Charon
03-24-2011, 04:06 PM
Hi all.
I've been viewing and posting on this forum for a few months but never introduced myself. I'm a long time snorkeler (55+ years) and a mostly solo diver. The only equipment needed to dive solo that I don't own is a primary tank. For the amount of diving I can do where I live and my age (64) I really can't justify the price of a steel tank (unless of course I find a used tank cheap). It's really not a big problem as the dive shop where I rent tanks is more or less on the way to most of the lakes I can dive.
I love the Caribbean and love shore diveing. I've been to Dominica, Bonaire, Nassau, and the Keys. Dominica was totally the best but I hate eating goat so it was mostly peanut butter, pizza, and chicken. Bonaire was good but my timing was bad. Tons of rain for months before I got there so the vis sucked. The best vis on any dive there was less than 40 feet and in some places it dropped to 15 feet - very unusual. Nassau was a LOOOooonnng swim out to the reef. Shortest was a quarter mile mostly way longer. Did a boat trip there and it was great. In the Keys I did mostly boat off Key Largo and it was awsome. One offbeat place that I had a ton of fun at was 4 weeks in Brattleboro VT. I snorkeled every day (sometimes 3+ hrs) in the West River. Totally clear, lots of fish, current or not - you decide, and even in 95° weather going to bottom was like hitting soft ice (heavily spring fed). It was a gas.
Places I want to go to to dive and explore before I die are Tulum, Playa del Carmen, Belieze, and (I pray) Bora Bora or somewhere there abouts.
This summer I plan to dive Saratoga Lake (local). It's got a small pocket 90-110 feet deep (depending on the rain). I want to see what's down there. I caughht a 40 inch eel in that lake and I wonder if that's where they hang out.
I'm also planning to volunteer as a diver for an effort to controll milfoil in Lake George. They have divers go down and suck up or pull millfoil and leave the native plants. It's usually a paid job but if they will supply the air I'll do it free for the chance to be underwater.
I grow orchids, still play soccer (though in the over 50's - too many injuries to continue over 40's), fish (mostly with my Dad who is 89), and do woodworking (these days mostly turning bowls). In short I'm a pretty boreing dude.
I've been viewing and posting on this forum for a few months but never introduced myself. I'm a long time snorkeler (55+ years) and a mostly solo diver. The only equipment needed to dive solo that I don't own is a primary tank. For the amount of diving I can do where I live and my age (64) I really can't justify the price of a steel tank (unless of course I find a used tank cheap). It's really not a big problem as the dive shop where I rent tanks is more or less on the way to most of the lakes I can dive.
I love the Caribbean and love shore diveing. I've been to Dominica, Bonaire, Nassau, and the Keys. Dominica was totally the best but I hate eating goat so it was mostly peanut butter, pizza, and chicken. Bonaire was good but my timing was bad. Tons of rain for months before I got there so the vis sucked. The best vis on any dive there was less than 40 feet and in some places it dropped to 15 feet - very unusual. Nassau was a LOOOooonnng swim out to the reef. Shortest was a quarter mile mostly way longer. Did a boat trip there and it was great. In the Keys I did mostly boat off Key Largo and it was awsome. One offbeat place that I had a ton of fun at was 4 weeks in Brattleboro VT. I snorkeled every day (sometimes 3+ hrs) in the West River. Totally clear, lots of fish, current or not - you decide, and even in 95° weather going to bottom was like hitting soft ice (heavily spring fed). It was a gas.
Places I want to go to to dive and explore before I die are Tulum, Playa del Carmen, Belieze, and (I pray) Bora Bora or somewhere there abouts.
This summer I plan to dive Saratoga Lake (local). It's got a small pocket 90-110 feet deep (depending on the rain). I want to see what's down there. I caughht a 40 inch eel in that lake and I wonder if that's where they hang out.
I'm also planning to volunteer as a diver for an effort to controll milfoil in Lake George. They have divers go down and suck up or pull millfoil and leave the native plants. It's usually a paid job but if they will supply the air I'll do it free for the chance to be underwater.
I grow orchids, still play soccer (though in the over 50's - too many injuries to continue over 40's), fish (mostly with my Dad who is 89), and do woodworking (these days mostly turning bowls). In short I'm a pretty boreing dude.