Dive Report: 2 Spt 07, Panama City Beach, FL

**dalehall** · 09-08-2007, 04:53 PM

Wow.. This place is dead..

I thought I'd post a dive report from last weekend.. (Yes, another long winded one)

I went with the family to Panama City Beach for Labor Day weekend. My sister, her husband and their 2 kids (15 and 12) are all certified. The 15 year old has been certified since he was 10 and the 12 year just did her check out dives back in April. They are headed the Bahamas in October to dive, so my sis wanted the kids to get a little salt water experience before heading on that trip. A friend of the family owns a condo right off the beach, so we rented from her for the weekend. So, she loaded up her family and I loaded up the wife and baby and we headed down on Friday. We spent the day at the beach and all on Saturday and did our diving on Sunday.
The charter was through Dive Locker (www.divelocker.net) and the boat was the 6-pack “Down Time.” (www.downtimedivecharters.com) with Capt Pat, his wife, Bonnie and DM Jess. Great group of folks.
The first dive was on a wreck called “The Black Bart.” A fully intact 185-foot oil field supply ship sits upright in about 75 feet of water. (Actually, the bottom was at 84 feet the day we were there) Her bow points due south. The bridge can be reached at 40 feet and the main deck is at 66 feet. The cargo holds are open for exploration. Divers can also explore the head (complete with toilets) and the galley which still has several appliances. There is an abundance of fish in and around the ship. Turtles have been spotted at times, along with catfish, flounder and grouper. The bottom is a bit silty; visibility is generally 30-45 feet at the main deck. One Halloween, a prankster chained a skeleton, complete with mask and snorkel, to the wheelhouse. The skeleton is there and I have a video I took while swimming up to it. It was a great dive. A HUGE amount of fish around this wreck!!! Viz about 40-50 foot, water temp was 84 surface, 80 at depth. Slight thermocline at 48 feet.
The next dive was called “Bridge Span #14.” It was a (guesstimate) 175 foot portion of a span bridge that had been damaged during one of the hurricanes. It was dropped as part of the artificial reef program. Lots of growth all over it and a great number of fish. I saw the absolute biggest barracuda I’ve ever seen while diving the bridge. I don’t know how big he was, but they tell me the bridge steel I-beams are 18 inches across and the tail of the ‘Cuda from top to bottom was larger than the span of the I-beam. He was big compared to what I saw on the Bart or even on the Oriskany. Viz was only about 35-40 feet. Water temps were the same as the Bart, minus the thermocline.
It was a great couple of dives and the kids had a ball!! I would highly recommend the Down Time. Dive Locker was ok, but their sign in procedures for two boat loads of people at the same time are is need of some serious repair. They only had one person working the front and he kept getting confused on who he was dealing with and what boat they were on. Watching it all from a distance, one could envision a scene that includes monkeys and footballs. But after the sign-in fiasco was over, everything else went smooth.
Great weekend, great diving and some great quality time with the family. (Baby's first trip to the Beach!!)
If anyone is interested in some of the pics and vids from the diving, I have a few of them loaded on my MySpace Page. I haven’t had to time to put them on my website yet. MySpace link in my signature..

**Scuba Mama** · 09-10-2007, 07:27 PM

Sounds like a great trip. I have been side lined for over 3 weeks now. I had surgery and shortly after I recovered some idiot hit me from behind on my way to work.

I knew work was bad for my health. The doctor said I am cleared to dive as long as some else helps me with my gear, for a least two more weeks to give my back time to heal.

I have two more outdoor training events planned before October. I tend to end diving outdoors in Chicago. The lake turns and its just to cold topside and in the water. I hoping the end of September holds out. I have a rescue class and open water the last weekend. My advanced cancelled. Thats o.k.

October is when its indoor training only. No, to anyone who's going to ask about icediving. As my students are told, I'm a wimp, I like warm water.

So, Dale to you guys in the south do training outdoors every month of the year?

Scuba Mama

**dalehall** · 09-11-2007, 12:41 PM

I hope you heal up quickly Scuba Mama. I would be willing to put money on the guy that hit you from behind was on his cell phone when he did it, wasn't he??

Yes Mam, we train every month of the year. The LDS where I help out has a heated indoor pool for the confined portion and then we head to the North FL Springs for the check dives. The water stays the same temp year round (usually 68-72 depending on the Spring) so you just have to deal with the air temp. The colder the air temp, the nicer the water feels. But, Jan and Feb in Florida are still bearable temps for even us Southern Boys and Girls.

I've got a Rescue Class I'm helping with this coming weekend. Can't wait.. I enjoy the training portion of it almost as much as much the diving itself. Being able to pass along the information and skills of my "passion" to others is just a thrill for me right now. We'll see how I feel about the training after I go through IDC and actually do it for a while.

Get better soon!!!

**Scuba Mama** · 09-11-2007, 04:49 PM

Surprise he was not on the phone. But I suggested to him to drink more of his coffee because he was not awake enough.

I have a training class on a Friday to get me closer to completing IDC Staff.
I have been teaching since 2004 and I still get a kick out of it. As most LDS will tell you as an instructor, "your not in it for the money". This statement is true in more ways then one. Have fun with rescue class, I love teaching this class. I will tell my divers to expect the unexpected. Most go away saying "I'm tired" but they had fun and unexpected things happened. I will enlist people who are at the dive site to help me with different set ups. I have a lot a fun. This class is truly one that lets the instructor to be creative, thats way I like it.

P.S. to the PADI police, yes I stay with in the guidelines.

**dalehall** · 09-11-2007, 08:11 PM

LOL!! I wasn't just tired after my Rescue. I was WORE OUT!! And sore the next day.. But, it was a very rewarding class. I just hope these people get as much out of if as I did..
Example: I DM for the same instructor that has taught me from the very beginning. A few weeks ago while helping with an O/W class, I was buddied up with a guy to do his OOA exercise. After he was breathing from my octo and all the signals were given, we started up.. I guess he figured sense he was out of air, he didnt have to kick either. Ugh.. Once I got us to the surface, he wasn't kicking to stay up while he orally inflated his BC. So, I was struggling to keep him up. Because I couldn't keep us up and he wasn't helping, he started thrashing around making impossible to keep him up. Finally, after thinking he was going to drown both of us, I spun him around, wrapped my knees around his tank and leaned back to keep him up. My bc has 65 lbs of lift, so it was plenty to keep us both up. When we were like that, he settled down and inflated his bc orally. I looked at the instructor and he laughed and said, "That Rescue training kicked in didn't it?" It didn't dawn on me until after it happened. Wow.. That stuff really does stick with you.. Great class!!!