Hello to Edgar (an old friend), and new friends Steffi, Rosa, Mikey, Toro, Fernando, Tavo, Buddy, Jenny, Dawn, Jon, Tasha, Craig, Jochen, Daniel, Sandy, Jim, Marta, Flavia, Jimena, and the others!

It was our sincere pleasure to meet each of you during our trip to the Mayan Riveria, Mexico in September 2006. When you visit the site, please add a comment to let us know you were here! To add your comment, click the title of this article (or click here) then scroll down to the bottom of the page. You’ll see the comment form; fill it out and click “Add my comment”.

The pictures are up! We’re still arranging them, but you can see the pictures (more than 20 pages of them!) if you click here.

Be sure to read all the articles in this series as they’re published… Click the title of this article (or click here) and you’ll see the series selector below the article text. Select the article you’d like to read from there!

More to follow!

CONGRATULATIONS to Doug & Kelly as they finally finished their PADI certification! Soon, we’ll be able to dive with them!

We’re back!

We were in Puerto Rico to celebrate the wedding of our friends Doug & Kelly and to have a dive vacation for ourselves.

The pictures are being uploaded to the server as we speak and we will work to caption them and write our articles as soon as possible. If you want to get a jump on viewing the pictures, go here.

From the users of www.scubadiving.com

#10: You rely on the silt trail you always stir up to find the anchor line.

#9: You never use fins because it makes it more difficult to walk on the bottom.

#8: The only place you can hover is at the surface.

#7: Your nickname is “Yo-Yo”.

#6: Six Flags models its next roller coaster on your dive profile.

#5: On ascents, your entire body clears the surface of the water.

#4: You use 500 psi for breathing and 2,500 psi for your BC.

#3: You made one dive, but your dive computer has logged it as three.

#2: Small boats of tourists appear in the area to watch you “breach”.

#1: You think that being neutral in the water means that you don’t fight with your dive buddy.

On Sunday, August 24, 2003, Wendy & I went diving at Natural Springs Resort in New Paris, Ohio.

This was a significant event for two reasons. First, it was the first time Wendy & I dove alone, and secondly, it was the first time we got to use our new dive computers.

We had a blast, and completed two short dives (the tanks we rented were pretty small) over to the rock wall on the far side of the lake. Visability was good; when we were 20 feet down, you could look up the rock wall and see it extend above the waterline (which is a very cool view).

We’re diving with our friends Chris & Rebecca on Sunday. Don’t know the name of the quarry where we are diving, but I know it’s in Louisville. We’re meeting at the ungodly hour of 7:30am. Except for the early rising, it should be a good time — finally a nice weekend and a chance for me to test out my new BCD.

Those of you who read the exhaustive account of our Punta Cana trip will recall that one of our favorite events down there was our “discovery dive.” They gear you up, put you in a swimming pool with an instructor who speaks English reasonably well. He shows you a few emergency techniques (like how to put your mask back on in case some idiot kicks it off, and how to take off and put on your gear in case you get tangled up in something), tells you to “just keep breathing” and out to the deep blue you go.

ED NOTE: Gotta rub that in, eh?

I went on another dive the next day which was 40 feet deep with no swell, great visibility, wonderful coral and fishlife and an attentive instructor. I was hooked for life. As soon as we get home we begin to plan… our families chipped in to get us dive lessons for Christmas, we started buying gear and had our first class at TriState Scuba at the end of January. Three Sundays later we were ready for our open water dives.

In April we followed our instructor Rebecca (and her husband Chris, and our new intstructor Gene, and some other nice folks including my brother) down to Vortex Spring in Florida for 3 mind-numbing days of diving. The first day we did 3 open water dives. The water was a chilly 68 degrees with no thermocline and 40 foot visibility (facts we did not appreciate until more recent quarry dives up here where you’re lucky to see 20 feet and the temp drops into the fifties if you go deeper than a few meters). I was as tired as I ever remember being that first night. I was about ready to cancel some of the next days’ diving, but a good meal and a good sleep refreshed me and on we went. Over 3 days we did 9 dives, which resulted in our attaining Open Water and Advance Open water certification from PADI.

So now we’re divers! We’ve been to Circleville Twin quarries (4 foot visibility and COLD) and Blue Springs quarry (20 foot vis and still COLD) so far up here, and this weekend are heading down to Louisville to visit Falling Rock quarry which, I suspect, will be COLD. I long for the warm waters of Punta Cana and the thin wetsuits it allows, but for now we are DIVERS and we shall DIVE wherever DIVING is allowed!