Scuba Air Compressor Installation
History of Diving Museum
We really enjoyed our stop on the way down the Florida Keys the History of Diving Museum in Islamorada, Florida.
These metal suits were used to protect the diver from the high levels of pressure at depths near a thousand feet, greatly reducing the decompression times. They look more like robots to me.
Helmets were used way into the 1960s!
There is an impressive collection of real diving helmets from every country in the world that has made them.
We’ve always just driven past this amazing sculpture of a spiny lobster.
This time, we just had to share this cool photo opportunity!
Scuba in the Maldives – Post 5
Batfish Inside the Atoll
One of the nice things about diving on the inside was swimming with the Bat Fish. They are curiously social and love to swim next to divers to get a closer look, while many other species of fish tend to swim away and hide.
By the start of the second week of diving three times each day, some of the people aboard were not diving every time. For Lindsay and I the underlying drive to not miss anything was stronger than the desire to rest! I did, however, end up skipping one out of the 36 dives, so I could sleep in. Lindsay made every trip!
This video is from all three dives on the same day, which were are on the inside of an atoll, which means the conditions are calmer and the fish and creatures tend to be a bit smaller than when diving on the ocean side of a reef. Every time we dove this day, there were Bat Fish.
Scuba in the Maldives – Post 4
MORE Mantis Shrimp!
Enjoy this scuba in the Maldives music video including appearances by a Leaf Fish, exposed coral polyps, a Mantis Shrimp, and a school of Sweetlips.
Scuba in the Maldives – Post 3
Shipwreck Diving
As much as we love diving on a beautiful coral reef, the added interest of seeing old boats and maritime equipment underwater increases my enjoyment. I’ve had some fun here with a funky song, just ’cause.
Featuring: Lindsay, “Glass Fish”, Red Hind, Pipe Fish, Sharp Nosed Puffer, two different NUDIBRANCHS, and a Frog Fish!
Scuba in the Maldives – Post 2
Mantis Shrimp Encounter
On day 7, we went diving on several “Thilas”, pronounced “Til’ us”. According to Wikipedia, Thila is a village in west-Central Yemen. In the Maldives, it is slang for the very tall and cylindrical steep-walled underwater coral formations with flat tops a few meters underwater. Just think of the Roadrunner cartoon landscape but with bright corals attached to the sides and tops of the skinny plateaus, surrounded by deep blue water. This video is a combination clips taken of the many corals, fish and creatures we saw during the day’s diving on these formations. The star of the show is the Mantis Shrimp!
Did you know that Mantis Shrimps smash the shells of their prey with club-shaped arms? Reportedly they strike with the force of a bullet! The swing is so fast that water actually cavitates, which means small air bubbles form behind the moving club. Even if they don’t hit their intended target, the bubbles collapse, forming a mind-blowing shock wave that can kill or stun the poor crustacean that was unable to escape!
I have just been getting started editing videos using iMovie, so please excuse the amateur quality!
Want more? Here is a cool video by Nat Geo on the Mantis Shrimp.
Scuba in the Maldives – Post 1
Two weeks living aboard MV Stingray, diving three times a day!
After almost two years of planning and promoting, on April 20th 2015 we set sail on the MV Stingray for a 14 night dive safari around some of the most famous dive sites of the Maldives.
Nestled in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 miles south of the tip of India, the 4,000 tiny islands of the Republic offer some of the most spectacular diving on our planet.
In addition to Lindsay and I, more than half of the divers on this trip were taking pictures and recording videos. As they all return home and share the media with us, we will pick some of the best images and post short stories about the trip.
Here is one of the short videos I made on day three, when we were diving to depths up to 100 feet in a channel between the Indian Ocean and an atoll. It is a teaser of what the dive sites at the Maldives have to offer, because based on the tidal currents this day, it was less populated than most of the other sites.
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No power or water. We are stranded without internet.
Tadd & I had hoped to get a chance to catch up on blogs from our trip to the US and UK once we were settled here in Fiji… but what we weren’t expecting was a tiny island with a home that has no lights, no power, and no running water. The island itself has a generator, but our hut, or Bure, has none of the above. And there seems to be something wrong with the internet USB chip that the island “resort” and our dive shop uses… so we only get internet when we travel about 1 and a half hours to the town of Nausori… so watch this space, and we hope to have updated news one of these days!!!
Lindsay & Tadd