07/06/2026
Join me in congratulating Sophia on earning her Open Water Diver certification!
Due to a busy work schedule, Sophia opted for private instruction, and we were happy to oblige. She crushed her confined water skills before we headed out to our local "jewel" on the Treasure Coast—Blue Heron Bridge.
While we were waiting for slack tide we ran into Ryan from Ohana Dive Company. We had a great conversation about diving, life, and all the other things guys talk about who don't see each other often. Miss ya already brother!
We had a blast practicing surface skills like snorkel-to-regulator exchanges and surface compass navigation. After knocking out the skills for Open Water dives 1 and 2, we took a fun tour and ran into a variety of marine life, including:
A yellow stingray
Juvenile barracudas
Vibrant school of parrotfish
On our way back to our cars after the dive we crossed paths with Anthony (All around kewl dude and also a great instructor) from Pura Vida to swap quick stories before wrapping up day one! Looking forward to seeing you again Anthony, likely, next weekend.
For dives 3 and 4, we hit the ocean. Captain JP of Wetter the Better positioned the boat perfectly on Bath & Tennis. With the help of Captain Mike to make sure we were 100 percent ready, we heard those sweet words: "Dive, Dive, Dive!"
We made a slow, safe descent into beautiful 84-degree water. The absolute highlight of dive three was spotting a hawksbill turtle! Sophia then demonstrated excellent buoyancy control, easily hovering for a minute using her oral inflator, and handled her mask remove-and-replace like a pro. As instructors, we love seeing a student stay calm and solve problems underwater, and Sophia did exactly that.
During our surface interval, we feasted on some delicious fresh watermelon before swapping tanks and dropping on the Breakers reef. Right away, we spotted a massive stingray in the sand as we wove through the reef fingers.
We eventually crossed paths with Jasper, the resident friendly Goliath Grouper. At first, he seemed grumpy, but a few minutes later he swam right over and "led us to" a beautiful spotted moray eel, looking back and forth at us like a proud tour guide! We also saw the Atlantic spadefish, but with the current picking up, we chose not to dump our air and go fins up for a good cleaning.
Sophia, thank you so much for bringing such a positive attitude, putting in the hard work, and trusting the process. Welcome to the dive family. We can't wait to see you and everyone else on our next fun dive!
