Living a Diver's Life

Cart loaded with Dive Rite O2ptima closed circuit rebreather and  gear  for a 142' dive in Buford Sink. Yes, the walk is well worth it! Photo: Fred Stratton by Fred Stratton fred@hydrosharks.com Instructor, Technician No matter your level and experience, all divers share a love of breathing blissfully buoyant in a state of underwater weightlessness. Recreational or technical, closed or open circuit, no stop or decompression doesn't matter. We are all kindred spirits devoted to adventure and exploration. Land lubbers passively watch Shark Week on TV. Divers seek close encounters with these toothy predators. Beachgoers relax on the sand during their holiday. Divers view the beach as an entry platform for shore diving. I gave up skydiving after discovering scuba diving in 1987. After meeting the beautiful woman who later would  become my wife, I taught her to swim and then to scuba dive (of course).  How has diving changed your life? Diving is a Big Part of

Image: Pixabay Fred Stratton fred@bubblesornot.com fred@hydrosharks.com We are very grateful for your business. Equally important to us is the friendship and comaraderie that comes with sharing our mutual love of scuba diving. We welcomed many new members to our BoN family in 2019 and reluctantly said goodbye to a few servicemembers whose duties took them elsewhere. We trained together, from Open Water through Instructor including fun Specialties like Cavern, Nitrox, AWARE, Deep, Wreck and Diver Propulsion Vehicle Diver. We traveled throughout Georgia, Alabama, Florida and the Caribbean. These experiences forged strong bonds which blessed us all.  We will close 2019 and open 2020 with our first trip to Asia as we dive in the tropical archipelago of the Philippines (26 December - 04 January). We want you to look good and be properly equipped for all your diving adventures in the new year and beyond. So here are some of Santa's favorite gift ideas to in your dive

Warships of the American, German and Japanese navies were nuclear blast test subjects  during  Operation Crossroads Photo: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Fred Stratton Instructor and Technician fred@bubblesornot.com This is part two of our series on underwater playgrounds. July's article Artificial Reefs: Reborn by Nature took us diving on manmade structures.  This month we look at the mayhem Mother Nature, human error and war have visited upon mariners since ancient times. These disasters fascinate divers seeking adventure and a connection to the seafaring souls whose final voyage ended in tragedy.   Successful companies have strong brand recognition. So too do world class wreck diving destinations. Whisper the words Scapa Flow, Bikini or Chuuk and wreck diving afficianados will tell animated first-hand stories or nod that they are on their bucket list. A story about one wreck often spills into tales of another.  There's irony in ships that cost lives

The Christ of the Abyss statue in Pennekamp State Park celebrates Jesus Christ and provides substrate for sea life Photo: Tara McNaylor Fred Stratton Instructor and Technician fred@bubblesornot.com Perceptions persist that wreck diving is deep, cold, boring and bereft of color. In this two-part series we explore artificial reefs and wrecks. Artificial reefs are manmade structures purposefully planted on the seafloor to provide marine habitat, relieve pressure on natural reefs, and to provide playgrounds for divers.  Wrecks are ships or structures that met their fate through storms, collisions, sabotage or war at sea. ARTIFICIAL REEFS Bleaching, storms and overuse take their toll on reefs. Given time they will recover. However, building artificial reefs is an alternative method of providing more sea life habitat which creates underwater playgrounds. Think of an artificial reef as manmade substrate that Mother Nature populates with turtles, fish, molluscs, mammals

Helium from a tidally shredded star being expelled from a black hole  Credit: NASA; S. Gezari, The Johns Hopkins University; and J. Guillochon, University of California, Santa Cruz     Fred Stratton Instructor and Technician fred@bubblesornot.com TECHNICAL DIVING SERIES PART IV Helium's atomic weight and number Credit: Greg Reese on Pixabay Most people think of the Goodyear blimp and party tricks when they think of helium.  Commercial and technical divers embraced helium decades ago as a means to diminish  nitrogen narcosis and oxygen toxicity beyond recreational depth. To trimix divers helium is a miracle gas that opens a vast realm of new adventures unattainable on air.  Astronomers discovered helium by noting a yellow spectral line signature during a solar eclipse in 1868 and named it after Helios, Greek god of the sun. Helium is the second most abundant element in our universe after hydrogen although it is rare on Earth comprising only 0.000

Students Justin Walter (left) and Dan Alix (middle) preparing for Tec 50 open water dives with instructor Bob Bennett  Photo: Rose Bennett   Fred Stratton Instructor and Technician fred@bubblesornot.com Justin Walter successfully deploys a DSMB in the pool prior to open water work Photo: Tata McNaylor TECHNICAL DIVING SERIES PART III Our February 2019 article on Tec 45 was part two in our technical diving series. Let's go deeper still in part three of our technical diving series with t he Tec 50  course , which is also part three in the PADI Tec Deep Diver Program. PADI TEC 50 COURSE Tec 50 takes you beyond your Tec 45 experience by introducing you to the first stages of full technical deep decompression diving. Certified Tec 50 divers are qualified to make multi-stop decompression dives using air, EANx and oxygen (O2) with up to two decompression gases such as   50% Nitrox and 100% O2.  You'll plan and execute four dives to a maximum depth of