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SCUBA

adventures / Cozumel / IU / memories / photo / SCUBA / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
30
Mar 22

More SCUBA photos

More than a half dozen of my students just won honors from the Indiana Association of Student Broadcasters College, and a guy that graduated in the fall just announced his first play-by-play job. Another day, more successes for talented, hard working young people.

Other students are doing other great work, too. The news show last night was fairly full, there’s no fluff in there, and it also features an important interview as well.

And on the pop culture magazine show they started talking about next month’s Little 500 races.

Tonight still more students will produce a few sports shows. They never stop around here anymore, to their great credit.

Speaking of sports … Let’s go diving again!

Look at this beautiful purple vase. Shame about that damage on the front. I hope that wasn’t from a diver.

I believe that’s a blackcap basslet (Gramma melacara) hanging out among the coral.

Look at this beautiful stack of coral and sponges. What a lovely corner of the ocean.

More miniature purple vase coral.

This is some sort of spotted boxfish, but I’m having a difficult time pinning it down.

Behold! My blurry brain coral!

And it’s time for a buddy check. She’s doing great. (She’s an excellent diver.)

Enjoy this lovely specimen of the yellow tube sponge (Aplysina fistularis).

I did not have anything to offer as a sizing reference, but this is a big vase coral.

And here I am, on my ascent from this particular dive.

Settle in, we’ve got days of photos to work through. But I promise to only show you the average to great ones.

adventures / Cozumel / memories / photo / SCUBA / Tuesday — Comments Off
29
Mar 22

Let’s go diving

It was a full day at the office. I had to take The Yankee in for her class, while she continues her leg recovery. I did work things, and then took us to lunch. In the afternoon I drove her across campus to her second class, then picked her up later and took her to the house. Then I bought new dress shoes, something I could write about at great length, and returned to campus for television.

We could talk about the day-to-day, or we could look at some diving pictures. I’ve spoken with my editorial committee and consulted with my high-priced consultants and it has been decided. We will look at some diving pictures!

This was the first fish I saw on this trip, and the first photo I took with my new-to-me SeaLife camera. Please meet the tropical Spot-fin porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix). You’ll find this guy’s cousins in most any tropical waters in the world.

This lovely little tangle of coral and sponge was where I first noticed how well this camera picks out the yellows. It’ll come up again.

There’s my dive buddy! You always have to keep an eye on your dive buddy.

More great sponge growth.

You have to remember to look in all the directions, and down, and up!

But if you keep looking for sea turtles, you might miss some lovely sponges.

Dive buddy check!

Here’s the lovely, and common, yellow tube sponge (Aplysina fistularis). They can grow up to four feet in this part of the world.

Clearly I need to learn the names of more of the coral and sponges.

Think it’s easy? Do you know what this fish is?

Not so easy, is it? Don’t worry, you’ll have more chances to get some names in the coming days. (And if you know the common or scientific name of that fish, do drop it in the comments.)

Cozumel / IU / Monday / photo / SCUBA / television / video — Comments Off
28
Mar 22

A week at full speed

Let’s catch up on what the television students have been doing at IUSTV. Two weeks ago, of course, they were on Spring Break, which means they have to spool back up, which means it’s a little light. But, still, they released three new episodes, including a brand new show. Check these out.

First, the late night crew did a game show.

I’ll need you to tell me if the bit at the end was deliberate, or an accident. I haven’t caught up to the people involved yet to get the … official … version of the story.

This is a brand new show, and it starts with an interview with filmmaker Angelo Pizzo.

I wonder who they’ll book next for that show.

And if you need some sports, here’s some professional soccer talk from the semi-professional talkers.

And let’s check in with the kitties, who haven’t been featured here in two weeks. Two weeks, I’m told by my consultants, is a long time to not highlight your most popular feature.

Usually this is Poseidon’s role, but Phoebe has lately been hopping into the shower.

Her brother likes water more than she does, though. But that morning, I suppose, he was enjoying a few moments in the sun.

It was cold this weekend. How do I know it was cold? These two were cuddling for warmth.

Speaking of cold, this winter Poseidon learned about the joys of the space heater. Because he is spoiled, I have to put a blanket on the floor for him to enjoy.

Ridiculous, right?

A few nights later, the house was still feeling chilled. I tried to set that up for him again. Space heater, blanket, and all of that, but he wasn’t interested. Phoebe took it to the next level, however. And you’ll just have to believe me here, but …

She’s under the blanket, in front of the space heater.

And now, we’re back to it. If you have some more time to kill right now, however, there’s always more on Twitter and check me out on Instagram, too, including tons more videos from diving in Cozumel. And the cats. Did you know that Phoebe and Poseidon have an Instagram account? They do. Check them out.

adventures / Cozumel / Friday / SCUBA / video — Comments Off
18
Mar 22

Friday dives

And, now, the saddest photo a diver can have.

That’s the last one on my new-to-me SeaLife camera, which has performed well this week. There’s tons of video, most of the good stuff you’ve seen, and many photos to share. Not bad for a used and older digital camera, though I suspect I need to upgrade the battery. My lovely bride, meanwhile, was shooting on our GoPro this week, and she has been putting up some of her highlights on social media. Be sure to check those out.

One gentlemen we dove with had a special SeaLife iPhone case, and the top-of-the-line phone inside. The rig itself cost about $600. So he’s just floating around with two grand in his hands, and that’s too much risk for me. Of course, at one point he swam alongside a ray and his camera was showing the individual muscles on the fish. It was amazing, but I could never forgive myself for spending that much money on a hobby accessory, or for messing it all up. It was impressive, though. But you’ll just have to content yourself here with my 2014-quality imagery.

That’d be a strange thing to feel inferior about, no? Here are the 1080p videos and 13 GB photos I’m taking at 85 feet.

Because you can’t safely dive and then fly in a 24-hour period — more of that chemistry stuff — we had our last two dives of this trip today. (We fly back tomorrow afternoon.) You can see some footage here.

We were supposed to have 20 dives on this vacation. We got in 13, including that excellent add-on night dive.

I ran into a wall in our condo and managed to sprain my wrist. I’m allergic to something in the flower beds or the forest nearby. As we sail away from the shore I get better. When we get back to the beach I start closing up again. My descents and ascents were slow and slightly painful because of all of that. We spent two days in Dallas. But the local food has been good. The diving has been great!

If you go to Cozumel, stay at Residencias Reef. Dive with Scuba Tony. Every diver we met on their boats was a repeat customer, and it’s easy to see why. That repeat customer word-of-mouth means a great deal when you’re talking about something as important as your safety. If we ever go back to Cozumel, we will definitely dive with Scuba Tony again.

But now, sadly, we must return to the regular world. Sort of.

(And I’ll get around to posting photos after the next little adventure, which takes place next week.)

adventures / Cozumel / SCUBA / Thursday / video — Comments Off
17
Mar 22

Thursday dives

We had four more dives today, our last full day of diving of this abbreviated trip. Cozumel is famous for its drift diving … the currents just take you away, and you don’t even have to do much swimming. In all, the diving has been a wonderful experience.

Now if only my sinuses and ears would cooperate. Maybe they’ll be better tomorrow, when we will, sadly, have our last two dives.