Key Largo Shallow Reef Report and Pics 7/28-7/29/2018

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IncreaseMyT

Banned
Messages
1,386
Reaction score
379
Location
Naples, FL
# of dives
200 - 499
So a little background my wife finally went and got certified this weekend, which we (the family) never ever thought would happen. In 14 years I had never seen her head under water before :coffee: literally.

Long story short she went snorkeling with us and then while the kids, 15 and 12 years old, got certified she went on the boat and snorkeled. Once we made it back home she decided she wanted to give it a go. We practiced in the pool for 2 weeks, probably 7 times before she even did her pool dives with the shop. So moral of the story, if your not a big water person, never say never. My kids on the other hand were like a fish in water, one day pool dives straight to checkout and did better than the adults.

So here we the big day has arrived and she is nervous. Of course on the way out my daughter looks and me and says: "Wow dad the vis doesn't look good at all, mom is going to freak out", then went to the front of the boat to make sure mom knew the vis was not great, which is unusual every time we have been there before its top to bottom, even in 50 feet and sometimes 100.

Me and the kids gear up and jump in to wait for mom to come down the line. The current is strong, its rainy and there is a 1 foot chop and vis is maybe 25-35 feet. We jumped out of the side of the boat so we have a little bit of swim, so I tell the kids to drop down and follow me over. We make it and are waiting a couple of minutes and the kids are getting restless. I tell the kids lets go up, but on the way we are going to practice our ascent rate and watch the bar graph on our computer. The kids do really well, honestly better than I did on my 5th dive in terms of controlling ascent, they are like naturals, I think most kids are.

We go up and its raining, and mom is not looking good lol. She waves us off so we continue our dive and work on our trim. We came back about halfway through the dive to check on mom but we couldn't find here, did some more searching and picture taking and then practiced a horizontal safety stop on the way to the boat. They both did great, my only piece of advice to my daughter when we made it back to the boat was to swim diving the stop to stay near the later of the boat so when its time to surface your already there.

On the boat talking to mom she is ready to go again but her friend that came with her is string this one out, she just wasn't ok with the bad vis. Mom completes the dive and the kids spent some time letting her know she looked like a seahorse in the water and how she needs to work on her "trim" :rofl3:

After a nights rest and no 3 hour drive mom and her friend are ready to dive in the morning and thankfully the vis was much better and there was less chop, although it did rain. Vis was about 60 feet now and they both were so much more comfortable in the water on the second day and actually enjoyed the dives. Once the trip was over they complained and said they wished the visibility was better on the first day, along with my kids, and then I told them honestly its probably a good thing it was not great conditions, it just gets you ready for what real diving will be like :)

Water was 87 degrees, I think we had a full moon the night before, the reef was crawling pics below:

Stop stealing my camera!
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This one is always neutral, natural
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Porgy?

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Hogfish
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Moms friend wants to make sure the DM knows how much air she has :eyebrow:
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Good job mom! But yer reg is hanging, its ok its after a skill :popcorn:
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Can you see it? Identify it? I have only seen a few and thats on of the bigger ones.
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Thats a Moray!
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Nice trim kiddos.
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Like a magician
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Why does that safety sausage float?
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Topside conditions not looking so hot.
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Not sure what this is? I see a lot of them.
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Looking great kid.
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Yellowtail sammich, bitesize.
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This one is already stealing my tricks
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And he might pull it off.
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Nice landing, watcha guys got under there?
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