Guest N.AL.hunter Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 I wanted to let any/all interested parties know the what/where of our October trip to Florida. We will arrive in Venice on Thursday, October 9th with enough time to do a close-to-shore hunt. Then we will be available all day on Friday for whatever: more near shore hunting, going out on boat hunting... We are staying as inexpensively as we can at a Motel-6 in Venice (not Venice Beach). We will leave early on Saturday. For members who have gone out with the commercial boat services, I would like to know how long they give you out there? Since my Super Snorkel can stay going for a very long time compared to tanks (unless someone has several tanks with them), I just need to make sure I can get all I can from a commercial service, otherwise I'll stick to the near shore sites talked about on the scuba forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlynch Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 I wanted to let any/all interested parties know the what/where of our October trip to Florida.We will arrive in Venice on Thursday, October 9th with enough time to do a close-to-shore hunt. Then we will be available all day on Friday for whatever: more near shore hunting, going out on boat hunting... We are staying as inexpensively as we can at a Motel-6 in Venice (not Venice Beach). We will leave early on Saturday. For members who have gone out with the commercial boat services, I would like to know how long they give you out there? Since my Super Snorkel can stay going for a very long time compared to tanks (unless someone has several tanks with them), I just need to make sure I can get all I can from a commercial service, otherwise I'll stick to the near shore sites talked about on the scuba forums. the 40 dollar charters with the aristakat gets you two - 1.5 hour dives... If I come up there with my boat we get as long as we want but i don't have a huge comfy charter boat. I have a purpose built fossil finding machine that supports about 3 divers maybe 4 with your super snorkel since that cuts down on gear... Personally i do two tanks a day with around 2-2.5 hours bottom time per tank. I would love to buy a decent hooka system one day! As far as your accommodations hopefully you have not already made reservations... This is a heavily researched subject and the best deals supposedly comes through priceline with a 45-50 dollar bid per night getting you into a decent best western or holiday inn express with breakfast and everything just a few minutes off the beach. Although i don't have experience with any of the hotels i haven't heard the best things about the motel 6 in venice. Are you a scuba board member? I hate to say it but those shore sites are slightly over rated I have tried and tried and am consistently dissapointed with them. I would highly suggest getting out on the charter at least once even if it is only a half day. After all you have traveled all the way to venice so why skimp on the hunting spots over 40 bucks a head. Quick story: several die hard shore divers were recently converted hands down after the recent venice beach bash from scuba board... the aristikat provided free charters for the day and got many divers out to the boneyard for their first time and many of them found their first megs ever even though they have dove venice several times. I myself did one shore dive and one boat dive and my only megs for that day were off the boat... I have never been skunked at the boneyard yet. shoot me an email with questions and hopefully i can help facilitate your trip and make it go a little smoother... -Matt mlynch21@gmail.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest N.AL.hunter Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 My wife and I tested out our Super Snorkel today at a lake near us and all is well! I have decided to just do shore dives and not go out on a boat. I do not want any time restrictions or to be locked into any one thing, so will be doing a few shore dives up to 30 feet deep. I know some of you more familiar with VB will think this a mistake, but it is what we will be more comfortable with. Hope to find good teeth, but you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatorman Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 Well i hope it goes good and i hope that maybe Cris and I can meet up with ya there but I don't know if that will happen this time or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh-Man Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 My wife and I tested out our Super Snorkel today at a lake near us and all is well! I have decided to just do shore dives and not go out on a boat. I do not want any time restrictions or to be locked into any one thing, so will be doing a few shore dives up to 30 feet deep. I know some of you more familiar with VB will think this a mistake, but it is what we will be more comfortable with. Hope to find good teeth, but you never know. What are the super snorkel and scuba board? I've been certified for about 27 years, but living in TX don't dive any more so am out of touch. Got about 600 dives under my dive belt about 1/3 tanks, 2/3 free diving. What is geology? "Rocks for Jocks!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest N.AL.hunter Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 What are the super snorkel and scuba board?I've been certified for about 27 years, but living in TX don't dive any more so am out of touch. Got about 600 dives under my dive belt about 1/3 tanks, 2/3 free diving. Super Snorkel = float on top compressor with two 40 foot hoses. Runs for around 3 hours per dive. Scuba Board = A scuba forum like this fossil forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 I love the Super Snorkel concept, but man the thing is expensive. I suppose if TX waters weren't so much like chocolate milk, I'd find a way to justify one. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest N.AL.hunter Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Well we just got back to the motel from our morning of diving Venice Beach. Could only dive one 2.5 hour dive as we must get home to possible flood damage while we were gone. Hope not. Anyways: 1. I did not find much of anything. Perhaps ten teeth total and no megs. 2. Did pick up two pieces of bone, probably dugong. 3. Visibility was at most 5 feet. 4. Went only down to 25 feet. 5. Did start finding what looked like a better area as I got further out, but then ran out of air. 6. Met some nice folks who gave me a few pieces of meg teeth to practice cleaning on and two pieces of mammoth teeth. Really nice of them to do that. 7. Saw boats with divers about 1 mile out, too far for me to go this time, but I have a better plan for next time. I have learned from this experience what to do next time. 8. Did see some neat fish, starfish, crabs, corals/sponges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I certainly hope you don't have to break out the Super Snorkel to check out your house! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 very cool, yea lets hope your house is ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryland Mike Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 I hope the house didn't take any serious damage. It's such a shame you had to cut your trip short. I was looking forward to seeing some photos of some great Venice Beach finds. Carpe Diem, Carpe Somnium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 I'm hoping to (once our financial situation is more secure) have my dad teach me to dive (used to be an instructor), get myself certified and get the equipment, and head down to Venice sometime myself. I live in Ocala, FL, about an hour drive from Daytona so I should be able to dive rather often! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flflintknapper Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 I'm hoping to (once our financial situation is more secure) have my dad teach me to dive (used to be an instructor), get myself certified and get the equipment, and head down to Venice sometime myself. I live in Ocala, FL, about an hour drive from Daytona so I should be able to dive rather often! You are a little more than an hour from Daytona if you live in Ocala. unless you know of a road that I dont. "If you find yourself lost in the woods, build a house! This will strongly improve your perdicament." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Eh, rounded to the nearest hour, if the roads are clear and my sister (now pregnant, not driving lol) is behind the wheel, we can make good time XD We're close to both springs and beaches, at least. Been quite a while since I've been to Daytona, also, so.. yeah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nicholas Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 I'm glad to hear it works good Delos, and I wish you luck hunting with it. I have one question, does it require a diving license? I have been thinking about getting one, problem is there is little visibility on the ocean here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronbo Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Nick you can get one and dive with it without getting certified but to be honest I wouldnt there are things that ya need to know when diving and its pretty serious stuff. It can be very dangerous and possibly get ya killed.. Diving un certified is very risky... Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Nick you can get one and dive with it without getting certified but to be honest I wouldnt there are things that ya need to know when diving and its pretty serious stuff. It can be very dangerous and possibly get ya killed.. Diving un certified is very risky... Ron yea it can be when i get the money for everything im getting certified, i dont want to be killed just because i didnt get the license Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest N.AL.hunter Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 We got home last night and all seems well (have not gone into the crawl space to check it out yet). Thanks for the kind words. When I bought my Super Snorkel, there was no certification requirement, now they do say on their site that only certified people should buy them. I'll be doing Venice again sometime and now know to just go out further than I did. The afternoon we got there, divers were out collecting. The morning we dove, we were the only shore divers out, so I did not have a group of experienced persons out there for me to gauge how far out to go. I thought I was out were the divers were the day before, but I guess I wasn't. Very hard to look out there and see how far people are out and then come back the next day and try to go to the same spots they were at. Next time we will boat out (our inflatable kayak) further. This time I just swam out from shore. As for safety concerns, since I do not go deeper than 30 feet, I do not need to worry about decompression and have unlimited downtime. When my air quit I was 25 feet down. I just drained the last bit of air from the hose and slowly went to the surface. Since I am totally comfortable with my swimming abilities, it was no problem for me, but I could see were someone might panic a little when the compressor stopped. I have free dived a lot deeper (70 feet) and knew it would not be a problem for me. Well now to Lee Creek on November 15th for another try at finding my first nice meg 4" or larger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nicholas Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Nick you can get one and dive with it without getting certified but to be honest I wouldnt there are things that ya need to know when diving and its pretty serious stuff. It can be very dangerous and possibly get ya killed.. Diving un certified is very risky... Ron Thanks for the clarification, I'm actually getting trained for scuba this winter at the coast guard college. There are some old ship wreaks that we sail over and I would just love to see them with my own eyes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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