Super Scuba Squad

Octo-COOL

2008-09-02T23:31:00.000-07:00

Here are a few reasons to consider why the Giant Pacific Octopus is the coolest creature in the sea!!!

Tactical Alterations in the Field

2008-07-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

There are some times when a professional diver will notice that there is some small flaw in his gear or that if a slight alteration were made the gear would have more of a "personal fit". I believe we can see clearly here an example of how to make a tactical decision in the field. The bootie just was not feeling right. Chris takes a quick assessment of the situation. Notes there is a need for immediate action. Pulls his knife and gets to work!

Effective alterations will at times be made in the field not while at the shop. Some of the most effective gear alterations have come due to "men" recognizing a limitation. Then solving it with quick R&D while in the theater of action. Now that's a real man.

No pansy's here. We whip out our knives and get her done. (Disclaimer: If you have to ask what he is doing, or if you are using "RENTAL GEAR" Please DO NOT ATTEMPT this at home or at any other time! Chris is a Professional Diver with many many dives under his belt and is skilled in the proper use of a knife! :) I mean the USE of a knife. )

Cheers

RSB

Monterey Dive Trip part.2

2008-07-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

So Here we are in our Northern Divers Drysuits following our outstanding dive at Monastery Beach. The water was cold but the dive was great with the new dry gloves. I can not say enough about them. Having your hands dry makes the dive entirely unique. It was in the time following this dive that we munched down a few sandwiches to fill the new found emptiness created by the dive.

We next loaded the car and headed for the Breakwater Pier parking lot to get set up for a night dive. A diver can not go to Monterey and not do at least one dive along the

breakwater. It is a staple dive of the area. Nick and I geared up again and headed in for a nice hour plus cruise along the pier.

The night life was out and did not disappoint. It was a perfect night cool but not too much wind. What more could a few divers ask for. If you know anything about the break water you know that there are always classes being taught. As we were exiting the water we geared down and were soon joined by a group of 1st time Night Divers. They were stoked on the dive and we passed out a few Chocolate chip cookies to the crew.

They were pumped and you could hear them telling their buddies.. "hey we told those guys over there that it was our first night dive and they gave us some cookies.." We just laughed and

remembered back to the first day we went diving. Wow.. How long it has been and what a change.

The next day we Dawned Beautiful and sunny as a classic day in Monterey would have it. We got up and headed to the office.. Got an Air-fill and knocked out a dive on the Metridium Field. That place never is a bad dive. As many times as I have been out there it has always been great.

following that we did a final dive on the Breakwater and it was pack the car time to head for home. Sayonara Monterey, for now. We will be back.

Monterey With the SQUAD (part.1)

2008-07-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

It is always a pleasure to take a trip to the shores of Monterey, CA. As you leave the LA area and begin the 6 hour drive to reach the beautiful bay area you see the colors change. It is truly nice not to look out the window and see only brown dead grass and desert on all sides.

The Bay area is foggy and cool bringing in a large variety of life. Birds, foxes, raccoons and the occasional owl are to be seen. Yet the waters off the coast offer up some of the most diverse sea-life to be found along the California coast. What better place to take a slow weekend than back home in my childhood stomping ground. The Monterey bay.

Nick and I took the "red bandit" Ak

a the subaru. As getting the most out of your gas is not just a dive thing. We traveled up to my parents ranch in the hills of the bay. It was indeed nice to be home even for a few days. But the trip was to be more than just a trip home. We had several agendas to get down and so we knuckled down and got to business.

First order on the list was to organize the gear and set up the plan for the dives. As Nick had not dove in the Monterey Bay before it was imperative to get him in at two of the more frequented locations. First Monastery Beach and Second Breakwater Pier.

However before any of this could occur it is imperative to know a little more about the local environment. What creature are indigenous to the area. What they do and where to find them. We were lucky enough to have a few Guest passes for the Monterey Bay Aquarium and so we stopped off there first.

After that we load up the car and headed out of town toward the Monastery beach area. Arriving there we found it fairly calm and no people diving. We scoped it out and things looked real good. So we broke out the gear and loaded up for a nice dive along the North East wall of the bay. I was interested to see how my new dry gloves would work out with the cold Monterey water.

To Be Cont....

Deep Casino Reef

2007-10-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

This past weekend has seen the first dive into the realms of the deep casino reef. Which was by far the best dive I have done in or around the dive park in a long time. This fact alone suggests a follow up dive to the reef in the near future to establish a map of the reef. In my mind I believed it to be a small pile of rocks sitting in the middle of the sand with one or two small animals and maybe a fish or two. This was not quite the reality of what we found. The reality was that we found a large reef that calls us to return and dive its entirety. As our bottom time was a limited to 35 min. due to the long swim and depth of the reef. We were unable to see the entire reef. Several large spires loomed before us as we turned to head back to the line. We will in the future be back to see what other possible things maybe found in the deep.
RSB
SSS Pres.

Stories from the Squad Episode #1 (How they roll!)

2007-10-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

So this story comes done the pipe from one of the members of the squad. They shall remain nameless as it is irrelevant to the reader and the squad all know who it is. So here we go then. The stories goes something like this. A couple of the fellas decided to go diving in the beautiful waters just south of the San Diego. Mexico to be more precise. As the diving from ponga boats is fairly cheap they went ahead and spent the $25 dollars for two dives to get out on the boat. As they were getting back in the boat after the second beautiful dive. They noticed a boat kinda off their starboard side, in line with their return heading. So as they were heading back to shore they were able to get a good look at the operations of the local divers. One guy getting in the water in a wet suit wearing a weight belt and clipped off hookah line. So the guy in the water is down at like 30 ft. breathing the air being sucked in by the compressor in the boat. (the general idea of hookah is you don't need a cylinder you can just have a compressor that will provide compressed "sometimes filtered/sometimes not" air to the person breathing on the end of the hose.) As they floated passed the hookah team. They could only see the compressor and the man attending it. He was seated by the intake valve with a lit joint in his hand. After every hit he took on the joint he would lean over and exhale into the intake on the compressor (in this case the compressor being a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engine with a few extra belts and hoses.) I can only imagine the level of narcosis that was hitting the diver at 30ft. You think to yourself..... "so that's how they roll".

Now as a proviso I need to make it clear that we the SSS do not in anyway endorse or encourage the use of drugs. In diving and outside diving. We support Proper diving techniques and solid training. the above story is to give a smile to all the divers out there who have seen some foolishness while diving.
Hope you got a laugh out of this episode.

SSS

Mid Week Update

2007-10-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

Midweek, work is starting to ware on you. Last weekends dive trip seems like it was a year ago. It starts getting hard to keep concentrated. You find yourself wearing your Dive computer to work. People look at you funny as you sit on the tail gate taking hits on your O2 bottle during lunch. I think we call it "Scuba Detox". I need to get a H2O fix. You know what I mean. You need that descending in to the blue feeling. You need to hear the crisp hiss of your second stage delivering Air(Nitrox/Tri-mix, or whatever you could afford). The feeling of neutral Buoyancy as you drift along the reef/sand or open ocean. Man I can't wait to get in the water again this weekend. Hope your week is going good. Hit up the site get a little Scuba fix. Watch a SSS movie or two and start dreaming of Diving.
RSB
SSS Pres.

PS. (This is the kind of break I think we all need. An Afternoon nap by the beach is AJ squared away with the squad.)

Nudibranch of the week!

2007-10-15T20:44:00.001-07:00

After Aldrin posted the great shots from his Laguna Beach dive I got all fired up on the nudibrach quest and have determined to add a new nudibranch to the site every week. This weeks colorful creature comes to us from none other than the beautiful Sipadan Islands in Malaysia. The name of this weeks Nudibrach is Chromodoris annae. (click here for more info)

Seeing the picture of this little guy makes me what to jump on a plane to Malaysia right now.
The size of this creature 10-15 mm. Consider this for a second. Have you looked around your dive sites for anything like this? That opens up the opportunities for diving. I would say we all have said to ourselves. "I am not diving here again! I have like two hundred dives here! There is nothing here I haven't seen." Well, I challenge that statement with the question. Have you looked for the small stuff? The creatures under the sea that aren't whales, sharks or seals. Take a dive and go slowly. Not one fin kick a second, slow. Really slow. Like stop and watch for a minute or two slow. Things will begin to move you never imagined were alive! You might find that as a cool side effect your air lasts longer. After a dive like that you may find renewed interest in the "old dives sites". To see what might be living there. Just under the tip of your nose. Now Lets Go Dive!
RSB
SSS Pres.

"WORDS OF WISDOM"

2007-10-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

SCUBA WISDOM - TIP #1...

NEVER ARGUE WITH A FOOL-- THE WILL DRAG YOU DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL
THEN BEAT YOU WITH EXPERIENCE!

RSB
SSS PRES.

Adventure I

2007-10-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

Local diving

2007-10-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, one area to dive that gets over looked is our local beaches. There are a lot of places to dive right here in our back yard. Laguna being the most familiar and most accessible. Today our chief medical officer (Nic) and I went for a couple of dives and captured quite a few photos of these small aquatic creatures. Many miss these small and interesting animals. Take the time to watch an area of reef for a short amount of time (2-5 minutes) and you will see all kinds of animals. Nudibranches, snails, and small crabs to name just a few. Today I found what appears to be a cone shell (Conidae spp.). I did not know they where in these waters, and I have only seen them in warmer, tropical, waters. Winter is coming, and the diving is going to be great, so lets get out there and do some diving. Pictures--1st- cone shell: 2nd & 3rd Nudibranch (Gastropoda ssp.) The Aldrin, 10-14-07.

"Super Fly"

2007-10-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

It is hard to say much about yourself without sounding boastful. So I will keep it brief. My name is Super fly. They call me that because... well...I think you will have to come diving with us to find that out. I am the SSS President. I love the water, Pick a spot, pick a lake, pool, murky creek.. ahahah well maybe not a murky creek, but certainly a murky day a shaw's cove. If the water is cold and the vis is bad, then you can probably find me and the Aldrin or some of the other SSS down along the bottom logging some time in the realm aquatic. Not to say we aren't there when the vis is good, but you will not find us sitting at the coffee shop until we are done diving. We aren't pansies about diving! We dive if the weather is good, and we dive if the weather is bad. As long as we are diving life is good.
I was trained up by some of funny guys who it turn out are legends in the sport. I thought they were just some goofy old divers and then you start seeing these old guys in photos with real men.. the likes of Jacques Cousteau, divers from sea hunt, you start thinking.. wow these aren't goofy old guys.. these are the true pioneers of diving. After my first talk with Joe Liburdi I knew I was going to need to check this sport out. He made it sounds so adventurous. He wasn't lying! True adventures lurk just under the surface of the Deep. I soon found my self rolling through one class after another, until I hit instructor. A class none other than the Joe Liburdi's son taught me. Matt Liburdi. A great diver and one good instructor. Since then it has been my passion to share the underwater world with as many people as are interested. I have been teaching diving for a while now and I have not lost any of the passion I brought with me out of the water after my first dive at Laguna. It has been a great ride so far and I can not imagine how wonderful the future of diving will be. So come on out and share in the fun and adventures.

I love the Cold water. So as the winter approaches and the temperatures fall. We dive more and others dive less. The winter in Monterey is some of the best diving around. As a Monterey Bay local I can only say that it is and will alwasy be one of the best dives on the blue marble. One sentence to define great in diving. 1.5 million creatures living in the Monterey Bay kelp forest alone!!! If that one statement doesn't get you in your car heading to Monterey to dive than I would guess nothing will.

Local diving is a great weekend pass time. We sneak out almost every week once or twice. It is never to late. Night dives at 3:00am .. sounds great. NO TRAFFIC!!!! NICE!!!! The waters are all ours.. As a good friend of mine would say. 'LIFE IS GOOD!"

The SSS is dedicated to Knowledge, Integrity, Discipline. We hold all these to be key qualities a good diver should have. We focus our squad to develop these attributes in all other divers through our examples. So Lets Go Dive!

RSB
SSS Pres.

"Dump Valve"

2007-10-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Dump Valve needs no introduction. This guy makes his presence felt on every trip. We were blessed with his creative metal bending and shaping skills for the first year the Squad was together. He has as of recent times taken a break from diving. We wish him a quick and speedy return to the underwater realm.

A typical trip with dump valve would be filled with jokes and horse play that would always end with a "you mom dives dacor!" ahahah Good times man.. good times.. thanks for the memories Dump Valve. We will at all times keep the doors open to welcome you back. Your presence is missed.
RSB
SSS Pres.

"The Aldrin"

2007-10-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

As President I feel it my responsibility to introduce the key members or the SSS. The Aldrin is a guy who's presence makes any dive trip memorable. He brings his fun loving personality to the beach, boat, or where ever you are diving. It is a guarantee that he will have you doubled over with laughter at some point during the day or night. Either in the water or out. He will crack you up. We are blessed to have a guy like this in the SSS.

The Aldrin is the Executive Officer of the SSS. Which places a lot of weight on his shoulders to keep all things running smoothly. He has many talents other than making everyone have a good time. He is an amazing photographer. He is the chief photo and video man for the squad. He is also the man to talk to about editing film. With his video camera in hand and his still camera clipped off to his BC he often looks like a floating photo studio. Aldrin we love you man. You keep shooting that film my friend.

When you dive it is a rare day when you can get home and check your email and have twenty-five or thirty pictures of the trip already waiting for you. When you dive with the Aldrin you get to a point where you don't see it as rare its more of a expected thing to have some great shots of the day on your computer by the next morning. Once again thanks man. You always go the extra mile with the photos and videos. We are honored to have you as our Executive Officer.

Here is a small taste of the photos we are able to enjoy after every dive trip. Enjoy.
RSB
SSS Pres.

The Spanish shawl, Flabellina iodinea, is a nudibranch in the family Flabellinidae, native to the North American west coast. It has been reported as far north as British Columbia, Canada, and as far south as Punta Asuncion, Baja California Sur, Mexico, and in addition to this in the Gulf of California and the Galapagos IslandsThey are also found off the coast of Catilina Island.[1] It displays a stunning set of colors, the body being purple, the gills being orange and the rhinophores being scarlet.

These Nudibranchs use the neon orange appendages on their back as gills to extract oxygen from the sea water they live in. These Spanish Shawl Nudibranchs are also hermaphrodites which means they have both male and female sex organs. However, self-reproduction very rarely occurs.

The Tube Anemone lives in a mucous tube in the seabed. The tentacles of the anemone reach out of the tube and capture small animals using stinging cells (nematocysts). The main body of the animal is not attached to the tube and can retract rapidly when threatened. Divers often see the anemone disappearing into the sediment as they approach for a closer look.

Let's Dive!!!

Yukon

2007-10-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

2007-10-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

"The Squad"

2007-10-10T18:58:00.000-07:00

We have received requests for some time now to have a web page. Mostly so people can see the cool pics, videos and other breath taking adventures that are a central part of the Squad. The web page also provides people with a place where they can find out a bit about our dive club. To see the purpose, ideals, and laws which govern the Squad as a whole. This Blog will be updated periodically with news, photos, dive trips, and general info. You may also look here for general dive info and knowledge. As Knowledge is one of the key fibers of the Squad.

The Squad was initially formed in 2005. When "The Aldrin", "Dump Valve", and "Super Fly" got together and decided to form a group of hardcore divers who would help to build up the sport. We decided on the name Super Scuba Squad and the rest is history. We started shooting videos and making short films. It has been an awesome experience to be in the SSS with so many talented and funny people. The Squad's trips are anything but boring.

As the SSS has expanded and gained more members we think now to be a good time to start a web site where we can post dive trips, events, dive classes, and all other SSS activities. If you are excited about breathing underwater. Then you should check back to this page to see how it is done.

We can not leave out a central figure in our Squad. The "chief cook and bottle washer" as he says. Ralph Buscemi the owner and operator of Scuba-Doo Dive Center. The SDDC is a place where great dive adventures begin. The SDDC is filled with a high level of Tec Divers and also those who want to just get wet in the warm waters of the South Pacific. Spending time at the SDDC has been a pleasure. The learning never stops! You can always pick up a new skill or get some advice on a gear set-up from Ralph or one of his other well trained staff of instructors. Ralph has been pushing the limits of diving and enjoying the silence of rebreathers longer than some of our members have been alive. We are truly honored to call the SDDC the home shop of the SSS.

We are a club that accepts divers of all levels, and agencies. We support the development of the sport of Scuba diving. We all also share a passion for breathing underwater, be it on a AL 80, or a Inspiration. We love what we do and want to keep sharing the fun of diving to all those who are interested. Come out and join the squad.

RSB.
SSS Pres.