Interview with Tim Watson, Author of “Howard’s Search For a Home”

April 9th, 2009

(Full-size video is available at blip.tv.)
(Downloadable MP3)

You can get Tim’s book, “Howard’s Search for a Home: An Underwater Adventure of a Moray Eel” at:

Lulu.com (Paperback & Downloadable PDF): Howard’s Search for a Home: An Underwater Adventure of a Moray Eel

Amazon.com (Hardcover):

You can reach Tim directly by email, or post a comment below and I will forward it along to him.

It is a GREAT book, and a portion of the proceeds support the volunteer programs at the Mystic Aquarium. Tim is donating the money out of the goodness of his heart, so please consider buying his book. It is available in both print and as a downloadable e-book from Lulu.com, and hard-back from Amazon.com.

Here are links to some of the things that Tim and I talked about during the interview:

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Posted in Children, Inspiring, Learn To Dive, Travel | 5 Comments »

New SCUBA Equipment Review: H.E.L.P. from The Dive Flag

April 8th, 2009

(A larger video of my H.E.L.P. SCUBA Safety Equipment Review is available at blip.tv)

Many thanks to TheDiveFlag.com for sending me their product to check out!  If you like what you see, you can get the H.E.L.P. at this link:

H.E.L.P. SCUBA Emergency Signaling Device from TheDiveFlag.com

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Congratulations to New Divers!

April 1st, 2009

Johnathon Henninger/Record-Journal Stephanie OConnell, R-J features writer receives lessons in the Cheshire Pool from Jill Kobrin, S.C.U.B.A. instructor at New England Dive Center in Wallingford.

Johnathon Henninger/Record-Journal Stephanie O'Connell, R-J features writer receives lessons in the Cheshire Pool from Jill Kobrin, S.C.U.B.A. instructor at New England Dive Center in Wallingford.

This post is a quick “Congratulations!” shout-out to a new SCUBA diver who was certified in the Subic Bay, Philippines.  If you are a new diver, are looking to get into diving, or want to re-live the memories of your first dive, check out Amberly’s writeup about her experience.

Click here for Part One of her first real open-water SCUBA dive.

Congrats Amberly!

I also saw this great article in the Conneticut Record-Journal Newspaper.  It was written by Stephanie O’Connell, a reporter for the Record-Journal, who decided to learn to SCUBA dive.  I love seeing stories like this, because it always reminds me of the very first time I took a breath underwater:

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9 SCUBA Divers Dedicate 3 Months to Repair Damaged Florida Reef

March 19th, 2009

Imagine this:

You’re diving your favorite reef with your best friends, having the time of your life.  As you crest the wall and start to descend further, you notice that there is a lot of damage to the reef.  You’re not sure why, but a huge area of the coral is broken.

As you swim over it, you realize that it is worse than you expected: the damaged area is as large as 2 football fields!

Maybe it was a boating accident.  Maybe it was malicious.  Regardless, it needs to be fixed.

But who is going to fix it?  The city doesn’t have the money or people.  Neither does the state or county.

When you get back to shore, you and your dive buddies all have the same question: “What the heck happened, and how do we fix it?”

A-ha, you think.  We can fix it.

That’s exactly what happened with a group of 9 divers at “The Breaker’s Reef” in Palm Beach, FL.  After raising $3,000 in donations from the local area, the team got to work.

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Crazy Bonaire SCUBA Adventure

March 16th, 2009

So I was checking my e-mail this morning and saw a link to this website: Eight things every diver should do before they die.  Usually, I don’t comment on links in e-mails (for some reason, dancing cats and glittery, animated baby images aren’t interesting to many people)…

Anyway, something like that always gets me interested.  I’m an adventurer and really good at getting myself into bizarre situations, so it made me wonder how many things on this list have I not done yet.  Actually it was a lot!  Jetting around a pool with an air tank sounds like a LOT of fun!  =)

It got me thinking about one of the things on this list that I had done: Spending a Whole Week Diving Every Day.

I was on a SCUBA dive trip to Bonaire, a small island in the Netherlands Antilles, about 25 miles from the coast of Venezuela in 2006 with a group of about 10 people.  I was invited by a co-worker, Joel, and I was the obvious outsider.  Everyone else pretty much knew each other.  The leaders of the group were my friend’s brother and sister-in-law, from Madison, WI.  All the other divers were from the Madison area, except for my friend and I (we were living in Dayton, OH).

It was July of 2006, and to catch the flight to Bonaire, my friend and I drove from Dayton, OH to Chicago, IL to meet our group.  After spending the night in a hotel near the airport, we got up at 3AM the next morning to check-in to Air Jamaica and fly from Chicago-O’Hare International Airport to Jamaica, and after a short lay-over, fly from Jamaica to Kralendijk, Bonaire.  Well, at least that was the plan.

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Introducing: Howard the Retired Moray Eel

March 14th, 2009

Howards Search for a Home: An Underwater Adventure of a Moray Eel by Tim Watson

Howard's Search for a Home: An Underwater Adventure of a Moray Eel by Tim Watson

Here’s a cute story I came across yesterday, and might be especially interesting to those divers out there with little children…

Author Tim Watson, an Ohio native, avid SCUBA diver and author, has just released a new children’s book based on his experience working with the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT.  The story is about Howard, a green moray eel, who is searching for a place to retire.  During Howard’s adventure, he meets many ocean animals such sea turtles, octopuses, crabs, and dolphins.

Each page has a beautiful photo that Tim has taken while at the Mystic Aquarium.  You can preview a few pages of the book here.  I, personally, love the photo of the golden Moray Eel on Page 6.

The book is self-published, and is currently available from Lulu.com, and it is expected to be in Amazon.com and Borders bookstores within a few weeks.  Here is the summary from Lulu:

Howard’s Search for a Home: An Underwater Adventure of a Moray Eel uses vibrant underwater pictures for the younger child’s visual aesthetics, a simple humorous story line for young readers, and incorporates an educational aspect of each species encountered to promote ocean animal appreciation and learning. The book may also be a good avenue for children to open a dialog with adults around understanding retirement. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Mystic Aquarium’s volunteer SCUBA program (for cleaning and maintenance), research, and stranding programs.

The Lulu reviews currently show 3 votes with 6 stars each, and the photos that Tim has used in the book were chosen to excite both children and adults alike.

In addition, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Mystic Aquarium to support their SCUBA program, maintenance, education and animal rescue efforts.

Bravo!

-Kris

Update: I have recorded an interview with Dr. Tim Watson.  He is quite a fascinating person!  It is available here.

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This May Save Your Life: 5 Tips to Avoid SCUBA Dive Boat Accidents

March 11th, 2009

It seems like there have been a lot of these lately…

“Dive boat propeller kills Malaysia tourist diver”

“Another Florida boat propeller accident severely injures scuba diver”

“Boat propeller kills scuba diver at Pulau Dayang”

“Boat propeller severely injures scuba diver”

I’m not trying to scare anyone, but accidents do happen, and SCUBA diving can be a very unforgiving sport.  With any sport like SCUBA, being aware of your situation and your environment can mean the difference between having a safe dive and a serious injury.  And, unfortunately, there is a lot of information about dive boats and dive boat safety that is never covered in the certification courses (at least, is wasn’t covered in any of my PADI courses).

Here are my 5 quick tips to keep in mind whenever you are diving by boat:

  1. Always stay at least 15 feet from the boat while you floating are on the surface.  Being right against the boat makes it harder to see you, and being forced into the boat hull by a wave is an easy way to get injured.
  2. While diving, if you swim directly under the boat, stay ~30 feet below the surface.  This will keep you out of harms way if the propeller is accidentally engaged.
  3. When you surface, stay clear of the boat (at least 15 feet).  Do not surface directly at the dive platform.
  4. When climbing back into the boat, do not climb the steps to the dive platform until the diver ahead of you is fully on the boat and not likely to fall back into you.
  5. Keep an ear out for the sound of the motor or propeller of the dive boat.  If you hear the motor running, stay to the side of the boat until the dive master checks with the boat captain to make sure that the propeller isn’t engaged.  If you are clear of the boat, you can also descend a few feet and look at the propeller directly.  If it is turning, DO NOT approach the boat until it is disengaged.  An extra bit of safety here can save your life.

Hopefully, using these tips, you’ll have safe dives and never have a preventable injury.  I hate it whenever I see stories like the ones above, and I hope that no one I know ever has to suffer an injury like that.

Have a great dive, and be safe!

-Kris

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College SCUBA Class Experiences Fiji

March 11th, 2009

If you’re in college and are considering learning how to SCUBA dive, check out this article from the Stephen F. Austin State University.

SFA’s SCUBA class (Kinesiology 116), led by SCUBA instructor Sally Sowell, recently took a 12-day expedition to Fiji to visit the “soft coral capital of the world”, where they dove world-renowned sites such as The Great White Wall and Rainbow Reef.  While on the surface, they were immersed in the life of Fiji, learning how to weave baskets and plates and eat local food.

She is planning another 2-week student expedition to the Red Sea in May.

Here is a quick YouTube video about SCUBA in the Red Sea, to give you an idea of what SFA’s class is looking forward to:

I first learned how to SCUBA dive while I was in college in Colorado, and it was a great experience.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do my open water check-out dives until I moved to California, but I would have loved to go on a trip like this.

If you’re in college, check to see if they have a SCUBA course available.  What better way is there to have fun, learn to dive, and earn college credit at the same time?  And your certification and experiences will stay with you for life.

-Kris

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New Species of Fish Discovered by SCUBA Divers

February 27th, 2009

Diving is always an adventure, and you never know what you will find!

SCUBA Diving instructors off the coast of Ambon Island in Indonesia discovered a bizarre fish that bounces off the ocean floor like a rubber ball.  This species, now known as psychidelica, is a member of the frogfish family, and has a very unique white, blue & tan striped appearance, and bright, aqua-colored eyes.

The discovery was published in Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.  “The overall impression” says the Copeia research paper, was of “an inflated rubber ball bouncing along the bottom”.

That would be quite a sight!

You can read more about Ambon Island at Wikipedia.

-Kris

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How-To: Change the Battery in a Suunto Stinger or Spider Dive Computer

February 22nd, 2009

Martin at the SubAquaMundo blog posted a GREAT article on how you can change the battery in a Suunto Stinger or Spyder dive computer yourself, without taking it to a shop or sending it into the manufacturer.

The secret is a nice tool made by SmartInterface.de, which allows you to disassemble the SCUBA computer without damaging it.  All parts are included in the kit, which costs about $30.

Here is a link to the article:

DIY Suunto Stinger and Suunto Spyder Battery Change

I have also put the information on the SCUBASave wiki:

How to Change the Battery in a Suunto Stinger Dive Computer

Is that awesome or what?

-Kris

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