ARCHIVES

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.

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

Hello Divers,

The first three months of 2007 at The SCUBA School have been extremely active. Over forty people have completed or are enrolled in classes at SSDS. We have already taken three group trips with our divers and have one almost every weekend for the next few months. Both of the law enforcement teams, The Hoover SRT Dive Team and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Dive Team, have training dives at least once a month. And we have some of the latest Aqua-Lung equipment in stock now at The SCUBA School.

A couple of weeks ago, Forrest and sixteen other divers were on a week long dive vacation to the Island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The people on this trip were several different families that travel and dive together with us one or two times a year. This was a great trip for these families. St. Croix is a fairly quiet island but great for this group. Since it is still in the United States, everyone you are in contact with speaks English, there is no language barrier or drastic cultural differences. Everything is priced at the U.S. dollar of course so for us, there is no currency conversion. It is one of the few places left where U.S. citizens are not required to have a passport to travel to. If you get used to driving on the left side of the road you will hardly notice any difference except you are in the Caribbean. Our group stayed at a very secluded condominium resort along the North Shore beach near Salt River where Christopher Columbus landed in 1493. Along the North Shore is some of the best diving and since the boat that we chartered for the entire week is there as well, the rides were usually 5 to 15 minutes to the dive sites. All of the restaurants that we went to treated our group very well, and as long as we let them know we were coming ahead of time, our entire group usually ate together. This isn't always easy in smaller local restaurants where only 2 or 3 people are working. The food everywhere was very good, especially at one of the smaller local restaurants. Our group had breakfast there every day and several lunches and dinners. It was located next door to the dive operator and the boat we used.

On the final day of our trip our group met for breakfast as usual. There was no diving for us since we were to be on a plane in a few hours. We could see another group as big as ours getting ready to board the dive boat and start listening to the dive briefing. One of the divemasters that had been with us all week saw us and came over to thank us for diving with them. He said "We are really going to miss you guys". We all told him thanks and that they did a great job and we appreciated everything. He then told us that the group boarding was the local Nature Conservancy group and that they were horrible in the water. When asked why he said that they are cheap and do not own their own equipment. They either rent or borrow a bunch of mixed brand poorly maintained life support. Not one of them wears a full length wetsuit, some of them have no suit at all. He said look at them, some of them are trembling and making themselves sick, and they should be. They don't know what they are doing. They insisted on an accelerated SCUBA course. A few of the agencies promote a real fast course to certify divers as cheap and quick as possible. These are primarily done through resort areas where the diving is easy and the instructor holds your hand the entire time, or by independent instructors with low standards and nothing to lose anyway. The divemaster again thanked Forrest for the way the kids were trained. He said he had never seen so many good little divers putting their life support together themselves, checking to make sure that their tanks wouldn't slip from their BC's. Usually he has to redo the assembly for the kids because the are used to having their parents doing it for them. All of those kids in addition to having a six week SCUBA course here also had a class on their specific computer they dive with and it shows, they know how to use them. The protocol for getting in the water, a giant stride off the boat while holding their mask and primary in place immediately surfacing and once making eye contact with the divemaster giving the overhead OK sign, was exactly what they had been trained to do during their program.

If you are interested in SCUBA for yourself or a loved one call around and ask questions. This is not a course you should take over the Internet or have a CD sent to you in the mail. If some low time instructor tells you that they will certify you in your pool in your backyard in two days, you will be certified but not a real diver. There is a difference. Take your SCUBA education serious and take it from a real SCUBA School, preferably ours. But if not from us, find out about the course. It should take at least four weeks. Ask if they have full time instructors. Do they sell top quality equipment and have in house certified technicians that can support this equipment? Do they have a reputation of not getting their customers hurt on checkout dives and group trips? Do you just want to get certified or do you want to be a real diver?

Breathe Free Program
From now until July 31 2007, anyone that purchases an Aqua-Lung regulator from SSDS not only gets a lifetime warranty on that regulator but a free Octopus with a lifetime warranty as well. If you purchase a Sea Quest BC also, you may choose to upgrade to an Air Source II Octopus on your power inflator. The season is just beginning and this program makes it a great time to upgrade your life support equipment.

New Equipment
SSDS is well stocked right now with the latest in SCUBA gear including the Sea Quest Pro QD I3 buoyancy compensator. It looks and feels similar to the Pro QD but the inflation system has changed. Instead of a standard power inflator hose, it has been replaced with a lever on the lower left side pocket. Lifting upward on the lever inflates the bc while pressing down opens all of the dump valves at the same time. No more having to decide which valve to reach for based on your orientation in the water.
Aqua-Lung's Kronos and Kronos Supreme regulators are available at SSDS right now. Both of these feature a side exhaust system that keeps your bubbles away from your face and out of your field of view. It also has a dual cam adjustment that has the venturi control and breathing resistance knob integrated into one controller simplifying adjusting the air flow for the diver. On the first stage an Auto Closure Device is standard keeping water and debris out of the first stage once it is removed from the cylinder. As with all of the regulators that we sell, it is compatible with Enriched Air Nitrox 40 or less right out of the box.
There is a very good selection of Spearfishing equipment in right now. In addition to JBL, SSDS also carries Ocean Rhino spearguns. We have had some upgrades done to these to improve accuracy and performance. To really see what we are talking about, you need to come by the SCUBA School and see for yourself. Our first spearfishing trip of the season is in about 3 weeks so come by and get your gun bands, spear tips, pole spears or any other accessories you will need.

Panama City Spearfishing May 4-6
It's now Snapper season. Let's all get our spearfishing licenses and head down to the coast for some good hunting and great food. This trip includes two days of offshore spearfishing and two nights in a hotel. The Captain's Table restaurant in St. Andrews always does a great job for our groups but they do an extra special job when they prepare the fish that we bring from our spearfishing excursions. Space is limited so call us if you want to participate in this adventure.

Things have been very busy the first couple of months of 2007 at The SCUBA School. Two weeks ago we had our first Nitrox class of the year at SSDS. This weekend Instructor Trainer, Mark Tant, is certifying a group of Open water students in the Panhandle of Florida. In two weeks, seventeen of us are taking a trip to the Island of St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and our first Bonaire trip (June 2-9) is sold out.

Monthly, we are taking groups of students on their checkout dives. If any of our former students would like to tag along, you will be welcomed. This is a great way to stay current and to meet new divers. In addition to these, there are a couple of trips to tell you about.

This is a very diving intensive, fossil, shark teeth and artifact trip. It is becoming very popular with some of our most experienced former students. We will be exploring at least two rivers in South Carolina on this adventure. The trip includes transportation from near Birmingham, hotel accommodations, three days of diving, food and beverages on the boat, tank rentals and air fills. Call us if you are interested in going.

We will be offering a wreck diving class and certification. Classroom training will be at The SCUBA School and at least four offshore wreck dives will be out of Pensacola. Included in this trip will be two dives on the U.S.S. Oriskany aircraft carrier. The Oriskany is the largest vessel ever sunk as an artificial reef in the world. She was put down in May 2006 and now rests in 212 ft of water approximately 23 miles offshore. The top of the tower starts at 68 ft and there is plenty to see above 100 ft, perfect for recreational diving. There are a couple of requirements that need to be met prior to this wreck dive so call us for more info. Passport diver price is $525 for wreck diver certification and processing fees, two nights in a hotel and two days of offshore wreck diving including one day on the Oriskany.

I don't know about you guys, but baby Ivy said she is going scuba diving right after her nap.

Important

Last week, Forrest and I were at the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in a meeting about divers and divers rights in Alabama. While we were there we were given a new Alabama Marine information calendar and another publication that shows Alabama's artificial reefs with GPS coordinates. The calendar has a great deal of information that each of you can use. It includes license info, tide charts for the whole year, inshore fishing reefs, boat launch areas and pictures of fish with size and creel limits. What interests me most was the information about trash located under our state waters. The Conservation Department is thankfully very interested in stopping garbage and litter from being put in our state waters. Each lake now has organized public cleanups to pick up trash along the shores. What these people don't see is how bad the garbage is on the bottom. The only people who can see and clean up this mess is divers. We should all pick up as much trash as we can on each of our dives. The trash doesn't belong on the bottom and is dangerous to fish. Let's all do something for Alabama that only we can do. Each of you should get one of these great calendars and make sure the Alabama Department of Conservation knows that you exist. Some people that I have talked to lately say they never hear from divers. Divers need to be visible and let the Conservation Department know that you are a diver. To get a calendar call Robin at 334-242-3486 and ask her to send you a calendar. Make sure she knows that you are a diver or are a friend of divers. It is important that you do this now. We want to keep the friendly dive relations in Alabama that we now have and that were so hard to get. Please call and tell them who you are. I hope all the dive stores and instructors of Alabama will pass this request to all of Alabama's Diving Public.

Steve Phillips Visit to Archives

As most of you know that read our emails know, I am retired now and just hang around my farm and get bored. Forrest and Spence run the Scuba School now and do a great job. They do let me come in a couple times each week and buy my lunch. Thursday I couldn't get any of my relic hunting buddies to take off work and go relic hunting so I decided to go to Montgomery instead. I went to the Alabama Department of Archives and History. My reason for going was to research some potential relic hunting sites. Our Archives is a really nice and friendly facility. We have the oldest Archives in the U. S. This is a great place to research and learn about your families history. I will probably be spending a good bit of time there while the water is too cold to go diving. While I was using one of the computers at the Archives I searched for documents with the name Deason in them. My mothers maiden name was Deason. What popped up was some info on my Grandfather. I never knew my Grandfather since he died of TB 35 years before I was born. I do know much about him because my mother adored him and always talked about her daddy who died when she was about 5 or 6 years old. He was a gentle and religious man and a wonderful father. He was an able and ambitious man who started with nothing and by the time that his sickness started when he was about 37 he owned a large farm, a country store and a small newspaper. They lived in a small community located between Centerville and Tuscaloosa. This place is called Eoline and is even smaller now than it was 100 years ago.

My Grandfather was a small man in size but big in dreams. He was about the same size as my son Forrest and looked much like Forrest. He doted on his children much like Forrest dotes on his. My mother told me that each morning she would get up and while wearing her long nightgown she would walk into the store and get an apple out of the apple barrel. The store and house were together. After my Grandfather died life became much harder for my mother and for all of her family for most of her life, but that is another story and not the one to tell today.

Back at the Archives what popped up was a June 17, 1910 copy of the Eoline Messenger. This little newspaper has been in the Archives since 1913 but I had never seen it. It must be the only existing copy of my Granddaddy's newspaper. You can read this whole paper if you want to by going to this link.

What I found really interesting is the editorial that my Granddaddy wrote about how people need to buy locally. Even though this was written almost 100 years ago it is still timely and applies very much to our business. My sons always want me to write emails for our business. If I were to write about the problems caused by mail order or internet sales and how much these sale hurt local dive stores I would say just about what my Granddad did.

Please read these words written by Marion Huey Deason in the Eoline Messenger June 17th 1910.

Is It Profitable For The Consumer To Send Their Trade Away From Home?

It has become a very common practice with a great many of our people to send a large share of their trade off to some of those gigantic corporations, termed as Mail Order Houses. This we think is a sad mistake. The catalogue houses are certainly not in their business for their health; and they must cut in quality when they make prices that every dealer knows are too low for profit. The express agents, the railroad freight agents, and the post office department assert that many thousands of dollars are sent out of Bibb County every year to pay for all kinds of merchandise, bought from Chicago and other large cities, which are gradually but surely sucking the financial life blood out of the smaller towns of our home country.

Mail-order buying builds up the large cities at the expense of the smaller towns. Every dollar used in this way by a resident of this community takes a dollar out of circulation at home and puts it into circulation many miles distant. The dollar spent with your home grocer, dry goods dealer, hardware merchant, druggist or other businessman, up builds the community in which you live. These pay taxes to support the town, repair the streets, maintains the schools, build and sustain the churches.

Do the mail order houses ever subscribe to the building fund whenever a new church is to be built; or any public improvements to be made? If you were active in any good work for betterment of this community, who would you go to for financial aid, the local businessman or the mail order houses in distant cities? It is not the loss of the small profit that the local dealer should make on the dollars worth of goods that you buy from a catalogue house that hurts your community in which you live. It is the loss of the dollar to the community. No mail order house has ever helped to build a school house in your district. No mail order house has ever took you by the hand when you were in distress, and told you to let that little account go until harvest next year.

No mail order house has ever sold you a vehicle and spent every cent of its profits right in the community where you and your neighbors could get it all back again. No mail order house ever shoved its patent leather shoes under your table and rejoiced with you when you were glad, nor spoke encouraging words in affliction, nor stood with uncovered head beside the graves when your children died. When you send your money away you get nothing but the goods; spend it at home and it will come back to you in better towns, better stores, better schools, better churches and better social advantages.

True citizenship is not all in rally around the "star spangled banner" of our country and singing "Hail Columbia" The spirit of true patriotism is shown by the man who patronizes home industry first, last and all the time.

Marion Huey Deason

Thanks for reading my grandfather's words and for supporting your local Scuba Schools wherever you may live.

Steve Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply

Jan 18th, 2007

Trips and New Classes

Hello Divers,

Happy New Year! We are sorry for the long delay between emails, but we have had a tremendous amount of activity at the Scuba School the past few weeks. Currently we have 18 open water candidates enrolled in scuba classes. We have also recently installed the Nitrox filling station at the Scuba School and are pumping Enriched Air Nitrox 32. There are also several new updates to the continuing education opportunities at SSDS. Many new teaching materials are now available at the Scuba School, including Stress and Rescue, Nitrox, Wreck diving and Boat diving. Our classroom has also been updated for comfort and quality of learning with these new products. If you are interested in one of these classes, give us a call.

SSDS is now teaching Enriched Air Nitrox. In this certification program, students will learn the benefits of Nitrox with either increased bottom time or the decreased risk of Decompression sickness when using recreational air dive tables. Students will also learn how to use their oxygen analyzers with Nitrox cylinders and use of Nitrox computers. Call SSDS for more details of this continuing education class.

Our new 80 cubic foot scuba tanks are on sale for the rest of the month. They are filled and ready to go for $170. There are only a few left so come and get them while you can.

Trips

The Spring Break trip to St. Croix, USVI is sold out but we still have spaces available for the June 2nd - 9th trip to Bonaire. It is selling fast so let us know if you are interested. This trip includes Roundtrip airfare from Atlanta to Bonaire, oceanfront condo accommodations with full kitchen and large living room, unlimited diving, four door pickup truck rental and breakfast everyday. The condos are walking distance to several restaurants, a grocery store, internet cafe and an ice cream parlor. Passport members get all of this for $1595. Non-diver price is $1455. Price above reflects cash, check or debit card payment. If paid with Visa or MasterCard please add 2%.

We are planning many trips for the upcoming dive season and hope to see you on some of these trips.

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

We have just returned from a very successful spearfishing trip out of Panama City, FL. In all 80 fish, mostly flounder were taken. This time of year can be a great time to catch flounder and grouper. Take a look at these pictures to see some of the fish.

We are looking forward to one more spearfishing trip before it gets too cold. For $395 Passport Members get 2 days of offshore spearfishing and 2 nights in a hotel. Come by the Scuba School and look at the new wetsuits, semi-dry suits and boat coats that we have in inventory. These wetsuits keep you comfortable in cooler water and the boat coats are waterproof and keep the wind off of you and keep you warm between dives.

We've also got a couple of trips coming up later this month to the Oriskany and South Carolina relic diving. See the details below, and come with us!

We have been on several trips the past few weeks and we have a few upcoming ones to let you know about. Recently members of Southern Skin Divers Supply have been competing in spearfishing tournaments out of Orange Beach, AL. On the most recent one, Forrest won third place in the Flounder category.

The night prior to the previous tournament, two members of the spearfishing team, Tommy Williams and Joe Quattlebaum, bumped into two other divers that work as deckhands on fishing boats. These two divers were going to be unable to compete in the tournament because they were going to work as deckhands the next day. Then they went into this story about this big Red Snapper and they were the only ones that knew where he was. After Joe and Tommy bought a couple of rounds of their drinks, the divers wrote down the GPS numbers on a cocktail napkin. They felt that since they were unable to compete in the tournament, at least someone should get a shot at the Snapper. They did however, suggest going to a hardware store and purchasing a shovel for this dive. The two said you would need one to dig a hole under the structure to get to the fish. A shovel was purchased and the dive was made.

Just as they had said, the big Snapper was right where they said it would be and a shovel was necessary to get to the Snapper and get him out. It took a shovel, two paralyzer pole spears, two spearguns, and Tommy and Joe but they did return from the shovel

dive with the Snapper. What a fun time!

This is the last spearfishing trip of the year. It also happens to be the best time of year to get Flounder. For $395 Passport Members get two days of offshore spearfishing and two nights in a hotel. We always look forward to taking our fresh catch to the Captain's Table restaurant in St. Andrews. They have excellent homemade crab cakes that make great stuffing for fresh Flounder.

The U.S.S. Oriskany was put down 24 miles offshore on May 17, 2006. The Mighty O sank perfectly and is sitting upright on the sea floor. This weekend package includes two nights of oceanfront condo accommodations and two days of offshore wreck diving including two dives on the Mighty O. This will probably be our last opportunity of the year to do this trip so call the SCUBA School if you are interested.

Primarily on this trip we are searching for fossilized Megalodon shark's teeth but we also find other fossils, Native American Indian artifacts, old bottles and pottery. For $700 Passport Members get roundtrip transportation from near Birmingham to the rivers in South Carolina, three days of diving on the boat, use of a personal locator device, food and beverages on the boat, tank rentals and air fills, and hotel accommodations. This is a dark and swift water type of diving. Give us a call at the SCUBA School for more details.

Southern Skin Divers Supply is now the official Dive Team for the largest law enforcement agency in Alabama. Sheriff Mike Hale of Jefferson County is our friend and we are proud to be volunteers and be able to help law enforcement agencies that can use our skills. Southern will be purchasing additional equipment to help us locate metal objects such as automobiles that have washed away in strong current. The Sheriff's Dive Team will be training in rivers throughout Alabama. As new volunteers are needed, Southern will evaluate and train black water divers for the Sheriff's Dive Team. The four primary divers on the Sheriff's Dive Team have well over 10,000 total dives and have been certified for over 100 years total time. Forrest and Spencer Phillips are both Instructor Trainers. Allen Scott is the main diver to look for bodies. Steve Phillips has more experience in finding metal underwater than anyone in Alabama. We will keep our divers posted on what the Sheriff's Dive Team is doing.

Southern Skin Divers has been very active this summer. In addition to the many trips to the Gulf Coast, we are diving in our rivers throughout the South. As most of you divers know, Forrest, Spencer and Steve are always trying to find something underwater. Fossils, gold, artifacts or relics will make our day. A couple of weeks ago I found a real small whiskey jug while diving for Civil War relics. The jug is not broken and is about 150 years old. It is the first unbroken whiskey jug I have found.

Spencer could not stand to not find something better than me so last week he found a giant jug. We think that this jug is about 300 years old and was used by slaves.

Most of you reading this know about the trouble that I had at Selma, Alabama. Well, now that we have changed the dive regulations in Alabama so people can dive and find relics, the attitude of some of the Selma people has changed. This week I went to the St. James Hotel in Selma to speak to the Kiwanis Club. They had asked me to come and talk about Selma's Civil War history and the problems that the Alabama Historical Commission had caused SCUBA divers in Alabama. I carried several display cases of relics that I have found in the Alabama River at Selma. I also carried a large stack of reference books that these and other relics were used to make the books. All of the people at the luncheon were friendly and eager to learn more about Selma and their history. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak and show some of the good that relic hunters and divers have done for Selma. I hope other groups in Selma will ask me to come and speak to them and show my relics. I am trying to get several sections added to our web page that will show fossils, relics and artifacts that we and other divers and relic hunters find. Our web page is the primary way for people to see what is going on at Southern Skin Divers Supply. The web page has been incredibly important in our ability to contact people. We now receive almost 200,000 hits per month on the web page. That's really good for a site that is not trying to sell anything mail-order or over the Internet. Most people go to our site to see the great underwater photos or to find out about diving rules. Please set up our web page as one of your favorites and check it often. www.ssdsupply.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 5, 2006
Summer Diving Adventures of Steve and Spence

In years past I would put my dive journal from Alaska in our newsletter but I quit doing this a year or so ago. Now I write my journal for my granddaughter Emily and when she is an old lady she can make my journals available to new miners who want to know about Alaska dredging. I am enclosing a few pages of the journal for you to read if you find it of interest. I was in Alaska for 2 months this summer and Spence came up for 2 weeks. The weather was bad this year and I was only able to get in the water 16 days. Usually I can get in about half the days.
Here is a link to some of the pages from my journal and some of this years Alaska pictures ==>> LINK

Since coming home Spence and I went diving for relics from the War Between the States and have had some good luck. Spence found a real nice Yankee eagle breast plate and some bullets.

Last week I had a good dive day and found two artillery shells. These are the first shells I have found in 3 years. Now that we have friendly regulations many of the relic hunting divers are getting back in our state waters and saving some of the relics before they rust away. I hope you divers who read this are having good dives and that you are having many good adventures. We are going to be diving as much as possible for the next few months and finding relics, artifacts and fossils.

Trip Update

Sept. 8-10 USS Oriskany Pensacola, FL.
The Aircraft carrier USS Oriskany was put down on May 17, 2006 and SSDS is now diving the Mighty O. The Oriskany sank perfectly and is sitting upright on the sea floor. This weekend package includes 2 nights of oceanfront condo accommodations and 2 days of offshore wreck diving, including 2 dives on the Mighty O. This is definitely an advanced dive so call us at the Scuba School if you are interested in going.

Sept. 22-24 Fossil River trip, South Carolina.
This 3 day trip includes transportation from near Birmingham, hotel accommodations, tank rentals and air fills, food and beverages on the boat, use of a personal locator device and guides putting divers right on the spots where we think the teeth are. We do not guarantee that everyone will find fossils but we have been finding a lot of good fossils lately. The Passport Diver price is $700. Give us a call if you are interested.

Oct. 6-8 Advanced Class and Wreck Diving Trip Panama City, FL.
All of you recent students that are ready to do an advanced trip, this is it. The classroom session will be at the Scuba School. The topics covered will be boat diving, wreck diving, deep diving, underwater navigation, night diving and using a lift bag. The Passport Diver price is $495. This includes classroom training, 2 days of offshore wreck diving and 2 nights in a hotel and processing fees with a certification agency.

Oct. 27-29 Spearfishing Trip Panama City, FL.
This time of year the bigger fish come in closer and it is also the best time of the year to get flounder and it is still snapper season. We currently have a good selection of JBL spearguns and pole spears at the Scuba School. The Passport Diver price of $395 includes 2 days of offshore spearfishing and 2 nights in a hotel. As usual we will take our catch to the Captain's Table Restaurant in St. Andrews on Saturday night.

Let's go diving,
Spencer Phillips

Trip Update

Hello Divers,

If you are in the market for a new regulator, there is still one week left on the free octopus promotion. >From now until July 31st if you purchase an Aqua-Lung regulator from Southern Skin Divers Supply you not only get a lifetime parts warranty but you also get a free octopus with a lifetime parts warranty. This is a great program but it is over as of Monday, July 31st so come by the SCUBA School soon if you need a new regulator.

Due to having three trips on the same day, SSDS will be closed on Saturday, July 29th. We hate to be closed on a Saturday in the middle of Summer but we will be open again on Monday, July 31st at 9:00am. Sorry for the inconvenience.

July 28-30 Spearfishing in Panama City, FL. There are two spaces available for next weekends spearfishing trip. The Passport Member price of $395 includes two days of offshore spearfishing and two nights of hotel accommodations. As usual, we will take our fresh catch to the Captain's Table restaurant in St. Andrews and have them prepare it for us. If you do not already own a speargun, you can come by SSDS and try the latest JBL spearguns in our pool as long as no one else is in the water.

October 28-November 6 Big Island Hawaii trip. By the end of July we are closing this trip out. If you are interested in this Hawaii trip, we need to hear from you now. The Big Island has it all. This 10 day trip includes round trip airfare from Birmingham to Kona, accommodations in a spacious condo, shore diving and boat diving including the World famous Manta Ray night dive, and a car with unlimited mileage. There is plenty for divers and non-divers to do alike. The Kona side, where we will be staying, has the best conditions for boat and shore diving. You can also drive to Volcano National Park and watch the lava flow into the ocean at night. A little further on is the town of Hilo. This is where the rainforests and waterfalls are. If you want to try something different, you can drive up to one of the 14,000 ft tall snow covered mountains. Once we close out this trip, we will be unable to get any other spaces. Passport Diver price is $2400.

Hello Divers,

We have been busy at the Scuba School lately and have been on a lot of great trips. I had the opportunity to participate in the 31st Anniversary Alabama Open Spearfishing Rodeo. We had a great time and all of us got some pretty nice fish. The boat that we went out on was our good friend Tommy William's boat the Ashley Marie. Dan Plank who was one of the members of our team got a spectacular 112 pound Amberjack, which won that category and was the largest fish anyone speared for the entire tournament. Here is a pic of that monster.

We also recently did another one of our fossil hunting trips to South Carolina. This was another successful trip and everyone on the boat ended up with some great teeth. Here is a picture of some of the teeth that we got. The largest one is 5 and a half inches long. This would have come from a 55 - 60 foot prehistoric shark.

July 28-30th Spearfishing, Panama City, FL
We are going on another two day offshore spearfishing trip. This trip includes two nights in a hotel and two days of offshore spearfishing. The water is warm now and we have been seeing a lot of big fish. Lately the visibility has been incredible. We currently have a good selection of the latest JBL spearguns on the market at the SCUBA School. Passport member price is $395.

Here is a link to some pictures from this past weekend that shows the incredible visibility this time of year. www.johndwatson.com/PCDiveTrip/

August 4-6th South Carolina river adventure
There is still a spot available for the next fossil diving trip to South Carolina. We are finding a good bit of large prehistoric Megalodon teeth like in the photo's above. The water is very dark and the current is very strong but the fossils are a high quality and we are finding good spots lately. The passport member price of $700 includes transportation from near Birmingham, tank rentals and air fills, 3 days of diving, the use of a personal diver locator system, hotel accommodations and food and beverages on the boat.

Late October, Early November The Big Island, Hawaii
The Big Island has it all. This 9 day trip includes round trip airfare from Birmingham to Kona, accommodations in a spacious condo, shore diving and boat diving including the world famous Manta Ray night dive, and a car with unlimited mileage. There is plenty for divers and non divers to do alike. The Kona side, where we will be staying, has the best conditions for boat and shore diving. You also can drive to Volcano National Park and watch the lava flow into the ocean at night. A little further on is the town of Hilo. It is here where the rain forests and waterfalls are. If you want to try something different, you can drive up to one of the 14,000 ft tall snow covered mountains. We are currently taking deposits on this trip. The Passport member price is approximately $2400.

Spring 2007 Truk Lagoon, Micronesia
In Spring of 2007 we are taking a group to dive the greatest shipwrecks in the world. Look at our website at http://www.ssdsupply.com/images/Tant/index.html for photos from the last trip. We are going to do a 2 day extension to either Guam or Pohnapei on this adventure. This is a great opportunity to get over 30 dives on this live aboard trip. Now is the time to sign up for this 12 day trip.

Spencer Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply
4515 5th Ave. South
Birmingham, AL. 35222
205-595-3052

We just wanted to let you know about some of the new equipment, programs and trips that we have at the Scuba School now and for the next few weeks.

New Equipment. We currently have in stock many Aqua-Lung Legend ACD regulators. The Legend ACD is a high performance regulator with an auto closure device. This device protects the first stage from water entry, preserves the regulator performance and allows you to rinse the regulator without a dust cap. Come by and check out these new regulators.

New Programs. Free Octopus Promotion. If you are in the market for a new Legend Regulator or any other Aqua-Lung Regulator, now is the time to get one. From now until July 31st if you purchase an Aqua-Lung Regulator from SSDS you not only get a lifetime parts warranty but you also get a free octopus!

Passport club members only. This is high risk diving. Do not consider this dive trip to be a routine recreational dive trip. This trip is only for the divers who want to be on the edge and want to find relics and fossils. We have heard of at least two very experienced divers that have been killed in the last 3 years in the areas in which we dive. Hazards include no visibility, really strong currents, boats that ignore dive flags, shrimp boats pulling nets along the bottom, alligator and shark breeding grounds. These are only some of the hazards that we know of and there are more that we don't know about. This trip is only for a few experienced divers who want to be exposed to this type of high risk. The danger is similar to hang gliding, cave diving, sky diving or rock climbing. We don't want to encourage anyone to go on this trip but we also don't want to deny our club members the freedom to go where others have not been before. Passport Member price $700.

Passport Member price $395. Passport Member price with Advanced certification $495.

Southern is taking another week long dive trip to Cozumel. Cozumel is home to some of the best drift diving in the world. The Passport Member price of $1650 includes round trip airfare from Birmingham to Cozumel. Seven days of ocean front resort accommodations, 4 days of boat diving, shore diving, breakfast daily and roundtrip airport/hotel transfers. We need to know if you want to go on this trip as soon as possible.

This trip will be similar to our last trip to Hawaii, which was 9 days and included roundtrip airfare from Birmingham to Kona, 4 days of two tank boat dives, unlimited shore diving, rental car with unlimited mileage and condo accommodations

Steve and Spencer Phillips were asked to go to the Tri State Archaeological Society Artifact Show last Saturday in Dothan to explain the new underwater regulations in Alabama. The show had many great displays and was very educational for the public. Many of the collectors and divers had questions about what we can and cannot do in Alabama and we were happy to be of service to them. It was nice to see how these people cherish and share their collections. Several of these people have written excellent books about Indian artifacts. These books are used by collectors, archaeologists, and museums to identify what an artifact is, how it was used, how old it is, and the area in which it was found. Without the collectors and amateur archaeologists who do their work at no expense to the public, very little would be known about our ancestors. Alabama has millions of these artifacts and we should be grateful to these people for saving some of our history before sites are lost to development. Now that we have good regulations for divers in Alabama we hope our 100,000 Alabama divers will start exploring our waterways more. Please keep us posted about what you are seeing and finding. I hope that some diver will someday find the location where Desoto's forces fought Chief Tuskaloosa's people at the Battle of Mauvilla, also known as Maubila. All the experts have had their opinions none of which are the same place. Opinions are just opinions and mean nothing until some diver or relic hunter finds proof.

Steve and SSDS were presented a lifetime membership into the Tri State Archaeological Society for our efforts in regaining our collecting and diving rights in Alabama. Steve will be going to Nome, Alaska June 1st for about three months diving for and mining gold in the Bering Sea.

Left to right. Forrest Phillips, Senator Jack Biddle, Representative Jim McClendon, Spencer Phillips and Steve Phillips.

Things are in full swing at the Scuba School. We are teaching several classes every day and we have already taken three group trips this year. Just last week one of the groups returned from the Big Island of Hawaii. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Steve says......

We don’t send newsletters as much by mail as we did in the past. Now that we have an excellent web page and can also send out emails, we find this to be much better and less expensive. This will probably be the only mailed newsletter that we will send out this year. Please let us know your email address, so that you can get timely notices of trips outings and Scuba School functions by Emailing us here ssdsupply@aol.com

My nephew, Barry Hocutt is our webmaster and totally maintains our web page and all the great pictures and info on the web page. Barry is a great relic hunter on land and water. He started relic hunting with me when he was 13. That was over 30 years ago. He is also an excellent diver with thousands of dives in clear water and black water. Barry’s wife Jana and sons Reade and Trace are good divers also. Most of our divers now have their family involved in diving. Things have changed a lot during my 40+ years of diving. It’s not so much a macho sport anymore. Diving can offer so many different places and types of diving now. Of course we still have the macho diving such as spearfishing or relic and artifact hunting in blackwater. These types of diving are some that we at the SCUBA School love to do. Now that we have new dive regulations in Alabama, we hope to train many more blackwater divers.

Speaking of training, Spencer has now joined Mark and Forrest as an instructor trainer. An instructor trainer is an instructor who can train and certify new dive instructors. The Scuba School is fortunate to have them as owners especially since, these instructors all have many thousands of dives in all types of waters and conditions. Our instructors are just like the children from Lake Woebegone that the guy from Prairie Home Companion talks about. They are above average.

Its too cold to go diving in Alabama now, so I am going relic hunting on land a couple times each week now. This is my way of trying to get in shape for my annual Alaska gold diving adventure. This will be my 14th summer in Nome, Alaska. My trip this year will be for two and a half months or more, if I’m finding enough gold. I just turned 60 and my family bought me a birthday present. They actually like me and want me to be able to protect myself from Grizzly Bears in an emergency. My gift was a Smith and Wesson 50 caliber revolver. This is a hand cannon and is the most powerful handgun made. I don’t hunt anything, but gold in Alaska, but I do like to have the ability to protect myself if some bad bear wants to eat me or just chew me up for awhile. I will be dredging in the Bering Sea but I also have 4 inland claims now that I can go to when the seas are too rough to go out. I’m taking one of my Tesoro metal detectors to Alaska with me this year to find relics and gold nuggets. Southern also sells Tesoro and Fisher metal detectors. We can sell you one of these and teach you how to use it. We have low prices on our detectors and can offer as low of prices that can be found anywhere, including the internet. We train and support while the internet does neither.

My research assistant Ben and I have been studying the Topo maps to decide where to go relic hunting. Ben doesn’t use a metal detector but he is a good digger.

New at the SCUBA School

Nitrox Certification Available Southern Skin Divers Supply is now offering Nitrox certification at the SCUBA School. Nitrox is a manipulated gas mixture where the Oxygen to Nitrogen ratio is altered. With the right training and equipment, a diver can enjoy increased bottom time and less surface interval time. Most of the regulators and computers that we sell at SSDS are already Nitrox ready so it is usually not necessary to purchase a second set of life support equipment. If you are interested in earning your Nitrox certification, call or e-mail us for more information.

Sealife DC 500 Digital Camera This 5.0 megapixel camera is the latest and greatest thing in underwater cameras. It was awarded one of the most amazing inventions of 2005 by Time Magazine. The camera will focus as close as 2.3 inches, eliminating the need for close-up or macro lenses. The package that we sell includes the camera and housing, a wide angle lens with lens dock, a digital strobe and a travel case to carry it in. The special sale price is $900 on this package. This is the lowest price available on this anywhere, and we will also include an underwater photography class with Mark Tant at no extra charge!

Other Brands Equipment Service Many of you have probably noticed that some of the other dive stores in the area have recently gone out of business. We know you have an investment in your life support equipment and will need support. We want to make sure that divers in our area are supported whether they bought equipment from us or not. At SSDS we have decided to offer repair service on most other brands of SCUBA life support equipment.

Passport Club Equipment Service If you are a Passport Club Member, now is a good time to have your life support equipment serviced, before we get too busy. Having your equipment serviced annually is how you maintain your lifetime parts warranty on your life support equipment. Your Passport Membership also gives you lifetime free use of the pool and discounted prices on trips that we offer.

Trips
Our first two group trips of the dive season, (Bonaire-March 18-25) and (Hawaii-March 26-April 4), are sold out. We do have several others with spaces available.

April 21-23 Panama City, FL. This wreck diving trip is $350 to Passport Members. It includes two days of offshore wreck diving and two nights in a hotel. (double occ.) SSDS will also be offering Advanced class and certification for those of you that haven’t yet taken this class. Topics include offshore wreck diving, night diving and underwater navigation. The total cost is $450 for everything including the advanced class and certification.

May 11-13 South Carolina River Trip. On the last trip to this area, one of the divers found the largest Fossilized Megalodon Tooth that any of us have ever found. We would love for that to happen again. This trip includes transportation from near Birmingham, boat, guide, three days of diving with food and beverages on the boat, two or three nights in a hotel and tank rentals and airfills for the dives. Passport Members get all of this for $650. Here is a picture from one of our last trips.

May 26-28 Panama City, FL. Spearfishing. The Passport Member price of $395 includes two days of offshore spearfishing and two nights in a hotel (double occ.). On Saturday we will take our fresh catch to the Captain’s Table Restaurant in St. Andrews. They always do a great job with the usual grouper, snapper, flounder and amberjack that we bring. Come by the SCUBA School and check out the JBL spearguns and pole spears that we have available.

October 2006 Hawaii, The Big Island. We are planning another trip to the big island of Hawaii for late October or early November. Hawaii has something to offer for everyone with the beautiful water, great diving with turtles, manta rays, sea shells, eels, rare fish some of which are only found in Hawaii. We even swam with a whale shark there once. There are also no hurricanes, no passports needed, no stomach problems, no bugs, two 14,000 ft. mountains, and an active volcano with lava flowing into the sea. Here is a link to some Hawaii pictures from previous trips: http://www.ssdsupply.com/hawaii.htm. This 10 day trip to the Kona coast includes RT airfare from Birmingham to Kona, 2 bedroom 2 bath condos, rental car or SUV with unlimited mileage, boat diving, including the famous Manta Ray night dive and unlimited shore diving.

March 2007 Truk Lagoon, Micronesia. Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? If so, in March 2007 you should take a trip with us to Truk Lagoon, Micronesia. Truk Lagoon is a tropical paradise located in the South Pacific, where in World War II the U.S. sank 68 Japanese ships and over 300 planes. This trip will be about 11 or 12 days with about 9 days of diving and includes roundtrip airfare from Birmingham to Truk, a stay on the best liveaboard in Truk and all the diving you could ever want. You can easily get 5 dives everyday you dive. This trip offers the best wreck diving in the world. Take a look at our past Truk trip photos on our web site. We have many years experience escorting divers to the worlds best shipwreck diving in Truk. Here is a picture from our last trip to Truk.

USS Oriskany update: The Environmental Protection Agency has cleared the Navy to sink the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany off Pensacola in May. This is the final hurdle needed before returning the famed Korean and Vietnam War carrier from a shipyard in Beaumont, Texas to Pensacola. The final resting place for the 888 ft. carrier will be 22.5 miles south of Pensacola. Shortly after being sunk, this will become a major diving attraction and SSDS will be taking many trips there. Once it is down, the Oriskany will be the largest ship ever sunk on purpose for an artificial reef.

Tannehill State Park near McCalla has redone their museum and it is really nice and interesting. We suggest that you take your family and visit this park and museum. They have 1,500 acres with many sights to see. Their new restaurant is now open with good food. Many of our relics from The War Between The States are on display in their museum. We think Tannehill is the best park and museum in Alabama at this time. Check out their webpage: http://www.tannehill.org/museum.html

February 11, 2006

Trip Update and New Equipment

Hello Divers,

Here at the Scuba School we are getting ready for the upcoming dive season. Both of our March trips to the Big island of Hawaii and Bonaire are sold out. We have another group trip to Bonaire this June 10th -17th. The Passport member price of $2100 includes a Nitrox class and certification at the Scuba School, roundtrip airfare from Atlanta to Bonaire, oceanfront condo accommodations, breakfast daily, truck rental and unlimited Nitrox diving.

For those of you interested, Nitrox is a manipulated gas mixture where the normal nitrogen to oxygen ratio is altered. With the right training, equipment, and air consumption divers can enjoy prolonged dives, less decompression time and shorter surface intervals. Most of the life support equipment that we sell is already Nitrox compatible so there is no need to purchase a second set of life support equipment to enjoy the benefits of Nitrox.

We have many new products at the store that you should come by and see. Here are a few of them:

Suunto Gekko Dive Computer This is an affordable air/nitrox dive computer that features a phosphorescent display for low light conditions. It also has a user replaceable battery, audible alarms and a user friendly simplified menu.

Aqualung Malibu BC Aqualung has updated this BC (buoyancy compensator) to make it more travel friendly. It now has an integrated mesh bag for easy storage and packing. It also features grommet holes for mounting a knife and metal D-rings.

Aqua-flex Wetsuits These new wetsuits are made of 250% four-way stretch neoprene. They also have pre-bent legs making the Aqua-flex wetsuit the most comfortable full suit on the market today.

Aqualung Destination Deluxe Wheeled Bag This bag is for all of you families that dive together. It will hold 2 complete sets of Scuba equipment for airline travel. This bag comes with the manufacturers lifetime warranty.

Sealife DC500 Digital Camera This 5.0 megapixel camera will focus to 2.3 inches, eliminating the need for close up or macro lenses. This camera was voted one of the 20 best inventions of 2005 by Time magazine.

Come by the Scuba School and check out these new products.

Forrest Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply
4515 5th Ave. South
Birmingham, AL. 35222
205-595-3052

We have a group trip to Bonaire this March 18 - 25th. This is Spring Break for most of the area school systems, so if any of you want to take your family, this is the trip. The Passport Diver price of $2100 includes roundtrip airfare from Atlanta to Bonaire, 7 nights accommodations (quad occ.) in a waterfront 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom condo, Breakfast daily, rental vehicle for 7 days and unlimited shore diving (weights, belts and tanks included).

Each condo features a comfortable living area with cable tv, fully equipped kitchen with breakfast bar and dining area, air-conditioned bedrooms with private bathrooms. There are very few spots available and they are going fast. Call us at the Scuba School if you want to go.

There you go. For a change lets give credit where credit is due. I've been trying to go relic hunting on land a couple of times each week so I'll get enough exercise and not be in bad shape when I go to Alaska this Summer to mine gold. Friday, my old friend Robert McDaniel and I went relic hunting in Mississippi. We have been looking for some unknown sites in that area. We were given permission to look on some land that hasn't been built on or otherwise lost. Many of the places where we found relics 30 years ago are now subdivisions or shopping centers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to developing property. I just know that we should find relics and record all the history that we can before a place is gone. I notice now when I find iron relics that they are in much worse condition than the same type relics were when I started relic hunting. Brass and lead also deteriorate due to chemicals and fertilizer in the soil and water but iron is rusting away fast. Many items that could be found and saved now will not be anything but rust colored ground in another 30 years. The tens of thousands of relic hunters, artifact hunters and collectors are the primary people who save and care for the physical remains from these lost historical places. We pay for our own gas, expenses and equipment. We don't ask for any government grants. We don't get paid wages to pursue our worthy hobby. We are the people who write the reference books used by schools, museums, collectors and the public. We are the folks who gave or lent almost all of the historical relics that are in museums. We are the guys and gals that go to the schools and talk and display history to your kids. We don't get paid for our efforts and that is just fine with us. The research and thrill of the hunt is what we like. Just like with a bass fisherman, it's not about the fish. It's about catching the fish. With us, it's about finding the relics and the history. We are the good guys. Recorded history benefits from our efforts.

Now on with my story. Robert and I are just plain old relic hunters. Old is the key word. We are amateur relic hunters and amateur archaeologists. What amateur means is that we don't get paid. It means we do what we do for love, not money. Between the two of us, we have seventy years of experience in finding, saving and preserving relics from the War Between the States.

We found a small area that had the routine busted iron pieces that probably came from stoves and cooking pans. Robert kept hunting in the junkie area and found a 24 lb. solid cannonball. Robert is one of the best relic hunters anywhere but he has only found two whole cannonballs. He looks for lead and brass. I look for cannonballs and have found about 500 on land and underwater. I have only found 20 belt buckles while Robert has found over 100. Robert has found about 50 Confederate belt buckles. He also finds lots of buttons while I rarely find any buttons.