Lionfish are an invasive species already spread throughout the Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Their simple presence along with organized culling increases the likelihood of envenomation of recreational divers and fishermen. You can find more detailed information about the Lionfish Invasion and how you can help at www.reef.org/lionfish. Ensure your know how to handle marine life injuries as well as everyday first aid emergencies by signing up for a first aid course. Statistics show that with knowledge on how to handle first aid emergencies - your incident of injury is reduced - information results in prevention. Don't be reactive - be proactive.
A Great Week – completed another EFR - Instructor course – congratulations everyone, a great beginning to new career opportunities! Mentored a former EFR Instructor candidate (one of my joys is not only helping people move forward to the professional level but also assisting when they feel a little nervous). Great stuff! EFR Instructor Course Special ends soon – so register if you want to take advantage of great pricing! Remember - we can set a date that works best for you! Our Local (Calgary) area waters are opening - take a look at specialty courses (my website lists just a few - let me know if you want something more) and of course there is always the Pro Level to consider - Livein' the dream! Take a look at the travel page – Belize is happening in October with dives to all the fav hot spots accompanied by a fantastic crew – Declan and Lucie! And if you haven’t looked at the upcoming Bahamas trip – it is over half sold and the AquaCat is featured as a dive destination by Sport Diver Magazine this month – take a look! Now more classes – alas, in Mexico! Adios Amigos!
Livein' the Dream! PADI.com/Blog/2013/02/10 Exploring our blue planet is one of the best things about being a scuba diver. You’ll go places people have never heard of and see things others can only imagine. But before you can giant stride into a magical underwater wonderland, you have to pack…and sometimes pay an airline to take your gear. The solution: wear your scuba gear on the plane! All kidding aside, here are some quick tips to make your next dive trip a little easier.
Now that you're excited and thinking about travel - check out the travel opportunities we have coming up! Belize is always on the 'to do' list for divers and Declan and Lucie know how to make sure we have a great time. They have a cozy laid-back oasis in Belize that we'll be visiting in October - be sure to sign on - all the dive sites we will be visiting are regularly on the 'must dive' list of top scuba diver publications and our Captain Declan has the skills to ensure we have a fantastic time! We are boarding the Aqua Cat out of Bahamas for a live-aboard trip in March of 2014 - this luxury vessel has everything for divers and non-divers. Aqua Cat has a 30 foot jet drive boat that is dedicated to eco adventures or taking any non-diving passengers to the beach or fishing. Kayaks are on board for exploring some of the uninhabited islands of the Exuma Cays. Aqua Cat will be like our own private yacht that offers up to 5 dives per day as well as non diving activities in a beautiful island chain of the Bahamas and it's all inclusive - can't beat that! Over Half Sold - so don't wait! Just in case you didn't think about it - travel is a great opportunity to enhance your dive skills - I can provide you with the courses you'd like to take in a relaxing no-pressure environment - your vacation. Don't hesitate to ask when you sign on for your trip.
EFR® Courses are Approved by Worksafe / Travail sécuritaire New Brunswick, Canada Great news! Approval has been granted by Worksafe / Travail sécuritaire New Brunswick, Canada to Emergency First Response Corp. to provide first aid training (Workplace Standard First Aid Course) in the Province of New Brunswick Canada. This is in addition to approval by Canada Occupational Safety and Health and the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and recognition by the Province of Alberta. This means that, effective immediately, EFR instructors can offer workplace first aid training courses using new, Canada-approved EFR course ware. The new course ware is available now. Get in on the action by using these government approvals to ramp up your revenue by offering workplace First Aid Courses to local businesses. Why Emergency First Response? Because, when you’re an EFR Instructor, you experience some wonderful advantages:
www.calgaryfirefighters.org I'm not a hat person. Not that I don't like hats – some people do a fantastic job of wearing a hat. And of course there seems to be some kind of a cult regarding hats in Britain that gets some pretty good media coverage. But, not being a hat wearer, I was surprised by how many hats I have and that I actually have favourites. Interestingly enough, all my hats have to do with Scuba Diving! Wouldn't have thought that scuba diving would support such a collection – but it has. The first hat I acquired was the CFD hat – on a trip to Halifax in 2003 I was on the deck of our dive boat which didn't have a canopy – very soon I realized I needed something to protect my fair head and acquired my hubby's hat (he had two). That hat became my go-to whenever I put my dive gear together and still is my most often packed piece of equipment. www.padi.com My second favourite is my PADI Course Director hat. I don't wear it often (would hate to loose it!) but whenever I see it I am reminded of the hard work, but fun times and fine friends made during my PADI Course Director Training Course in Santo Domingo. Our team won second place in our presentation to James Morgan - Vice President of PADI Training. My hat was my reward – Awesome! www.thescap.com My third favourite – some might say isn't really a hat but you'd have to appreciate that in diving – it's a hat! I love that it keeps my hair out of my eyes when diving and also from being wound around my mask strap but mostly cause it looks BAD! And, when I'm teaching kids in the pool they always want it! www.seafear.com My next hat is actually a purchase I made just because I really liked it! Not bad for a 'not a hat person'. While hanging out with my buddies Mitch Craft and Bryan Eslava at Down Under Dive Shop in Alabama (www.downunderdiveshop.com) I was scoping out all their cool gear and accessories and spotted this hat – I actually wear it just because. It's the first not-utilitarian hat I have ever owned! www.TerrapinWetsuits.com A new favourite is again an underwater hat. I had a nasty fall in the summer of 2012 and as a result I needed some head protection when diving so that my mask strap didn't annoy my newly acquired scar tissue. So, wanting to at least have a little fun with the calamity, I researched dive hoods and found the 'crash test dummy' which seemed somewhat apropos. Great fun while diving in Australia! And speaking of Australia, my last hat was purchased 'down under' from a little shop attached to a post office in Cairns. Again, I needed something to protect my fair head and the CFD hat sat right on top of my aforementioned scar tissue – so this was the perfect answer and it cost all of $2.95 Aus. Pretty good I'd say! Do you have a favourite hat and story? Share! Jill Heinerth. Photo: Courtesy of Jill Heinerth OUTSIDE ONLINE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012 MY PERFECT ADVENTURE: JILL HEINERTH The world’s top female underwater explorer, whose ideal day would be spent below sea level, tells us what it’s like to skirt death for a living, why she reveres Ernest Shackleton, and that Libya’s on her bucket list By: AVITAL ANDREWS My Perfect Adventure The world's best athletes and biggest names in exploration open up. Cave diver Jill Heinerth sold everything she owned to get away from office life and become an underwater explorer. The gamble paid off: She’s now considered by many to be the best female scuba diver in the world. Her records include being the first person in the caves of Antarctic icebergs, going farther into an underwater cave than any other woman ever, and being the first human to visit many underwater places. When the Women Divers Hall of Fame was established in 2000, she was among the inaugural inductees. Heinerth is also a writer, a photographer, and a producer. She wrote three books about deep caving and underwater photography and has made TV series and documentaries for PBS, National Geographic, and the BBC. The aquanaut works as an underwater consultant for Hollywood movies—having helped James Cameron and other big-name directors—and for manufacturers that develop new diving technologies. As a keynote speaker, she holds forth on risk assessment among other topics. Over the course of her many expeditions, she developed a deep and abiding devotion to conservation. Her upcoming documentary, We Are Water, is about how fresh water is vital to human life. Here, Heinerth discusses her We Are Water Project, extols the virtues of failure, tells of how Jacques Cousteau and Sylvia Earle inspired her, and ruminates on how photography just might convince others that they, too, can do the seemingly impossible. Describe your perfect day, from dawn 'til dusk. Where would you be, who would you meet, and what would you do? I am in my element when I am swimming through the veins of Mother Earth, exploring the planet’s shadowy recesses. The ominous doorways of underwater caves repel most people but I am attracted to the constricted corridors and relying on delicate technology for every sustaining breath. So my perfect day would begin by tinkering with my life-support gear and cameras, preparing to shed light on some unexplored cave. There are a few people with whom I trust my life and though some of my exploration work is solo, sharing moments with these special few is fantastic. Drinking coffee and carefully knotting line for our survey reels, we'd dream of vast rock cathedrals decorated with intricate marvels. Emptying reels into the dark corridors, we'd swim through some of the most stunning galleries imaginable. Bringing home the survey and photos would end the day on the highest note. If you could travel somewhere you've never been, where would you go and why? Though the political climate makes it challenging, I want to explore springs in Libya. The Nubian Aquifer lies below the Western Desert and I have explored some of the desert oases on the Egyptian side of the border, but there is great promise for cave exploration in resurgence springs on the other side. I'm also eager to explore some of the great Karst regions of China and the submerged caves that dot their landscape. Where is the best place you've ever visited? What made it so special? The most remarkable expedition of my life was to Antarctica. We departed from New Zealand in a small boat, following Shackleton's historic route to the Ross Ice Shelf. Our plan was to intercept the largest moving object on the planet, the B15 iceberg, and be the first people to dive inside the caves within this massive piece of ice. Traveling to Antarctica is like going to another planet. Taking the 12-day voyage to the Ross Sea is just as dangerous: Even before reaching our destination, we battled 60-foot seas, got frozen in the pack ice, and faced unimaginable risk. When we launched our cave-diving and science program, the risks got even greater. I'm very proud of having stayed safe in such a challenging environment and thrilled to have had such a unique opportunity to take a look at the realities of global climate change. If you could have lunch with any adventurer or explorer, living or dead, who would it be and why? Ernest Shackleton. He was one of the greatest leaders our world has ever known. In the face of desperate challenges, he led his team to safety after losing their vessel to the clutches of the Ross Sea pack ice. Few of us could imagine living outdoors for two years, but he took his entire crew across the Southern Ocean to South Georgia with few supplies and barely adequate clothing. His bravery saved his team from almost certain death. What’s something you can’t travel without? And why do you need it? I simply can't travel without a camera. In kindergarten, I loved show and tell, and I suppose I never lost the love of sharing what I’ve seen or done. The experiences I have during expeditions can be difficult to fully describe. By sharing photos and films of my work, I get the chance to inspire people to take things on that might otherwise seem impossible. When you arrive somewhere new, what’s usually first on your agenda? I seek out indigenous people and humbly try to make a friend who might offer key local knowledge. Whether I know the language or not, I try to find someone willing to take part in my adventure by being a guide or a sherpa or simply helping me understand a new culture. If you give people respect, they will give you so much more in exchange. It’s a very small world and ultimately we all have more in common than not. When I have brought local people onto my team, they have responded with incredible generosity and made my trips unforgettable. What motivates you to keep diving? Sometimes I think I am more comfortable underwater than on the surface. Gravity is not really my friend. I've gone over the handlebars of my bicycle, fallen off my motorcycle, and rolled my van on the way to an expedition. Despite the fact that some call cave diving the world's most dangerous sport, I find great peace underwater. Perhaps I am having separation anxiety from the womb. Some of us water babies find that bond tougher to break than others. As a child, what was your dream job? If you gave up that dream, when and why did your plans change, and do you have any regrets? I wanted to be an astronaut. I recall seeing the lunar rover zipping around on the moon as a young kid at school, watching the excitement play out on a crackling black-and-white television. While other kids fidgeted, I was riveted. Early on, I was told that girls could not be astronauts—and no space traveler came from my Canadian homeland. Watching Jacques Cousteau on TV, I thought that might the next best thing. I shifted my dreams to becoming an aquanaut, exploring new frontiers underwater. When and how did you get into underwater exploration? My first career was in graphic design and advertising. I had a successful business by day but was spending every night and weekend teaching scuba and traveling to Tobermory to dive the remarkable shipwrecks in Lake Huron. I simply had to find a way to mix my two loves of creativity and the undersea world. So I sold my business and everything I owned and packed my dive gear and camera and moved to the Cayman Islands to try to make that dream a reality. I began exploring caves in the islands and started traveling to the U.S. to refine my skills. Finally, after three years, I moved to northern Florida, a cave diver's mecca. In 1995, I participated in an exploration project led by Dr. Bill Stone and knew this was the course I wanted to follow. Every opportunity since then has been a product of volunteering and working hard to take on new challenges. What's one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring explorer? Get used to embracing failure. It’s an important facet of exploration. We learn a lot from failure, and it often leads us in new directions that bring better opportunities. It’s also important to be able to get within a hair's breadth of your goal and turn away from the prize in order to save your life. Some would call that failure, but I think a more apt name for it is survival. There will always be another day and if you are going to play this game, you have to understand and respect limits. My life depends on finding the finite balance between fear and discovery. A bad decision, and my name and legacy would be added to the long list of cave divers who have perished in the seductive blackness. I've written far too many eulogies and even had to recover the bodies of friends from the dark recesses. I hope I can honor their lives by learning from their mistakes.Who has been your most influential role model or mentor? What did he or she teach you? Dr. Sylvia Earle has been a huge role model—she pushed the bounds of a predominately male endeavor. Though small in stature, she is enormous in dreams. Never taking no for an answer, she furthered technology, influenced important environmental policies, and made countless contributions to science and discovery. Years ago, I had the opportunity to introduce Earle to the Cis-Lunar MK5 rebreather. She accompanied me into a muddy bay on a stormy day and, despite the poor visibility, she took advantage of every available moment because she loved being underwater. Even in the worst conditions, her heart was filled with the joy and potential of discovering something rare or new. She embodies the raw passion that you feel when you are doing the one thing in life that makes you whole. Do you have a life philosophy? I believe that nothing is impossible and that the only barriers are the ones within our own imagination. If we look at exploration as a great puzzle, then we only need to put together the right pieces to make the picture whole. Have you ever made a mistake or experienced a near accident that made you think twice about getting that far underwater again? A couple of years ago, I had a harrowing dive during which my buddy was wedged in a tight space in front of me. With my exit blocked and our guideline broken, I wasn’t sure I was coming home that night. In the darkness of silt, I lost track of my dive partner and had to retreat back into the murk to make sure I wasn’t leaving her behind. While patching the broken guideline, I made a slow and careful search of the cave, throttling a failing air supply on and off with every breath. It took every bit of concentration and control I could muster. I emerged from the cave more than an hour after she’d successfully made it out. I was relieved that she was safe—and am not sure if I’d still be cave diving if we had not both made it out. If you had to choose a different career, what would it be and why? Besides dying, there are a lot of other risks that could end a diving career. I've had to think about what I would do if I was not able to dive anymore. If I had unlimited time and resources, there are scientific avenues I would like to explore, but I would also want to spend more time furthering my We Are Water Project. The wars of the next century will be fought over water rather than oil. Teaching basic water literacy is important for the masses—we all need to know where our water comes from, how we pollute it, and how we can preserve it for future generations. What are three things you still want to cross off your bucket list? I'm going to cross one item off my bucket list next summer when my husband and I ride our bicycles more than 4,600 miles across Canada unsupported. But I would still like to dive in the Galapagos Islands, dive into the Marianas Trench, and pilot a Newt Suit, which is a one-atmosphere articulated swimmable submarine. Jill Heinerth and Robert McClellan will be presenting We Are Water - May 28 2013, 7 PM at Genesis Place, Airdrie AB. Contact Leisure Dive Canada 403-980-3483 to reserve your seat! It's Free!
Approximately two-thirds of divers with decompression illness experience damage to their nervous system. These signs are often vague and can go unrecognized by the diver, causing the symptoms to be dismissed as insignificant or not dive related and delaying treatment. Additionally, stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability. Recognizing signs and symptoms of a possible stroke and activating EMS can minimize lasting effects. The Neurological Assessment course focuses on how to obtain essential information about an individual involved in a dive emergency or suspected of having a stroke and what information to relay to emergency medical services. The DAN Neurological Assessment course is designed to:
Only medical professionals should diagnose medical conditions. The information you gather while performing a neurological assessment can be useful to the emergency physician in understanding the extent of the injury and how it has changed during the time it took to transport the patient to definitive care. **Divers Alert Network: Website - Courses - Neurological Assessment; 2013-04-02 Google Maps strives to provide people around the globe with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world - including the underwater world. This ocean collection includes six of the world's most incredible underwater spots, including coral reefs (and their inhabitants) in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii. This imagery is available to millions of people through the Street View feature of Google Maps and in our Street View Gallery at: maps.google.com/ocean. These images were collected by our partner, The Catlin Seaview Survey: http://www.catlinseaviewsurvey.com Although I am not in a position to post directly to Facebook, my page will be updated for me until such time that I may be able to do so again myself. Our three ships the Steve Irwin, Bob Barker and Sam Simon docked without incident at Williamstown to a warm reception from friends, family and supporters. The Australian Federal Police did not board the ships as they have done in the past and Customs and Immigration went smoothly and quickly. After five months at sea for the Steve Irwin and three months at sea for the Bob Barker and the Sam Simon, the crews were happy indeed to step onshore again and all the more happy to return after such a successful season of interventions against the illegal whaling activities of the Japanese whaling fleet. So now we move from blocking whalers at sea to fighting them in the courts. I believe that justice will prevail and that the bogus charges against Sea Shepherd and myself will be successfully countered with the evidence. But be that as it will, the fact remains that the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is a sanctuary both in fact and in law and preventing whales from being slaughtered in a sanctuary for whales is the right thing to do and we are all dedicated to doing so. The international crew of Sea Shepherd volunteers on all four ships did an incredible job this year. I hope that many of them will return if we need to go back. Some will, and some will not. It is a big commitment to take so much time, to take such risks in such cold and unpredictable weather in such a remote and hostile environment and to do so without pay. Many of the crew made personal sacrifices to join the campaign. For some they cannot afford to return but I am sure however that there are many passionate people waiting for the opportunity to sign on for the next campaign. In the meantime we need to repair the ships. We are at a disadvantage because Sea Shepherd USA cannot provide funds for the repair of the ships. So we are looking for welders, engineers, electricians, carpenters, and plumbers in addition to donations of funds and materials in Australia. As for me, I remain at sea, out of reach of Japan’s angry, long and powerful tentacles. The situation is what it is and the very fact that Japan so desperately wishes to silence me gives me assurances that we are hurting their whaling operations tremendously. Japan is a powerfully rich nation and they are used to taking what they want from the sea without opposition. I am but one person and Sea Shepherd is but one small non-governmental organization yet we have brought their glorified welfare whale murdering program to its knees. The whalers have the money, the political influence and an army of lawyers and public relations firms. They have the full support of the Japanese government and they have the support of the Yakusa. We only have the passion of people worldwide who want to see whaling ended and the whale sanctuaries protected. I think that passion is stronger than their greed and will allow us to vanquish the whalers from the Southern Ocean. We may lose, the courts may destroy us, Japan may capture me and lock me away for years or forever. The whaling fleet may return with more subsidies and military support. But if I am not leading the Sea Shepherd ships, others will. If they tear Sea Shepherd apart, another organization will arise. If they destroy our ships, they will be replaced. I am confident that for as long as Japan attempts to kill whales in the Sanctuary, they will be opposed. If we can’t save whales in a whale sanctuary, we won’t be able to save anything in the sea from being eradicated in the name of human short sightedness and greed. Operation Zero Tolerance is officially over. Now Sea Shepherd will carry on, working on other campaigns to protect the dolphins at Taiji, the pilot whales in the Faeroes, the seals in Namibia, the sharks in the South Pacific, the tuna in the Mediterranean, the fishes off the coast of Africa and our work to defend the Galapagos National Park Marine Reserve. To each and every person who made Operation Zero Tolerance a success, a sincere and grateful "Thank you." |
AuthorsLana Taylor - Avid Diver and PADI Course Director. - Favorite Quote: "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about?" Who We Work WithDiveStrong Canada is Proudly associated with the Following Dive Centres:
Dive Live - PADI 5* IDC Center, Playa del Carmen, Mx.
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