Jen and I will have been
married for five years as of June 14th, 2008 and decided to do
something special for our anniversary. We figured that
learning how to SCUBA dive would be cool since both of us are mildly
phobic about the ocean and had never done anything with it before (and
the mountains were getting a bit old so we figured a new hobby might be
in order). We decided to get certified rather than just jump
in with someone because we thought that proper introduction and
training would take something that would otherwise be scary and might
fail and turn it into something fantastic (turns out we were right).
The basic certification requires a few tests, four pool dives, and four
open water dives where you go over scenarios like losing your mask or
needing to make an emergency ascent or needing to use a buddies air
supply , etc. We did our pool work and coursework at
Weaver's Dive Shop
in Boulder. We finished our Open Water
PADI certification in
Cozumel with
Scuba
Tony during a ten day vacation that started with snorkeling
in Akumal, seeing the ruins in Tulum, and ended with 4 days of diving
in the beautiful reefs of Cozumel.
Tony especially is a great guy to work with, the groups are small, the
attention is sincere and focused and he really is good at helping
people work past the initial fears of learning how to become a diver.
His Divemaster Eric and ship captain Carlos are also great
guys and we really appreciated the in between dive fruit, drinks, and
pier pick ups/drop offs at our hotel. As of June 24th, 2008 we have also comlpeted our Nitrox certification.
Update: July 13th - 20th, 2009 We went snorkelling with whale sharks in Holbox and back to Cozumel.
COZUMEL 2008 (9 dives for Jared,
8 dives for Jen)














Update - Jen and I went back to Cozumel in January of 2017. Tony was no longer on the dive trips so we went with
Blue Angel Dive Resort
. Jen had just taken 6 months of swimming lessons and this trip was a
real breakthrough for her. Jen was comfortable and seemed to
really start to enjoy diving. Jen dove 16 times which was almost
half of her previous total and anounced that she wanted to go to Fiji
for our 15th wedding anniversary in June of 2018. We met up with
a bunch of other divers and had a great time diving with them. We
also had dinner with them several times. I want to thank John and
Becky and Stuart, Kathy, Jake, and Jared for making this such a fun
trip for us. It was a great time for us. We also saw our first
sea horse and a strange companionship between a giant moray eel and a
nurse shark that seem to bed down together.
Jared - PADI Open Water, Nitrox
Jen - PADI Open Water, Nitrox
Jared
-Cozumel 2008 - 9 dives, max depth 80 feet, drift diving, 1 wreck dive, 1 solo dive
-Cozumel July 2009 - 11 dives, max depth 111 feet, drift diving, first night
dive, first dives with back plate and wings from Deep Sea Supply, 5-6
lbs weight, no wet suit,many nurse sharks, many turtles, very cool parrot
fish, first octopus, first time diving with a computer (Sunto Vyper 2)
awesome dives with Brian Morsony, TImothy Hallinan, and Brianna Harp.
-Buffalo 2010 (July), 3 wreck dives, 20 ft visibility, first freshwater dive, 15-28 feet, with Nate and Phil.
-Bonaire February 2011, 18 dives, max depth 132 feet, 2 night
dives, 17 nitrox dives, many shore dives. Biggest Moray
ever. One wreck dive at the Hilma Hooker, one aborted dive due to
tremendous numbers of upside down jellyfish. With Brian, Tim, and
Bri.
-Kona and Honolulu July/August 2015, 19 dives, manta ray dive, 2 night
dives, 12 shore dives, blackwater/pelagic dive, 4 certification dives
with Brandon Gracey on Oahu. With Tim, Bri, and Brian.
-Cozumel January 2017, 17 dives, 1 shore dive, first sea horse, dived with Blue Angel
-Roatan, June 2018, 14 dives, many seahorses, "One Eyed Willie" the friendly moray eal, light on fish, dove with Turquoise Bay
-Kauai, June 2019, 10 dives, 3 shore, 4 Kauai boat, 3 Ni'ihau, best
dives ever, we are going to do a liveaboard next year. Pelagic stuff is mind
blowing. Learned about a place named Socorro from our guides at Sea
Sport Divers (great op), I have to go there. I think these are the dives
that motivate me to take diving to the next level.
Hawaii June 2022, 9 dives, frst post covid trip, Jen and I alone for ou 19th wedding anniversary
Total - 110 dives
Jen
-Cozumel 2008 - 8 dives, max depth 80 feet, drift diving, 1 wreck dive.
-Cozumel July 2009 - 5 dives, max depth 111 feet, drift diving, first night
dive, first dives with back plate and wings from Deep Sea Supply, 3-4
lbs no, wet suit, many nurse sharks, many turtles, very cool
parrot fish, awesome dives with Brian Morsony, TImothy Hallinan, and
Brianna Harp.
-Bonaire February 2011, 13 dives, max depth 125 feet (on air), 2 night dives, 12 nitrox dives,
many shore dives. Biggest Moray ever. With Brian, Tim, and Bri.
-Kona July/August 2015, 11 dives, manta ray dive, 1 night
dive, 9 shore dives. With Tim, Bri, and Brian.
-Cozumel January 2017, 16 dives, 1 shore dive, first sea horse, dived with Blue Angel
-Roatan, June 2018, 14 dives, many seahorses, "One Eyed Willie" the friendly moray eal, light on fish, dove with Turquoise Bay
-Kauai, June 2019, 10 dives, 3 shore, 4 Kauai boat, 3 Ni'ihau, best
dives ever, we are going to do a liveaboard next year. Pelagic stuff is mind
blowing. Learned about a place named Socorro from our guides at Sea
Sport Divers (great op), I have to go there. I think these are the dives
that motivate me to take diving to the next level.
Hawaii June 2022, 9 dives, frst post covid trip, Jen and I alone for ou 19th wedding anniversary
Total - 86 dives
Scuba Tony - A great dive master in Cozumel
SCUBA Board - A very informative and friendly forum
Deep Sea Supply - A maker of back plate/wing BCDs, highg quality and the owner gives a great deal of personal attention
Tech Diving Limited - A good Source of SCUBA equipment from a small, personal shop
Ocean First Divers - A good, Boulder based dive shop, offers technical courses
PADI - Information from the largest certification agency in the United States
Greatful Diver's School of Diving - Great Articles