Here's and edited transcript between a newbie and an old salt. The question boils down to, "Why would a old salt want to dive with a newbie?

Lydon wrote:

I looked at some of those pictures and you guys look like you certainly know how to dive! I have a few questions for you? I see in those pictures the majority are running doubles which I have never used before. Second, those scooters look awesome and I bet they are fun! I may just end up getting one if I like them. I’ve never used that kind of scooter before either, only the dumb downed doughnut scooters. Also, are you sure the other team members won’t think I'm a hindrance because of my skill level?

Matt Wrote:

I hope you can see the irony in this story.

I've been FAT all my life. I've recently lost over 40lbs the past 6 months. I've been going to LA fitness and taking the 1 hour cardio classes. The kick box cardio is my favorite and I've made friends with the instructor. He keeps telling me that I need to hit the free weights to build some muscle. I keep telling him I don't have the time or knowledge and I don't like any of the coaches enough to pay $40 for 30 minutes.

He said that he works out after the kick box class. Today we worked out together. He has been so impressed with my dedication to learning and doing everything he says in class, he see's in his mind how he can make me more of a physical success.

1 year of gym membership and I've never set foot in the "free weight" section of the gym. I didn't feel like I was worthy to hang out with "those guys". I don't know anything about working out with free weights. After an hour of working out I see the truth. Those fucking slobs don't put the god dam dumbbells back on the racks! :)

My friend also showed me how to see the "real" guys from the fakes. Anyone can have big gun arms and legs. That is easy. Very few have good abs and core because that is the hardest part. The abs are also usually covered by a shirt so it’s the hardest to show off.

From my limited first impression, I think you have the right core. We can build on the rest easily.

Lyndon’s Reply:

You are spot on with your analogy! I guess you are right with the concept of doing it the right way and in which is the most proficient and crucial to form a great foundation. I can’t agree more with the guys who throw up big weight to get those beach muscles but couldn't do a solid core routine if their life depended on it! Its true. Most people lift and lift so they can make up for something they don’t have rather than working out to be healthy and fit. You will notice the guys with huge arms have pencil legs!! They don’t want to put in the extra effort simply because they don’t care. Picking out a dedicated workout warrior than the jalopy doing only heavy bicep curls groaning and grunting loud so everyone can see them is comical!

I know that diving DIR is all about team work and becoming a more proficient diver while maintaining a safe attitude. What are some of the key things I should concentrate on while diving?

Matt Replied

What separates DIR from regular diving is awareness, that’s the abs or the core to great diving. You need to dive you gear enough that you forget about it and melts into your body. I'm sure football pads feel like a knight in body armor at first and now you don't feel them at all.

Next are the drills. We run the drills so much that heart no longer jumps at the thought of an Out of air drill (OOA). When you yawn in between donating the long hose and popping your back up in your mouth, you are ready for fundies.

Your buoyancy will come when you stop holding a full breath of air in your lungs and exhaling just a little between breaths. When the fear of drowning leaves the back of your head you'll breathe out of the "bottom" of your lungs and keep them empty. Just sip gas from the tank instead of hovering (Hoover the vacuum cleaner) it.

You awareness will be such that when you check your depth gauge you’ll know how much you've changed from your ears. When you check your bottom timer you'll know how much gas you have left in your tank. When you check your pressure gauge you'll know how long you have been down and how much time you have left.

We'll teach you how to "follow the fish" to the nearest wreck and how to know when your close to a wreck or out in open sand. You'll learn to read the wreck and see how it sunk and guess how long it has been down by how its falling apart.

Read the NOAA weather reports starting Thursday before the weekend. Then make note of the actual conditions. Its amazing how often it is wrong.

http://a1aweather.com/

During the dive, make notes on what you are going to write in your dive reports. Write the dive reports with the good and not so good, mistakes, and what your learned. Post them to E-divers and other sites. Be humble and non-defensive when the comments come flowing in. If you are humble the comments will be calm. If you are proud, arrogant and defensive the crap will keep flowing until you give up. :)

http://www.miamiwreck.org/reports/111503.htm

You and I are the most dangerous kind of divers. You don't know anything and I know everything, but I stop following rules because I think I know better. Together we become the safest divers because I will role model ideal diving and you'll follow it. You'll be aware of any mistakes and call me on it and not let me slide. Cutting corners and letting experienced divers slide is a called a "trust me" dive.

When I get to arrogant, someone will cut me down to size. All my sins are published on the internet for any who remembers or care to research. That keeps me humble at all times.

I’ve had many, many, many dive mentors over my 11 years of diving. Names like William, Ed, Eric, Lesley, Brian, JC (no not that one, the other one), Jody, Buck, Charlie, Robert and all those I can’t think of right now.

Best regards,

--Matt

Boca Dive Spearing Shark

Boca Dive Spearing Shark
Originally uploaded by netmage_2112.

This letter explains my feelings better than anything I could have written.

=============================
This makes me sick. Here is a copy of the email I sent the shop. I hope if you
are as outraged as I, you'll send something similar.

I am extremely disturbed by your images of a speared nurse shark. This is
extremely irresponsible and I can not believe that you would not only condone
but encourage this atrocious behaviour.

Sharks are endangered across the planet. Slow maturity rates, finning, and a
falsely earned reputation as man-eaters have earned sharks a place on the
endangered species list. You claim that the shark in the photo survived.. for
how long? Will it survive next time?

I can not and will not frequent your shop until these actions stop. I agree that
spearfishing is a valid hunting technique, but the first rule of hunting is know
your prey. Your claim that unwanted catch will be used to feed the less
fortunate may not apply to all species. Sorry, I don't buy it.

I am sure that you will be hearing from many divers both in Florida and from
around the world. I will also be sending a copy of this message to PADI and the
other certifying agencies - if you encourage this reckless, irresponsible
behavior on your charters, what are you teaching your students.

Please reconsider this promotion. For all our sakes.

Tim Meehle
CEO
Reefshark Systems, LLC

Photos of the Ophelia Brian: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiswango/tags/ofeliabrian

Don't get your hopes up about the photos, they are pretty bad. The ocean was flat black oil as we cruised out around light house at Key Biscayne.

Ophelia Brian

The current was running about .7 knots as we ran over the new artificial reef, the 210ft freighter Ophelia Brian formally the Sea Taxi. I was diving with Kevin Carby and as we planned I explained that is a good skill to learn to drop down 100ft in under 1 minute from getting off the boat.

The boat captain gave us a good 100ft drop and we hit the water. A quick ok and we swam down. I landed right on the stack and saw that we were getting blown off fast so I grabbed the rail and got out of the current. Kevin landed next to me and relaxed. The vis was about 20ft.

The right side of my new mask was fogging up making it hard to read my depth gouge and watch. I kept clearing it and took a quick look around the stern. The wreck is bare rusty metal and spray paint marking the groups that help make the new reef possible. I fired up the camera to document a few of the markings.

A section has been cut out making access to the engine room easy. We didn't do any penetration on this dive. The cut out has some very rough edges that could do a number on my dry suit. On the main deck the door to the interior has large screws still in place that could easily puncture a dry suit or a wing bladder. Please be aware, I took a pic just in case you don't believe me!

We dropped down into the cargo hold and swam for the bow. There were a few pieces of concrete culvert in the cargo hold, but not as much as say the Princess Brittney. I would have liked to have seen more concrete in the cargo hold as otherwise there is no shelter for the fish. When the wreck collapses the concrete will hold up the sides and make a great habitat for a longer period of time.

The bow a large mast supported by three cables so it should last a while. I was sad to see the bow winch was removed before sinking. Hopefully it raised some money towards the sinking of the ship. Usually the bow winch is home to the juvenile fish and is one of the most interesting areas of a artificial wreck reef.

We then swam back to the stern, low on the deck to stay out of the current. The main deck offers access to what is left of the gallery and the windless is still on the stern. I'll wait for a calmer day light dive to penetrate the inner sections of the stern.

All in all its great to have another large freighter in recreational depths off Miami. The last ship was the "Dema Trader" sunk in 2003 in honor of Dema being held in Miami.

Emerald Reef

As we were gearing up, we were looking at the four new mooring balls with a 1.5mil handheld light. The fish were jumping out of the water in a big boil. Something big was down there!

We dropped in on the 20ft reef to check out the new morning balls and play with the scooters. Rick didn't have a chance to buzz around on a Gavin in a while. Rick's primary light failed. It was flickering on and off which seemed to me to be a cord issue. We surfaced and the boat came up and we exchanged the lights in the water and dropped back down to play some more.

A school of small tomtates went flying by and then I saw what was causing all the concern. 5 4-6ft greater amberjacks were feeding on the reef fish. The lights didn't phase the fish at all as they charged all three of us. I used the Gavin as a sheild, but the fish came right at us. I was hit in the chest, legs, and back several times. Rick and Jody were as well. We tried to go back to back to defend ourselves, but is hard to fend off a fish that is faster, more agile, and has three dimensions of water to swim in. After a few minutes they took off and left us alone.

We cruised up and down the reef. Found several spotted and spiny lobster out for a walk. We surfaced after an hour and headed it.

The air temp was 55 degrees. I puffed up my dry suit and was quite comfortable on the way home. Every one else bundled up to stay warm. Overall we still had a great time even with the bad vis and high currents! I really enjoyed watching the moon seen in a blood red color after midnight as we came back in across the bay.

It was beautiful trip out to the Ultra Freeze. Jody and David jumped in to find the anchor. They had a nice reef dive as they didn't make contact with the wreck. They did make contact with some kite fisherman on breaking the surface. :)

Matt, Mike and Lee has a slow descent, hit the wreck. Searched for a good 20 minutes but with no luck. Lots of anchors and rope, but none of them usable.

Jody and David made a second trip down. No luck from them either.

On the way in we had a crash course on the use of radar. We had a Bogey at close range that could not be seen until we stopped and searched without looking thru the curtains. We found a 22-25ft boat with no stern running lights and only the bow navigation lights on. After finding the boat we approached slowly. During the first attempt to over take them, they turned and cut us off causing a second full stop. After zigging, we zagged past. Clear sailing after that. Mike mentioned that it was too bad the boat didn't have a horn. I found the button and gave a few blasts. Then I couldn't remember the official blasts. I looked it up on line for fun.

I understand that a stupid boater isn't going to have the foggiest what the horn blasts mean?
Sound Signals
There are five basic sound signals a boater should know. I will briefly outline them. Should you require more information on sound signals and the Rules of the Road, the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary recommend that you take an appropriate safe boating course. The Coast Guard Auxiliary provides several courses, which include this information, as well as our Boat Crew program for members of the Auxiliary.
Sound signals are broken into two types, long and short blasts. Short blast lasts for 1 to 3 second and a long blast from 4 to 6 seconds.
You will normally hear these sets of sound signals:
1 short blast and 2 short blasts which signify intent and acceptance in overtaking situations.
Three (3) short blasts signifying a vessel in astern propulsion (as when a boat is backing out of a slip)
Five (5) short blasts, which signifies danger or disagreement.
One long blast, which is meant as a warning that I am about to move from a position, which may be blind to you. You’ll use/hear this signal when your about to leave a slip (either in forward or astern propulsion), where the master of the vessel is blind to possible approaching traffic from the main waterway or as you are about to round bend in a waterway (like a river).

DSCN6750
Originally uploaded by tiswango.

STS-119 Discovery Launch Sunday 3/15 at 7:45 PM. We were driving North of Krome Ave, almost to the Casino when we saw a fireball in the sky. A quick google on my cell phone confirmed it was the shuttle launch 200 miles away. The night was clear and the sun was amazing! The sun was setting to the top of the trail is lighter than the bottom. There was a big white cloud where the shuttle punched thru the atmosphere. It looked like a whole was ripped in the sky and bruised from the penetration of humans leaving their home to venture to where they know not of.

At the Beach in August

Originally uploaded by Ana Gamba.

I was looking thru Ana and Charlie Gamba's photos and found this one of us at the beach in Fort Lauderdale. Since swimming lessons, the boys have gotten much more comfortable in the water. The love splashing and playing now. I can't wait until next summer!

Bodhisattva Vow

bodhisattva Vow
Originally uploaded by tiswango.

The Four Great Vows:

I vow to liberate all beings, without number (Green)

I vow to uproot endless blind passions (Red)

I vow to penetrate dharma gates beyond measure (Blue)

I vow to attain the way of the Buddha (Yellow and Black)
Posted a moment ago.

I read this in the latest book from the Dali Lama and decided to paint it. This is how it made my feel.