Come join us on our fun and beautiful diving/snorkeling adventures!
This guy was tiny! In this picture this guy's fins are completely open and he was no bigger than a half dollar. When his fins weren’t extended he was about the size of a quarter. When the Sailfin Tang grows into an adult (12 inches) his brilliant yellow turns into a bluish grey. As an adult the colors on the fish are just as amazing!
Posted by The Murray's at 10:13 PM
Well the long awaited Blue Hole dive has come and gone. It was as awesome as I anticipated. This was a fund raiser dive that was sponsored by one of the units on base. The MDA dive shop provided the boat and team. This particular dive is one of the most sought after dives among all divers. Not just those who dive in Guam. If you Google “Blue Hole Guam” you will get all types of information. I encourage you to check it out. The hole sits on top of the reef which is at an approximate depth of 60 feet. Once inside the hole it drops to a depth around 120-130 feet. When you get to the bottom you can swim out the side of the reef. You don’t have to go back the way you came to get out. I went ahead and completed all my Advanced Diver requirements on this dive, so I should be receiving my new certification (Advance Diver) in a week or so. I look forward to doing this dive again REAL SOON! WOOT!!!
This was my first time at Agat Cemetery and my second night dive. The Guam Tropical Dive Station (GTDS) sponsored this dive. They gave us a discount on the tanks and also brought a grill and food to the site. The GTDS puts on one sponsored dive a month. They don’t cost anything but the air and they supply the food. What a deal hu? There were approximately 30 folks that showed up for this dive. I have to say I loved hanging out with all the people but I didn’t care for this dive location. I may have had a better time had I dove this site in the daytime once before this night dive. The highlight of the dive was the Amtrak train that had been sunk out there. It is very common in Guam and most tropical places for that matter to sink ships and trains to help reef growth. There is one picture of a side shot of the train. I wanted to go in, but wreck penetrations takes special training. I am currently pursuing the certification, so I can see some of the incredible history (WWI and WWII wrecks) down at the bottom of the ocean.
So here’s the story! If you don’t know Lori has some reservations about being in the water where she can’t touch. So for the past 3 months I have been coaxing her to come out and snorkel with me(hopefully diving soon). Some of the reef is close to the shore so Lori started using a mask and snorkel where she could stand. After she got over the anxiety of breathing through the snorkel she was willing to try and float while she was viewing all the fish. So the next time we were at the beach I took her out (Still where she could stand) and just guided her through the water. Once we did that she was much more comfortable and was willing to try using fins and heading out to a much deeper part of the reef. So, how does all this tie in with the photos you ask???? Well the very next time we hit the beach Lori and I strap our gear on and fin out to one of the areas where the tourists get brought to look at the reef and lo and behold this guy shows up. Imagine what would be going through your mind if you we a little uncomfortable in the water to begin with. Well I have to say Lori hung in there like a champ. She was solid as a rock. This Great Barracuda was between 4 and 5 feet long and he was just gliding through the water. We were only in 8 feet of water as well. There were some tourists feeding some fish, so we think he was over there waiting for one of the little fish to go away from the feeding frenzy. This was so AWESOME to see with Lori. A memory that will last forever!
MY FAVORITE DIVE TO DATE!!! The scenery down here is to die for. The walk and swim out to the dive site is a little tricky. I found myself in a little trouble when a wave knocked me over onto some stony coral. I will definitely be more careful next time I go out on this dive. The current can get really nasty as well. I would do this dive everyday if I could. This is a favorite dive of many of my dive buddies. Many people have said that if you do this dive just after sun up you can see some Manta and Eagle Rays. I HAVE TO SEE THAT!!!
Our fourth dive was our "adventure dive". It is normally the first of the four dives in the certification class. However, our instructor said we could make it our last dive so we could have a little more fun. This dive doesn't require any drills or anything. It is just supposed to be a familiarization dive. Seeing that we had already learned and executed our skills we were able to just explore the reef and have fun. This was the only dive where the instructor allowed me to use my camera. This dive took place at Gab Gab 2. It is just a little further out on the reef. The max depth was 60 feet, so not to deep. Some of the fish we saw there were bigger than me. Check out the phots. They are AWESOME!! The entire class was breathtaking, but this last dive was the BOMB!!!
We covered all the same things we did in the first dive and added a couple more drills. The dive lasted about 40 min. While I was watching the rest of the class do their drills I descended below 60 ft. Ooops!! I was still not allowed to take pictures during this dive, so the same Dive Master had my camera. He took a bunch of photos, but only a few were keepers.
Well the long awaited dive certification class has finally been completed. The entire course took a week to complete. On Mon, Tue, and Wed we had 3 hours of class in the evening. We covered everything from the nomenclature of the gear all the way to basic survival skills. On Thursday we spent 3 hours in the base pool learning the practical application of what we covered in the classroom. We had Friday off and spent the entire day Saturday and Sunday in the water completing our open water portion of the class (which was held on Big Navy at Gab Gab 1). I can’t put into words how awesome it was the first time we broke the top of the water and started descending to 30 ft. The amount of sea life down here is just breathtaking. Once I got to the bottom I gave my camera to one of the Dive Masters who was helping out in the class. He took a ton of photos, so it was only appropriate to post some of the good ones. We did a total of 4 dives over the two days so I will post more with the next slide show. More to come!
Due to the way the blog page is set up I am not able to put everything in chronological order to start. I have to say this site is not the easiest to build, so please just read everything so you can get acclimated to the way this thing works.
PERFECT PIC
My initial intent was to post a “PIC Of The Week” each week. It was going to be my best photo taken for that week. However, I already have so many great pictures I didn’t just want to put up one a week. So… I decided to call them a “Perfect Pic” and include a little bit of information about what kind of fish it is and where the photo was taken. Hopefully I will post a few good pictures each week. Also, if you notice some of the photos have a blue tint to them that is because they were taken at a much greater depth. The color red is the first thing to go as you decend to the bottom.
SLIDESHOWS
The slide shows will be most of the photos from each time I dive and snorkel. If you put the mouse curser over the slideshow a small white text bubble will appear in the lower left hand corner of the frame. If you click on it, some information about each picture will appear. Slideshows will not show up under the Blog Archive, so please check for new ones each time you log on.CAMERA
All of the photos before 25 Jun 09, were taken with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W90 8.1 mega pixels with the Sony Marine Pack case. Photos taken after 25 Jun 09, were taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 with marine pack. The Lumix camera takes absolutly awesome underwater photos. I recomend it for anyone. I thought that information might be important if anyone wanted to know how I was getting the photos.GEAR:
Buoyancy Compensator: Mares Vector 1000
Regulator: Mares Abyss 22
Gauges: Oceanic Atom 2.0
Mask/Snorkel: Mares Liquid Skin Mask and Oceanic Ultradry
Fins: Twin Jets
TOTAL BOTTOM TIME
This is just a counter that will add up all the minutes I have spent under water. I also incuded my current certification, so as I move up in rank you all can see.
0 comments:
Post a Comment