BeADiver Pool at the Detroit Boat Show

This past weekend was a Blast!  

At the Detroit Boat show one of the leading scuba marketing organizations DEMA, the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association sponsored the BeADiver pool so people could have an opportunity to try diving, FREE!  

We had a blast... a bunch of the Divers Incorporated Staff and some other pros from Bruno's Dive shop helped out and we had a chance to show a bunch of kids and thier parents that diving is super fun.

It was amazing to see some of the interactions between people... one little girl asked her Dad and when he said if you really want to... then they both went in the pool and he was ecstatic that there was something that they could do together.  Another girl in her twenties was litterally having to talk her boyfriend into it... they both got into the pool.. she loved it, he wasnt so sure but they were totally having fun.

The excitement is still there for diving... it was really good to see and it was a super fun time!

February Ice Diving at White Star Quarry

So you know I like diving.

While it is not for most people, and it is a lot of work, I have to say that if it wasn't for ice diving I think that I would go crazy over the winter.   This type of diving takes the "going to another planet" part of diving to an extreme.   You are tethered to the hole, visibility is even better than in the summer time.  You have a support team helping you get in and get out of the water, and you are "boldly going where few have gone before." 

How fun is that?

I get a lot of people who look at me in disbelief when I ask them if they want to try ice diving.  They look at me with the "are you completely insane" look a lot of the time.  Funny thing is that the water temperature under the ice is just a few degrees either way from the bottom of the lakes in the summer time.   The only difference is that there is a layer of ice at the top and you need to create a place to warm up since the weather topside is more brutal than the weather under the water. Sometimes a difference of 40 degrees.

I hate being cold.   I love ice diving.  Its really not cold weather I hate but being cold.  Properly equipped you arent ever cold.  I learned this the hard way between the first weekend of the month and the second.  I had a pair of boots for the times when you are standing on the ice tending to the divers.   They leaked, I got cold.  I bought a new pair of boots, they stayed dry, I stayed really warm.  Proper equipment makes it better. 

Being a topside tender is probably the hard part.   Standing in the cold temperatures watching the tethered diver slip under the surface helps me to understand what Michael Collins felt when Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the moon.  You just cant wait to get there... in the water where  it is warm.  Where you don't have to think about navigation and you can just concentrate on taking pictures... the line is always there for you to return.

I know ice diving and winter diving isnt for everyone, but if you want to dive in the winter in Michigan and Ohio it is an option for some.    But  that I have had a bunch of successful ice dives and have had fun every time,  spring can come any time it wants.

Getting Caught up...

I cannot believe that it has been a couple of months since I have written anything here.

I was amazed when I realized it, and sorry. I have done a bunch of things since November and I cannot believe that I didn't find the time to write about it all. So this is my attempt at getting caught up.

First things first, Jill and I as you know volunteer at the Newport Aquarium. Well in the past two months we have gotten two different dive levels under our belt and have had an opportunity to not only dive in the Amazon tank, but have dived in the Coral Reef tank as well. The Amazon tank is amazing. There are a bunch of different animals there including freshwater stingrays, Pacus and some fish that you may be used to seeing at the aquarium stores. They are always hungry and a total riot to feed. We have been there twice since my last blog and going back in February. Not sure what we are going to do then but it will be awesome.

I have also had an opportunity to river dive a couple of times. The Artic weather has made it a bit of a challenge but the water has been clear and and the added visibility makes finding stuff a little easier. The last dive had us diving in a fog on the surface with HUGE Ice bergs that made it look like we were indeed diving above the artic circle.

If you didnt know from talking with me, I got a new camera for christmas. My old camera is still awesome and I will probably continue using it for some things but my new camera is amazing. I will have to post separately for that since there are a bunch of pictures that I took on the new years day dive and on an ice dive the following weekend. So far I have seven dives in for 2010... more to come for sure. I will do my best to keep from falling behind in my blogs.

Awesome Day at the Newport Aquarium

Today was a fantastic day!

Jill and I arrived at the Newport Aquarium where we are Volunteer Divers for the WAVE Foundation at the Aquarium. This morning was our Diver Rescue Training where we learn the protocols for handling diver emergencies in the tanks at the Aquarium. Neither of us knew what to expect and the day turned out way better than we could have ever expected.

We started by suiting up and getting into the acclimation pool of the Shark Tank. This was my first saltwater experience since before summer and it felt great to be back in the "ocean." The subject matter was serious however and we learned the steps necessary to get an injured diver out of the shark tank and into safety. The alarm system for divers is top notch. The divers have a panic button located about a foot over the water and when we push it, 911 is immediately called and the alarm rings in every back stage area to get help coming. There is one on each of the main tanks of the aquarium and it is like a safety net for diver. We learned how to lift a diver using a chain hoist and litter to get them out of the shark tank and after we had done it a couple of times each, we headed to the Amazon Tank to learn the protocols there. Before we went there we had an opportunity to see one of the barbs shed by one of the southern stingrays. This was to help us understand the seriousness of the injury one of these creatures could inflict. The barb was about the thickness of a pencil, razor sharp and so serrated in one direction it would do a ton of damage coming out. It was so wicked that I was thinking that Hollywood could have scarcely done better in a tool for one of its wicked characters. We were told that the barbs could grow to be the size and length of a #2 pencil and they could certainly punch through our flimsy wetsuits.

In the Amazon tank there are at least 6 stingrays but we were strictly staying at the surface to do our emergency drills. This drill was similar to ones taught in our Rescue Diver course and the difference is that we have Arowanas, Oscars, Pacus, Freshwater stingrays and other creatures of the Amazon looking on. I was bummed when we were told that we didn't need masks but after our Dive Safety Officer realized that we had never been in the tank before, she let us "snorkel" for an hour there after the drills.

The final drill was an "Envenomation Drill." This protocol was specific to the stingrays and what to do if we accidentally got skewered. The emergency kit was very complete and the drill was one of those that you hoped you never had to use what you learned. Those little flat pancakes are super cute but I would hate to be on the receiving end of what they can deliver.




After the drills we had time to spend in the tank. It was a fantastic opportunity for Jill and I since we were pretty excited about being able to swim along side creatures that we have kept in our home aquariums for years. Oscars, Plecostomus', Red tailed catfish, Severums, Pacus, and the freshwater stingrays were amazing. This was so awesome I could not imagine the day getting any better.... or so I thought.


When we got out of the Amazon Tank, our DSO came up and told us that she had a surprise for us. If we wanted to, we could get back into the Acclimation pool and spend some time getting to know Denver, the resident Loggerhead Sea Turtle. Jill and I jumped at the chance. Denver was HUGE! He weighed in at his last weighing at 200lbs and his head was the size of a volleyball. He was super gentle but we were told that we had to be careful not to get near his mouth, anything he bit he broke... off. But there seemed to be no end to his curiosity. I had just got my camera mask to take pictures of the Aquarium creatures and it seems that Denver liked the blinking light on the mask a lot... needless to say it was an amazing experience. I was really happy with how the pictures from the mask turned out. Once I get over the learning curve I think it will be something that I use on every dive in the aquarium.




Afterwards Jill and I took the rest of the afternoon to run through the aquarium on the public side. It was super crowded but we had lots of fun and took lots of pictures. We were both having fun telling people what they were looking at and spending a lot of time at each tank looking to get "perfect" shots. Not easy to do through glass and lexan.

On the way home Jill made a comment to the effect that walking through the aquarium on the public side brought us a little back to reality. She said that while we were walking through the aquarium she realized how many people there are who have no idea what they are looking at. As we both talked we discussed how much more we know about the worlds oceans because we are scuba divers. Things like;

• Remoras are not baby sharks
• What an anemone is and that it is not a plant
• In the shark touch tank... "No it's not dead, just sleeping"
• Lionfish are beautiful but they are an invasive species
• A shark wasn't a mindless eating machine and the safety divers in the tank were there to keep the turtle from biting divers, not the sharks.
• That the turtles in the tank with the alligators were indeed real (Jill had a hard time convincing one guy)
• Not all jellyfish were stinging and you didn't instantly die from getting stung
• Its a "blue tang" not a "Dory Fish" and no it doesn't speak "whale,"
• My personal favorite, "yes I am sure it is a scorpion fish, not a rock"
  

I am super happy that Jill talked me into this experience from the beginning and I am looking forward to the next time we get to go to the aquarium... we are now ready to dive!

Tryouts for the Newport Aquarium at Scuba Unlimited

Something you may not know about one of my new projects is that Jill and I have been going through the motions to become volunteer divers at the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky. After the initial interview we have a "tryout" to complete. This last Sunday was our day.

It started in the quarry on Saturday with a practice dive in the quarry to make sure the weighting was right with the equipment we were using. Jill hadn't been in the water for about a month and was overdue for a dip. It was a fabulous dive and we were ready.

Long Drive on Sunday took us to Cincinnati and Scuba Unlimited. This shop was pretty cool (I love dive shops anyway) and we were welcomed by Craig, Ed and Jenny. There were 18 other volunteers. The tryout was not a "Pass/ Fail" but they wanted to know where we stood with our diving knowledge and our buoyancy skills and to recommend remedial training if necessary.

Our testing started with a written exam. A WRITTEN EXAM! I was not sure since I hadn't studied and I was WAY more stressed about it since I was sure that if I failed I would never hear the end of it. As it turns out I got three questions wrong. The first was a trick question... you will have to ask me about it in person... the second was about coral reefs and that they didn't need fish. The third was because I didn't know Nurse Sharks were Nocturnal. ( I see them all the time swimming in daylight) With the three wrong I still passed!

After a briefing we headed for the YMCA Pool... we had to demonstrate that we could get into the water quietly, then hover horizontal, hover vertical and then swim through this pretty cool buoyancy course. They were looking that we were aware of what our fins were touching and then how we reacted to it. There were seven hoops to swim through with "vines" in between. A pretty stressful exercise for me. Not because I didn't have confidence in my ability. It was a simple statement from one of my peers, "wouldn't it suck if you failed?" Got me just a little nervous... couldn't really live with the ribbing... :)

Anyway... the evaluation went without a snag. Next step, Aquarium Orientation! It is one of the most awesome Aquariums of its kind and I can't wait to be part of it!

The Piano

An Attempt at a new dive site at White Star Quarry

At a family gathering my sister-in-law tells me that she has an awesome idea. Sink her Piano in the quarry. She had been trying to sell it/give it away/get rid of it for over a year and no one wanted it. It was an antique, a little out of tune but not old enough to have ivory keys. An old player piano with the player removed. It was something rarely even looked at let alone played.

Needless to say I jumped at the chance. A Piano sunk in a quarry would be an awesome conversation piece and a really cool dive site. My wife and I grabbed the pickup and drove over to pick it up that evening.

Saturday morning at White Star Quarry we arrived with a Piano on the back of my pickup truck. Needless to say it drew a lot of attention and a number of people were eager to help move it into the quarry. Many of my staff were there so help was plentiful. Getting a 300lb (ish) piano into the quarry would be kind of difficult but not impossible. I was planning on attaching floats to it so we could move it easily but not sure how negatively buoyant it would be proved a difficult thought so we decided to just dump it in and then figure out how to lift it and move it. Dropped off the wall into the quarry taught me and the other people a valuable lesson none of us would have otherwise learned.

As heavy as they are and nearly impossible to move, Pianos Float!

It took about another three hours to rig up a weight to sink it to the bottom... The plan was to weight it down, Let it water log and then move it to its final resting place. It took nearly 100lbs to get it to the bottom... there, suspended from the weight and floating upright it made for a spectacular photo opportunity. I was excited about the new addition to the quarry and the chance to take pictures of something rarely seen underwater. Heading home that evening I was looking forward to the dive on Wednesday to check it out.

Wednesday morning my dive buddy, Kevin showed up and we were getting ready to dive when the Operations Manager of the Park showed up and asked if I knew anything about a piano that had been put in the quarry. My first thought was "how did he know?" We hadn't told anyone about it yet. That's when I learned the second lesson about piano sinking.

Old pianos are almost entirely assembled with water-soluble glue.

OoopS!

As it turns out, most of the piano floated up in its component parts and had to be retrieved from the surface of the quarry. It had disassembled itself over the three days underwater and we didn't have much left other than the sound board and part of the base which had metal components. Still cool to look at but not much resembling the piano it once was.

Lots of lessons learned. You can find the remnants of this cool idea lying on the bottom near throne mountain in the center of White Star. Should be something to see for the years to come.

A Couple of Hours at the Newport Aquarium

While we were at Scuba Fest this past spring, my wife Jill got to talking to the WAVE Foundation people about becoming a volunteer Diver at the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky. Being that it was almost a four hour drive I wasnt sure what she was thinking. It seems that as a volunteer your minimum commitment is one eight hour day per Month.... now thats doable. You get to feed fish, dive in and clean tanks, interract with people through the glass and become part of the displays.

Today was my initial interview. It was my first time back to the aquarium in almost 10 years. It had seriously changed... transforming from a simple aquarium with a parking lot to a tourist mall with a bunch of attractions. I was early for my interview so I grabbed my camera and bought an admission ticket to check out the changes.

The new attractions were awesome and made me want to be part of it more. There were petting tanks for sharks, a fantastic amphibian "Frog Bog" and some awesome reef systems. The huge shark tank was still there and active, and the Bayou. As always I was fascinated by the Rivers (and the thought of diving in the Amazon Exhibit) and their new Jellyfish exhibit was amazing with many different species including the upsidedown jellyfish I saw on Bonaire in the Mangrove swamps.

The interview went well (I think.) I was qualified and could move on to the next step. A buoyancy and skills evaluation at a future date. I am sure I will post more then.

Bring Your Twins to Work Day at Divers Incorporated

Since their Mom had a family obligation that all of our normal baby sitters were also attending i decided to have the first ever Bring Your Twins to Work Day at Divers Incorporated. I am not only surprised how well the girls did but I was happy that they had fun for the whole 8 hour shift and that after getting up at 6:45 am to go to their swim lessons. They even lasted until we got home even though I put them in their pajamas in the hopes they would crash before Ice Cream. Whoda thunk it?

They started with grabbing their name tags and setting up a sticker and marker table in the work room at the shop. "Uncle" Will and their Grandfather (PapPap) were working with me today so they were both going to get lots attention. They moved from the work room to the classroom where we changed out the PADI video for "The Little Mermaid 2" and I sat in the back of the class watching them make a big mess and lots of projects and did (or tried to do) some work.

After that they rearranged the store a few times, worked with PapPap on some stuff, worked on regulators with Will made puzzles watched a fishy movie and then put on their pajamas for a trip home... having been so good they wanted ice cream (Frosty's) but the vanilla frosty machine was broken... Natalie got her chocolate frosty and we had to go to McDonalds for a Vanilla ice cream (half sundae no toppings)

Fun day with some good distractions... makes me happy to see they like the dive center.. .I hope it is as much a part of their life as it is mine.

White Star this weekend!

This weekend at White Star was fantastic! It started on Friday for me with two of my friends coming up from Georgia to complete their open water certification dives at White Star. I also had the opportunity to meet a new friend, Matt for some dives along with us.

The weather was amazing! Truly turning out to be the beginning of summer down there.. it only rained a little on Saturday as we were all finishing up. The water was warmer than expected... getting close to 70 degrees above the thermocline and an amazing 40- 50 ft visibility... even with students in the water. Lots of fish activity and lots of people enjoying the dives. My girls came down to visit and to see the divers in the water with Daddy!

The weather on Sunday was coopertive as well. Staying warm and Sunny for the PADI IE and the courses we were offering from Divers Incorporated. It was fantastic to see so many old friends out diving! Dave, Dave, Sam, Patrix, Gary, Jamie, Kevin, Ron, Brad, Jimmy, Will, John, Michelle, Morgan, Jennifer, Trent and Kelly... just to name a bunch! I am looking forward to catching up with friends again soon!

Bonne Terre Mine 2009

Now I really think I missed something since I remember telling everyone about our trip to Bonne Terre Mine in 2009. Since is was about a month ago that we went, and I have had two trips since, the details of the trip are a little fuzzy but I know it was awesome. I especially liked getting to know some new people on the trip that I didnt know well beforehand. I really enjoyed that barbecue place we all went to Friday night. It was great to catch up with long lost friends and a little dissapointed that other friends didnt make it out to the mine that weekend.

I have posted a lot of pictures on the website at the past trip reports section. But here are a few of my favorites. This trip was a great time getting to trail seven. Four and seven and the lake room are so far my favorites... can't wait to go back again next year.

Bonaire 2009

I am a little late in getting this post out... I really wanted to do a play by play by dive by day but the internet connection at the resort was so painstakingly slow.... lets just say I could have smoke signaled it faster. In any case, better late than never so here goes.

This trip to Bonaire took me and 16 others to a fantastic resort known as Buddy Dive. Augusto, Carlos, German and the rest of the dive gang there really took care of us and made us feel welcome. The diving was fantastic, as always, and every dive was more memorable than the last. Like I typed above, I really would have loved to do a dive report on each dive but I recently misplaced my log book (it is being mailed Back to me) and now I am limited to my memory where every dive is just as cool as another and the memory of the week is pretty much a memory of just one long super cool dive.

Some things to note for the past traveler to Bonaire. The last hurricane did its damage and it is apparant on many of the reefs. It seems to be rebounding well though.. the outer edges of Klein showed it the most. And the town pier and the salt pier were sandblasted clean.. .like new concrete, there is nothing there worth seeing and the damaged parts of the pier make diving a little more hazardous than Augusto would like us to be. So no diving there for a while.

We did dive the rubble pile at the north end of Windsock on a night dive and saw a bunch of octopi.... that was cool and there was a dive on a house reef where we saw a yellow frogfish... dived it off of a boat... and the seahorses and frogfish and tarpon always make for a fantastic diving experience.

If you are interested we are going back the first week of MAY in 2010. I am really looking forward to going back. I love it there.

Diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic

Needless to say for those that know me well I have been really busy lately. I have not been a good blogger and I am going to do my best to make sure that I blog my diving adventures and anything else that I think you may be interested in. Want me to write about something specific? Just let me know and I will do my best to oblige.

This past Memorial Day Weekend I had an opportunity to dive with some very cool people, meet others that I had not known well before and really enjoyed the company of some good friends. The diving in Morehead at its worst is still some of the best in the world and I really enjoyed the bottom time of this trip.

The weather was fantastic on shore but offshore the waves were big and frequent. Our first day hiatus to the U352 turned out to be a rough ride out to the SPAR which had many people looking green around the gills and ready to hit the water for some calmer times. The vis was a little less spectacular than last year but it allowed for some good explorations and good navigations. It also allowed my new PADI Deep Divers an opportunity to dive a little deeper than they had been on their previous dives. The underwater life never ceases to amaze me.

The second dive of the first day turned out to be more incredible than I could have hoped for. The dive on the INDRA was a shell collectors dream. Next year I think it will be my primary mission on that dive. There were hundreds of cool collectables just below the sand.

Day two was inshore to spare us the tossing and rolling... the weather never cooperated the whole weekend. We did a dive on the INDRA and this time Jill and I took along bigger Goodie Bags. The second dive was on the Titan and many divers saw sharks and other fish that made the shallower dive more fun than hoped for.

I hope the people who joined us for this year make another attempt next year. I would love to be able to show them the U352 and the sharks of the PAPOOSE. Memorial Day weekend in 2010 if you are interested... I know thats where I will be.

A trip to the Divers Alert Network

We were in North Carolina this past weekend, a trip that my wife Jill and I have done for the past three years as our "vacation" as we celebrate our anniversary after we take fellow divers on a trip to the Cooper River. This trip, my wife suggested that on the way home we stop by the offices of the Divers Alert Network and visit our friend, Eric Douglas and see one of the "mecca's" of the diving world. She set it up and WOW was it a great experience.

Eric met us at the front door for our tour and we were greeted at the door by a sign that said "Today we welcome Rich and Jill Synowiec" which I thought was pretty cool. Eric showed us a fish tank in the lobby that he said was "the coolest part of the tour" and then said that he didn't know how long the tour would be since it was an office building afterall. Since Eric is the training director of DAN it isn't surprising that he started with the training department... we met Scott, who we found out had an office full of stuffed animals (the cuddly type)AND surprisingly with all the toys in his office we found he was actually allergic to kids (he gets hives :)) Eric's office looked exactly what I would have expected a creative geniuses office to look like... shelves of books and boxes of his own books on the floor... the Mike Scott novels are a great read... especially for divers. Check them out at www.booksbyeric.com. We also got to meet Fay. Every DAN instructor gets emails from Fay saying "your roster is processed" and it was good to put a face with a name. We also got to visit the call center.. the place where all the emergency calls come in and we got to visit with some of the cool staff of the medical department... they had some of their papers on a bulletin board in the hall. They are super smart :)


The tour took us around the first floor, to the second where we met...well no one.. the second floor was deserted... all in a meeting and not available. We did get to see the latest issue of Alert Diver up on the wall... they post a rough draft for everyone to check out before it goes to final print. They had some issues of the older copies.. not sure how they picked them but they were still cool. We saw a lot of other people.. too many to remember.. and I am looking forward to knowing them better on another trip.

The top floor of DAN.. where the executives, senior staff and the accountants are.. the important top of the ivory tower. We got to spend some time sitting in the office of Jeff Meyers, the COO of DAN talking about his time in Eric's position. I met Jeff in the Bahamas aboard a Blackbeard's cruise nearly 18 years ago when he was with PADI. Now his corner office is a pretty cool and comfortable place. I was glad we got to see him.

Then on to the other corner office. Jill and I met the person who does all the work, Dan Orr's personal assistant, and then the corner office... the top of the tower... and Dan Orr, the CEO of Divers Alert Network was in. He showed us some cool photos he took at the Guadalupe islands... he had a huge amount of awards including the Reaching out.. and I think I saw the NOGI.. He showed us some of the old Alert Divers... including an original first edition (I want one of those) from the early 80's... and we distracted him while Eric raided the candy jar. All kidding aside, Dan is a great story teller and it was fun to hear the enthusiasm of his stories of the Sharks at Guadalupe. Jill and I so want to go there.

Back downstairs and then back on the road back to Michigan. Glad we got to spend a couple of hours with Eric and the DAN team. I would like to come back again soon. For Eric, he began joking about it being an office building since it was his work and he also talked about how he wasn't sure how it could be a long tour.. but he beat out Dan Orr's normal 45 minute tour by nearly double. Good job, warm welcome and a great time... one I will not soon forget. Big thanks to everyone at DAN for making us feel comfortable... and Eric,Scott, Fay and the rest of the training department for all their help and support. Jill and I look forward to next time.