Jenna, I’m going out on the town tonight. Hey, it’s Friday in West End. As as a Coconut Tree Dive Instructor, it’s my professional duty to fraternize with the customers. After all, “I’m only going for one.” Call it Rumdowners, Sunny D’s, whatever… Sundowners Beach Bar is always the first stop along the “West End Drift Dive”.

I feel that it is only fair to the diving community to illustrate why I am so vigilant against stupidly deep diving. Look closely… Tank. BCD. Regulator. Slates. The abandoned weight belt lies some twenty feet below. The depth? 370 feet (112m). The reason? A dead diver. Mind you, I was never stupid enough to see this site myself whilst scuba diving. Even with a Trimix tec rig and a proper dive plan, this depth is more than a bit insane. No, this eerie shot was taken from the safety of Karl Stanley’s deep diving submersible Idabel. Diving is a very safe sport when done properly— though complete safety is never guaranteed, proper practices have consistently shown to successfully mitigate » read more «

Believe it or not, the best dive course you’ll ever take has nothing to do with scuba diving. As a PADI Instructor, there’s a lot of dive courses I love teaching. There’s nothing like seeing a student take their first breaths underwater during the Open Water Course, or watching divers make the crucial improvements in self-awareness in the PADI Rescue Course. However, one course always seems to get glossed over in the PADI system: the Emergency First Response course. It’s sad, too, because in my honest opinion this is the single most important course anyone can take. The day-to-day applications of Emergency First Response course extend far beyond scuba diving. In just the last year, I have: Dealt with the » read more «

Warning: Today’s content is not PETA-friendly. Tonight Tree, myself, and the rest of the Cult of Coconut will be having Dinner. I remember when Tree first told me about Dinner. Bounding into the shop with a toothy grin, he announces, “Stevie, I got a pig.” “A pig?” “Yep. A pig. Bought it off Fred. He’s raisin’ it for me.” “What are you going to do with the pig?” “I’m gonna kill it and eat it. Have a luau.” “Are you gonna name it?” “Yeah, Dinner.” Can’t wait to tell you how Dinner tastes!