Southern Hospitality with South Florida DIR!!!  Thanks you guys, you're all AWESOME!!!!

Saturday July 28, 2007 dives on the Dantor

Sunday July 29, 2007 dives on the Almirante

Turns out that I had a free week while in Florida, so with a few phone calls, e-mails and contacts I discovered a group of DIR divers in Southern Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale area). I had only my recreational single tank setup and a stage bottle kit, so off I went! 

Over 100 ship wrecks in their area! Water temps were in the mid 80s with visibility usually 75 feet or better! Diving in a .5 mil wetsuit was quite a treat!

I discovered a very active, friendly and enthusiastic group of DIR divers, each with their own cool story of their GUE training.  During our after dive meals I was treated with some awesome stories and shared experiences with our GUE training.

Jody says he owes his life to his GUE training. On one dive while gearing up he fell overboard and started sinking like a rock with no gas in his wings, gas valves turned off, no reg in his mouth. I'm not sure if he even has his mask on. We was able to handle the emergency and said that without this training, he would still be at the bottom of the ocean. Of course now, the gearing up procedures have changed on his boat!  A couple of years ago a similar situation occured in Monterey. Unfortunately he wasn't prepared and died as a result.

Skids just finished and got a provisional on his Tech One class and was practicing to get a pass in the near future. Beto took part in his class I hear!

Ralph did Fundies and was my buddy diving on the Almirante.

Ron recently did Cave 1 and was cave diving the day before diving with us.

Diving with these guys was fantastic and seamless!

I got lots more info on Tech One which will be helpful since I'm doing Tech One with my team in October 2007 with Beto Nava and JJ.

  <-----Jody, Matt, David and Skids

<----Skids, Matt, David and me.

                                                                                                                                                                                Ralph and Ron

        Here we are casting off and heading out