Volunteering at DUI DOG Days!

The weekend started with a breifing from Dave at DUI. There was a great showing from professionals from all over the midwest. As one of the in-water volunteers it was nice leading new drysuit divers and have a chance to get to know all of my scuba peers all gathered in one place.


The DUI Dog Day event is not just the biggest and best of its kind, but it's set up to make it a very hassle-free afternoon of dry suit diving whether the diver is dry-suit certified or not.

The DUI Zip-Seal collars and wrist seals are hot swappable. At this first of seven stations, neck and wrist sizes are checked by trained professionals making it fun and convenient to have personal attention at each stage.


By the last stage, the diver finds them selves all completely suited-up and ready to get in the water.


Dock support even helps you out and assists you with your gear! It just doesn't get any more convenient than this!


At this particular event, we had a surprise visit by the owner of DUI, Dick Long! (green shirt at right). Here he spends some time talking to some practicing real-life rescue divers from a local Sheriff's dive team. DUI supplies nearly all public rescue teams and special forces teams in the U.S. military with the best in drysuit technology. I loved checking out the rescue diver's communication system, the OTS AquaComm! Very cool! Speaking of new technology, after speaking with Mr. Long, he invited me to try a prototype of a new electrically-heated DUI drysuit! 60 feet down, at 44 degree's and I was still nice and toasty! What a great day!

Afterwards, it was time for a celebratory dinner and desert for all the divers and volunteers! Thanks to DUI, the other volunteer professionals, and the test divers for a great weekend of diving and experiences!

Sunny Scuba on Memorial Weekend!

The Memorial Day holiday couldn't have been better for an entire weekend of diving!
White Star Park was crowded with divers....

...and with gear!

But big congratulations were the order of this weekend with some major accomplishments in all of our diving careers!

I have to especially congratulate my best dive buddy and girlfriend Denise for completing her Advanced Open Water scuba certification! Here she and her classmates get a predive breifing from Dave (right) from Great Lakes Dive Center. They completed their Night Dive, Search & Recovery, Navigation, Deep Dive, and Peak Performance Bouyancy. Congratulations to her classmates too!

Dave also officially welcomed me to the professional ranks of scuba with my Professional Association of Dive Instructors certificate. As you can see, we both have our happy grins on because we both know that this is where the fun is really about to begin!! Thanks to Dave for all his help. Keith (centered) was presented with his certificate as well, congratulations to Keith also!

Then it was time for Denise to give me my congratulatory hug! Ahhhh! ;-)

After the activities, Dave and Jim (rear, another instructor at GLDC) chat (I suspect) about how I coerced Jim to go on a regreational dive mission with me. He told Dave he wasn't doing any recreational diving. I think Dave was trying to figure out the secret talent I used to get him fired-up to get in the water! ;-) Good thing because we had a blast. My and Jim's morning mission was to find a sunken police car in the deep side of the Quarry was a great success! What a great dive that was with my buddy Jim!, and what a great weekend it was for our whole crew!

Girl Scouts Go Girl!

PADI helped put together a scuba program and merit badge for the Boy Scouts, but it was all Girl Scouts and Girl Scout supporters in the pool this weekend for DISCOVER SCUBA! It started out with lots of excitement while everyone jumped into the water, sorted out and found their best-sized gear, but then it was all about fun in the pool!

I noticed that under-water torpedo games seemed to be a favorite, but equally popular was the discussions on the pool deck focusing on all of our fine-tuned distance launching strategies.

Jim (left), Mary, Kayla, and I threw some mean torpedo's--I think Jim got the distance award--but we all enjoyed the laughs we had about our sincere, concentrated efforts to squeeze more fun out of our attempts!

Congratulations to all the other successful girl scouts who came by today too, we all had a great time!

Disneynature film will help save reefs

Disneynature launched last year with a tree-planting initiative for every ticket sold during the first week of its first documentary, Earth, and now the film company wants to help protect coral reefs in honor of its newest production, Oceans.


Disneynature has partnered with the The Nature Conservancy for "See Oceans, Save Oceans," in which a portion of every ticket sold for opening week will help establish new marine protected areas in the Bahamas to preserve coral reefs. Oceans opens in theaters April 22, which is Earth Day.