Spadefish | Video Dude Productions

Thursday, June 10th finds the Video Dude once again aboard “Scubatyme III” heading out for a video shoot on the “Captain Dan” and Lighthouse Ledge. Captain Bob, Divemaster Amanda and Owner Enzo are all aboard along with 8 other divers, out to have a great day on the water. The seas are almost flat, hardly any current and it’s a bright sunny morning as we head out of the Hillsboro Inlet.

Captain Bob gets us out to our first dive site - the “Captain Dan” in no time, and we all prepare to jump in after Amanda comes back up from tying off the descent/ascent line. I am first down the line and only encounter a mild current on the wreck while making my way from the stern towards the bow and back. Friendly Horse-eye Jacks and Spadefish watch me closely as I document the wreck on video. All too soon it’s time to head back to the ascent line and do my safety stops on the way back up to the surface.

After switching out gear for the next dive, Captain Bob heads over to the ever-popular Lighthouse Ledge Reef for our second dive. Once again I am in the water first and going solo on this dive to shoot more video of the reef. Almost immediately after reaching the reef, I encounter a large Porcupinefish, a Green Moray Eel, a Spotted Moray Eel, Arrow Crabs, Pufferfish, Squirrelfish and tons of Grunts and Snappers. With the sun being out the whole dive, the reef was really “poppin’” with color and was the prettiest I have seen in some time!

That’s about it for this video project report. If you’re interested, there’s a link below to purchase ($20) your own video copy of these dives to share with your friends.

2.13.10 - “Viking Diving”

Saturday February 13th finds the Video Dude, along with 5 other very brave souls, out for a morning of diving, underwater hunting, and shooting video aboard a private boat. The air temp was in the low 50s with wind-chills down in the 40s, but the ocean was flat and water temps ran in the low 70s. I learned a new term for this kind of diving - “Viking Diving”- and the phrase definitely fit!

We were all guests aboard South Florida Spearfishing Club member Tom Campbell’s private boat for the morning, as we got all our gear stowed and began heading out for our first of two drift dives. Being as it is a private boat (and one of the six divers was the captain), we rotated through the first dive so that everyone got to dive. We were on a reef called “Pine Tree” just north of the Hillsboro Inlet and fairly shallow at about 40fsw. I was buddied up with Pat, a friend of Heather (one of my dive buddies), and off we went - he was in search of something to spear or snare, I was in search of good video. We managed to get two Lobsters - the second one put up quite a fight! - and that was about it. We had a couple of very curious Gray Triggerfish following us around for most of the dive, and I saw a school of Spadefish, two Pufferfish and 2 Burrfish.

After coming up from our dive, Captain Tom informed us that since the air temps were dropping, we were canceling our second dive. That was OK with us since, after we got out of the water, the wind was cutting through our wetsuits and chilling us to the bone! So we had a short morning of it, but everyone had a good time. The total catch was 15 Lobsters and one Mutton Snapper, so it wasn’t a total wash. Of course, on the way back into the Inlet, we get stopped by a Florida Fish & Wildlife officer who wanted to inspect our boat and our catch of the day. He was very friendly (and cold like us) and probably bored as we were one of maybe two boats out with divers aboard in this “viking” weather. We are released without a fine and head back to the dock - and a hot tub! - at Tom’s house.

6.08.09 - Blue Heron Bridge - My 500th Dive!

Hello everyone.

Monday June 8th finds the Video Dude and dive buddy “Hall of Famous” Joanie diving under Blue Heron Bridge. This is my 500th (non-teaching) dive and Joanie is working on her photography skills for her upcoming trip to Indonesia (lucky duck!). The weather was very cooperative and high tide was scheduled for 9:10am. We arrived at the bridge @8:30am and began setting up our gear. After our final buddy checks, we head for the shoreline and make our way into the water to finish getting our fins on and any last-second final adjustments.

Then it’s off to the pilings on the west side to see what we can see. Visibility turned out to not be so great, maybe 10ft or so, so we had to stick close together. We right away found lots of Starfish and the ever-present Sea Urchins with their shell camouflage. We actually saw an urchin using a plastic cough syrup bottle for camouflage! I haven’t laughed like that in a while! Zig-zagging around the pilings we also came across a Batfish, Arrow Crabs the size of Frisbees, Banded Shrimp, Barracuda, Spadefish, Hermit Crabs, Lobsters, Sheepshead and Hogfish. It was definitely a full-variety day to be sure!

After close to 80 minutes underwater, we decide to head back to the beach. It was a nice leisurely swim back and we finally bumped into another couple that were just heading over to the bridge. We basically had the whole place to ourselves until then! It was a great spot for my 500th dive and having a great dive buddy along made it even better!

Here’s to the NEXT 500 dives in Paradise!!

The Video Dude

Video Dude Productions

Posts Tagged ‘Spadefish’

6.10.10 - The “Captain Dan” and Lighthouse Ledge Reef

2.13.10 - “Viking Diving”

6.08.09 - Blue Heron Bridge - My 500th Dive!

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