5203 S. Rangeline Rd, Joplin, MO | (417) 659-9009

Tag Archives: Events

173 and Counting

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Diver Dan, Cozumel July 2004

July 2003 I got my first introduction Into the world of SCUBA diving. Mask on, check. Breathy thingy, Check. Depth, 15 foot, I really don’t know, I didn’t check the gauges. Wasn’t really even sure you needed to check gauges. Water temperature warm. But at 15 feet in a lake my first time experiencing diving, I decided I was done. SCUBA diving was not for me.

Later that evening my daughter was getting her introduction to SCUBA diving. Hers was in the swimming pool at Big Bobber resort in Shell Knob. Danielle loved it. She was at the bottom that pool for over an hour, having the time of her life. After that, there was a brief discussion with my wife. I was informed one of us was going to dive with Danielle and it was not going to be her. Using my deductive powers of reasoning I figured out if it wasn’t going to be my wife, then it looked like I was going to learn to SCUBA dive.

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Never Have I Ever – SCUBA Edition

Posted on by Posted in Scuba Education 1 Comment

Have you ever heard of the game “Never have I Ever”? The rules are simple: You give yourself a point for every item you have done. So Never have I ever become an open-water certified diver. Well, I have so I get one point. Easy, right? There is a potential to get 60 points with our Never Have I Ever SCUBA edition game.

Please make sure to leave your points either in the comments section at the bottom of this post OR in the comments section of Facebook, please!

Never Have I Ever - SCUBA Edition 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.
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New Year’s Day Recap

Posted on by Posted in Extreme Sports Events

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and WARM New Year! That seemed to be the theme around New Year’s this year… Stay Warm! You may have seen on Facebook, the blog, and potentially even heard through word of mouth that late last year (haha), in fact like the 28th or 29th we decided to cancel the annual New Year’s Day Dive. In a post earlier this week, Dan explained reasons why we should abort a dive.

The reason this year was due to the frigid arctic weather that hit us. I couldn’t imagine getting out of that water into weather that was 14˚F with a windchill sitting around 0. Now truthfully I’ve never done the New Year’s Day dive, I’m more of a fair weather diver, but that was even too cold for a lot of diver’s blood! It’s all about safety and being able to go home to your loved ones that night and doing the next dive you have scheduled. Continue reading→

Day in the Life of Scuby – DEMA Edition

Posted on by Posted in Dive Trips 1 Comment

Deb and Grady have made the trip to DEMA many years. At dive club meetings we hear around November they tend to miss because that’s where they’re at. Well… this year, Scuby decided he wanted to make the trip to DEMA with them and check it out. So Scuby got an extension from Santa to leave the workshop at the beginning of November for a week and fly to Orlando to check out this DEMA show and report back to us.

The first night he was there, he got to experience a Chiefs game. It was a big home game against the Denver Broncos where the Chiefs beat the Broncos 29-19.

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A Day in the Life of a Diver – Mermet Springs Edition

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Are you thinking of becoming a diver? Are you thinking of going to Mermet Springs? How about we learn about a Day in the Life of a Diver… The Mermet Springs Edition.

Morning:

Mornings come early. Whether you are going to the Lake, going to Mermet Springs, or are boarding a boat in Cozumel. Mornings come early. If you hang around these parts long, you’ll realize there are 2 musts… Coffee and Snickers. Or in this case, maybe just the coffee. I think we forgot the Snickers on this trip.

During the summer hours which range from May to October, gates open at 8am on Saturday and Sunday and 9am every other day of the week except Wednesday. They are closed on Wednesdays. Good thing we were going on a Saturday (give or take a couple days…).

Because the gates open at 8am, breakfast is typically 6:30 and we’re on the road by 7:30. Not everyone albeit, but most of us. It’s about a 10-20 minute drive from Metropolis, IL to the front gates at Mermet Springs. Not bad, not bad at all. I think the speed limit was 55mph. Something to keep in mind ;).

And remember, it’s located in the middle of corn country. Beautiful!

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We Need You!!

Posted on by Posted in Did You Know

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.

Safari Hunt 2017

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One of the big events that we look forward to around these parts each year is the Safari Hunt. Rules are simple, sign up, find an animal, win a prize. How much easier could it be? We need a Staples Easy button, right?

Meet your Safari Hunt Animal Hiders: Grady Weston, Drake Weston, Nicole Willoughby, & Dan La Due.

A quick fun story earlier in the day between Dan and Nicole. Dan was getting ready to go dive that morning, but Nicole (that’s me, the blogger) thought he was taking too long so I challenged him. At that point I didn’t have my swimsuit on, just my regular clothes. I bet him that I could get changed, dressed, geared up, and in the water before he could. Let’s just say, I won the bet!

While we were out hiding animals, I left my photographer assistant, Tiffany Hayworth in charge of land pictures. Tiffany, I want to thank you for your help, or our blog post would be pretty bare.

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2017 Annual Safari Hunt Animal Intros

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#1: Mildred the Monkey- Fraternal twin of Millard. Do you believe she got the looks?

#2: Ardie the Alligator- Owns a chain of taco food trucks along the east coast; travels the world with his pet coy fish.

#3: Felix the Lion- College star athlete at Alabama state university. Frat “King.”

#4: Wendy the Whale- Going on 26 years of marriage with wally the whale. They have 6 kids.

#5: Millard the Monkey- Fraternal twin of Mildred; small but mighty

#6: Gina the Giraffe- Certified makeup artist and YouTube makeup guru. Has over 1 million subscribers & is most famous for her glowing radiant skin.

#7: Paulie the Panda- Jersey boy born and raised. Runs his family owned Italian sub shop with the help of his 4 kids; Gianni, Paulie II, Antonio, & Adrianna.

#8: Ed the Elephant- Ear nose and throat doctor who has appeared on the bachelor 2 times and cannot seem to find love. Single dad of a daughter.

#9: Wally the Whale- Married to Wendy the whale. Working to save the streets & stop the extinction of humans.

#10: Dina the Dinosaur- Nobody knows why she’s here and nobody asks. 6 time mma world heavyweight champion. Anticipating her next match with Ronda Rousey.