Scuba Shack Radio

Scuba Shack Radio is proud to now be the Vurbl Ambassador for Scuba Diving. We are proud to gain this designation. Check us out at Scuba Shack Radio and please consider subscribing. Congratulations to Tec Clark and The Dive Locker Podcast on celebrating their 2nd anniversary. The Dive Locker podcast is a weekly podcast for dive professionals but is very relevant to all divers. Tec also hosts a pod...

If you want to dive with a purpose, check out an opportunity next year to spend a week at the Atlantis Dive Resort in Dumaguete in the Philippines participating in a program led by the Coral Restoration Foundation. This year the PADI AWARE Foundation's AWARE Week is set for September 18 to 26, 2021. AWARE Week's goal is to empower the global dive community to lead or take part in conservation acti...

A study published by Niklas Boers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research indicates that the Gulf Stream is on the verge of collapse. This would dramatically change the weather in North America and Europe - making it colder. Additionally there would be sea level rise, disruption of the monsoon patterns and impacts to the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheet. Do you miss Dive Tr...

The owner and operator of Dutch Springs since 1980, Stuart Schooley has decided to retire and I congratulate him on this well deserved milestone. Stu is selling Dutch Springs to a Texas developer who plans to create a 300,000 square foot warehouse facility on the property. This development will restrict access to the quarry and with that it looks like Dutch Springs will close at the end of the 202...

The 2nd quarter 2021 edition of Alert Diver Magazine from Divers Alert Network (DAN) is out. A great publication packed with so much great information. You can learn about shallow water arterial gas embolism, and travel to Roatan. You can also read about the Flower Garden Banks and Thunder Bay Marine Sanctuaries. It is a cover-to-cover read. The Cayman Islands are still not open to tourists at thi...

The Boston Sea Rovers clinic is set for October 1-2, 2021. This is a new date for the show which normally was held in the March timeframe. Tickets are on sale now for the Saturday and Sunday clinic along with the Saturday night film festival. Check out the Boston Sea Rovers Site. Need help identifying fish - check out namethatfish.com   Reef Divers who run the dive operations at the Clearly Cayman...

REEF Fest 2021 is scheduled October 14 through October 17, 2021. Four great dives of activities - diving, kayaking, seminars, workshops, and social gatherings. Activities are also scheduled at John Pennekamp State Park, the Coral Restoration Foundation, the History of Diving Museum and the Florida Key Wild Bird Center. Olympus cameras are still available. A new company OM Digital Solution is produ...

Today's installment of Wet Notes introduces you to a new BC tag being offered on Bonaire using recycled plastic. PADI has also recently announced that Project AWARE is now the PADI AWARE Foundation - leveraging the power of the PADI brand and operations. Oluwalu Reef on Maui is now a Mission Blue Hope Spot - great news for a reef that is under sever strength. If you are thinking about becoming a P...

In this installment of Wet Notes I talk a little bit about the new Stuart Cove location in Nassau, DAN tags, the spread of Stony Coral Tissue Disease (SCTD) on Grand Cayman, a new five-part series podcast from Hakai Magazine: The Sound Aquatic - The Ocean and the Anthropause and more. What is the Jet-O-Sen? This is a vintage piece of scuba equipment developed by Jim Sawtelle in the early 1950s. Th...

This time on Wet Notes I talk about an interesting new exhibit at The History of Diving Museum in Islamorado, a t-shirt design contest from Ikelite, an important scuba tank safety note from PSI-PCI, diving with a purpose on Lake Tahoe and more. On this installment of Sea Hunt - It's Still Alive I review The Invader. This episode is from season 3 and premiered July 30, 1960. In this episode Mike Ne...

On this installment of Wet Notes I provide some interesting information on some WW II bombs found off of Lanai, some plastic eating mushrooms, a proposal in Florida to open up a harvest of Goliath Grouper, an update on traveling to the Bahamas, and more. This latest edition of Your Next Dive takes us to Curacao one of the ABC islands. If you visit Curacao you can opt to stay either on the west sid...

In this installment of Wet Notes I cover the record proposed NOAA budget in 2022, a message in the bottle found in Grand Cayman, some news from Shearwater and more. Poseidon is a company founded by Ingvar Elfstrom in 1958. The company is based in Sweden. Poseidon was an early innovator of regulators with their Poseidon Senior (double hose) and Cyklon Junior (single hose). The company also innovate...

On this episode of Wet Notes I give you an update on Seaspiracy, how scientists are using fin whale songs to map the ocean, the sale of the Luxfer US plant to Metal Impact, a potential new artificial reef in Florida and more. On this edition of Sea Hunt It's Still Alive we review The Alcatraz Story. This episode premiered on January 4, 1959. This time Mike is in San Francisco. He is hired to teach...

On this edition of Wet Note, I talk about REEF Survey Trips in 2022, saving a whale on Maui, new Aqualung branding, a DEMA 2021 update and more. In Part 2 of the Project Sealab 1 Summary report I will cover the mission, the findings, conclusions and recommendations coming from the report that was developed by the Office of Naval Research in 1965. While we were at the height of the space race, the...

On this edition of Wet Notes we give an update on Dive Training Magazine, when will the Caymans open, the fight against plastic pollution and a new Netflix documentary - Seasipiracy and more. Part one of the Project Sealab 1 Summary Report will take you through the build up to the deployment of the Sealab habitat. The report was developed by the Office of Naval Research and published on June 14, 1...

In this premier segment of Wet Notes - Scuba Shack Radio's bi-weekly news segment we talk about using corn starch to dust your dry suit seals, resorts offering Covid testing, big news in the scuba tank business and more. For Your Next Dive we are going to tell you what it is like to go on the Scuba Shack dive trip to the Bahamas where we stay at Orange Hill Beach Resort, dive with Stuart Cove and...

We all use our GPS devices to help us navigate. Great if we are driving our car or looking for a specific location, but right now using GPS to navigate underwater is a bit of a challenge. While there are technologies on the horizon that use GPS for underwater navigation, they are not yet practical. That is where you will need to depend on tried and true underwater navigation techniques. The compas...

A PADI Pro Night is a time to get together with a PADI dive shop to learn more about what it takes to become a leader in the scuba diving community as a PADI Professional. It doesn't matter if you are a seasoned diver or just starting out. A PADI Pro Night will give you the information you will need to make this journey. You will hear from dive professionals and get to ask questions about you can...

The PADI Equipment Specialist course is a combination of electronic learning and classroom that can be either in person or virtual. This course is not a service technician course. Rather it is designed to give you the knowledge of how and why certain pieces of gear work. You will learn the benefits of owning your own gear and then dive into all the gear. The course covers tanks, tank valves, regul...

One of the ways you can ensure that your buoyancy compensating device (BCD) is operating properly is to  make sure that you properly clean and inspect the BCD after diving. First you will want to clean out your bladder. If you've been diving in salt water it is important that you drain and rinse out the bladder to avoid salt crystallization inside. Also, make sure that the over pressurization valv...

Geoengineering can be another weapon in the fight against climate change. Geoengineering refers to large-scale schemes for intervention in the earth's ocean, soil and atmosphere with the aim of reducing the effects of climate change. There are two broad categories of geoengineering - Carbon Geoengineering focused on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and Solar Geoengineering centered around solar radiat...

When is the last time you had your underwater camera system out. If it has been a while you might want to consider taking it out, making sure it was properly cleaned before you put it in storage, and that you do an inventory of all the components. Then familiarize yourself with how to put it all together and make sure that it operates properly. Also, it is a great time to familiarize yourself with...

The Dive Equipment and Marketing Association held it's annual conference virtually this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The show featured a number of virtual presentations that were fairly effective and gave a feel to being there. The exhibitors featured a list of many different vendors. The experience with vendors is one of the big reasons we attend and this is where there were I hope that we...

Tank valves are sometimes taken for granted. Although seemingly simple there are a number of parts deep inside you valve that will deteriorate over time. Tank valves should be periodically overhauled. One recommendation is that you can have it overhauled every five years when you are having your tanks hydrostatic test. Listen for some details about the parts inside the valve and how they work toge...

Decompression theory is the study and modeling of how inert gas gets from our lungs to our body and then how it is released from our body. All decompression models have evolved from the work by John Scott Haldane. Haldane introduced the concept of tissue compartments that take on nitrogen at different rates called half-times. This work was done in the early 1900s. In the mid-1960s, Dr. Robert Work...