Scuba Shack Weekly – Volume 4, Number 1

Hope the second week of January 2021 is treating everyone well as we make our way to spring. It may seem a long way off and we still have a lot of winter to get through but it will be here before you know it. I can’t wait.

Last Thursday night we conducted our first ever virtual open house. We premiered our 2020 Year in Review Video, talked a little about all the different type of diving we did last year, all the new stuff we have planned for this year and what will stay the same for 2021.

Our first ever Scuba Shack Basic Scuba Technician course started this weekend. Dave began his 8-week class with an introduction to the repair shop and immersion into all the activities required to maintain our scuba equipment. This Saturday will be devoted to BCD maintenance, computer service and some more work with regulators.

Last year during the pandemic REEF introduced a new type of fishinar. They called in the Fishinar Jeopardy Game. I had the chance to attend three or four and they are a lot of fun and really test out your fish knowledge. Well they are back at it. Next Wednesday, Jan. 20 they will be conducting their Grouper Moon Jeopardy game at 8 p.m. ET. Check it out – registration is required.

Heads up everyone – we have a couple of other training options right now. Our Nitrox class is scheduled for the virtual session on Wednesday, Jan. 27 and then our virtual Project AWARE class is on the calendar for Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Thanks for tuning in everyone,

Jeff

Scuba Shack Weekly – Volume 3, Number 53

It is time to close out 2020. We certainly could not have guessed how different things turned out this year. As we look to turning the calendar over to the new year, we are very thankful for all of the support everyone has given us through these challenging times. Thanks.

While this year has been very different, one thing that hasn’t changed is all of our year end procedures. We have just completed a full inventory of all of our rental gear – all that stuff we use for open water and other training. Boy do we have a lot of wetsuits. We also did our annual inventory for the retail side and that includes all of our repair parts. Glad that is over with. And finally, we are just finishing up all the annual maintenance of our gear for next season.

Don’t forget about our virtual open house. We are hosting a zoom meeting on Thursday, Jan, 7 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Check out our 2020 year in review video followed by an update on all the activity we have planned in 2021. We will also be standing by to answer any questions and to just talk about diving. You can access the zoom meeting from our Facebook events page or if you’d like email us and we’ll send you the link.

Donna and I were driving to the shop the other day when a story came on the radio about a discovery they made related to octopus. Turns out they observed an octopus punching a fish. It curls up its arm and strikes a jab at a fish. You can check it out with this YouTube video.

So that wraps up the 2020 blog posts. Hope you enjoy the updates.

Thanks for tuning in,
Jeff

Scuba Shack Weekly – Volume 3, Number 51

I hope you are all doing well and are as encouraged as I am about the great news on the COVIDd-19 vaccine front. Looks like this is coming none too soon as we see the devastating impacts that the virus is having across the country. We need to keep our guard up for a little while longer.

A couple of weeks ago Donna took a call from a gentleman who said he found a lift bag down in Lyme and when he cleaned it off with a power washer up popped Scuba Shack’s name. Well we sent him a shipping label to get it back. We were quite surprised to find that it was a 500 pound commercial lift bag from years past. We still haven’t been able to find out how and when it was lost. I’ll keep you posted on what we find out. What a blast from the past!

You might have seen on our Facebook events section that we are going to be holding a virtual open house at Scuba Shack in early January. The open house will happen on Zoom. We want people to gather to hear a little bit about what we have in store for 2021, answer any questions you might have and just have some great dialog about diving. We will also be premiering our 2020 year in review video before it goes up on Scuba Shack TV.

In case you missed it, DAN Travel Insurance is available again. If you go to the Divers Alert Network home page and click on Travel Insurance you will see that they have both single trip and annual insurance policies available. Scuba Shack highly recommends that you purchase trip insurance when traveling.

Thanks for tuning in,
Jeff

Scuba Shack Weekly – Volume 3, Number 49

Well that was some really wild weather on Monday. While we can use all the rain we can get these days, we could certainly do without the strong winds. The thoughts of the massive outages that Connecticut encountered this summer are always on our mind every time the wind picks up.

In case you missed it, we have published our 2021 calendar on the website. Our entire schedule from January 2021 through October 2021 is now available for you to review. Take a look at all of our open water classes, continuing education opportunities as well as our professional courses. Plan out your diving with Scuba Shack in 2021 by checking out our online calendar.

I was personally pleased to see that the incoming presidential administration has a new role – Climate Czar. Here is a short article from MIT Technical Review that talks about the role and why the president-elect chose to do this.

I came across Shark Allies from the Deeper Blue 2020 Ocean Christmas Gift Guide blog. They are a pretty cool organization dedicated to protecting sharks mainly by working on the banning of shark finning. You should check out their site. They have some pretty cool stuff for sale as well.

Stay tuned for another episode of Scuba Shack Radio this Sunday!

Jeff

Scuba Shack Weekly – Volume 3, Number 47

One week to go until Thanksgiving. We’ve had a family of wild turkeys around the neighborhood for several months now. They tend to visit our house from time-to-time. Someone needs to tell them that Thanksgiving is coming – time to go into hiding.

Last weekend, Monty conducted the Scuba Shack Core Principles class. With Mike and Lizzy and Tom’s help, Bill, George and Zack gained valuable experience and knowledge on their control, position and propulsion as well as a thorough understanding of our gear and configuration.

Our trip to the Philippines next September is still on the calendar. We are starting to zero in on flights and other logistics. This is a reminder that we will be having an information session on Diving in Dumaguete on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. This will be a virtual zoom meeting where we will go over the details of the trip and answer questions. Please call or email the shop if you’d like to attend and we will send you a zoom invite before the meeting.

Jill shared with me a link to a TED talk by Tim Flannery on how seaweed can help solve the climate change problem by drawing down carbon from the atmosphere. It is about 13 minute long and quite informative. Perhaps 2021 will bring change.

Thanks for tuning in,
Jeff