February 18, 2006

Great Diving News For Alabama!!

Read about it here ===>>>> SUCCESS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

June 16, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Divers,

If you have been by The SCUBA School lately then you know we have been training multiple classes daily for the past few months. Lots of students means lots of trips and many of our divers have already completed several dives this year with SSDS. Just last week another group of ours returned from Bonaire. In less than a year we have taken over 70 divers to this shore diving Island. Here are a few pictures from the last Bonaire trip, with many more HERE.





We have been taking groups on their checkout dives to the Florida Panhandle every four weeks as well as several shallow water wreck trips to Panama City, FL. Steve is currently camping on the coast of Nome, Alaska where he is every Summer. He will more than likely acquire another couple of hundred dives or so in the Bering Sea in his quest for gold. In the next few weeks we have three different types of dive trips you might want to participate in.
 

6/27-6/29 Oriskany Wreck Trip, Orange Beach
Southern Skin Divers Supply will be diving this weekend from one of the largest and fastest dive boats in the Panhandle area. We have chartered this boat along with its crew for the entire weekend privately. This is not a spearfishing trip! Leave your guns at home. Bring your camera instead. Saturday there will be two dives made on the USS Oriskany, the largest wreck ever sunk as an artificial reef in the world. It is getting more sea life on it every day. This wreck lies about 23 miles off the coast of Pensacola, FL. On Sunday morning we will dive with the same group on two other dives in the area. This trip will be in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area. There are limited spaces available on this trip so call us for more details.


7/11-7/13 South Carolina River trip
This 3 day dive adventure is the fossilized shark teeth/artifact diving that we do every couple of months. Along with shark's teeth, usually we find Dugong and Whale bones and even land animals like Mammoth and Mastodons (Just like the ones we have on display at The SCUBA School). These historic rivers also contain other isolated finds like pottery and bottles and even the occasional Native American Indian artifact. Divers usually get 7 to 9 long dives in 20 to 40 ft of water on this three day trip. This trip includes transportation from near Birmingham, all diving, tank rentals and air fills, hotel accommodations and food and beverages on the boat.

7/18-7/20 Orange Beach Spearfishing
Due to the thousands of sites along the Alabama Gulf Coast in the Artificial Reef Program, Orange Beach has some of the best Spearfishing anywhere. This time of year we will be hunting Grouper, Snapper, Flounder, Amberjack, Triggerfish and Cobia. Those of you spearfishermen that are considering a new gun should come by SSDS and check out some we have that have custom upgrades for Gulf Coast spearing. You are welcome to try them out in our onsite pool. For this trip we have chartered a 30 ft boat that is very fast and seaworthy. It works perfectly for spearfishing. It uses twin 4 stroke engines that don't have much exhaust. It is very quiet and gets us to the big fish in a hurry. This trip includes two nights hotel accommodations and two days of private charter spearfishing on some of our favorite sites.

Lets go diving

Forrest Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

April 21, 2008

Hello Divers,

We want to thank all of you divers that have been traveling with us recently. The best thing about the dive business is the people that we get to meet and know because of it. Over fifty divers have earned their certification with SSDS already this year. Twenty-six people traveled with us to the shore diving Island of Bonaire in March and another twenty will be there with us the first week of June. We have been to South Carolina once and will be there again with some of you at the end of this week. Multiple trips have been made to Panama City including last weekends group of thirty-two that participated in some shallow water wreck diving as well as diving at the Jetties and Springs. Each trip that we take usually caters to a particular type of diving. Some are for shallow water wrecks, some deeper water, others are spearfishing, photography, artifact hunting, tropical or some other unique objective. One thing that isn't unique is that all of you divers make it a pleasure for us at SSDS to go with you. People think we have the best job because we get to dive for a living. Not exactly. We have the best job because we get to dive with you for a living. Now that I have buttered you up, let me tell you about some of the upcoming adventures.

4/25-4/27 South Carolina River trip
This 3 day dive adventure is the fossilized shark teeth/artifact diving that we do every couple of months. Divers usually get 7 to 9 long dives in 20 to 40 ft of water on this three day trip. This trip includes transportation from near Birmingham, all diving, tank rentals and air fills, hotel accommodations and food and beverages on the boat.

5/2-5/4 Orange Beach Spearfishing
We will be spearfishing for two days on some of the same sites that we dive on in the Spearfishing tournaments we compete in. In years past we mainly did this in Panama City, FL but it seems like we are getting bigger and more fish off the Alabama Gulf Coast. This time of year we will be hunting Grouper, Cobia, Flounder, Black and Mangrove Snapper, Triggerfish and Amberjack. For this trip we have chartered a 30 ft boat that is very fast and seaworthy. It works perfectly for spearfishing. It uses twin 4 stroke engines that don't have much exhaust. It is very quiet and gets us to the big fish in a hurry. This trip includes two days of offshore spearfishing and two nights of hotel accommodations.

5/16-5/18 Panama City Shallow Water Wreck Diving
This weekend trip we will be diving some of the shallow water wrecks off Panama City, FL just like we did last weekend. Some of the group did see a huge sleeping Sea Turtle as well as a 300 lbs. Goliath Grouper. This is the next step for all of you newly certified divers that are ready to experience boat diving in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, you junior open water certified divers will be able to participate since we are limiting the depth on all of the dives both days. If you sign up for this trip and give us some notice, you can come to a CD slide show of the particular boating procedures of diving off this vessel.

6/27-6/29 Oriskany Wreck Trip, Orange Beach
Southern Skin Divers Supply will be diving this weekend from one of the largest and fastest dive boats in the Panhandle area. We have chartered this boat along with its crew for the entire weekend. Saturday there will be two dives made on the USS Oriskany, the largest wreck ever sunk as an artificial reef in the world. This wreck lies about 23 miles off the coast of Pensacola, FL. On Sunday morning we will dive with the same group on two other dives in the area. This trip will be in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area. There are limited spaces available on this trip so call us for more details.

Forrest Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

April 12, 2008
                                                                         Jefferson County Sheriff's Dive Team

Sheriff Mike Hale asked the dive team to make every effort to find the man who drowned this week on the Warrior River at Alliance near Birmingport. Spence and I dived about 12 hours total and were unsuccessful. We asked for and were offered much help from other area dive teams. Hoover sent their team to patrol the river and look for the body. The Smith Lake Task Force came from Walker County. The Smith Lake Team is wonderful. They have excellent equipment and are mostly volunteers who are ex-police and military.

Tommy Cagle with the Alabama Department of Conservation is the head of the Smith Lake team and rounds up the divers when needed and operates one of the boats. Tommy has been involved in over 300 drowning body recoveries. Two of their team volunteer divers have found over 70 bodies. I was able to learn from these people and I'm sure the Hoover Team did too.

They had a new piece of equipment that impressed me for this type of use. Side Scan Sonar. Three members of the Smith Lake Team searched together and found the body in about 1 hour. These are excellent divers and Sheriff Hale and the Jefferson County Dive Team thanks them for coming to our aid. I hope to be able to coordinate future cooperative efforts of area dive teams to help all of us be better.

Southern Skin Divers Supply is the headquarters for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Dive Team and we want more volunteers to help when needed. We need divers with much experience diving in black water and strong currents such as South Carolina fossil hunting divers. See Steve, Spence or Forrest to offer your aid to our area.


Steve Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

March 18, 2008

Hello Divers,

At The SCUBA School we have been teaching multiple classes daily as well as having a trip almost every weekend. As you read this, Forrest has 26 people with him doing some Caribbean shore diving on the Island of Bonaire. Just last weekend while on the South Carolina river trip we had some snow here in Birmingham. Forrest's six year old daughter, Emily (known for her sense of humor), left him a voice mail saying "Daddy, Daddy you're missing the snow. Mommy said she is going to get a husband that doesn't work every day. I love you. Bye." What a funny girl. This is one of the reasons that Southern Skin Divers Supply is now going to be closed on Mondays. The regular business hours are 9am until 6pm Tuesday through Friday and 9am until 4pm on Saturday. The SCUBA School will still offer some training after hours by appointment.

April 18-20, Panama City FL

This weekend trip we will be diving some of the shallow water wrecks off Panama City, FL. This is the next step for all of you newly certified divers that are ready to experience boat diving in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, you junior open water certified divers will be able to participate since we are limiting the depth on all of the dives both days. If you sign up for this trip and give us some notice, you can come to a CD slide show of the particular boating procedures of diving off this vessel.

Hoover Police Dept. SRT Dive Team

A couple of weeks ago, the City of Hoover's Dive Team was asked to locate and recover an automobile that was accidentally driven into a lake off of Hwy 280. The Dive Team located the car and marked it with a buoy in the evening. The plan was to raise the vehicle on Monday morning.

 

 

Over the weekend, another automobile was driven into the very same lake, so on Monday they had two vehicles to recover.

 No problem.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

Feb. 12, 2008

Hello Divers,

In January, training at The SCUBA School has been going very well. Almost every day we have one to three classes and a lot of previous students have been coming by practicing and checking their gear in the pool. It is a good idea to do that now before we kick into high gear with all of the trips that are coming up. Before we tell you about these trips we want to thank some of the volunteers that helped us in the boat show last week. Many of you know that every year Southern Skin Divers Supply has a booth at The Birmingham Boat Show recruiting business for The SCUBA School. Some of our divers volunteered their time helping promote SCUBA to potential students and even helped break down and load up the display booth during the Super Bowl. We appreciate the help of Austin Alexander, Chad and Brandi Baugher, and Barry and Theresa Bates.

Upcoming Trips

Feb 22-24, Panama City FL

So far we have a good group of divers ready to get wet on this first trip of the year. This weekend part of the group will be doing some shallow water boat diving while the rest of us are at the St. Andrews State Park for shore diving. If the weather allows, everyone will get to participate in dives at both sites. Several spaces on the boat portion of this trip are already spoken for so call or e-mail us if you want to go.

March 7-9 South Carolina River Diving

OK guys. Charge up your HID headlights and try to squeeze into that 8mm semi dry suit for this three day adventure once again. As usual, the main objective of the dives in this location, is to find fossils. Most of the ones found will be some type of prehistoric shark's teeth. Along with those, usually we find Dugong and Whale bones and even land animals like Mammoth and Mastadon (Just like the ones we have on display at The SCUBA School). These historic rivers also contain other isolated finds like pottery and bottles and even the occasional Native American Indian artifact. This trip includes transportation from near Birmingham, tank rentals and air fills, hotel accommodations, three days of diving from our boat and food and beverages on the boat.

April 4-6 Orange Beach Spearfishing

Due to the thousands of sites along the Alabama Gulf Coast in the Artificial Reef Program, Orange Beach has some of the best Spearfishing anywhere. This time of year we will be hunting Grouper, Black and Mangrove Snapper, Flounder, Amberjack, Triggerfish and Cobia. Those of you spearfishermen that are considering a new gun should come by SSDS and check out some we have that have custom upgrades for Gulf Coast spearing. This trip includes two nights hotel accommodations and two days of private charter spearfishing on some of our favorite sites.

 

 

May 31-June 7, Bonaire

We have 26 people traveling with us on the March trip to Bonaire and as of now there are 20 going on this one. Next week we will be closing it out so if you want to go, give us a call. The Island of Bonaire has perhaps the best shore diving in the Caribbean. No cattle boat diving here, in fact it is not necessary to even set foot on a boat unless you want to. The shore dives are clearly marked and with the unlimited diving package that we have, you may dive as frequently as you wish. Included in this package is round trip airfare on a direct flight from Atlanta to Bonaire, oceanfront condo accommodations, truck rental, breakfast daily, unlimited air diving and Nitrox diving if you are Nitrox certified.

Enriched Air Nitrox Classes

We are now offering the EAN classes again. A lot of you are signed up for trips where Nitrox will be advantageous. Some places it is not practical due to depth restrictions or cost. But, on the Bonaire packages that we sell at SSDS, unlimited Nitrox diving is included in the price of the trip. You might as well complete this certification before you go and take advantage of more diving and the other benefits of diving with Nitrox. Once you have earned this certification you will understand the benefits as well as the dangers of Nitrox.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

December 16, 2007

Christmas Specials


Hello Divers,

Many of you have been sending loved ones here recently for their SCUBA training. Also some of you are purchasing certification classes as Christmas gifts for others. We are very fortunate to be receiving this word of mouth business from our former students. Thank you all for referring friends and family members to us for their training!

Recently we have had a couple of trips to let you know   about. In late November, Forrest took a group of divers to some of the shallow water structure in Panama City, Florida. This was a spearfishing trip and is the best time of year for Flounder. Every year around this time we always carry a group of divers that are new to spearfishing on this trip so they can learn how to shoot fish. It couldn't have worked out any better. We were blessed with flat seas and clear water and most important, plenty of fish. In all, 140 fish were taken in the two days of diving. It really is fresh when you eat fish the evening that you catch it and it seems to taste better when you know you got it yourself.

 

 

We also just returned from another artifact and fossil trip diving off our boat in the Cooper River in South Carolina. Once again, we had excellent conditions as well. Even having good conditions it is important to have the right equipment and training. On these trips we are diving in strong currents with little or no visibility for one to two hours per tank. A thick hooded wetsuit and a HID headlight are a must. Also a handy screwdriver or rockhammer will help you to hold on and maneuver yourself. We did three days of diving and managed to find two very large gravel beds that produced plenty of fossilized shark's teeth. The highlight of the trip had to be when Spencer recovered an old ship's anchor.    

We are having a big sale at The SCUBA School right now until the end of the year. Every wetsuit in the building is 10% to 50% off including the new Aquaflex wetsuits by Aqua-Lung and the semi dry quad density suits by Xcel. If you or a loved one have been wanting one of these high performance suits, now is a good time to get one. For all of you relic hunters, every metal detector purchase comes with a free set of headphones and the Fisher CZ-70 Pro is also 30% off. This is a deep-seeking, target ID machine that is backed by Fisher's Lifetime Warranty. Spare Air kits are $30 off and Niterider HID headlights are 15% off as well.

Mark Tant is teaching a new Digital Underwater Photography course at SSDS. This course covers anything a new underwater photographer needs to know to take successful digital photos. It comes with a full color manual that covers, the effects of light underwater, photo equipment, photo basics, image composition and image processing. The information applies to all types and configurations of underwater photo equipment and also provides distinct information about the Sealife DC 600 elite system that we use at The SCUBA School. He also teaches a section on how to edit photos like the professionals do. Here is a link to some of the great pictures that Mark has taken.

Anyone wanting to go to Bonaire with us next year needs to let us know ASAP. There is one space available for the Spring Break trip (March 15-22/2008) and eight spaces available for the Summer trip (May 31-June 7/2008). Both of these trips include round trip airfare from Atlanta to Bonaire on a non stop flight, ocean front condo accommodations, breakfast daily, truck rental, and unlimited air and Nitrox diving. Details can be found on our trips link.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your families.

Thank you again for your business this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

November 13, 2007


Hello Divers,

Before we let you know about some of the previous and upcoming trips and new equipment, we need to tell you all about the air compressor issue we have had recently. As some of you already know, for the past two weeks the compressor has not been operational. We apologize for this inconvenience. Several time consuming upgrades had to be performed on the compressor. Also we have now installed several safety features to the system to make it safer for those pumping air. In addition to that we have acquired several large storage banks that will enable us to pump even more air for when we are busier than normal. All of these updates were made easier by some good friends that have helped us during this time. They are: Greg Dill, Jimmy Eckroth, Bobby Denny, David Johnson, Clay Maddox, John Trott, Steve Parker and George Perez. Without these people we would still be working on our compressor. Thank you guys, we appreciate all of your help!

Spearfishing Panama City, FL. November 16-18/ 2007

This trip is mainly a Flounder trip. We may get a few Grouper and Triggerfish but primarily Flounder are in abundance right now. The diving this weekend will be on shallow water artificial reefs (barges and bridge rubble). Bring your fillet knives and fish cleaning gloves, last year we were able to get eighty in two days on this one. On Saturday evening we will take our fresh catch to The Captain's Table Restaurant in St. Andrews and have them prepare our fresh catch.

About 4 weeks ago members of our spearfishing team, The Tourists, participated in the Orange Beach Spearfishing Tournament. We were able to get in one good day of diving in the event. Several good sized Flounder and Red Snapper were taken including one that was 22.45 lbs. by Forrest. It was good enough for 2nd place in the tournament and since the guy that won 1st place didn't enter himself in the jackpot, Forrest claimed that as well. To read more about The Tourists spearfishing team go to www.tomh2o.com
Forrest Phillips, Joe Quattlebaum and Tommy Williams with some great fish.

South Carolina River diving November 30-December 2/2007
On our October trip here we started diving on a large and newly discovered (to us) fossil bed. Many fossilized shark's teeth were found as well as other fossils, bottles and other artifacts. We are heading back to dive on the same location. This will be our final trip of the year so if you have been thinking of going this will be your final opportunity until April 2008. This is a 3 day trip that includes transportation from near Birmingham, tank rentals and air fills, hotel accommodations, food and beverages on the boat and use of a personal locator device. Here are some pics from the last trip.
 

   

Tyler Willcutt and a great arrowhead and colonial pewter spoon. Spencer Phillips with a big Megalodon tooth and a 200-300 year old clay smoking pipe.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick Bearden and Julian Brook with a Colonial age spoon and some nice fossils.

Bonaire May 31- June 7/ 2008
We know that the Spring Break trip to Bonaire sold out faster than was anticipated so we have purchased another 20 spots for an early summer trip. The most popular package for this trip includes: Round trip airfare on a direct flight from Atlanta to Bonaire, truck rental with unlimited mileage, oceanfront condo accommodations, breakfast daily, unlimited air and Nitrox shore diving. Boat diving is available as well for those that want it. This package is $1695 each to the first 20 that sign up.

New Equipment
Southern Skin Divers Supply has a large selection of equipment in stock now for the upcoming holiday season. You winter time divers might be interested in a new Xcel semi dry wetsuit. These are the same wetsuits that you see Spencer and Steve wear when they dive for gold in the Bering Sea every summer in Nome Alaska. The water doesn't get that cold here but it does get into the low 60's and high 50's some. Also we have several boat coats in stock. A boat coat is a hooded fleece lined long coat that is wind and water proof. It is designed to wear on top of your wetsuit during your surface interval so you don't get cold and tired. Also we are now carrying Reactor Sport Watches. They are a heavy duty well built good looking dive watch. You really need to see these watches in person to see how nice they are.
 

Aqualung has come out with several new products that we have right now.

Take a quick look here:

                                                Fins    BCD's    Regulators

Come by The SCUBA School and let one of us show you some of this new gear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

October 4, 2007

Hello Divers,

 

With the kids back in school and being in the middle of College Football season, things have slowed down considerably at The SCUBA School.  We are still teaching most days during the week as well as Saturdays being the most popular. 

The City of Hoover's Police Department Dive Team has been continuing their training and is now doing recovery work for other Police Departments in the area. Here are some pictures from one of their recent recoveries of a street sweeper in the Oxford area.

    

Here are the results from a recent spearfishing trip..............

Some of the best diving of the year can be right now until the end of November.  The Gulf is still warm but it is not too hot outside and the restaurants are not crowded anymore.  We have several trips over the next few weeks to let you know about, and you can read all about it here!

Southern Skin Divers Supply

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

September 22, 2007

We've posted up some new Alaska pictures from Steve's latest trip here, and a new Recent Finds page showcasing all of the stuff we've rescued recently.

Keep watching!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

July 22,2007

Hello Divers,

Things have been full speed around the SCUBA School for the past few months. We have been doing lots of checkout dives, spearfishing trips and wreck dives off the Gulf Coast. Usually there is one or two Openwater classes every day at SSDS. We just wanted to let everyone know about some of the upcoming trips and the free alternate Air Source program that is about to expire.

Breathe Free Program
For all of you that are in the market for a new Regulator or Buoyancy Compensator, now is the time to get one. From now until July 31, 2007 if you purchase any regulator from SSDS you get a free Alternate Air Source. If you purchase a Buoyancy Compensator it comes with a free Air Source integrated in the power inflator. Both of these air sources come with a lifetime parts warranty when purchased from SSDS. If you are not sure which Regulator or Buoyancy Compensator that you want, you can have us put one together for you and you can try it in the pool at The SCUBA School to see if you like it. The Breathe Free Program does expire on July 31 so come see us soon to take advantage of this offer.

Spearfishing trip, July 27-29 Orange Beach, AL.
There are two spaces available for the spearfishing trip this upcoming weekend. This trip includes two days of offshore spearfishing and two nights in a hotel. We will be diving on many of the sites that The Tourists spearfishing team dives on when competing in the tournaments through the Alabama Spearfishing Association. These sites usually produce good Red Snapper, Flounder, Amberjack and Grouper. On Saturday we will take some of our fresh catch to a local restaurant and have them prepare it for us. If you are considering a new speargun, come by SSDS and check out the new ones that we are having customized for Gulf Coast conditions. There are several features that we have added to these and like everything else that we sell, you can try several in our pool before you purchase it.

Wreck Diving, August 17-19 Panama City, FL.
We have chartered a brand new 36 ft Newton dive boat along with the crew for an easy entry level wreck diving trip. Many Junior Openwater divers have recently been certified at SSDS and this will be a great trip for them to participate in. Junior Openwater divers have depth limit requirements and some times dive boats don't take you to a lot of shallow sites so it makes it difficult for kids to come along. This trip we will be diving at least four sites from 40 to 70 ft deep. If any of you adults want to dive with your kids in the Gulf, this is the trip to do it on. Space is limited so give us a call if you are interested.

Southern Skin Divers Supply
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

June 17, 2007

Hello Divers,

We have had a very busy and exciting first half of the year at Southern Skin Divers Supply. Currently we are teaching multiple classes a day, six days a week at The SCUBA School. For the past few weeks we have had at least one trip every weekend. It is good to see so many of you out there diving. Just last weekend Spencer and 20 of our divers returned from a week long dive trip to the Island of Bonaire, in the southern Caribbean. It was a wonderful trip with a fantastic group of people. Over the next two months we have several other trips to let you know about.

July 6-8 Oriskany Wreck trip
Southern Skin Divers Supply will be diving this weekend from one of the largest and fastest dive boats in the Panhandle area. We have chartered this boat along with its crew for the entire weekend. Saturday there will be two dives made on the USS Oriskany, the largest wreck ever sunk as an artificial reef in the world. This wreck lies about 23 miles off the coast of Pensacola, FL. On Sunday morning we will dive with the same group on two other dives in the area. This trip will be in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area. There are limited spaces available on this trip so call us for more details.

July 12-14 South Carolina river trip
This 3 day dive adventure is the fossilized shark teeth/artifact diving that we do every couple of months. Divers usually get 7 to 9 long dives in 20 to 40 ft of water on this three day trip. This trip includes transportation from near Birmingham, all diving, tank rentals and air fills, hotel accommodations and food and beverages on the boat. To see pictures of what can be recovered on this trip click here: South Carolina

July 27-29 Spearfishing, Orange Beach, Alabama
We will be spearfishing for two days on some of the same sites that we dive on in the Spearfishing tournaments we compete in. In years past we mainly did this in Panama City, FL but it seems like we are getting bigger and more fish off the Alabama Gulf Coast. For this trip we have chartered a 30 ft boat that is very fast and seaworthy. It works perfectly for spearfishing. It uses twin 4 stroke engines that don't have much exhaust. It is very quiet and gets us to the big fish in a hurry. This trip includes two days of offshore spearfishing and two nights of hotel accommodations.

July 28-August 4, Cozumel, Mexico
One last vacation before the end of Summer. Most of the area schools start after the 4th of August so if you are wanting to take your kids diving this will be a good one to do it on. We have reserved round trip air from Atlanta to Cozumel on a nonstop flight! Also we will be staying at a nice oceanfront resort that we have stayed at many times and are diving with our old friends at Pepe SCUBA. Pepe's has three of the quickest boats on the Island and can get you to the best sites before the cattle boats arrive. I know this is a last minute notice but if you are interested in this trip we need to know as soon as you can let us.


Update - Redneck Riviera Spearfishing Tournament

As most of you know several members of Southern Skin Divers Supply compete in the Alabama Spearfishing Association's tournaments throughout the year. These tournaments are held along the Alabama Gulf Coast.The boat that we dive from is the Ashley Marie which is owned by our good friend Tommy Williams. Our team is named The Tourists and we are based out of Birmingham. This is a fitting name since the other teams are mainly from the Mobile, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Pensacola areas. We can hold our own and compete but overall the local boys usually do a little better than we do.

On May 18-19 The Tourists competed in the Redneck Riviera Spearfishing Tournament. The seas were rough both days but we didn't let a little seasickness keep us from giving our best effort. The first day produced not much at all. A few fish were taken but nothing that was going to win anything at the awards ceremony. The good news for us was none of the other teams did very well the first day either, so it was still anybody's to win.

On the second day, from the beginning it was different. Early in the day, Joe Quattlebaum, had shot a good Red Snapper and was at the surface after his safety stop. We noticed he was holding his Snapper out of the water and waving us on the boat to come over. Then we saw a large predator circling Joe several times coming within 5 feet of him. At first we thought it was a Bull Shark trying to get his fish but it actually was a large Blue Marlin. No one on the boat had ever seen one while diving before. It is very uncommon for these fish to be so close to shore. We were so close to shore that we still had reception on our cell phones. Joe used his Cullman County Kung Fu and was able to make it onboard with his fish.

Every dive throughout the day, we were putting fish in the cooler, good fish. What a difference a day makes. Once we made it back to the weigh station, it felt good to actually have some contenders to weigh. While Joe was weighing some of his fish a couple of nice young guys with one of the local teams was poking fun at our expense. I think they had enjoyed a good day on the water and a good afternoon with a lot of cold beverages. They were reading the back of his Dive Team shirt with Birmingham, AL on it. Laughing, getting loud and having fun they said "what do y'all shoot in Birmingham? Bass?" and then "what kind of dive team y'all have in Birmingham?". I leaned over and said the kind that is about to pick up all of these trophies. Shortly after we were awarded 4 trophies along with monetary awards as well.

The best any of the other competing teams did was 2 trophies. Not bad for a bunch of Tourists.

                                            

 

Forrest Phillips

Southern Skin Divers Supply

~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

May 26th, 2007

Divers and friends,

The water is warm now and I've been wanting to go dive with my sons. We had to cancel the latest fossil hunting trip to Carolina because of storms. Spencer and I decided to do a little practicing on our metal locating skills for the Law Enforcement Dive Team. I figured that since we would be finding metal why not try to find some older metal mixed in with the standard garbage that covers the bottom of our rivers and streams. The inbred low-life people continue to pollute and trash our waters. Alabama has the best rivers in America but we also have some people who don't deserve to live here. They should live in a garbage dump or land fill. I take offense at litterers and consider their actions to be a form of assault to the beautiful Earth that we are lucky enough to be on. Enough of that. My boys get mad at me for getting on my high horse and saying what I think. Let me be clear that I speak for my self and if we have any inbred low-life litterers that are customers of Southern Skin Diver Supply will you please continue to come in our store and spend your money. There, that should keep the boys off of me.

Anyway, Spence and I picked up lots of new garbage and cans and were lucky or good enough to find a few relics from the War To Prevent Southern Independence. We found eight bullets and about twenty canister and case shot balls. We found a ramrod guide for an early musket and a Girardey fuse. The Girardey fuse was a great Confederate invention that was very simple and never was equaled by the Yankees during the war. If you want to read more about the Girardey fuse or anything about Civil War dug relics you can refer to the many books that have been written by the actual diggers in the field who have allowed authors to write down the knowledge that the diggers have learned and preserved. The diggers are the actual authors and the authors are the compilers of the information. The actual relic hunters or diggers rarely get credit for all they have done to save our lost history. Don't get me wrong some of the authors are the very best relic hunters and diggers.

The late Tom Dickey was the best relic hunter author I ever knew and I was fortunate enough to have him as my mentor learning about Artillery Projectile hunting and collecting. He was a high class old Southern Gentry gentleman who absolutely loved to relic hunt for the bombshells. His books are the standards used by all scholars, schools, museums, relic hunters or collectors who are interested in artillery projectiles or fuses from our War. Realize when I say Southern Gentry I am only talking to Southerners as people from other places don't have a clue as to what I am talking about. They don't get it and they never will. Too bad, their loss.

 

I will leave in a few days for my 15th annual summer adventure mining gold underwater in Alaska. I will be living in my tent and smelling the salt water spray for three months this year. My dear friends will meet up with me again and we will live the life that most will only dream about. I will miss my family very much but I will go anyway. If you want adventure in your life you must be willing to go when adventure calls. Spence will come for a couple weeks and my wife will come for about a week. It has taken me 15 years to get her to come up. The hard life and the outhouse are not her cup of tea. Maybe she will like it. I love the life.
 

What can I say except see you folks in the fall.
Steve Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply

~~~~~~~~~~~~~