May 17, 2008 - Divemaster Log

Hello everyone!

Saturday May 17th finds the Video Dude doing his "Divemaster Thing" on Deerfield Beach (FL) with Jon Landress, Instructor for Scuba Network in Deerfield Beach. We all arrive at our normal beach entry point to discover that our spot has been temporarily closed due to an Ironman Triathlon! We search around for another spot and finally get to set up our gear and begin our dives. I got everyone organized on the beach while Jon gave a dive briefing, then off we went. The ocean was dead calm and 78 degrees, very little current and, for this location anyway, good visibility at around 25 ft.

We swim/navigate out to the first reef (@15fsw) and Jon starts to run everyone through their skills. I take our one Advanced Open Water student off to the side and get her started on her photography and environment requirements. We find some nice juvenile High-Hat Drums, Porkfish and Glassy Sweepers which she photographs, then I have her start on her environmental report on the reef. About 5 minutes into this, Jon calls the dive and we all head back to shore using natural and compass navigation.

After everyone gets their gear swapped over and I assist with any problems, we're back in the water for our next dive. Jon continues working with the students while I finish up with the Advanced Open Water student. I have her finish her environmental report, then we work on navigation. I string a line out so she can determine her kick cycles on a set distance, then have her do an "out and back" swim, a square pattern and a triangle pattern. She was nervous about navigation on the beach, but she did very well in the water.

We have a little time left on this dive, so Jon and I take everyone on a little "tour" of the reef. We found a Baby Squid (2-3 inches long) which didn't like Jon and squirted him with ink. We also saw a Southern Stargazer - rare around here I am told - just sitting on the reef and everyone got to see it. It was very cool!

Well that's it for today's report. Tomorrow I get to do it again, but this time we're on the boat.

Another beautiful dive day in Paradise!

The Video Dude