Come Dive Florida’s… Fresh Water?

 

I moved to Florida from Minnesota a little over a year ago. As a dive junky, I was drawn by the easy saltwater access, and warm climate. I didn’t really expect to be doing much fresh water diving in Florida, especially being I live less than a mile from the coast.

Florida does have some unique fresh water diving opportunities though! They have a large concentration of fresh water springs, and accompanying underwater cave systems! The spring water is usually really fresh, clear, and relatively warm (at least compared to Minnesota’s fresh water). Most of them stay in the mid to low seventies year round.

I have heard about similar dives when I was Mexico, but they called them “cenote” dives. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to partake in any of those cenote diving adventures when I was there.

Some of the cave systems will require you to have a cavern diver certification even to get in the water. A cave diver certification would be a requirement to past the light zone though. Cave diving can become a very expensive endeavor. Many of the cave divers I know use rebreathers, and/or do multi-tank, multi-gas decompression dives.

There are many springs where you can dive with just an open water diver certification too though, if you'd like to just get your feet wet a little. I, personally, do not have a cave or cavern diving certification. I was, however, able to dive several underwater crevices, caverns, and sink holes in Florida, and so can you!

If you want to dive some of Florida’s fresh water springs, a good site dedicated to them is FloridaSprings.org. It doesn’t have all of the springs on there, but it’s a great place to start. Not all of the springs listed allow scuba diving either. But, most of them say whether they do or not right on the site.

If you'd like to get some cave diving or cave diving training, I would recommend you visit my friends at Florida Underwater Sports.

Below is some video footage from my last dive at Paradise Springs.

Top 10 Dream Dive Destination

I love scuba diving and I love traveling the world. The world is an awesome place and I want to see it all, both above and beneath the water. I have dove lots different places from wrecks in Lake Superior to the warm waters of Aruba, and all kinds of places in between. To some people this is an expansive area, and to others… it’s just scratching the surface. I tend to lean towards the latter. I feel fortunate that I have been able to visit and dive the areas that I have, but I am eager to explore new areas.

Below is my top 10 dream dives! It’s basically a “bucket list” dive travel destinations that I personally want to visit.

1. Sipadan Island, Malaysia – Sipadan in consistently ranked among the top dive destinations in the world. I want to see why for myself!

2. Fiji – Ever since I’ve started diving I’ve thought that Fiji would be a great destination to do a live-aboard. There’s tons of great dive sites spread out among the thousands of islands which make up Fiji. What better way to see them then a live-aboard!

3. Great Barrier Reef, Australia – It’s the largest reef in the world! It has to be on my list for that fact alone.

4. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador – Did you know that the iguana’s in the Galapagos dive underwater to feed on the reef? How about that there’s a species of penguin that’s endemic to the islands? There are two major ocean currents that meet in the Galapagos creating this magical place that’s teaming with marine life. The Galapagos are truly unique!

5. Maldives – Drift diving at it’s best on the Indian Monsoon Current. There’s tons of colorful reefs surrounding the thousands of islands, which are teaming with marine life from ranging from eagle rays to whale sharks.

6. Antarctica – Yeah, it’s REALLY dang cold! And honestly… I’m REALLY not a fan of cold! However, after seeing some absolutely amazing images and video from under the ice… it’s on my list. There is no other place like this in anywhere! And, you get to witness the underwater side of “Happy Feet” first hand!

7. Truk Lagoon – This is another scuba diving destination that’s know for it’s wreck diving, and is home to the “Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon”.  There are over sixty WWII wrecks here, plenty to keep a person entertained for a long, long time!

8. Bikini Atoll – Wrecks! Once a nuclear bomb testing ground for the US, now the grave yard for all of the wrecks they blew up. There are wrecks ranging from aircraft carriers to submarines. I haven’t found a better place in the world for wreck diving.

9. The Red Sea, Egypt – Visibility of to 230 feet, tons of fish, wrecks, beautiful coral, sheltered reefs, towers, pinnacles, walls, and coral gardens make the Red Sea a the fabulous dive destination that it’s made out to be!

10. Gansbaai, South Africa – Sharks! South Africa is a shark diving Mecca! The whales, sea lions, and penguins are just a bonus!

How to Get Started Scuba Diving

So you want to go scuba diving, but don’t know where to start? It’s your luck day, I’m here to help. There a few options for prospective scuba divers.

The first option is a “try dive”. A lot of dive shops offer this option. They brief you on the equipment, show you some basic techniques, and then bring you in a pool and let you spend some time underwater. This is a good option to see how comfortable you are underwater. Breathing underwater takes a little getting use to, but some people tend to freak out in this position. This is a great option to see how you will handle it. “Try dives” are usually pretty cheap. I’ve seen them for $10 – $25.

The second option is a “discovery dive” or a “resort dive”. The two names are synonymous. With this option, a dive instructor will show you a short video that teaches you some basic scuba diving skills. Then they will take you in a pool or shallow water for some hands on practice and then test you on those skills. After that, the dive instructor will take you on an open water dive in a lake or ocean. They usually keep you in shallow water. This is a great option if you want to get into the water, you aren’t certified yet, and don’t have time to get certified. I did a discovery dive in Belize before I was certified, and after that I was hooked. A couple months later I got certified and I have been diving ever since. From what I’ve seen, discovery dives run between $100 and $200.

Finally, you can get certified. The basic certification is an “open water certification”. There are a few agencies that dominate the dive certification market including PADI, SSI, and NAUI. They are recognize universally for the most part. I did my open water certification with PADI, then did some specialty certifications, and finally my Advanced Open Water certification with SSI. Depending on where you do your training, it can cost anywhere from $300 to $750 for the classroom, pool, and open water portions of the certification. You can be open water certified in as little as 2 or 3 days, but I did mine over 2 weekends.

Lazy Man’s Scuba Diving in Cozumel, Mexico

 Cozumel is a little island that lays just east of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in the Caribbean Sea. The reef that surrounds the island is part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS), which is the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere. The Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park surrounds almost the entire southern half of the island and helps sustain the reefs and marine life. Because of this, the reefs and marine life around Cozumel are flourishing, which makes for some excellent scuba diving.

There’s another thing that Cozumel offers scuba divers that you don’t find just anywhere though. There’s a gentle current running from from one end of the island to the other. If scuba diver’s plan their dives to take advantage of this current, their dives can be near effortless. The dive boat can drop you off at one part of the reef, and pick you up a mile or so down the way. You just drift along with the current. Being you aren’t swimming away from the boat and then working your way back halfway through the dive, you don’t have to double back over the same area that you just dived. And because you aren’t exerting yourself as much when you dive, you aren’t using as much air and your dives last longer. I’ve been to Cozumel a couple times now, and would welcome the opportunity to go back again for the excellent drift diving, and the reasonable accommodations.

Below is a quick slide show that features some of the underwater pictures that I took during my time in Cozumel.

One Man's Quest for the Hottest Wings in the World

I have always been a connoisseur of hot and spicy foods. I hadn't done any food challenges until a week ago. I'm not a professional or competitive eater of any kind. I'm just a guy that loves food, and keeps a special little place in his heart for those foods that aren't afraid to hide their flavors.

Below are the wings I've ventured to consume in my personal quest to find the hottest wings in the world, along with my critiques of each of them. Some are part of food challenges, others are not. This is kind of a living article per say. As time goes on and I find new hot wings that peak above the rest, I will add them to this post. So bookmark this page and stop back often.

Island Camping in Florida

Have you ever dreamt of having your own private island? For most people, this will never happen. You can, however, experience the solitude and tranquility of having your own little island paradise. The Florida Keys alone consist of over 1,700 islands. Most of which are small and uninhabited. The state of Florida actually claims to have over 4,500 islands that are over ten acres in size, as well. That’s a lot of opportunity for finding your own little piece of paradise for a weekend adventure.

Some people might not be able to see everything that an undeveloped island has to offer, but for me they are endless fountains of adventure. An untouched island can be fun to hike and explore, provide the most secluded beaches you will find anywhere, offer a base for all of your watersport activities, become a free backcountry camp site, and so on. For others, they might be a serene place to find there inner zen.

Most of the uninhabited islands in Florida don’t have any roads to access them, which adds to their elusiveness and gives it a greater sense of sequestration. Getting to these hidden gems in the ocean is part of the adventure, and how you do it helps to define your experience. A sea kayaker can grab their tent and spend a weekend camping on the beach of a deserted island oasis. Somebody with a sail boat or cabin cruiser can anchor off the shore of and island to enjoy it by day, and bunk up in their boat at night.

I guess it comes down to how adventurous you are, and if you are comfortable with nature and the outdoors. If you are an indoor person that can’t live without modern luxuries, you might not enjoy island camping – unless you bring your own yacht along. But if you are at one with nature and love a good adventure, these islands can provide you with your very own piece of paradise.

Obstacle Races are a New Craze That’s Sweeping the Nation

 There seems to be a new obstacle race, mud run, or adventure race popping up all over the place, and they each have their own little twist. A couple of the more popular obstacle races going on around the country include Warrior Dash, and Tough Mudder. Each of these have raised millions of dollars for charities by putting on these events. I’ve seen a wide range of obstacles including crawling through pits of mud under strings of barbed wire, scaling walls, crawling over rope nets, hurdling junk cars, swimming through pools of ice water, jumping over blazing fire, and running through dangling electrical wires that are charged to 10,000 volts… just to name a few. These races typically range from 3 miles to 12 miles or more. These races obviously are not for the faint of heart.

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I was running 10K races on a regular basis when I signed up for Warrior Dash, which is equivalent to a 5K in length. I figured the addition of obstacles would slow down my race time, but I didn’t expect it to take as much out of me as it did. I guess I should have put two and two together, though. The race was at a ski resort for a reason… the hills! We had to of run up and down 4 or 5 different ski hills over the course of the race. The obstacles were a cake-walk compared to running all of those hills. Even running down a ski hill is difficult because of the steepness. You are basically doing everything you can to slow yourself down, not go faster.

It was tough as hell, but it was a blast! The race was challenging. Everybody got good and muddy, then hosed off like a house fire. The event was two full days long, with heats taking off every 30 minutes. I believe there was right around 26,000 participants, just at the location I ran at. There were bands playing, smoked turkey legs, and they even started contestants out with a free beer to get things rolling after their runs. I’ll definitely be running more of these!

Moleskin for Blister Care and Prevention

 I’m surprised how many people I talk to that don’t know the benefits of moleskin. So, I’m going to break down what moleskin is, and how to use it for blister care and prevention here.

What is Moleskin?

Moleskin actually refers to a type of fabric, but I’m talking specifically about self-adhesive moleskin that’s sold for first aid kits, foot products, etc. You can usually find it in any drug store near any other foot treatments. It’s a soft, yet durable fabric that prevents friction, and the blisters that come with that friction.

Blister Prevention

If you have an area that usually develops blisters, like the heel of your foot, you can stick a strip of moleskin on there before beginning your hike/run/walk/etc. The friction from your shoe moving is now transferred to the moleskin instead of your own skin, and therefore prevents blisters from developing. I’m sure you can see how this would be beneficial for backpackers, hikers, runners, and all kinds of athletes.

Blister Care

So, what do you do if  you already have a blister? Take a strip of moleskin that’s a couple inches bigger than your blister on all sides. Then you cut a hole in the middle of the moleskin about the same size as your blister. Apply the moleskin to the affected area with the blister in the hole you cut. The thickness of the moleskin helps protect the blister from more friction, even though the moleskin isn’t applied directly to the blister itself. Multiple companies make extra-thick, and even padded moleskin that works best for this purpose.

I keep a few strips of moleskin in my little medical kit that I take on backpacking trips just in case I need it, and I recommend you do the same. Once you get some nasty blisters and you’re 20 miles from civilization, you’re going to wish you had some with you.

The Good and the Bad of Cruise Travel

Like anything, cruises have their ups and downs... and I'm not just talking about the motion in the ocean. Personally, I love cruises for the many positives they offer but I recognize the negatives as well.  The good news is that cruises offer many options for all types of people.  I will highlight the pros and cons so those of you who are new to cruising can decide if cruise travel is right for you. 

Staying Warm in Fargo, ND

It’s Fargo, ND in the middle of January and there’s a windchill of -37° F outside. That doesn’t leave a lot of options for things to do. Fargo has been ranked one of the five coldest cities in the U.S. by Farmer’s Almanac, and the 2nd drunkest city in the U.S. by The Daily Beast. So, you could go out and get hammered drunk so it doesn’t bother you so bad – when in Rome so to speak. Or else, you can do what I did.

Quaker Steak & Lube has a food challenge that will help bring your core temperature up a couple notches. Their “Triple Atomic Wings” challenge consists of eating 5 of their wings in under 5 minutes. I did 6 in 3:54. If you don’t think that sounds too bad, consider this. They are 200 times hotter than the average jalapeno. They actually only let you eat these spicy wings after signing a waiver! This is also the same challenge that was done by Adam Richman of the Travel Channel's Man vs. Food!

Get off the strip in Las Vegas

To a lot of people, Las Vegas is one road with a bunch of casinos and show girls surrounded by desert. Personally, my love for Las Vegas has very little to do with casinos and the strip. There is so much else to do that gets overlooked way too often.

I wanted to go skydiving for a long time, but I figured there had to be a better place to go skydiving than over a bean field outside of Fargo, North Dakota. I ended up going to Las Vegas for work and thought that made a pretty good option to cross this line off of my bucket list. Skydiving in Las Vegas lets you free-all over the desert with views of Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas, Lake Mead, and Hoover Dam. To me this is a way better option! Take a minute to watch the video of my experience below.