Surface signaling devices, Plastic Bank & Pennsylvania trip

Online   Oct 17, 2018

Scuba Shack Weekly – Volume 1, Number 7

Donna and I are back from a quick trip to Pennsylvania to celebrate my Mom’s birthday and catch up with our family. We also met my great-nephew, Lucca for the first time. He is now 10 months old – a little too soon to be diving.

The final confined water pool session is this week and the team will be heading to Fort Wetherill this Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 20 & 21) for their open water certification dives. Rescue diver is finishing up their pool scenarios and getting ready for their open water scenarios in early November. The dry suit class is also finishing up their pool work this week.

Our Cozumel trip in February is filling up - already have half the rooms booked - so give us a call and sign up now if you want to reserve your spot.

Several weeks back I wrote about the video A Plastic Ocean. In that video, they spotlighted an organization called Plastic Bank. I did a little more investigation of this organization. Their story is pretty compelling and from what I can see, they are really trying to make a difference with Social Plastic. One of the founders, David Katz did a really interesting TED talk. You can also find a lot more on their website.

Last week we had our trip meeting for Turks and Caicos. One item of discussion was the need for each diver to carry their own surface marker buoy. In fact, the only time that we had to deploy a surface marker buoy (safety sausage) was on a trip with Dive Provo in Turks and Caicos. We missed the up line due to a very strong current. Knowing that we had missed our target, we deployed the surface marker buoy while on our safety stop. Once we surfaced, about 200 yards from the boat, we could very clearly see that the boat had spotted us and was on their way for a safe recovery.

In addition to having my surface marker buoy and whistle, you can bet I will also be carrying my Nautilus personal locator beacon. Safety is always paramount.

Finally, I am in the very early stages of planning a trip to Key Largo around April 10 to 13. It will be a great way to get some early season diving in, complete certifications or other training. Let me know if you think this is a good idea.

Thanks for tuning in,

Jeff