February West Palm Beach Check-out dives.

This was a great dive.  Of course we went out with Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventure out of Lake Park, FL and everyone was absolutely awesome! 

We had two groups diving this weekend.  One group, all experienced divers and then a group of students.  The veteran divers were in the first group and followed their guide Lindsey.  Ryan and I had the students and other divers that were doing their first ocean dive since being certified.  We were in group two and our guide was Brian.

The first dive site was on "The Toy Box" which drifted to "The Playpen".  We dropped in and started our decent down to the 60ft bottom.  Ryan and I had our plan and it worked just as we thought.  We had five students in our group and from past experiences, we knew that the guys would probably have no problem equilizing, so I took them down.  They made it down with little effort and as soon as Vince, Roger and Blaine were settled, we immediately did their last Open Water skill which was a mask removal and replacement.   Our dive guide, Brian, wanted in on that action so he did a removal as well and everyone laugh.  Ryan had to fix some issues with Tori and Ashley on the surface before bringing them down so I started my group on our way.  The current was a bit of a challenge but everyone pushed through to the north side of the wreck so we could get out of that current.  Once we were on the backside, we were greeted by two lionfish and a couple of the students saw a turtle.  Being their first time in the ocean, they were all very excited.  We started to drift north over the seabed and spotted a stingray swimming by.  As we arrived at "The Playpen" we did a quick air check and we had just enough time the look around a few minutes before we had to make our ascent.

Ryans dive wasn't as eventful.  After he got all the weight situated on the girls, they headed to the bottom.  He could see "The Toy Box" wreck as they floated over it and finally made it to the bottom.  As they slid along the bottom, from the current pushing them, a barracuda swam by and he didn't want to startle Tori and Ashley so he didn't show them but they saw it anyways and didn't react.  They all then came upon a tire on the ocean floor and grabbed it to stop their slide and proceeded with the mask removal and replacement.  They both did great and then they drifted into "The Playpen".  Ryan, at the time, didn't realize that's what they were on.  He thought it was another wreck but didn't know what one.  They tooled around and saw lionfish, snapper, grunts and multiple reef fish. 

On the surface, everyone was excited.  Talking about the dives and everything they saw.  Each comparing with the other.  They all admitted they were a little aprehensive prior to the dive but now they were all excited to be able to get back into the water for the second dive.  Just like the first dive, we seperated into two groups, with the veteran divers in the first group and the rest in the second.  This dive was to "Ron's Rock" and drifted into "Flower Garden", which are two reefs with tons of life.  The first group jumped and started their dive and we were next.  We all were given the ok to "Dive, dive, dive" and this time, everyone got down without a problem.  We were all in buddy groups of two, so we didn't have to ascend on our own and drifted along the reef, making note of eels, turtles and all the different species of fish.

At the end of the dive, role call was made and we all were accounted for.  Smiles all around and we all can't wait for the next time we dive together again.  If you want in on any of our dives, give us a call and we can get you booked for the next trip.  I might blog about you sometime and share your picture with everyone.

Hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure.  Happy Diving!