got going. 

That was last Saturday and the rest of the week stayed just as good as that great day of diving.  If you’re wondering, and I know that you are, we dived Big Tunnels and La Mesa.  Two outstanding choices I don’t mind saying. 

For the week, we’ve had some long time customers as well as new customers to share the clear Caribbeanwaters with.  Temp is still around 79-80 degrees Fahrenheit.  Not bad.  Some are in rash guards still.  Others have broken out there shorties.  

It is amazing at some of these dive sites where you have schools and schools of fish to keep your eyes roaming.  It makes one wonder why this particular site, called La Mesa, has these numbers of fish anyway.  No complaints here! 

Then of course we still come across the invasive Lion Fish down here.  At this point we are able to euthanize three to four Lion Fish each dive.  On average.   They sure are a beautiful creature aren’t they!?   

Ok Mouth Breathers,  that will do it for now.  Heading to the beach with Farron and daughter Landyn (17 months old)  what a blast! 

Catch you later.

Celebrate the Lifestyle

So, I’m diving the Ex USS Kittiwake in Grand Cayman today with some pretty cool divers.   One of which had served eight years in the US Navy. 

Needless to say he was fired up to check out this gem of a wreck. 

We’ve had a great first dive today so this one better be a doozie!  (you know it will).  The dive started with a simple backwards roll off the back of the boat and heading to the yellow mooring ball at the front of our boat. 

This particular day we were hanging off of the line attached to the stern of the sunken Kittiwake below.  The small group of us worked our way down the line and begun our adventure at the huge propeller.  This puts us in about 60 feet of sea water.  This happens to be the deepest part of the dive, by the way.  

OK, 20 seconds in we come across this beautiful Spotted Eagle Ray just having a little late breakfast in the sand around the 251 foot Ex USS Kittiwake.  Fantastic surprise for us all!  We could have spent half the dive here, as the beautiful ray was not bothered in the slightest that we were chillin with her.  

Back to the wreck we go. 

Now we are on the main deck and loving it!  The Ex USS Kittiwake is alive today with a hugeschoolofHorse Eyed Jacksjust back of mid ships.  Not a bother in the world.  

Now we’ve made it in and around the recompression chambers, the shower and mess hall as well.  Gliding up towards the bow checking out the great viz and beautiful fish along the way. 

Divers seem amazed and delighted with the dive at this point! 

Now into the wheel house, pretending to steer the boat, seeing all the plaques dotted around and taking special notice of the one near the smoke stack giving the specifications about the Kittiwake.  If you have a camera, this is a must shot!  Very cool. 

So now we are winding up the dive, I’ve been alerted of a diver being down to 1000 psi remaining in his bottle.  It is time to think about making our way back to the ascent line. 

As we pass by the makeshift diving bell near the stern of the USS Kittiwake I notice the red algae on top of it and decide to have a look around, thinking I might find me a decorator crab to show these divers. 

WOW!  What I do find is not a decorator crab at all, but a juvenile Great Anemone!! 

I’ve never seen a Great Anemone this small before and I was fired up!  To me, this is a great sign that things sure are starting to come to life on the Ex USS Kittiwake after a year of getting comfortable on the sea floor here in the Cayman Islands.   Now, I’ve dived or dove, or whatever you’re supposed to say, this Kittiwake at least 60 times now.  This new growth is the first significant thing  I’ve seen begining its life here.  Welcome!

After showing the small group of us this young Anemone, it was about time to call it a dive.  So, with out further delay, we all began to  worked our way up the same line we came down, nice and slow.  We all did our safety stop at 15 feet for at least three minutes and were back on board the boat with at least 500 psi in our SCUBA tanks! 

What an adventure for all of us.  This is my job by the way!

Celebrate the Lifestyle! 

Catch you later.

Soft-Hands Gel Gloves  for #divers!  That’s right, you know who you are.  Heck, I am one of them.  One of whom? 

 Well, one of those SCUBA divers who, after a  week or even a year of diving you realize that, WOW, are my hands dry, and even cracking a bit! 

 The sea water, the heat, the sea water again!  Who knows why, but my hands, ever since I made my descent to the Cayman Islands to work in the SCUBA industry, have been dry, dry, dry!  Lotions have been, eh, so, so…..it works for a little while through-out the day and is a great supplement to these Gel Gloves.

 The real deal has been these Soft-Hands Gel Gloves.  I know it sounds silly and a bit un-manly as a tough SCUBA diver, but if your hands need it, and you’ll know if they do, you will be fired up in a few short nights that you’ve got yourself a pair of these bad boys. 

 A little lotion or Vaseline first, followed by slipping these on and off to bed.  I guess you could wear them during the day in the right situation too.

 You will wake up feeling great and your hands are on there way to being those normal hands and finger tips you remembered a few short days weeks or months ago.

 Your SCUBA gear will even be easier to assemble!

 Thank me later.

 Celebrate the Lifestyle.

 Catch you later.

The new Nemesis

Anything will eat these #Lionfish!  Let’s get that straight.  We’ve fed them to mutton snapper (who absolutely love them by the way),Nassaugroupers, queen trigger fish; french angel fish, green, spotted and golden tail eels.  Lets see, even a barracuda had a go at one on an occasion.  Sting rays have fired them down.  The list goes on and on. 

So, it is not that there is nothing to eat these beautiful creatures that make them such a threat to theCaribbean; it’s that these fish can not catch them because they are fast, quick and smart as well.  Also, these Lionfish eat anything and everything that will get in there way.  Juvenile reef fish, cleaner fish, you name it they will eat it.  I have pulled fish, on multiple occasions, out of the jaws of these Lionfish.  Some were returned to the reef, others…..not so much.

Oh, and did I mention the ability of these Lionfish to reproduce??  Thousands, yep I said it, thousands of eggs every few days.  These eggs are not like your typical eggs lying on the sea floor either.  Oh no, these gems float mid water column so any predator will have a difficult time finding them.  Therefore, greater chance of a successful “birth” lets say.  Next thing you know it there are hundreds even thousands of these bad boys combing the reef.   This is the problem!  Then the cycle starts all over again.

So here in the Cayman Islands we’ve been doing a bang up job keeping these creatures off our dive sites.  Where a year ago we were killing twenty a dive site, today we may only take three to four a dive.  The trained SCUBA diver is the Nemesis!

Stay tuned.  Celebrate the Lifestyle.

Biggest #Lionfish in a while. 18 inches long and FAT! This bad boy was in about 115 feet off the Oro Verde wall in Grand Cayman this morning.

Five of us just descended down the line and begun to head north up the wall. Within 30 seconds it was on. Patrick was pointing down wiggling his fingers indicating a Lionfish.

The guests stayed up at 1ooish feet as I exhaled and dropped down to, well, retrieve the said fish.

Perfect blast and I was beginning my ascent to join the rest of the group. It was at this time I got a signal that there was a Green Moray Eel drawling on the reef.

Without hesitation I changed my path and just like that the huge, intimidating eel had a free breakfast. Poof it was gone!

To go with this, I had a great dive trip today. Turtles, turtles and more turtles. Great divers and lots of laughs.

Celebrate the Lifestyle

Catch you later!

Picked up the Scubapro SeaHawk BC for an early birthday gift at the Divers Supply Divemaster party the other night. 

In a word, FANTASTIC! 

 Now, I just had to retire my old BC.  It was a SeaQuest Ballance BC.  I loved that one also but there is something about the SeaHawk. 

 It seems to have it all in a back infation jacket.  The D-rings are placed in great spots, the weight intigration system is spot on, and the thing I like the best so far, are the pockets. 

As streamlined as the Scubapro SeaHawk BC is, the fact that there are two pockets vs. one pocket in my old jacket is great!  I don’t cary alot but the few things I like to have, the second pocket is just perfect.

So I guess I’ve converted without any regret from a SeaQuest guy to a Scubapro fan!  Oh, did I mention I also picked up a great mask the other night as well. 

It is the ScubaPro SOLO dive mask.  One lens, low profile, black skirt with a thin white outline just around the glass.  Sharp looking and just a great mask too.

Celebrate the Lifestyle.

Catch you later!