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Category Archives: Did You Know

National Boating Safety Awareness May 19-25, 2018

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National Boating Safety Awareness Week

Most people mark the beginning of summer as Memorial Day Weekend. Did you realize that we are just three short weekends away from that? Summer is quickly approaching and after the spring we had here in the Midwest, I’m not sure anyone thought it would ever come.

This last week though the sun has been shining and the temperatures have been on the upward rise. Now would be the perfect time to discuss National Boating Safety Awareness Week which just so happens to fall next week, May 19-25, 2018.

Things to consider when entering your vessel:

  • Safety Checks. What do they include?
    • Fire extinguishers
    • Backfire flame control
    • Sound producing devices
    • Visual distress signals
    • Lifejackets Continue reading→

Underwater Statues in Cozumel – Ramón Bravo

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Today, let’s cover the last installment of the statues located just off the coast of Cozumel and just to the right from Cozumel Marine World. The first statue we discussed was that of none other than Jacques Cousteau. The Second statue was none other than Sylvia Earle. Finally, the third statue is Ramón Bravo. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee or beverage of choice, and let’s learn about Ramón Bravo.

Underwater Statues in Cozumel

Statue of Famous Diver Ramón Bravo in Cozumel

Ramón Bravo

Ramón Bravo was a Mexican SCUBA diver, photographer, and underwater filmmaker who was born October 21, 1925. Bravo got his claim to fame initially being a famous Mexican swimmer who competed in the 1948 Olympics at just 23 years old.

This love of the water soon brought him to the sport of SCUBA diving. Once he was hooked, he became an underwater photographer, gaining both fame in American and Europe as an oceanographer. An oceanographer is involved in the study of the oceans physical and biological features. Continue reading→

Underwater Statues in Cozumel – Sylvia Earle

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For those of you who went to Cozumel, did you have a good trip? We can’t wait to hear all about it!! Today, I figured we might stay in Cozumel. Last week we discussed the Statues that are underwater near Cozumel Marine World. In fact, we focused on Jacques Cousteau. After that post went live, I got a message that they actually dove that site last Wednesday. How fun is that? Today, let’s look at another one of the statues. Today we’ll focus on Sylvia Earle.

Underwater Statues in Cozumel

Sylvia Earle Statue in Cozumel Mexico

Sylvia Earle

Sylvia Earle was born August 30, 1935, in Gibbstown, New Jersey. As a young child, she and her family moved from New Jersey to Florida. Her parents were outdoors fanatics and ecstatic when she showed an early interest in outdoor exploration. That love led her to earn an associates degree from St. Petersburg Jr. College, a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University, a Master’s of Science and Doctorate from Duke University. Continue reading→

Underwater Statues in Cozumel – Jacques Cousteau

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As most of you know (and if not I’m letting you in on a secret) we still have a group trip going on in Cozumel right now. Who is jealous? Especially of those who went for 2 weeks and missed out on the nasty cold weather last week. Since we still have a group in Cozumel, I thought it might be fun to do another post on Cozumel.

Today we’re going to feature the Statues that are underwater just to the right of Cozumel Marine World.

The Statues of Cozumel

Last year when we had a group down there, Deb and I were diving off the shore from the Cozumel Marine World Pier. That day we had a couple different groups go out. Everyone kind of dispersed in multiple directions. Deb and I went right. Not too far from the pier, we came across three statues. We knew one was Jacques Cousteau, but the other two were a mystery. Once we were back, I started doing some research and we found out that the woman statue was Sylvia Earl and the other male statue was Ramón Bravo. So the question is, just who are these people? I’m so glad you guys ask these questions ;).  Today let’s focus on Jacques Cousteau.

Jacques Cousteau

States of Cozumel - Jacques Cousteau

Jacques Cousteau is kind of known as the Father of SCUBA Diving. Continue reading→

How Often Should I Dive?

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I am now an open-water certified SCUBA diver, how often should I dive?

The answer: the more the merrier. Diving is like a lot of other sports –  The more you practice, the better you become at diving. The better you become at diving, the more your comfort level increases. The more comfortable you become, the better diver you become. Plus, you want to keep up with the skills you learned in class.

One of the most important skills a diver has is being a good dive buddy to your dive partner. Unless you are a solo certified diver, you need a dive buddy. This is a safety issue as you may be required to assist your buddy in times of need (i.e. air sharing, emergency accident, or entanglement, etc).

The more you dive and the more your comfort level increases, the better all-around diver you will be.
Continue reading→

11 Quotes to Start out the New Year

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Happy New Year! Can you believe we made it to 2018. Doesn’t it seem like we were just ringing in 2017? Seriously, time needs to slow down a bit! (or a lot bit!) You’ve seen mention of it, January 2018 is going to bring some fun new things to the blog. One of which, we’re going to blog every day in the month of January. January is kind of a drab month, so it’s the perfect time to give you something to look forward to. Plus, you won’t be hearing from just me. I have conned a bunch of our great divers to chime in and help write blog posts. Please, please be sure to read each one and let us know what you like, what you didn’t, what you’d like more on, etc. We’re all ears!

I thought it would be fun to share some quotes to help kick off the new year the right way. So without further ado….

11 Quotes to Start out the New Year

  1. Always remember that your present situation is not your final destination. The best is yet to come.
  2. Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.
    Continue reading→

Top 10 Posts of 2017

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Top 10 Posts of 2017

We’ve made it! Here we are on the last day of 2017. I’m not sure where the year went. I swear I woke up yesterday and it was January 1st, 2017 and now here we are, December 31st, 2017. One trip around the sun. 365 days. Crazy, right? This has been one crazy ride for many. And definitely one for the record books. Hopefully you have taken your pictures, jotted down your notes/memories, and finally, last but not least, created your New Year’s Resolutions.

There’s no going back to the beginning of the year. We’re ready to write the next chapter in our book labeled 2018. I want to quickly mention that earlier this week I posted what our January Plan is, so be sure you are suped up and ready for it. I know we are! There are 31 amazing posts ready for you to read, with multiple different authors. That should be interesting if nothing else, right? Continue reading→

The January Plan

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Merry 2 days after Christmas. Hopefully, you had a wonderful Christmas and Santa treated you well. Today I want to take a minute and tell you about something exciting we’re trying here on the blog for 2018.

There was a video going on Facebook of a gal dressed in bows dancing. It said something about tag a person who loves Christmas this much. Dan teased me about this because if you didn’t know, I love Christmas. After the Christmas Holiday Season though, you have New Year’s a week later and then what? Snow. Snow. And more Snow. Or cold weather since there are some years we don’t have snow. Continue reading→

We Need You!!

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Were you at Dive Club last Thursday night? No? You didn’t partake in the rain with us? Well why not? So many questions so few answers… But… I need to do some house keeping business.

More questions….

Did you know that this year Extreme Sports Scuba will have been in the Joplin community for 20 years? 20 years in fact this month, August. A few weeks ago we came up with an exciting new project, but we need your help.

At dive club, we presented this idea. Got everyone’s opinion, and decided to set forward in motion….. Are you ready for it?

If There’s Food, They Will Come: Extreme Sports Scuba 20 Years in the Making.

Okay, okay, so maybe that won’t be the official title but it’s a work in progress.

What is it? So glad you asked! This is the Extreme Sports Scuba Cookbook/Memories Book. This is where we need YOUR help! It is because of our Extreme Sports Scuba diving family that this business has made it 20 years (and still going!!). We want you to be a part of this book.

How? We need your recipes. Things you’ve brought to dive club. Things you think we’d really like. If you have a request of a recipe you want, let us know, we’ll see if we can find it!

Stories. 20 years. Many millions of divers. Okay that’s a bit extreme, but we’ve had a LOT of divers come through these doors. There are stories galore. We would love you to submit those stories with us.

Pictures. 20 years of pictures. Just looking back through pictures from Cozumel for the past 7 years it’s fun to see the different hair looks on both Deb and Grady, so imagine the pictures you can submit.

When do we need these all by? Please submit all recipes, stories, and pictures by September 30, 2017.

Where? You can submit them electronically to recipe@extremesportsscuba.com or hand deliver them to Extreme Sports Scuba. That means you get to come see us.

The Story Dive Logs Tell

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If you’ve been around these parts any time at all, you’ve seen the name Deb or Deb Weston and Dan or Diver Dan or Dan La Due thrown around a lot. Why? Well, Deb is one of the owners (along with Grady) and an instructor. Then there is Dan. While Dan is an assistant instructor and at most all events, especially the major events… Dan and the blogger (that’s me) have quite the friendship.

One day while he was at Extreme Sports SCUBA, he didn’t even acknowledge the fact I was sitting there so I gave him grief like you can’t believe. Well, that started the “Hi Nicole” war on Facebook for the next year. Every once in a while I got an in person hello or a text message, but most of it was a Hi on Facebook in some shape, size, or form.

Then, on Wednesday nights during the summer a group of us help Deb & Grady at 5 Mile Children’s Camp with the “Try SCUBA.” One Wednesday Dan just plum forgot. He forgot to go. He forgot it was Wednesday. He just got busy with work and totally forgot. So that started the “Hey Dan It’s Wednesday” bit in the form of call outs on the blog, Facebook, text messages, and even random people texting him to remind him so he wouldn’t forget.

Over the weekend, Carlene (that’s Dan’s wife) pointed out that our group of divers get along better than some families. We pick on each other, joke with each other, and are totally there for each other.

So why this story? Well, one it’s to say welcome to the family if you are new. Trust me, you’ll fit right in. But also… for those of you who know and those of you who don’t, Deb and Grady are remodeling their house. This has been an on-going process for the last year and a half or so. Here in the last few weeks much progress has been made. At one point, Grady said it was like he and Deb were camping right in their own bedroom.

Again, where am I going with this? So glad you asked. Well, Deb and Grady finally got to the point they were required to move out of their bedroom (it’s being turned into a closet). In the process of cleaning out their bedroom, Deb ran across her dive log. She kept a handwritten dive log up through 1,000 dives, then allowed her Galileo SOL computer to log the rest for her dives.

Deb and Grady started reading through the dive log and found where Deb certified Dan (and his daughter Danielle) and he completed his open water classes right there at Beaver Lake, where a lot if not most of you/us have completed our open water check-out dives.

We learned in Dan’s Assistant Instructor interview many moons ago that he was certified in August 2003. I bring this up because he still has this “thing” going… which I’m not going to lie is pretty darn sweet, that he hasn’t missed diving a month since he was certified. That makes it that he’s dove 154 times, right? Haha…. Okay fine… I think they said he’s logged a few more dives than that.

Take away message:

So, if you were to save your dive log for 10, 15, 20+ years, can you just imagine what it might say and show? This is a really good reason to make sure you keep those dive logs up-to-date. Who has another cool one I can feature?