Winter non-diving blues

Man this is painful... It is cold and windy outside and the lakes are all covered with ice. On top of that I don't have the time or money to take a dive vacation right now. All my gear is packed away in the garage awaiting a new adventure. I envy people like Mike (see underwater picture below) who lives in Maui. I would love to be able to go anytime and dive in paradise. Some people are so lucky.

Up here in Calgary, everyone is into Skiing. I like skiing but I don't have the time or money to invest in the expensive sport. I tried snowboarding once and it was a lot of fun. If you fall against the hill it is no big deal, but when you fall the other way, down the hill it is a big wake up call. I would like to do it again some time.

I am planning a trip to the Rendezvous on the West Coast of Vancouver Island for the May long weekend 2007. If you wanna go, contact me.

In the mean time, Merry Christmas to all.

Calling all U/W Photographers

Are you an Underwater Photographer? I would like to feature you on the RecSCUBA.org website. There are some amazing U/W photographers out there and I, for one, really enjoy seeing their work. Let me showcase some of your work on the site. The gallery supports EXIF comments that automatically show up under each image, so you can describe the photo or add any important text you need to (like copyrights or whatever).

Anyways, contact me and we will get you set up. I am also looking for someone who is interested in having a U/W photography column. It is a new feature I would like to add to the site that has tips and tricks as well as some information on great sites to take photos at.

People, these are excellent opportunities to promote your work at NO CHARGE!!! How often do you get that kind of a deal eh?

SCUBA Diving Places

I am not a world traveler, so I can't speak of the amazing diving in Egypt or Bali or Australia, but I do know one thing and that is that diving is what you make of it. Just because there are no colorful fish to look at, does not mean it isn't worth diving.

I really like diving at a very cold pond in Kananaskis, Alberta called Forget-me-not Pond. It is a small pond that is fed from underground, glacier-fed streams and the water spills out the other side of the pond into a small creek. The water is VERY cold, and the deepest part of the pond is 19 feet. None of that matters, because I enjoy diving there.

The water is crystal clear and the bottom of the pond is full of hills and valleys and it looks like the surface of the moon. I did not see any fish, but there are many tiny creatures if you move slowly close to the bottom. There are small worms with fluorescent colored, segmented bodies and little creatures that look like caterpillars with hard shells that look like small pieces of twigs.

I am sure there are a lot of other unique places in the world that are not as obvious as a tropical reef or typical ocean diving. Please feel free to comment and let people know of your unique diving places.

Calgary Sub-Aquatic Club Website Live

Well it has been a while, but the Calgary Sub-Aquatic Club website is now live. It took me a while because I had a mental block and could not come up with a nice, clean look and feel for the site. Well I hope you like it.

The site is at: http://www.CSAClub.org

If you are an old CSAC member and have any pictures or information for the new site, please send it too me. This is an amazing group that has been around and active for over 50 years. They used to teach people how to SCUBA dive safely long before certifications were even necessary. They also used to assist in many water rescues and such before the Calgary Fire Department took over those tasks. Cudos to you CSAC members of the past.

SCUBA Crazy

Well the site is coming along slowly. I have not been able to find as much time as I would have liked to work on it. I am also a bit shocked that people are not offering up content either. What are ya... chicken!!!? Think I am gonna capture your personal information and sell it to some low life to use in order to send you a pile of emails you don't want?

I can assure you that I don't want your personal information and if I did get it from you I would probably discard it anyways. I have no use for it. At some point the site may have a user login to provide you with some back-end user functionality, but I need you to tell me what that would be. For now I am just collecting information about SCUBA diving.

The other thing that bugs me is that I have tried to contact a number of sites so that we can collaborate and share information. They have not even done me the courtesy of writing back and saying no thank you. What kind of world do we live in anyways. Obviously they are not located in Calgary, cuz we have the friendliest city. Oh well, I am not going to lose sleep over this. You be the stuffy, stuck up private people you want to be and I will continue to plug away at this site by myself.

SCUBA Crazy

SCUBA Blogging... Cool

Hi all, this is fun. While creating RecSCUBA.org I thought to myself... "self? Why don't you put a Blog on your site?" Maybe this will be a fun way to get people interested in the site and coming back frequently to share ideas with other SCUBA Crazy people like myself.

Bet your wondering why I am putting so much effort into this? Cuz I LOVE SCUBA DIVING!!! It is not hard to put time and energy into something you have a passion for. Hopefully I'm not the only person out there that is this SCUBA Crazy... Talk to me people! Do you think the site is a good idea? WHAT! you have not been there yet? Get on it, times a wastin!

www.RecSCUBA.org

SCUBA Crazy