Scuba Diver Girls Shannon, Vanessa, Margo and Stephanie go play around in the kelp! We found our lobster friends and Steph finds a five pound weight! All in all, another fun adventure with the girls!

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There is nothing cooler than spotting an octopus while diving. They are such odd looking creatures with their eight legs with all the little suctions, and then that body/head…head/body…it’s all just one thing! They blend into their surroundings so well that most of the time you need to have a good eye to spot them! If you are lucky enough to spot them, they will slip away so fast, you will ask yourself, “Did I see an octopus?”  But despite this invertebrate’s interesting looks and chameleon like skills, are they just plain SMART? Wait….don’t answer yet…

Take a look at this story reported by National Geographic News on February 27, 2009, before you answer that question:

“The female California two-spotted octopus swam to the top of her tank, disassembled a valve with her powerful arm, and released at least 200 gallons (757 liters) of seawater into nearby exhibits and offices. The foot-long (0.3-meter) creature remained in her tank and survived her ordeal. But the aquarium’s brand-new floors weren’t so lucky.”

What?? Come on! That octopus must have just got lucky!! Well, than what about this:

“In one instance, an octopus given a slightly spoiled shrimp stuffed it down the drain while maintaining eye contact with its keeper.”

Now that is just plain funny. But seriously folks, octopuses exhibit behaviors such as curiosity, consciousness, and even a sense of humor! Eugene Linden, author of the 2002 book The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity does a wonderful job at helping us understand this creature a bit better.

The University of Lethbridge’s Mather suggests octopuses evolved into a smarter species due to their highly complex environment—usually coral reefs—where they are required to make lightning-fast, life-or-death decisions.

Well…that is one theory…

All in all, I tend to agree with most, our bendable, creepy-cute, leggy, funny little (well sometimes not so little) guys are definitely intelligent. I personally will always be on the look out for my eight legged friend!!

Octapus photo by dive.scubadiving.com

Watch this video where an octopus twists, squeezes and turns through a plexiglass environment!

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Article by Chantelle Bennett Blanchard (blog)

Ice Diving with "We Go Down"

There is one thing about Canada that scares a lot of divers away… the cold winters. There are colder places to be than Eastern Ontario, but we do have our fair share of “wonderful” winter weather. This opens up a whole other type of diving for us: Canadian Ice Diving. Many will jest that ice is for their drinks, but there are a group of us that like to get under it. More…

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There are so many times when diving that you have to make decisions about “the right thing, or the best thing” to do. Because of the risks in the sport, it is always important to use good sense…for example:

We went diving today but the visibility was very poor and the surge was strong. There were huge swells that were coming across the dive site that had formed after we were under the water for about 20 min. There were 6 of us all toghether. We had three scuba diver girls,  Margo, Steph, and Katy, and then Rich from www.snorkelsandiegoscuba.com and two customers from New Mexico.  They had different experience, the women was new to diving and the gentleman was very experienced.

We dropped down and found the visibility to be about 8 feet. Rich had went over the predive plan regarding getting seperated under the water and after 30 seconds to surface so we can regroup. This area is not very deep so this plan is viable. The visibility seemed to get worse as we kicked toward the pumpkin shaped bouy. Rich stopped and checked our air and as Steph and I were telling each other what we had, the group had moved on. We looked around and even though they were probably 3 kicks away from us…they were gone. In fact, I almost lost Steph while we were looking for them. I waited and she finally found me.

Later we met up near where the sea lions hang out. Rich and group were kicking back toward us. When we regrouped, Rich told how bad it was over by the caves and that it was not safe and so he decided to kick back to where we were. After that we all dropped down and finished our dive underwater in a very close nit circle. We all came back with about 1000 psi and could have dove longer but safety is better than continuing the dive in hazardous conditions.

I know that the folks from New Mexico were dissapointed, which is always a shame, but I repect the fact that Rich is very cautious. You really never know how the ocean and conditions will change and sometimes it happens fast. Plus each dive is an experience and no one can argue that sometimes the harder dives give you more experience than the easier ones.

We still did get a good dive in. I had fun and always enjoy being under the water no matter what the conditions are! But I took a great lesson from Rich today in that, you need to know when it is too risky to continue, especially based on who you are diving with. You need to have good sense when you dive! DAN’s staff members have put together a collection of their good-sense tips based on their insights in scuba diving: GOOD SENSE DIVING.

January 20th OC dive starfish

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How many calories do you think you burn scuba diving? if you dive at a slow pace, don’t have to kick out on the surface, but are diving in 60 degree water (I heard you burn more calories in cold water). I need to lose the 5lbs I gained over christmas and wonder how many dives it will take to do this.

I would like to gather a collection of tips from all of you one the best, easiest things to do to get in shape! For me…swimming, scuba, snorkeling is good. Also if I eat organics, cut down on alcohol, and eat more vegetarian then I seem to shape up quicker. What do you do??? I saw these shoes in a magazine that are suppose to give you a flat stomach if you wear them around. They reminded me of the old gass shoes with the waves on the bottom we had as kids. Speaking of shoes we had when we were kids…remember moon boots? I bought a pair of uggs the other day and I felt EXACTLY like I was walking around in moon boots….made me smile mine had rainbows on the side.  Once I jumped off my friends roof feet first into the snow and got stuck. They had to pull me out and my moon boots stayed way down there stuck in the snow. We actually had to dig them out. :0

So send me your ideas about working out, eating or whatever that you think are the easiest ways to shape up for summer. Who knows best but all of you?? THANKS!

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