May 18, 2012

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An Example of an Adventurous Profession: Scuba Diver

Think Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt, and you’ve nailed adventure with a harpoon. Imagine the quality of life, the paycheck, for doing something so adventurous that you couldn’t imagine yourself happier. That’s what Dirk Pitt is: an adventurer. Clive Cussler’s books revolve around the character, a veritable Indiana Jones of the oceans. You’re probably wondering what this is all about. It’s simple: scuba diving.

No, this isn’t about recreation, like many would think. While scuba diving is a fun diversion in a day of a vacation somewhere in the Keys enveloped in the radiant sun and crystal waters, believe it or not the activity of scuba diving is actually a profession, and even one you can attend not simply in a traditional university but an online one! Think of online degrees, and there you go: imagine the prospect of landing a degree fit for scuba diving in no time, giving you the credentials necessary for a job on an exploration ship somewhere.

If you do your research, you’ll find the credible degrees to focus on would be in such fields as Biology, Marine Biology, Engineering, Anthropology, and Oceanography. Part of your training would involve some form of scuba diving; it’s true. Once you’re done, the sky (or in this case, the ocean) is the limit. You can honestly do what you want if you simply have the drive to pursue it. Thankfully, online education makes that even more possible; don’t shy away from your dreams.

If you’re interested in the prospect of being a professional scuba diver, go ahead and “dive in” to the resources, possibilities of obtaining an accredited degree that will give you your dream, a dream Clive Cussler would love and Dirk Pitt would be jealous of. Who knows–maybe Cussler would end up putting your life story in a book!

Filed Under: Certification, Scuba Diving Tagged With: , ,

A Career as a Deep Sea Diver

A diver wearing an Ocean Reef full face mask

Image via Wikipedia

For people that are passionate about diving a career as a deep-sea diver is an option you may want to consider. Many professional divers work on bridges, pipeline systems, and ships. Many divers work on offshore oil sites and recovery projects.

However, diving is not just something you go out and do. You have to be certified and well trained. In addition, you need to have sufficient diving experience. The more diving hours you have the better your chances of landing a great job as a deep sea diver. This is a unique career that is adventurous and exciting.

Initially, many divers will start at salaries that range between $19,000 and $37,000 per year. The salaries are determined by experience, attitude and quality of work. Many experienced deep sea divers make between $65,000 and $100,000 per year once they have been in the business for a while. The salary also depends on where you work. Working on offshore oil fields tends to pay much higher than working on ships.

While you may love diving, deep sea diving as a profession can be dangerous. In addition, the work can be difficult. However, most divers only work nine months out of the year. This depends on the type of diving job and the location. Some time may be spent in an office completing reports and other paper work.

Diving as a career is a great opportunity for experienced divers. The benefit of only working nine months out of the year will allow you to spend time diving for leisure and enjoyment. There are many opportunities available. It requires great skill and the ability to work under water. While many people are passionate about diving, not all of them have the ability to perform work tasks under water.

Filed Under: Safety, Scuba Diving Tagged With: , ,

Is Scuba Diving Dangerous?

Many people would love to learn to scuba dive, however, are afraid of the dangers. The number of scuba divers has increased significantly, while the number of accidents has decreased. Scuba diving does have its risks, however, it is not as dangerous as most people think. The scuba diving training and certification provides the necessary skill and information to keep a person safe.

Many scuba accidents happen while people are on vacation. Many people will sign up to go diving even though they do not have experience. In many countries, you can dive with no experience at all. Often, vacationers will sign up for a charter offered at their hotel. They think they will be safe; however, many of the locals that run the diving charters are not certified divers. If they were, they would not let someone scuba dive that has not been properly trained. These are the accidents that people often hear about.

In addition, many new scuba divers want to go cave diving. There is special training for those that want to dive in caves. Many new divers will not take the additional training. Cave diving can be dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. Many cave diving accidents have been due to lack of skill and training. It does not matter if you have been diving for quite some time, if you want to cave dive you still need the additional training.

Scuba diving is safe provided you obtain the proper training and certification. Investing in scuba lessons is the best thing you can do. You will learn scuba safety and will become familiar with the equipment and gear. Choose a certified instructor with a great deal of experience. You will find a few scuba schools in your local area.

Filed Under: Safety, Scuba Diving Tagged With: ,

Dive into Bed at the Jules’ Undersea Lodge

Sleeping with the fishes might have a dire connotation unless you’re planning to do just that, spend the night in an underwater hotel.

Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, started out as La Chalupa research laboratory, dedicated to exploring the continental shelf.  It is now a recreation facility and hotel. The structure is completely submerged and to reach the lodge, guests must dive 21 feet beneath the surface. Anyone wishing to stay must be previously certified or receive certification lessons before embarking on a dive.

The Jules’ is located in a mangrove lagoon and divers can swim in a tropical environment that may include angelfish, barracuda, puffer fish, sea horses and even manatee. Experienced divers are free to spend their stay diving whenever they please. Special dive arrangements can be made, such as an excursion to the MarineLab, a manned underwater research lab.

Facilities at the Jules’ Undersea Lodge include an entry port, a wet room, two bedrooms, and a common room with a refrigerator, microwave, television and DVD player.  42 inch windows allow you to view the surrounding marine environment. Meals are brought in from the surface using special, waterproof cases.

While this is a unique experience, it’s also an expensive one. The least expensive package is for groups of 5 or 6, priced at $250 per person per night and includes breakfast and dinner, but not lunch. Dive gear and unlimited air tanks are included in the cost. Additional activities cost extra, such as the MarineLab excursion, priced at $150 per person. Booking is recommended at least one or two months in advance.

While staying at the lodge, divers can earn a NAUI or PADI certification by taking part in a presentation and discussion of living and working in an underwater habitat. The cost of the presentation and certification is $150 per person.

Filed Under: Scuba Diving Tagged With:

What to Do When Bad Weather Blows Your Dive

You’ve planned all week, have your equipment ready and have chartered a boat. Then, Friday night, a storm blows in off the coast, blowing away your plans for a weekend of diving. What are you going to do now?

You can’t dive into the ocean, but you can dive into related activities that will keep your weekend full of fun.

Go to a dive pool. Use this time to take a refresher course and hone your skills. Have you been thinking about getting an advanced PADI certification or becoming a rescue diver? This could be the time to do it. If you’ve thought about going pro, check out those classes as well. You can even spend some time wandering around the dive shop, checking out the latest equipment.

Go to the aquarium. While it’s not as up-close-and-personal as a dive, it’s the next best thing. Stroll through the exhibits and enjoy both the native and the exotic marine life on display. If possible, attend a tour or lecture, especially if it’s on your local marine area. This could be a great opportunity to learn more about the local flora and fauna. You’ll be that much more in the know when you take your next dive.

Rent a movie. There are plenty of diving-related movies to choose from, such as “The Abyss”, “Big Blue” and “Men of Honor.” If you prefer something more realistic, there are lots of documentaries to choose from. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the crew of the Calypso filmed a series of documentaries during the 1960s and 1970s that set the bar for oceanographic shows. These remain a marvel of underwater filming and are a joy to watch.

Whether you stay home in front of the screen or head out for some activities, don’t let the bad weather keep you from the waves.

Filed Under: Scuba Diving Tagged With:

NOAA Ocean Buoys App

Whether you’re going for a dive or just for a swim, weather and water conditions can be variable. Even on the sunniest, mildest days, a fog bank may be just off the coast waiting to roll in. While nature can be fickle, there’s a smartphone app that, with some help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), can make your trip to the beach more predictable.

The NOAA Ocean Buoys app transmits live data from buoys to your mobile phone. These buoys are located all over the United States and Canada, including the West Coast, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, Hawaii and Alaska. Buoys are also positioned in the Caribbean and Europe.

Using this app, buoys can be found on a map, by region, by coordinates or using search terms. Most buoys give the same type of information and you will generally be provided with a list of current conditions that can include air and water temperatures; wind direction, speed and gust, and wave height and dominant period.

This app is intuitive and has an easy to use interface. While it may be great to have if you live in the areas where these buoys are located, it is limited. There are no buoys listed for Mexico, South America, Africa or Asia. However, if you’re planning to visit one or more of the areas with the NOAA buoys, it could be worthwhile knowing which locations have the best conditions for your dive.

This app could also be useful for surfers, fishermen, kayakers and just about anyone who want to know what to expect before they make that trip to the beach.

The NOAA Ocean Buoys app costs $0.99 and is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. You can download it through iTunes or the App Store on your mobile device.

Whether you’re going for a dive or just for a swim, weather and water conditions can be variable. Even on the sunniest, mildest days, a fog bank may be just off the coast waiting to roll in. While nature can be fickle, there’s a smartphone app that, with some help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), can make your trip to the beach more predictable.

The NOAA Ocean Buoys app transmits live data from buoys to your mobile phone. These buoys are located all over the United States and Canada, including the West Coast, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, the Gulf Coast, Hawaii and Alaska. Buoys are also positioned in the Caribbean and Europe.

Using this app, buoys can be found on a map, by region, by coordinates or using search terms. While not all buoys give the same information, you will generally be provided with a list of current conditions that can include air and water temperatures; wind direction, speed and gust, and wave height and dominant period.

This app is intuitive and has an easy to use interface. While it may be great to have if you live in the areas where these buoys are located, it is limited. There are no buoys listed for Mexico, South America, Africa or Asia. However, if you’re planning to visit one or more of the areas with the NOAA buoys, it could be worthwhile knowing which locations have the best conditions for your dive.

This app could also be useful for surfers, fishermen, kayakers and just about anyone who want to know what to expect before they make that trip to the beach.

The NOAA Ocean Buoys app costs $0.99 and is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. You can download it through iTunes or the App Store on your mobile device.

http://asburymobile.com/noaa-ocean-buoys/

Filed Under: Scuba Diving Tagged With: ,

Rules of the Road for Underwater Explorers

Drivers must follow rules for the safety of themselves and others while driving. Snorkelers, boaters, and scuba divers have rules to follow as well. For their own safety, and for the safety and conservation of the animal plant life living in the water, here are some general rules for diving.

Beginning scuba divers learn the basics about breathing and about the breathing equipment. The following are other rules scuba divers at all skill levels must adhere to when diving. Follow these rules because practice does make perfect in and out of the water.

Dive with another

The best practice is to take diving lessons with a friend because you can practice all the important points you learned, like CPR, locating a diver, first aid, and sharing air supply. These things are easier to do with someone you know until these things become second nature to you where you can handle them with any diver, in the event a real emergency occurs.

Do not stay down for too long and do not go down too deep (always have a plan before you dive)

Keep an eye on the remaining air in the tank. The farther down in the water you go, the less time you can spend there. If you stay in shallower waters, you have more time to spend exploring.

Be careful in the underwater environment

Items dangling from your suit can damage things beneath the water’s surface. Be careful where you kick as well. Be aware of your surroundings at all times during a dive.

Only dive where you have been trained

Advanced diving courses will train divers for special precautions when cave or wreck diving. Beginning divers should only dive in the places their instructors trained them to go.

Take the time before you dive to ensure your safety and the safety of marine and life, so that all you have to do during a dive is to enjoy the view and explore.

Filed Under: Scuba Diving Tagged With: ,

Kona Coast – a Great Dive Site in Hawaii

Divers love many different elements of exploring the seas or oceans. Some do it for a living, as biologists, rescuers, and archaeologists or anthropologists. Others take photos of the marine life, the caves, shipwrecks, and plant life.

Hawaii is beautiful, whether you are looking at it from the water or from land. Divers find some of the most amazing places for diving in Hawaii, and Kona Coast is one of them.

Kona Coast is a historic part of the island is the place where King Kamehameha spent his final years.

With sixty miles of sunshine from the Kona International Airport to Kealakekua Bay and beyond, Kona Coast is a favorite among divers. There are 80 dive sites within a 20-minute boat ride, with additional dive sites within an hour’s ride.

The names of a few of the dive sites are Nai’a, Kaloko Arches, Turtle Pinnacle, Eel Cove, Pawai Arches and Rock Awash. Divers can expect to get up close and personal with the following:

Dolphins – one of the most intelligent animals

Dragon eels – live in coral reefs, in warm waters, and are mostly nocturnal

Frog fish- some frog fish live in open waters, some in deep waters, and others are bottom-dwellers

Octopus – with two eyes and four pairs of arms, the octopus live on the ocean floor, in open waters, and in coral reefs.

Millet Seed and Raccoon Butterfly Fish – They inhabit shallow reefs. Small Butterfly Fish live secretly in corals.

You can see schools of Surgeon fish eating algae off turtle’s shells.

Kaloko Arches has arches and canyons with vertical walls.

Nai’a means dolphin in Hawaiian.

At Pawai Arches and Rock Awash, there is a small cave where you can sometimes see white tip reef sharks sleeping.

For more experienced and long-range divers with 50 or more dives, there are also chances to see some Manta Rays, Hammerheads, and Eagle Rays.

All this and more make Kona Coast a special diving site.

Filed Under: Scuba Diving Tagged With: ,

Underwater Photography

Scuba divers who enjoy taking pictures underwater need to use some basic equipment to capture that special photo of extraordinary marine life, underwater caves, and even photos of other scuba divers.

Fundamental equipment:

· Compact digital, digital point and shoot, and single lens reflex cameras

Underwater photographers prefer digital cameras because they cannot change the film under the water. Digital cameras also give the photographer feedback instantly. This allows the underwater photography to improve their ingenuity and learn quickly what works best.

· Waterproof housing

Housing for cameras comes in plastic or aluminum cases, ranging in price from inexpensive to the high-priced ones. Silicone o-rings make the housing waterproof at all crucial joints.

Housing permits underwater photographers to use any lens they choose. They include control knobs to enable the underwater photographer to use all the functions of the camera.

· Macro or wide-angle lenses

These lenses allow for close focus, eliminating excessive water between the subject of the photo and the camera.

· Dome shaped ports

When using wide-angle lenses, refraction can cause distortion. A dome shaped port maximizes the effectiveness of the lenses used in cameras. Refraction increases magnification in macro lenses, beneficial when taking photos of small objects underwater.

· Wet-coupled lenses

Housing may also be equipped with wet-coupled lenses that increase the view field of an underwater photographer. Divers can add or remove these underwater, if they prefer both macro and wide angle underwater photography.

· Flash

Housing can also have connectors for attaching an external flash. The power and position of the camera’s on-board flash is not powerful enough for use underwater. The strobe is redirected or disabled by the external flash.

Underwater photography is challenging and exciting, whether for combining two recreational activities, or pursuing a career in capturing on film the amazing wonders of the deep.

Did you know?

Color is absorbed as it travels through the water. The deeper the water, the less reds, oranges and yellows remain.

Filed Under: Scuba Diving Tagged With: ,

Vacation with Treasure Hunters in the Florida Keys

Are you a diver who’s looking to spend your vacation treasure hunting? Are you also interested in learning more about salvage operations and historic wreck preservation? You might want to consider spending a week with Atocha Dive Adventure.

In 1985, Mel Fisher discovered the wreck of a 1622 Spanish Galleon, the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, off the Florida Keys. About four hundred million dollars worth of artifacts such as gold bars and jewelry have been recovered, but items of the ship’s treasure remain buried at sea.

Salvage operators continue to scour the wreckage of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha as well as the wreckage of her sister ship, the Santa Margarita. Mel Fisher’s Treasures has opened the opportunity for the public to join in the salvage operation while learning more about historic shipwreck conservation and enjoying some leisure time in Key West, Florida.

The vacation package includes the following:

  • Six nights’ accommodations at a Key West house or condo
  • Orientation
  • Welcome barbecue
  • Checkout dives, 2-tank reef dive and training sessions
  • Tours of the Mel Fisher Museum and Conservation Lab and the Shipwreck Museum
  • Two days of treasure hunting with multiple tank dives on the Atocha trail
  • An evening wine cruise aboard a chartered ship

If you’re looking to keep the treasure you find, this might not be the expedition for you. Items found cannot be kept, but Mel Fisher’s Treasures will reward you with a previously found artifact of equal value up to $2500.

The cost of this vacation package is $2500 for each diver and $500 per person for each non-diving companion. Companions share a room with participants and can accompany them to all non-diving activities.

This vacation package is restricted to the summer months, i.e., June, July and August. You can find more information at Mel Fisher’s Treasures.

Filed Under: Scuba Diving Tagged With: ,
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