Most Favorite

I received a PM on a forum from someone asking me where my favorite place to dive in Utah was. I had to wait before I could respond, not because I was to busy, but because I had to think about it for a while. Just like no tropical destination is the same, the same goes for our local diving. Think about this, where else could you go and dive 95 degree water in the winter and drive 5 minutes away and explore under the ice if you were so inclined? So my answer to their question was, my favorite is the one I'm exploring next or the one I haven't explored. In the twenty something years I've been to a few of our lakes.

Two weeks ago Flaming Gorge was my favorite. Why? Because I have yet to have a bad dive there and I haven't seen all there is to see. The wall around Osprey Island is fascinating and if you slow down and really look you can find some amazing formations.

This weekend the Crater will be my favorite even though I have explored this site a gazillion times. Besides looking at the turtle, t-rex, gator, wagon wheel or the hot tub at the bottom, have you really looked at the sides? The formations look like petrified wood. Have you found the spout where the water exits? Did you know there are small tubes like a lava tube along the sides? Not everything to see is at the bottom.

Next weekend and the weekend after that it will be Sand Hollow. Why? because this is a site I have yet to explore, not dive but explore. That's what makes local diving so much fun, exploring. It's an adventure, to boldly go where no man, strike that, you have never been before.
Now Sand Hollow has some training platforms, a buoyancy course, a sunken Cessna airplane and a 'bus'. Trust me those will be fun...way fun. What I want to see are the formations of the red rock by the island. Trust me I'll explore.

So what's your favorite?

Kim Turns 50

Kim was excited and with a flash.....oops wrong story.......and in a flash lifts a slate with 50 scribe on it.
No we're not talking about age, not even close, we're talking about diving, after all this is a scuba blog. geeesh
This was dive 50, the number of dives needed to obtain the Master Scuba Diver rating.
In a 'dive by' Kim gives us the scuba version of a happy dance, flashes a big smile and hands out several double handed fist pumps and then proceeds to having more fun. Oh there were other congratulatory things but nothing that should be put in print..... only because I'm the author and I blush easily.
While the open water students there really had no idea what it all meant, they had to know it was something big unless diving really is that much fun.
Well yes it is but that's a different topic.
Upon surfacing with our students, Kim's still doing a happy dance on the dock and to show how happy she is, jumps in the water, gets my hair all wet...geeesh and gives more hugs all around.
After calming down it's logbook time.
Did you know that the PADI Training Logbook only allows for 49 dives? Oh my what is one to do? Just so you know the back page works just fine when someone is determined to turn 50.

It was great to be there, to see you diving, to see how you have progressed and sign your logbook.
What an honor.
Congratulations Kim Calder

Good Ole Time

Diving, it's supposed to be fun, relaxing, adventurous, exciting, thrilling and contagious. This is even before you get in the water.

You need to have a good ole time or eventually it stops being good and suddenly you begin to have a bad ole time and as soon as you have enough bad ole times you stop having time.

I don't want any of you to stop having time.

Road Trips

WOW over a month has passed without an entry. Shame on me.
Since returning from Coz there have been a couple of road trips. Fun trips.

On August 21st Chris Jaterka, Tony Siebert, Tyler Stanton and myself took a little road trip, ok I called it a mancation, to SoCal for a couple days of California kelp diving since Tony wasn't able to make it to Coz, he really needed to get out, have salt water in his eyes and cruise the kelp forests.Departing on Friday afternoon we drove from SLC through Las Vegas to Primm Nevada were we spent the night at Bu falo Bills before heading into Long Beach the next morning. Did I mention we went through Vegas when it was 113 degrees? Hotttttttt.
Back on the road early we pull into Long Beach a good hour before we are allowed to board the Cee Ray. With some time to kill we walked around looking at the different dive boats and grabbed a quick bite at the wharf before boarding. Nothing like a fresh fish breakfast.
Once on board and checked in, it was grab a bunk, set up gear and take a nap for the 2 hour boat ride to Catalina.
Looking at the roster I noticed there were only a few of us just diving to have fun and the rest were Advanced Open Water students from a couple Sport Chalet stores in SoCal. On board was Bob Taylor an Instructor/Regional Depertment Head Janine and I had met when the SLC store was opening. It was nice to catch up on things with Bob. So much for being incognito. Oh well. I was also able to meet another Instructor from the Vegas area that was DM'ing for the boat.

Our three dives on the first day were being conducted at sites around Arrow Point. Talking with Captian Bob it is very rare that you get to dive Arrow Point due to the way the currents and swells normally run. Nothing spectacular but it was fun crusing the kelp and seeing Tony and Tyler navigating through the kelp and seeing Tony's eyes get as big as the 6 foot bat ray we saw.

Due to some sinus issues Tyler and Chris decided to sit out the night dive. It was pretty calm and for some reason not much in the way of marine life.
Heading back it was find your bunk and nap. We arrived back into Long Beach around 11:00 pm.
Since we were heading back out with the Cee Ray the next day they were kind enough to allow us to sleep on board over night. After filling out tomorrows paper work it was bed time.

Day I awoke to the smell of bacon and gear bags being dragged across the deck above. Gaaaawd what time is it. 6:00 Am! Come on people. ;0) OK I'll get some food. It was obvious that Chris has some type of hearing problems because that guy didn't wake up until we were about a half hour away from Catalina. In fact I don't think Chris had a problem sleeping period.

Briefing time. WOW this site looks familiar. Yup, Captain Arnold, father of Captain Bob, thought it would be good to go back to the same area. Not a problem since we were going to be one cove west of yesterday. Dive one we ventured down to the wreck of a sailboat that had sunk a few years ago and was sitting at about 55 feet .Dives two and three were done one more cove away and were pretty similar to all the previous sites. Plenty of kelp, some what shallow and with a small reef.

Arriving back into Long Beach around 5:30 it was time to saddle up and hit the road for Las Vegas where we would crash for the night before heading home the next day. Was there gambling involved. Um yeah. Not sure about the winnings of everyone else but I took the casino for $6.15.

All and all it was a fun trip and I would do this one again.