As Rolling Stone writes, "Take Open Water, the scariest thing to come out of Sundance since 1999's The Blair Witch Project. Two married scuba divers, played by Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis, are abandoned in the brine off the coast of the Bahamas. As they shiver and watch the encircling sharks (played by the real things-the budget couldn't handle facsimiles), the diabolically clever writer-director Chris Kentis-shooting digitally-fries your nerves to a frazzle. And you thought Jaws was the last word on the subject. Think again."

The AUE website is a treasure trove for shipwreck fans!  Click on Shipwrecks to get to the gateway for information on shipwrecks of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and of course our own Florida Shipwrecks. Opening the Florida link leads you to a long list of Florida wrecks. Click on each wreck's name for  a history of the wreck.  Many of the wrecks' pages contain photographs before and/or after sinking and a site map. 

The Shipwrecks page also leads to information on the Grand Dame of the Sea, the Andrea Doria.  Clicking on Video Clips leads you to an amazing short film of a dive on the Ultramarine, and Media Center lists several fascinating articles.  There are also dozens of excellent Links.  If you are fascinated by shipwrecks...and let's face it, who isn't...make yourself comfortable at your PC and visit AUE!

If you've been considering weight loss, go ahead and give eDiets a try.  If you start now, you will be much healthier by the time warm-water dive season arrives.  What do you have to lose?

Simply click on the state you are interested in visiting for a list of recreation areas suitable for water sports in that state.  Click on the name of the recreation area you are interested in, and you will find a wealth of information about that particular site, as well as other related links.  After reading the book and exploring this database, maybe you will be the next diver to visit every United State!

Even if you aren't interested in kayak diving, check out the site anyway because Theobald's photos of underwater California are very interesting and show how diverse West Coast sealife is from ours.  He also discusses kayak surfing and kayak fishing.  Theobald sells his e-book on CD-Rom, Kayak Diving & Fishing, Surfing, Exploring, and Play!, from the site for just $15.  I ordered one and it arrived in just a few days.  It has many extras not contained on the website and I plan to have a review of it for you early in 2004.

NOAA has many wonderful web sites and we've reviewed a few in the past.  The NOAA Dive Page, at www.dive.noaa.gov, should be added to your Favorites list.  Planning a diving or snorkeling trip is no easy task. Divers need to consider the environment they are diving as well as their own personal safety before submerging into the water. NOAA has many resources available for recreational divers to help make trip planning easier and more enjoyable. 

This Web site provides direct links to specific NOAA services and products that divers should use in planning memorable dives, for instance the Florida Keys Shipwreck Trail, nautical charts and maps, and the Wreck Database of approximately 10,000 submerged wrecks and obstructions in the coastal waters of the United States.

Whether you are tying to find out tomorrow’s weather forecast, local navigation charts or tips on how to be an environmentally responsible diver, remember that NOAA is here to help. Think of NOAA as your dive planning partner and take advantage of the information that is provided here! 

Historian Kevin Flatley, OS2/USN, served aboard the Spiegel Grove from June, 1980 to August, 1983.  Visit his extensive website at www.kevinflatley.com/lsd-32.htm for an excellent chronology of the largest artificial reef ever sunk intentionally.  Pour yourself a beverage and plan to spend at least an hour pouring over Flatley's site, full of facts and twenty pages of photographs, including old black and white pictures of the men who served our country aboard her. 

For the moving, the sinking, and diving on the Spiegel Grove, visit the Official Tourism Council Web Site for the Florida Keys at www.fla-keys.com/spiegelgrove.  The story on the opening page quotes the impressions of local divers.  You will also find a nautical chart of her location, Spiegel Grove fast facts, some photographs, and a project history. 

Anyone with an interest in the ocean will find Ocean.com an exciting site to explore. As visitors dive deeper into the main areas of the site, they will find information on everything from marine conservation to ocean sports and ocean travel. For classroom use, teachers and students will want to visit the Ocean Channel, Poseidon's Library and the Ocean Gallery. High quality streaming video of sea animals in their natural habitats, documentary films and public service announcements on conservation as well as multimedia presentations using Flash technology and wonderful photographs are available in the Ocean Channel. For report writing, students will find quick facts and images of ocean creatures or may send their questions to a marine scientist in the library's Creature Feature or Ask Poseidon sections. Selected photos from the gallery could be used to take students on a virtual tour of "the world beneath the waves". Professional and amateur filmmakers and photographers are given the opportunity to submit their work to the site for publication. 

Go grab a beverage and a snack and get comfortable in your chair, because you will want to spend hours exploring this magnificent website!

ReefBase includes descriptions of coral reef areas throughout the world, information about coral reef fish populations and fisheries, biodiversity data, and monitoring activities.  Features include interactive maps, a photo gallery, and a searchable database of publications.  There is a wealth of information on coastal and marine resources, coral reef threats, resource management practices, maps and photos, references, and more. Users can quickly search for information organized by country or territory using a convenient dropdown menu. ReefBase is frequently updated; one recent addition is a status report for coral reefs of the southwestern Indian Ocean.

 Of course, there is a tutorial, but I never read directions so I jumped right in!  I wanted to see an aerial photo of where we keep our boat in Key Largo.  I clicked on the Mapserver icon to get to their website, then put the zip code, 33037, in the search box and clicked go.  A topographic map appeared.  I located the area I was interested in, and clicked on it to re-center the map.  I selected the Nautical Chart tab at the top of the map, and got an extreme close-up view of Largo Sound.  From there, I scrolled down and played with the zoom tools until I got the view I desired.  Remember, you can click anywhere on the map to re-center it, or use the red arrows to scroll to the next page on the map in any direction.

After playing around with the nautical charts, it was time to click on the Nav (aerial) Photo tab.  Cool!  I could see the roof of the barn where Rapture is stored, so I clicked to re-center, then zoomed in for a closer look.  That was pretty cool, but I really wanted to see how we get out to the reef.  I zoomed back out and got a great aerial view of Adams Waterway to Largo Sound.  From here, I could use the red arrows to see what it looks like on the way to the reef...or to our top secret bayside fishin' hole!  SFDI's beach divers could use this to see where the reefs are closer or farther in Broward County.

Notice the "Fun Tools" at the bottom of the screen.  You can place an icon, save, print, or e-mail your map.  I thought it would be fun to place an icon for Bayside Marina.  I selected "Place an Icon" (of course!) and used the pop-up window to select from one of their great icons.  You can't miss the animated arrows, so I picked them then named the icon "Rapture lives here!"  You can link the icon to a web page, so I did.  Finally, I had the option to save the map, and here's the final result! 

The DVD is structured into Upper Keys and Lower Keys sections, plus a "bonus" section with footage of night and shark dives. Unfortunately, no information as to the locations or dates of the night and shark dives are given, and the sharks are not identified. Brien Mastriana responded to my e-mail: 

"the Night dive location was in the Keys on a little reef that I call Shark Reef. It is not protected by the National Keys marine sanctuary, therefore, I did not include its location in the dive guide. It is located about 5 miles off Duck Key, 23 feet deep and the pipes that you see are actually masts from an old shipwreck named the Adelade Baker. It is a fun little reef with a lot of marine life for its relatively small size.

"The Shark dive was actually filmed up in Palm Beach. I know, it is a Keys DVD, but it thought that it would be a cool added feature. I was hired by channel 10 news to film that dive a couple years ago before shark diving became banned in Florida. The sharks are Caribbean Reef Sharks. It was a really cool dive!  I have not been able to find large populations of Caribbean reef sharks in the Keys."

You can buy this DVD for $24.99, including tax and shipping, at www.DivingDVD.com or by calling 954-537-9080. In addition to describing the DVD, the web site has links to other SCUBA related web sites.

This site is rich with resources, beginning with how springs form and a look at some of the residents of a spring.  Club members going on the Manatee trip should spend a little time here first in order to be able to identify what you will see.   Life from manatees to birds to reptiles and even insects and plants are discussed and illustrated with beautiful photographs.

Enjoy a virtual expedition with filmaker and cave diving legend Wes Skiles as he takes you from Karst Country through the aquifer, from cave diving to paddling.  Learn how sinkholes are the "windows" to the aquifer.  Find out what is being done to protect our springs, and how you can help.

There are educational resources for kids and teachers, and lots of information, including an interactive map, to help you plan your diving, canoeing, or camping trip to our fabulous freshwater resources.  The photography is absolutely breathtaking.  This is a site you will want to add to your Favorites and visit again and again.

The National Park Service Maritime Heritage Program website is a treasure trove of maritime parks, historic ships, lighthouses and lifesaving stations to visit, maritime landmarks, educational information, and great links.  With the water a bit too cool for us thin-blooded Floridians to dive, you should visit this website to learn more about great historical places to visit right here in our backyard. 

There is absolutely no advertising on this website and no pop-up or pop-under ads.  All you will find are hundreds of useful links to travel and diving sites, and tools like the currency converter, map of international time zones, and an international weather map.  Visit DiveWorld Travel today and start planning your next underwater adventure!

DeeperStuff, in the words of webmaster/technical diver Mark Zurl,  "is a web site dedicated to dispensing information, photos, and stories concerning technical wreck diving."  He warns, "Please be aware that all of the dive sites mentioned or documented on this web site are beyond recreational SCUBA diving limits.  In no way am I encouraging or promoting any visitor to this site who does not  have the proper training, equipment, or experience to attempt any dive beyond their capability. "

I first discovered Zurl's website while doing research on the Spiegel Grove.  He has some wonderful underwater shots of her, and many other local wrecks including the Bibb and Duane in the Keys, the Lowrance, RBJ, and Sucre in Broward County, and wrecks in Stuart/Jupiter and the Cape Canaveral areas.  Many, if not most of these wrecks are beyond my personal diving limits, but I thoroughly enjoyed the "virtual dives" from my desk chair.

Other interesting places to click on DeeperStuff include new wrecks, how to mix air, a monthly feature "Survivors Tell Their Tales", do-it-yourself plans for some custom dive accessories, and stuff for sale.

The best parts of this site, however, are the incredible clear-water pictures of our deeper local wrecks.   Zurl's photos have been published in such places as  Florida Today, the Miami Herald, Advanced Diver Magazine, and Florida SCUBA News.

The Internet Weather Source includes United States Weather, weather conditions for the past 24 hours, forecasts, watches, and warnings for the United States; Marine Weather, marine forecasts and outlooks for U.S. Coastal areas and Great Lakes, and offshore and high seas forecasts for the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico; Radar Graphics, local and national radar products from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), including the latest images and animations for your area; Weather Maps fax charts produced by the NWS; International Weather Conditions , current weather and weather conditions for the past 24 hours for international countries, and Aviation Weather.

IWIN, the Interactive Weather Information Network, has interactive graphics and active warnings including coastal flood, flash flood, flood, hurricane/tropical storm, special marine, and non precipitation.  This interactive graphics page has several active maps open on one screen, and you can click on whichever one you would like to expand.  There are two graphic products available, for high- and medium-speed connections, and a text version for slow connections.  There is a link to EMWIN, the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network, providing the emergency management community with access to a set of NWS warnings, watches, forecasts, and other products at no recurring cost.  IWIN also has a link to ALL National Weather Service homepages, you may wish to bookmark this link.

One day I decided to find out once and for all if I dreamed up this television series or if it actually existed.  An Internet search led me to a few websites where other people talked about the same experiences I had; that is, talking about Diver Dan and having people look at them as if they were from another planet.  For a blast from the past, visit these Diver Dan pages: Planet X Magazine, Roger's Basement, and two pages at TV Party, this one with a bit of information and the words to Diver Dan's theme song, and this one with a link to listen to the actual theme song.  Yes, this obscure children's show really did exist!

C-MAN stations have been installed on lighthouses, at capes and beaches, on near shore islands, and on offshore platforms (see the NDBC station location map for all station locations). Station FWYF1 - Fowey Rocks, is the one closest to Hollywood, Florida. 

C-MAN station data typically include barometric pressure, wind direction, speed and gust, and air temperature; however, some C-MAN stations are designed to also measure sea water temperature, water level, waves, relative humidity, precipitation, and visibility. here is the data from the Fowey Rocks C-MAN station at 3 pm Saturday, August 3, 2002:

Adventure stories, short photo essays by water explorers, include "Dolphin Dance," "Whales!," "Turtle Tombs," "Underwater Tornado," and "Dive the (Panama) Canal." Slide shows such as "How Corals Build Reefs" and "Fish Secrets" are spectacular and educational.  The Image Library contains hundreds of pictures in useful categories like "Sharks," "The Angelfish Family," "Cool and Unusual," and "Lake Michigan Shipwrecks."  Even if you have a dial-up connection, the images load fairly quickly and the photography is awesome.

Water Explorers is seeking input on how to expand their website for research purposes.  Click on "Research and Links," "Educators," or "Get Involved" and give them your input...to help them grow!

"Larry "Harris" Taylor, a biochemist and senior research associate at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, is truly a diving scholar....Combining his affinity for scuba diving and academia, Dr. Taylor, who prefers to be called "Harris," has compiled a diving library that is considered by many to be one of the best recreational diving information resources in North America....Harris's collection and remarkable "information-gathering capacity" are routinely used by authors, training agencies, attorneys and DAN as a resource tool; and the bibliographies he has compiled based on this library have been circulated worldwide via the Internet. Harris is also a diving author with more than 100 publications to his credit."

HOT NEWS: On March 25, 2002 our website was awarded the 2002 Diver's Site Award by Deep Diversions!  "TANKS A LOT" to all members who contributed to this recognition!