Smmcdonald
United States
-
Nº182
Date: 2022-09-02 - 10:54
-
Max Depth: 8.5m Duration: 53mins
Dive Location
- Temp: Surf 33°C Bottom 30°C
- Dive type : Recreational, Drift, Reef
- Visibility: Good Water: Salt
Specific gear used
- Weights: 1.8 kg
Dive reviews
| Overall review | ||
| Dive difficulty | ||
| Marine life quality |
Recent Divers in Key Largo, FL
Recent Pictures in Key Largo, FL
Dive Shop & Buddies
Dive with Quiescence Diving Services, Inc.
Link to this spot:
- Spot:
- Country:
- Area:
- Body of water:
Dive Profile
- 1. Air
- 10L Aluminium 205 → 24 bar
- Average depth: 3m
Data provided by EOL.org
Species Identified
Share on Social Networks
- Facebook:
personalize your shared text as well as its destination (wall, page...) or send as a private message to a friend
- Twitter: Tweet personalize your tweet
- Google Plus:
Direct link to this dive
- Long link:
- Short link:
We are participating today in the startup contest Techcrunch Disrupt. Support Diveboard by voting for us!
The Spurs is one of my favourite dives in Key Largo. The current had picked up a bit, so Burner thought to take advantage and let us drift dive across the coral heads. The dive briefing went something like this: Hot drop together and drift in a northeast direction, staying together as a group. Explore the coral heads along the way by swimming along them in the sand channels to block the current, or drift over them if the current is strong. After an hour or so, or when you get low on air, surface and the Captain will come by to pluck you out of the water. Easy-peasy.
So we all dropped in at once, decended to the bottom, and started finning along the sand channels exploring the coral heads along the way. The second and third of these was divided by a large sand channel, and I decided to break away for a minute to swim in a NE direction to the next finger. After a few short kicks, I could see the other coral, swam to it, explored a bit, and returned. At this point, Jen and the group were starting to head over to the coral that I was just returning from, so I turned and went along with them. I felt like we had been fighting the current too much, and really wanted to take advantage of the drift.
I was still with the group, but had floated a bit above them to explore the tops and take some video of them as they swam by. This allowed me to stay in a stationary position for the most part, and also gave me some relief from my ears that were not clearing properly. It also put me headlong in the current and it wasn't long before I tired out and signaled Jen that I was going to surface. She gave me the 'OK' signal and continued to lead the group around for a bit longer.
Back on the boat, I chatted with Steve while waiting for the rest of the group. After 10 minutes or so the rest of the group surfaced and boarded. I then learned Jenny was a bit upset that they could not find me and 'spent a good part of the dive looking for me'. Not sure what she meant, I asked for a bit of clarity. They thought I had 'left the group' several times, and disappeared all together near the end! I then realized that their interpretation of diving 'as a group' meant we literally stayed in a small, tightly packed group, or in a follow-the-leader fashion. I assured them that at all times I was in sight of them and/or Jen (my dive buddy) and there was nothing to be concerned with. In addition, Jen knew that I had surfaced and if she wasn't panicked about where I was, they should know all was well. Jen in turn confirmed all I had said, but that didn't seem to convince her (or Dulice) however, and I finally acquiesced to the chant of 'diving the plan'. I also took away a lesson to ensure inexperienced divers understood the dive breifing better, like when diving as a group, you still follow the dive buddy rules.
Despite the scare I may have caused, the dive was great, and we saw a lot of notable marine life, including an eagle ray followed by five (!) nurse sharks when we first dropped in! We then proceeded to see at least one other eagle ray during the dive, baracuda and all manner of reef fish, lobsters, corals and such. Part-way through, we came across a small coral nursery. Two eight- to ten-foot strands were anchored at the bottom with floats at the top and full of young elkhorn coral.