serenitydiving.com Blog

Lionfish Program

Michael Sylver — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 03:25:35 +0000

REEF.org will be holding a Lionfish program on Wednesday, June 15 in Key Largo. Its a great way to get information on this highly dangerous non-native species that is eating up our reefs. Check out the link below and join us on Wednesday night. I’ll be leaving south dade at 4 and grabbing dinner in Key Largo if anyone wants to join me.

Keep breathing and stay safe

http://www.reef.org/lionfish/workshops

Afternoon Reef and Nite Dive

Michael Sylver — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:55:18 +0000

We’ll be going on an afternoon reef and a nite dive this coming Saturday. There’s spaces available so contact us through the website if you’re interested. We’ll be on the dock at Ocean Divers in Key Largo at 12:30 for the reef trip and sticking around for the turn around and a single tank nite trip. Bring along your compass, slate and 3 dive lites, personal marker, primary and backup, for some navigation work and a chance to see how the other half of the reef lives.

Keep breathing and stay safe.

Molasses Reef

Michael Sylver — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:13:26 +0000

Congratulations to twins Daniel and Albert who just finished their open water certification class last weekend. We were joined by members of the Gulliver Prep Scuba Club and had a great time. We visited the Fire Coral Cave and Coral Canyons out at Molasses Reef. The visibility was around 50 feet and the water a nice and cool 69 degrees. The ride out on Ocean Divers’ big green hulled Santana was comfortable and uneventful, We had pretty calm weather so the ride and entries/exits were a breeze. Since it was a training we didn’t get a chance to take many shots, but we all had a fantastic time. I don’t think I’ve seen that many Cuda stacked up in the water column in quite some time. The Coral Canyon time should have been called Cuda Canyon for the day.

Daniel and Bert share air on a safety stop.

Scrub and Grub Video

Michael Sylver — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:15:44 +0000

Just in case you missed it, you can see some of the video shot by Billy C. from Scubanation on our Divers Direct Scrub and Grub Reef Cleanup. Follow the link and watch for the Islamorada section.

http://www.diversdirect.com/videos/watch/?v=scrub-n-grub-reef-cleanup2011

February Open Water Class

Michael Sylver — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:03:00 +0000

We have a few spots left open for the next open water class in February. We’ll starting Saturday, 2/12 bright and early in Cutler Bay for the class and pool orientation. Check out the website for pricing and contact information.

Keep breathing and stay safe.

First Annual Scrub and Grub

Michael Sylver — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 02:25:17 +0000

Serenity Diving and the Gulliver Prep Scuba club participated in the first annual Divers Direct Scrub and Grub this past weekend. Just in case you have no idea what I’m talking about, first you go out and clean or “Scrub” a reef, then you head back to Divers Direct for the cookout or “Grub”. It was a great way to do some good, have a little friendly competition between dive groups, help the environment and get fat. The best part was the reasonable price and raffle and prize for most trash picked up, measured by weight. One of the guys from the UM dive club scored a nice Apeks legend regulator for bringing up an old anchor and other stuff that totalled about 40 pounds, not bad. Pamela Wilson, manager of the Key Largo store says the event was a big success and they have plans to have more of the cleanups in the future. Billy Catoggio of Scubanation.com was onboard the Giant Stride out of Key Dives in Islamorada, shooting lots of video. Overall the 28 divers along with Captain Mike scored well with 150 total pounds of total trash removed from the reef. Keep an eye on the blog and we’ll let you know when the next trip is.

Keep breathing and stay safe.

All photos were shot by Brandon Rosenberg

Scrub and Grub Video

Michael Sylver — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:28:54 +0000

Been quite some time since we updated the blog. Congrats to new open water divers Natasha, Julian, Luca, Bert, Aaron, Jose, German, Danny, Bryan and Manny. We’ll put some of those pictures up at another time. With a cold front approaching this weekend Brandon and I decided to get in a deep dive on the Speigel Grove, the diving equivalent of an underwater disney world ride in the upper keys. Brandon did a great job on his first deep advanced open water/nitrox trip and everyone aboard Ocean Diver’s Santana had a great time. Captain Joe and divemaster/mate Derek make the trip care free. Hard to beat 1-3 foot seas, at least 50 visibility and mild air temps. The water wasn’t too bad either at 71 degrees when we hit the 85 foot mark. Of course everyone was wearing at least 3 mills worth of jump suit and at least half of the 12 diversa were wearing hoods. We dropped down on marker 4, drifted a little lower on our way to the wheel house and spent 18 or so minutes tooling around the wheel house area before heading up to our 5 minute safety stop at 15 feet. We have another convert folks, Brandon will be coming back with us to the Speigel, along with the Duane and Bibb. Dive 2 was at the Benwood after a 30 interval. I actually hadn’t been to the site and totally enjoyed exploring the ribs, sides and especially the once proud bow sticking up out of the sand. Cool spot for some nice shots given the right camera set up.

Our next trip will be with the Gulliver Prep Scuba club as we take part in Divers Direct’s reef cleanup on January 29. Feel free to call Pamela Wilson at the Key Largo store at 305-451-0118 if you’d like to come an help. Event t-shirts and lunch are included in the very reasonable cost.

Weekend Reef Dive.

Michael Sylver — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:23:16 +0000

We have a couple of spots open on the boat for a shallow reef dive this Sunday, August 15. We’ll be out with Silent World Diving on a 2 tank dive, meeting at the key shop on Key Largo at 7:30. Give me a call by 10 AM on Saturday, August 14.

We’l see you underwater.

The Speigel Grove

Michael Sylver — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:59:52 +0000

Andy and Joe finished off their Advanced/Nitrox ratings today with a dive on the Speigel Grove right at Dixie Shoals off of North Key Largo. We showed up at the dock with a certain degree of anxiousness, and who could blame the guys knowing it was their first dive on the Speigel. We have dove with the fantastic crews and boats of Silent World Diving many times before and were looking forward to another great trip with Captain Bob at the helm and Captain Joe filling in today as first mate and Dive Master. It was Wreck Fest this weekend and the docks were filled wth fellow intrepid explorers and all their gear waiting for the crews to give the nod so we could all start loading up. I have to admit feeling like a rube that showed up in pit lane in my 1962 Beetle ready to race the big boys at the Indy 500. There were more double tank, multi-gas backplate and wing rigs in one short section of dock than I can ever remember seeing. The go deep and long crew were in the right company with Chris Brown’s boats and crews. You want to go advanced and recreational Nitrox you can contact us here at Serenity Diving. If you are more inclined for the really deep stuff, A Tech class with Silent World would be my first and only choice.

There was the usual semi-ripping current at the Speigel as we moored up to the aft starboard deck crane, so we all took Captain Bob’s suggestion pulling ourselves hand over hand along the granny line to the mooring ball and down the line to the top of the crane at 66 feet. We made it down to the deck at 100 feet and spent the remainder of the first dive checking out the space between the cranes and the back side of the superstructure. After a mandatory 1 hour interval, we went back down the same line, staying above our planned 80 profile and enjoyed exploring some of the swim throughs in the superstructure. My little point and shoot is the old Sea and Sea 750G, it has a rather long shutter lag and eats batteries so I keep the power savings set conservative and it was always in sleep mode when a really cool grouper kept coming over to check us out. He had an annoying inate ability to disappear as soon as the camera would recover from its brief, yet frequent siestas. I need a good lotto ticket so I can afford to swim my Nikon D300 with the 12-24 and a dual flash rig.

The long and short of it, great day and dives at a great location with fantastic people, and two new advanced/nitrox divers. Congratulations Andy and Joe, thanks for letting Serenity Diving further your underwater education and journey

Beach Dive

Michael Sylver — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 03:00:02 +0000

We had a beautiful day with a bit of current and a 5-10 knot easterly breeze as we dove off of Lauderdale By The Sea today. The current and wind conditions made the navigation class practicals, a little more practical. Joe and his son Andy, working on their advanced open water and nitrox ratings discovered how important it is to work as a team while navigating and most importantly in potential rescue scenarios. We’re off to explore the Speigel Grove tomorrow morning and then on to a nightdive with the folks at Biscayne National Underwater Park. If you think you might be ready for deeper and more advanced dives, make sure you drop us a line for more information.

Be safe, dive smart.