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09 DUI Rally dates posted!
DUI has posted their official/tentative dates for the Dry Suit/DUI DOG Rally! If you have at least an open water cert and would like to learn about and explore dry suits without the pressure to buy, then this event IS for you! Sales talk is not supposed to be allowed at the event, dive as much as you can within safe limits and your air supply, use their dry suits, try as many different models as you want, even try out some underwater cameras while you’re at it. The DUI crew will educate you on h...
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More UW photo tips
To strobe or not to strobe has been the long asked question. In many ocean and spring-fed conditions a strobe is completely applicable. But, if you’re in a man-made lake a strobe simply creates backscatter and on a deep dive it is even worse with the low light and low visibility conditions. Guess what, I have a couple of solutions for you! Tin foil is the photographer’s and videographer’s best friend. It can fix a shadowing problem in a pinch AND it’s cheap. Devise yourself a frame to mount a pi...
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Table Rock Lake flooding
Some of you are already aware that the midwest has been hammered with flooding due to recent weather. This is similar to the weather pattern from Spring 2007 that caused our lakes to never reach "turning" temperatures. Table Rock Lake has been massively hit by the weather and flooding. In fact, several of the swimming areas, marinas, and even the Dewey Short Visitor’s Center have been significantly altered due to flooding. As of late Friday, the flood gates were moving 27,000 square feet of wate...
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Olympus Evolt E-500 Review
I finally located that "can`t pass it up" deal after letting my Powershot A80 and housing go to a new home. I was in Circuit City and ran across an Olympus Evolt E-500 (SLR unit) body on clearance for $199. I managed to get the manager to lower the price to $159, so I picked it up. Almost peed myself (yes, I said it) when I found out that a 40-150mm lens would start at $479 and go up as lens size increased. Luckily I found that lens on eBay for $160. After giving the manual a 1 day once-over I t...
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Bimini Road controversy
I finally had a chance to see the Bimini Road first hand. First off it looks absolutely nothing like what I would have expected. All of the footage taken from the site is VERY deceiving. For those who do not know about Bimini Road, this particular site on the Bimini chain of the Bahamas is believed by some to be the road to Atlantis. The only way to see any actual pattern or organization is by air. In the water, unless you have seen the TV specials or have a good imagination, it is difficult to ...
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08 DUI dry suit rally calendar!!!
Ever wanted to try out dry suit diving, but didn`t want to commit to the major purchase or rental fee to do so? Guess what, Diving Unlimited International can help make that dream come true, though it won`t be "pressure" free once you`re in the water! http://www.dui-online.com/dog_main.html The 2008 DUI dry suit rally calendar is finally posted tentatively. For those of you who do not know anything about this rally, let me give you some brief info on the subject, it might be for you! DUI hosts a...
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Beaver Lake 9/15
Well, we went to Beaver Lake in Arkansas this weekend due to people backing out on Table Rock. You would not believe the visibility on Saturday it was at least 15 foot and opening at 30ft, but at 40 ft it opened to 20ft+ !!! No green hue in the water either! I posted 3 pics in my profile from this weekend. Titles: Dave-ped, Tigershark jet ski, and Seahorse wrangling. All shots were taken w/ a Cannon Powershot A80 4mp and housing, no flash, and no artificial light source. We even had cloud cover ...
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9/15 Project Aware at Table Rock Lake
The Project Aware (lake cleanup) sponsored by Scuba-sports at Table Rock Lake in Missouri is September 15th at Moon Shine Beach on Hwy 165, on the North side of Table Rock Dam. I have been informed by Scuba-sports that this is a NO COST event (aside from parking fee) and air will be free if you have your tanks. $4/car entry fee to the beach. Arrival time: 8:00 am For more information give us a call. Scuba Sports 1196 Highway 248 Branson, Missouri 65616 Phone: 417-334-9073 http://scuba-sports.com...
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Group Buddy Check Procedure
In one of my other blogs someone has brought up the difficulty of commuincating in large groups while letting less experienced divers learn to lead and develop good buddy skills. I have a visual communication procedure taken straight from an SRT manual to help resolve this. This is the SRT "shoulder tap" for diving. "Diver" in the following is to be interpreted as meaning "diver/buddy team". Kick Cycles are to be counted on one leg. Left kick, then right kick = 1 cycle. 1. Demonstrate the follow...
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Are you a good dive buddy?
We all want to gain valuable experience in diving. But how do you do that as a newbie? Often new divers are treated as though they have some incurable disease, well this is true...it is known as intimdated-diver-osis. They are simply intimidated by more experienced divers yet want the valuable knowledge we possess. So here are some simple suggestions to get the ball rolling for some. Newbies: DO NOT be intimidated by experienced divers, they don`t know everything regardless of how they appear or...
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Sonic Search game review!
Well folks I found a NEW "toy" to use in pool sessions called the Underwater Sonic Search Pool Game from Discovery Kids store. Click here for website So far this game looks to be fun. The only draw back is that it is only rated to roughly 6 feet. You get 60 seconds to locate the clear/blue ball by sound, which speeds up with sonic-style tones as the 60 seconds expires. Upon expiration it goes into alert mode and has a 5-10 second siren that repeats for 1 second every 10 seconds. This is a great ...
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Regulator ratings-cold or not?
After participating in the DUI Dry Suit Rally at Beaver Lake, Arkansas I had a rude awakening (my own fault). If your regulator is not rated as "environmentally sealed" be sure you check the temperature ratings for that regulator. If you are one who has a different 1st stage, primary, and/or a different octo, you need to operate within the temperature limits of the highest temperature rating. For example: if your primary or 1st stage is rated to 50 degrees and your octo is rated to 45, you shoul...
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Pre-season safety reminders
Folks, the season is upon us once again for those who are not on coastal states. A member from another board posed an interesting safety question so I am providing you this reminder about the little things we can quickly forget about as the season begins. Make sure you dry test your gear at home before you head out to your first dive site of the season. If it`s due or overdue for service, don`t put it off....it`s your life afterall. If it tastes bad it probably is...air quality is important. Rev...
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Digital UW photo taking tips
Here are a few tips to help out those new to the digital UW photo realm. 1. Remember that photography is all lighting and background. Relative distance to your target/subject also will play a factor in the quality of any shot. 2. Digital cameras generally have manufacturer settings that are never correct for any environment of UW photography. 3. There should be a manual hue/white setting on a digital camera. You will need this setting to fine tune your camera to the particular dive conditions yo...
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Dive video site
As luck would have it, I have stumbled upon a video-share site dedicated to diving. While searching for info on Epcot DiveQuest on scubaboard.com, I found a link to www.scubavidz.com, particularly the Epcot dive video that was posted there from the original DiveQuest website. There are plenty of interesting videos on this site, so browse around for a while. I was partial to the footage of the Oriskany and the Utila whale sharks. Yet another dive related sites to add to my web favorites with Dive...
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DUI Dry suit rally
Folks, this has most likely been beat to death in other dive forums, but as an instructor, I feel this is an important event to introduce new and experienced divers to the world of Dry Suit diving. Each year, Diving Unlimited International hosts a dry suit rally known as DUI DOG (Drysuit Owners Grou) Days Rally. It is held at several locations around the nation. For a very minimal price of $8 per day pre-event ticket sales, you can enjoy the company of several divers, be fitted for a dry suit, t...
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