Wall Dive - Profound and Vast

We received another detailed summary from the Underwater Discovery Winterim Group.  Words can't describe the underwater world they've experienced, so we look forward to seeing more photos and video from them when they return.

Tanning With Tanner at South Water Caye, Belize.

A week and a half ago, we arrived in Belize. None of us imagined the experiences that we would soon undergo. It’s a shame that it will all be over so soon but all good things have to come to an end. Yesterday we completed our dive training. After a series of open water dives and some academic class work we have finally become certified open water divers. Today (Wednesday) was our first free dive. As a group we descended to around 70 feet.  We were wall diving which means we dove along the side of the reef wall. The marine ecosystem on the wall is profound and vast. It would be impossible to write down everything that caught our eye, but among some things that stood out we saw a sea turtle, lion fish, trumpet fish, moray eel, and tubular sponges as high as four feet. After our dive today Tanner and I put together a video of our experience on the island. We have learned so much on the island and most of that is because of the wonderful staff here at IZE. Everybody is engaged with one another and that has made it very easy to befriend the locals and develop relationships with them in such a short amount of time. And obviously we have all been getting tanner with Tanner. Special thanks to Winterim models Craig Waldie and Erik Ekberg

Sincerely, Adrian and Tanner

They Descend

Salyna posted on the LA Winterim FB page the update for Monday from Underwater Discovery. Check out that site to read about their first view of Nemo's home!

Post by Salyna Anza.

This update was received from Mr. Brescia and Andrew regarding yesterday's (Tuesday's) diving adventures:

Today (Tuesday), we became certified divers, which means it is our last day that we are obligated to be with an instructor at a depth of up to 60 feet. We spent a good portion of our dives at “the wall,” where we were on the edge of a 500- or 600-foot drop-off. We saw a host of marine life at this location of the reef, including barracudas, eagle rays, and parrot fish.

Declan Kelly, our dive master, began the day with instructions not to touch the bottom or come in contact with any of the coral, which we learned the other day is “built” by polyps acting like “microscopic masons.” We needed to practice only two skills in our first dive, mask removal at 45 feet and demonstrating how we had mastered neutral buoyancy using our oral inflater. This required that we remove our regulator two or three times in order to inflate our BCDs sufficiently to “hover” without touching the bottom.

On our first dive, we reached 60 feet and stayed there approximately 10 minutes before exploring the wall and then surfacing; on the second dive, we submerged at a different location of the same coral structure, and it was there that we all had our closest encounter with a spotted eagle ray, which glided by with much less effort than we needed to keep breathing while witnessing such grace. Nearly everyone took off their wet suits for the second dive to experience the gradual change in temperature during the descent. Ralph Flores, aka Tuff Love, challenged Mr. Brescia to a “game” of air consumption: he would descend with 600 psi and return with plenty of air when the rest of us would need no less than 1500 psi to complete the dive. Mr. Brescia surfaced with approximately 1200 psi and Ralph had 150, confirming that the dive masters have learned to consume a fraction of air needed by the rest of us.

Armed with a camera, Islambek Mussayev took nearly 100 photos, one of which features these two bloggers, Andrew Jean and Mr. Brescia. (see above)

At the end of our two dives, Declan gathered us all together for a group photo and told us to  be ready for our first open-water dive as fully certified open water divers tomorrow (Wednesday)!

Under the Sea...Down Where it's Wetter

The group in Belize has been able to communicate with us regularly.  If you are following the Lawrence Academy Facebook page, then you've probably read some of their posts about coconut grinding, practice diving, and discovering giant hermit crabs!

Grinding coconut

Day 7 at South Water Caye, Belize

Today (Saturday) was our second time scuba diving and we did confined water dive at about 14 feet. We did some skills under the water, starting from the oral inflation of the BCD to cramp removals, but most of the people found it the most difficult to swim 30 feet without the masks. Luckily, everybody passed the swimming test!

We caught a hermit crab just off the shore of the island. Also, we found a mollusk and the cooks made us ceviche on the spot. Tomorrow, we will go on our first open water dive at 25 feet!! And on Wednesday we will do our final dive at around 60 feet and observe the second largest coral reef in the world.

-Islambek & Jin

Dive instruction

Deep Diving Do's

This update comes directly from students in the Underwater Discovery Winterim.  This explains a bit about what they need to do in order to venture out into deeper water.

Greetings from Belize!

Today (Friday) every student learned the basics of scuba diving in the water, and what to do in emergency situations. In two groups we took a boat into a shallow part of the coral reef.  There we learned how to clear the water out of our masks in case they were flooded while we were underwater. We also learned how to control our buoyancy so we were parallel to the ocean floor. We practiced what to do in case we ran out of oxygen, which can be a very scary feeling. Along with all of this we saw an eagle ray scoping out the ocean floor. On Sunday we will be deep sea scuba diving through the reefs because we will know all of the proper techniques.

Maddy and Katie

P.S. Tomorrow we tackle the final part of our test, wish us luck!!

They passed their test!!

Underwater Discovery has posted some news to the Winterim Facebook page and they've sent us this recent update: (This is the only group photo we have so far, although we're sure they have taking many while there and we hope to see them and more beautiful ocean views!)

Hey there it’s Hannah and Lizzy blogging from Belize! 

Today (Thursday) we started off with preparing for our scuba diving by doing part one of our exam. Good news  -  we all passed! It took about four hours though so… after we were done we took a nice long swim in the ocean with the whole group. Played some football and saw some seahorses swimming about in the sun. Are you guys jealous?! You should be. :)

We then snorkeled to research the turtle grass habitat. As well as seeing a bunch of little fish and a lot of grass, we saw two sting rays swimming right next to us and also a little shark! Don’t worry, it wasn’t Jaws. Linden, our main local guide, calmed us down with a special requested chocolate concoction. 

Tomorrow (Friday) we are going out for our very first dive in our scuba gear! We are all really excited and nervous, but at least we will look amazing in our gear!

That’s it for now, stay tuned for Belize tomorrow (Friday).

Going Under

Underwater Discovery finally gets "under water" by doing some snorkeling on Tuesday, March 5th. We learned about their day though a Facebook email sent by Craig and Erik:

Post by Lawrence Academy Winterim.

A Plane, A Backwards Moving Bus, and A Speed Boat

What do these have in common? The Underwater Discovery group used all three to travel to their island off the coast of Belize yesterday.  Mr. Brescia sent us a report of the day (see below) and beautiful photo. (Yes, they were swimming at sunset while those in NE bundled up for the brutal cold!)

Departing from Logan Airport at 5:40 AM on Day 1 (March 3), Mr. Johnson and I settled into our seats on American Airlines flight 1429 happy with how all 17 students enrolled in Underwater Discovery 2014 had arrived at the Schoolhouse so that we could leave on time! Our connecting flight in Miami landed in Belize City, where many sleep-deprived aspiring SCUBA divers lined up to speak with customs officers, and, by 1:30 EST, everyone was on the sidewalk waiting for our ride to the coast. After sorting out the only snafu of the day devoted to traveling, we boarded a bus for a three-hour ride, which began on the two-lane George Price Highway, heading west toward Guatemala, and continued south along Hummingbird Highway, at times squeezing across some very narrow bridges. Quickly, we learned that Belize's towns command respect from motorists thanks to their "sleeping policemen," the speed bumps that bring traffic nearly to standstill. Along the way, after noting how many houses stood on stilts, we passed the Belize City Zoo, countless general stores, Coca-Cola stands, acres and acres of fragrant orange groves and at least two plants producing juice for export. 

With approximately 30 minutes remaining to that trip, the driver slowed the bus to a stop, with the bus pointed downhill, and then took his foot off the brake. Mysteriously, the white school bus slowly moved backwards (uphill) because, explained, of a strong magnetic pull at that location. He explained that this phenomenon was discovered by workers who first laid the surface of this main thoroughfare. Finally, we arrived at the docks, and within minutes we were knifing through the ocean in a race with another speed boat carrying our luggage to our final destination, the South Water Caye (pronounced "key") Marine Field Station, which shares an island with the Smithsonian. That bumpy but exciting ride lasted about 40 minutes. Before sitting down to a wonderful dinner of meatloaf and pasta with an Alfredo sauce, everyone dipped into the ocean before dinner with me impersonating a lifeguard. The day ended officially with Richard, a member of the management staff, presenting a short video about the field station and then offering comments to highlight the importance of conserving energy and especially water. Unofficially, the students lounged on the dock looking for phosphorescent squid and decompressing from a day of new sights and experiences.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), the SCUBA-related instruction begins! Katie Laughlin and Caroline Cort have already volunteered to post our next report, and the other pairs of students will follow suit.