Dive Reports

We could not have asked for a better weather day as we took on Flamingo Ledge and the Ancient Mariner this past Sunday. Onboard AquaLife‘s Shark Bait with instructor member Skip VandeLinde were Cody, Mark, Jim, Andre and Christopher. The water was calm (1-foot seas), the temperatures were warm (79 degrees F), and even the current was lighter than it had been in the past. We didn’t sell the boat out, but it was great to have such a mixed group of divers going out with us. Andre and Mark saw two turtles on the drift dive and Andre saw a Goliath Grouper inside the wreck of the Ancient Mariner. And, of course, both dives were packed full of the tropical reef fish we know and love: parrotfish, angelfish, hogfish and wrasses just to name a few that come to mind right away. If there’s a “but” to this story, it’s simply that the water clarity wasn’t that great. It wasn’t terrible, but there was a lot of phytoplankton in the water column. Good for the filter feeders but bad for taking underwater photography. Best estimate was 30′ visibility… maximum.

In a stroke of absolute best luck ever, the seas calmed down on Saturday and we got to tagalong with Samyak Jain on his checkout dive with Skip VandeLinde and AquaLife Divers. It was an afternoon dive, the water had warmed up and the currents were mild for this time of year. Visibility was a little bit low, but there was nothing to complain about with the dive or the day! If you haven’t been diving in more than a year, all of the certifying agencies recommend that you do a refresher dive with a certified instructor before jumping back into the water. In fact, many dive outfitters will ask you how long since your last dive when you book the trip in order to ferret out folks who need some assistance with a refresher. It’s no joke, and not just an attempt to get more money out of you. Dive accidents happen most when we are rushed and uncomfortable with our equipment preparation and use. A certified instructor will remind you of the skills you have practiced and be certain you are comfortable in the water before sending you on your way to explore the open ocean. As you

It was a gorgeous morning for a dive with flat seas and a gentle current. We dove off of Fort Lauderdale’s Loggerhead Park and played in this brilliant soft coral jungle for more than an hour. The site itself is easy to access right off of 27th Street, but you have to get there early to find parking. The park itself is equipped with picnic tables that are perfect for setting up gear, as well as beautiful rainbow-colored Adirondack chairs that are great for bubble watchers —almost as if they knew that a group of #gaydivers was coming. We were four divers: Christopher, Joe, Andre and Matt, and everyone found some special memory to take home with them. Unfortunately, the Park did not live up to its name and we did not see any loggerhead turtles. Who knows, maybe they saw us and laid low. We learned later that there is a big storm coming in this week, and you can see the reef get quiet when that kind of weather is moving in. One dive professional said they were expecting 6 foot seas by mid-week. As with all of our favorite reef dives, there were the usual flashy angelfish

Our Sunday morning dive was timed with a 10:30 high tide at Blue Heron Bridge. It was the best time of day for photography, and the bridge did not disappoint. In addition to the seahorse, which stole the show, we found a school of big, beautiful Queen Angels, Blue Angels and Townsend’s Angels all mixed together, enormous starfish, a horseshoe crab, sharp tailed eels and more stone crabs than you can shake a butter swizzle at. As you can imagine, though, the Seahorse stole the show. Seahorses have fascinated people for millennia, and no less so scuba divers. They are out there! But finding them is the trick, and it takes a very special eye to find them. Our own Andre Saade found this fellow on our February 16, 2025 dive at Blue Heron Bridge. Eagle eye indeed! When you look at these zoomed in images you may say “well, obviously that’s a seahorse.” But pull back 5 or 10 feet and it’s just another piece of algae or detritus that collects around the Bridge dive site. Because they are such poor swimmers, they rely solely on their dorsal fins to propel themselves and their pectoral fins to steer, they

Andre and I took a trip to Bimini, Bahamas the first week of January. Not technically a club trip, it was still amazing and worth telling you about. First of all, you should know that the seas were rough, the current was tough, the water was cold, and the island had very few choices for things to do above water. Having said that, there is nothing like the experience of being in the water with two 14′ plus hammerhead sharks! It was exhilarating! And that was our first day of diving. If you’re interested in learning more about shark feeding dives, check out this other article on our site. All of the dive sites were shallow, and the action was intense. In addition to the Hammerhead dive, we also dove on two wreck sites, a reef and had an encounter with Black Fin Reef Sharks. It was amazing. If you choose to go to Bimini to dive, we would recommend staying at the Bimini Big Game Club, Resort & Marina primarily because it’s just about the only place to stay on North Bimini. Add in the fact that Neal Watson’s Bimini Scuba Center is located on premises, you get convenience

What a great day for a beautiful shore dive in Fort Lauderdale today. Someone once said that whatever you do on New Year’s Day is what you’ll do for the rest of the year, so of course we went diving. The weather was perfect, the water was a slightly chill 78 degrees, and the current was minimal. The critter spot of the day definitely belongs to Andre S. who found a Lesser Electric Ray. Who knew we had something like that in Fort Lauderdale? According to Reef Fish Identification they can deliver a mild electric shock if touched (14- to 37- volts). New member Tom S. was robbed of the critter spot trophy when he videoed a beautiful turtle on our way in. Any other day, Tom! Be sure to scroll down and watch both short videos. Unfortunately, we also came back with a lot of trash we picked up on the dive. Among other things we found a huge plastic sheet that tangled in the soft coral, a Zebco rod and reel snarled on the coral, a snorkeling mask and a shoe. Out Scuba’s mandate is to practice ocean conservation, so we gathered it all up and brought it