I recently had the opportunity to dive Mammoth Scuba Park (map, photos) in Clute, TX. The dive park is located behind a Hydrosports Scuba shop (a full service dive shop that includes air fills and rental gear) and is an abandoned clay pit. The pit is (has) filled due to the water table in the area. The owners are going to great lengths to make the park as nice as possible including placing many items of interest in the lake, taking steps to improve visibility as much as possible and populating the lake with flora and fauna.

I’ve added a couple of surface shots from my recent trip to Florida for Narcosis Management class. I’ve also added several swing dancing photos from the Harvest Moon Ball held at Rice in October..

PSAI released their new Cavern Diver manual at Dema in Orlando featuring one of my photos as the cover. I’ve added a digital of it to my Tear Sheet album.

It looks like I will finally be able to do my PSAI narcosis management. A friend of mine (Carl Griffing) will be teaching me levels 1 through 3 at lake Travis and then if nothing changes, I will be taking level 4, 5 and possibly (psychology and physiology allowing) 6 with the legendary Hal Watts (deep air world record holder) at 40 Fathoms Grotto in Ocala Florida.

This past weekend (well Saturday anyway), Darin and I went to Travis for some good old lake diving. The past year and half have been some what difficult in terms of diving at Travis. First the lake is 40+ feet low, then in the course of less than 3 months it transitioned to flooding conditions with the lake closed for several weeks.

I will be attending DUI’s first Dog Days (dry suit demo) in central Texas this weekend at lake Travis. For those that have never been to a Dog Days, it is a chance to try any of the equipment DUI sells, including each and every model of dry suit they sell and it is almost free. Qualified instructors and dive masters are there to help if you are not a certified dry suit diver too.

I just returned from my long anticipated trip to San Jose and Monterey for a combination of diving and visiting a friend. This time around I went equipped with my very own custom cut DUI Signature series CF200 dry suit. Having a suit that fits makes all the difference. Due to limited time Bob and I only did 3 dives and I chose not to carry the camera due to lowish vis. Even so, the dives were very nice. I even ran into several seals on two different dives.

After a diving packed Christmas trip to Ginnie with Evelyn Dudus, the rest of the winter has been diving free thanks to a busy work schedule, as well as my other hobbies. In the past 2 months I’ve been to the race track 4 times with the new race car and I’m happy to say it is wonderful to be back behind the wheel racing after several years without a car. For the time being I’ve satisfied my racing need and now it is time to get back in the water.

I now own a Dry Suit (DUI Signature Series CF200) and I will be using it in early April in California, and at Lake Travis in late April for the first central Texas DUI Dog Days. Another cave diving trip to Florida is also in the works for May.