Category Archives: Scuba
Scuba diving trips around the world.
Mu Ko Similan National Park
The beautiful sea creatures of the Mu Ko Similan National Park. A total of 9 islands famous for its dive sites. The sea in the area has an average depth of 60 feet. Underwater it is full of rock formations and coral reefs in several shapes and forms, resembling such things as deer, leaves, brains, and mushrooms. It has typically two different kinds of diving. East side diving consists of gently sloping coral reefs with sandy patches with the occasional boulder in-between. The west side is known for its huge underwater granite boulders with numerous swim-throughs.
We spent 5 days (15 dives total) live aboard on the Thai-Scubanet dive boat led by the Scuba Jam dive shop in Thailand. From Bangkok, we flew into Phuket and took a shuttle caravan to the marine dock to board our live aboard boat. While this is my 2nd time diving in the Similian Islands, it’s always different. Conditions were nice for this time of the year. Visibility even on a bad day is always ALOT BETTER than Southern California. Definitely sadden when we had to leave the Similian Islands.
Pacific Wilderness – Class ‘A’ students certified!
Co-taught this class with Instructor Natasha Torres with advance diver Jimmy Huynh who was nice enough to take photos and videos during training.
Instructor Natasha Torres, Joel Schwartz, Susan Kim, Gilbert Johnson, Haroon Haseez, Valerie Casillas, Rafael Meza, Ryan Naumann, Steven Pinder, Instructor Joseph Huynh
All students transitioned very well into open water dives 1-4 with help from mother nature. Conditions were so perfect absolutely zero surfs and 25+ feet visibility at Shaw’s Cove in Laguna Beach! Easy water entries with plenty of sea creatures to see during the excursion dives between skill dives.
Pacific Wilderness – Advanced students certified! – (10/18/2014)
Congratulations to Advanced Open Water divers David Didomenico, Ryan Abelman, Norman Mercado, Jimmy Huynh for completing their Advanced Open Water certification this past weekend (10/17 thru 10/19) . Over the past few days I was very fortunate to have them as students who were very passionate in learning and improving their scuba diving skills.
Training requirements:
- Attend Briefing Session and Complete Assignments.
- Attend Pool Session if you are required to do so by Instructor
- Complete “Navigation Dive”
- Complete “Deep Dive”
- Complete “Night Dive”
- Complete the Two additional “Elective Dives”
Itinerary included: Training included pool a training session (Friday), 2 morning dives (Deep dive, Underwater Navigation) at Veteran’s Park (Saturday), 1 night dive at Veteran’s Park (Saturday), and 2 morning dives (Search & Recovery, Underwater Naturalist) at Heisler Park (Sunday)
Advance Open Water (10/18/2014)
Dive 1: Deep Dive
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Start time: 9:17AM
Max depth: 98 ft
Surface temp: 72 degrees
Bottom temp: 64 degrees
Dive Time: 35 minutes
Dive 2: Nagivation Dive
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Start time: 11:41AM
Max depth: 65 ft
Surface temp: 70 degrees
Bottom temp: 64 degrees
Dive Time: 29 minutes
Dive 3: Night Dive
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Start time: 6:28PM
Max depth: 67 ft
Surface temp: 72 degrees
Bottom temp: 68 degrees
Dive Time: 26 minutes
Dive 4: Search & Recovery
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Start time: 9:37am
Max depth: 21 ft
Surface temp: 68 degrees
Bottom temp: 68 degrees
Dive Time: 60 minutes
Dive 5: Underwater Natuarlist
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Start Time: 11:58AM
Max depth: 34 ft
Surface temp: 70 degrees
Bottom temp: 68 degrees
Dive Time: 49 minutes
