Check out Dives and You.
I will be kind and put this behind a cut as I don't want to clutter up my friends lists. Needless to say, Shannon and I went on his check out dives this weekend.
Our first 2 dives were at vortex springs. Now this spring is about 2hr drive from Gulf Shores, if you know how to get there...otherwise it's 3. So we (not being from here and such) got there about 3pm, and started pulling our gear off the truck and setting up. Now Vortex is consistenty at 68 degrees...this means...it's really freaking cold. So we are all in about what would be the equivelant of a 7 mm wet suit. (really thick). So we jump in, and realize that Shannon doesn't have enough weight, so we go back to the bucket twice to try and get him to sink. (now we know that wasn't the case, and how to successfully weigh yourself every time). The amusing part in the beginning of our dive was, I'm already certified, yet his instructor (from here on out we shall call her Beth), let him stay with me, and felt secure that we could handle whatever we needed to. Granted the visibility was only about 15-20 ft, so I spent alot of my time watching flippers, and trying to wrangle in loose divers who thought Beth went the other way. *sigh* Shannon has 2 people in his class that I just won't dive with, they don't take it serious. In the end, I think they may wind up killing themselves if they don't straighten up about it. One of them freaks out anytime something doesn't go the way he thinks it should...this is bad cause sometimes, this happens. Anyway, we did two dives there, and had a blast. Even stayed in to the point where we starting to shiver. Shannon aced all his skills....course who thought he wouldn't hehe. We got to see the talk box, cave and a buttload of fish. All in all it was a really good day.
Sunday: 1st Dive= Atlantis
Atlantis is where they tried to make an artificial reef with bridge pilons. Needless to say, it didn't work, but it does look like roman numerals. Granted since we are only open water, we weren't able to go to the bottom (77ft), and had to stay at the top, but there was still alot to see. We saw alot of spadefish, schools and schools of angelfish, and Shannon even saw a barricuda. One of the advanced water group got buzzed by the Landlord (a bull shark that has taken up residence at Atlantis). Shannon and I had a blast!
Visibilit was about 20-30 ft.
2nd Dive= 3 mile Barge
Now whether or not it's 3 miles, we didn't find out, as we went down in one spot only. But Shannon was able to finish off his skills. Course this dive I went down in only a swim suit, bc, and tank...so I got to feel the pain of a jellyfish sting (8x). Seems he was really wanting a piece of me hehe. You can barely see the stings now, and it only seemed to stung in the water. Again we saw spadefish loving up on our anchor, and we only had about 5-10 ft of visibility.
So it's official, Shannon is legit. So now we are going to be diving fiends.
*hugs and love to all*
Min~
Our first 2 dives were at vortex springs. Now this spring is about 2hr drive from Gulf Shores, if you know how to get there...otherwise it's 3. So we (not being from here and such) got there about 3pm, and started pulling our gear off the truck and setting up. Now Vortex is consistenty at 68 degrees...this means...it's really freaking cold. So we are all in about what would be the equivelant of a 7 mm wet suit. (really thick). So we jump in, and realize that Shannon doesn't have enough weight, so we go back to the bucket twice to try and get him to sink. (now we know that wasn't the case, and how to successfully weigh yourself every time). The amusing part in the beginning of our dive was, I'm already certified, yet his instructor (from here on out we shall call her Beth), let him stay with me, and felt secure that we could handle whatever we needed to. Granted the visibility was only about 15-20 ft, so I spent alot of my time watching flippers, and trying to wrangle in loose divers who thought Beth went the other way. *sigh* Shannon has 2 people in his class that I just won't dive with, they don't take it serious. In the end, I think they may wind up killing themselves if they don't straighten up about it. One of them freaks out anytime something doesn't go the way he thinks it should...this is bad cause sometimes, this happens. Anyway, we did two dives there, and had a blast. Even stayed in to the point where we starting to shiver. Shannon aced all his skills....course who thought he wouldn't hehe. We got to see the talk box, cave and a buttload of fish. All in all it was a really good day.
Sunday: 1st Dive= Atlantis
Atlantis is where they tried to make an artificial reef with bridge pilons. Needless to say, it didn't work, but it does look like roman numerals. Granted since we are only open water, we weren't able to go to the bottom (77ft), and had to stay at the top, but there was still alot to see. We saw alot of spadefish, schools and schools of angelfish, and Shannon even saw a barricuda. One of the advanced water group got buzzed by the Landlord (a bull shark that has taken up residence at Atlantis). Shannon and I had a blast!
Visibilit was about 20-30 ft.
2nd Dive= 3 mile Barge
Now whether or not it's 3 miles, we didn't find out, as we went down in one spot only. But Shannon was able to finish off his skills. Course this dive I went down in only a swim suit, bc, and tank...so I got to feel the pain of a jellyfish sting (8x). Seems he was really wanting a piece of me hehe. You can barely see the stings now, and it only seemed to stung in the water. Again we saw spadefish loving up on our anchor, and we only had about 5-10 ft of visibility.
So it's official, Shannon is legit. So now we are going to be diving fiends.
*hugs and love to all*
Min~