Aqua Lung now available at Adventure Scuba!

Adventure Scuba is pleased to announce that it has become an Aqua Lung distributor. Aqua Lung has been an industry leader for over 60 years. They offer an extensive family of brands such as Apeks, Sunnuto, Sea Quest and Deep See.

Stop in the shop to see the new arrivals.

Holiday Open House

Join us for a little holiday cheer! We are holding our Annual Customer Appreciation Open house on December 5, 5-8 pm. We will have refreshments, a door prize and special discounts on the things you need to complete your holiday shopping!
See you there!

Adventure Scuba
2101 Grand Avenue
Billings MT 59102

www.DiveMontana.com

Underwater Pumpkin Carving Dive

The High Country Dive Club held their annual pumpkin carving dive this past October.
It's a great test of skill, patience and an artistry? Okay, it's just plain good fun!





We'll post the dates for next year's dive on www.divemontana.com. Don't miss out on the fun!

Splash For Trash 2008

Who would of thought that picking up trash could be so much fun! It's especially fun when you are picking up trash under water-- underwater it's more like finding lost treasure than trash. You know the old saying- one man's trash is another one's treasure. We found the usual treasures- lures, cans etc. The area is amazingly clean considering the amount of use it gets.

When we weren't finding "treasures" we were having fun watching the bass, who were watching us. They are a very curious species and pretty bold. We also spotted a sauger as well as crayfish. The weather was beautiful- mid 70's and the vis was about 30 feet. Fall diving at Yellowtail is my personal favorote. The water temp is still in the mid to hi 60's and the visablity get better than mid summer. It's not quite the Carribean, but it's a pretty close!

A big "THANK YOU" to the divers that came out to participate is this worth while event. We not only helped maintain our favorite "watering hole", but contributed to the study of the condition of the worlds waters. A tally of what we collected has been submitted to Project Aware and the Marine Conseratory. The data will be combined with data collected from Clean up Dives around the world.

Coming Soon: Underwater Pumpkin Carving. Visit DiveMontana.com for details.

Seeing is Believing!

Every year, dive equipment manufactures work hard at coming up with new products. Sometimes they are sucessful in creating a new product that is truly an advance to scuba equipment techonology. Who would have thought the coolest thing would be a mask! Okay, it's not just any mask. Oceanic's HUD (Heads Up Display) mask would combine a hoseless dive computer with a scuba mask!

Oceanic has always been a leader in diving computers, now they've taken it to the next level. Imagine being able to know your depth, time and air pressure at all times- you don't have to reach for a computer console. As a photographer, I really appreciate the convienence. It's really easy to get so involved in hunting for the perfect picture and forget to check your air pressure. With the HUD, the information is just a glance away. You can keep your camera in the ready position and not miss a shot!

The HUD has all the features that you expect from a diving computer, including Nitrox and being able to download and upload to your PC.

Stop in to Adventure Scuba and check it out!

Under the Sea update

I just checked and the Under The Sea with Al Giddings is showing on Montana PBS on Sunday, August 17 at 6:50 pm. It should be an interesting program.

http://www.montanapbs.org/Schedule/Programs_AtoZ/

Get out the popcorn and enjoy!

Under the Sea with Al Giddings

The Michelangelo of the Deep Sea," the "American Cousteau," pioneer, innovator and record-breaker, are just some of the words used to describe Al Giddings, four-time Emmy Award winner and one of the world’s most accomplished and renowned underwater director-producer-cinematographers. Drawing from more than 30 years of deep sea diving experience—and quite possibly the most hours underwater of any human being—Giddings shares stories and scenes from a lifetime of undersea film adventures. With unprecedented access to his one-of-a-kind library of underwater footage, featuring countless television specials, documentaries, groundbreaking IMAX undersea films, and Hollywood movies like Titanic, The Abyss and The Deep, WLIW New York President and General Manager Terrel Cass speaks one-on-one with the legend to discover the fearless genius behind his breathtaking aquatic images. UNDER THE SEA WITH AL GIDDINGS premieres nationwide June 2008 on PBS

Watch for Under the Sea, Tuesday, August 12, 12:00am
CHANNEL 9 (KUSM)Montana PBS

Just as a side note, Mr. Giddings lives in the Livingston MT area. For more information click here.

Interested in Underwater Videography? The PADI Underwater Videography Specialty is available through Adventure Scuba.

More on the Lionfish

I found some additional information on the Lionfish that you will find interesting.

Lionfish Letters from the Field

NEWS FROM REEF
By Lad Akins, Director of Special Projects
Nassau, Bahamas - July 30, 2008 -- Up early this morning and readying for another big day on the lionfish front. As part of an Associated Press story on the lionfish, I am joined by Andy Dehart and Lisa Mitchell here in Nassau to shoot footage of our lionfish work and do interviews for an AP television segment. We'll be live collecting fish, tagging a few and talking about the current research being conducted by REEF, NOAA, Simon Fraser University and Oregon State University - research showing that the lionfish appear to be having severe impacts on our native fish populations. To summarize, stomach contents show over 50 species of prey items including fish and invertebrates; lionfish are eating the prey faster than they can naturally recover and they can reduce recruitment of juveniles to reefs by 80%! It is a scary picture.

Click here to read the entire article.

Be A Diver

Want to "Be a Diver"? Call or visit Adventure Scuba in Billings and we'll get you on your way!

Join the Adventure Scuba Blog!

Would you like to blog with us? Share your diving stories? Ask a question? Just drop me an e-mail at info@divemontana.com.

Montana Dive Fest

The Pirates are taking over Canyon Ferry! Helena Scuba and the Helena Scuba club are hosting the Annual Montana Dive Fest, August 15-17 at Canyon Ferry. There will be activities for both divers and land-lubbers. They have planned treasure hunts, educational presentations and equipment demos and DIVING! Complete information and registration forms are available at www.divemontana.com. If you need rental gear for the weekend, please let us know.

It will be a great weekend of diving! See you there!

Big Horn Canyon Diving

Dive season is upon us. Yellowtail Dam (Big Horn National Recreation area) is a favorite destinaton for the local divers. In the past few years the level of the lake was extremely low. So low that in some areas of the lake, they were unable to launch boats. This year is a different story. The lake is nearly full and the boat ramps is in great shape. (click here for current data)

The visablity is still pretty good- not as good as it was earlier this spring, but still worth the dip. The ideal way to dive the lake is from a boat. This gets you away from boat traffic. The lake has several coves that you can tuck you boat into. Some of these coves have mooring bouys to tie off to. Water temp is in the mid-fifties - a 7mm wet suit or dry suit would be great.

Additional info and photos

Going diving? Drop me an email about your dive- conditions, what you saw, etc and I'll post it on the blog. Send pictures if you have them.

Belize Trip announced!

Dave & Carolyn invite you to join them this February for a dive trip to Belize. They will be staying at Ramon's Village on Ambergris Caye. This tropical paradise will be a great way to get away from the cold and snow of Montana.

The dates for the trip are February 21-28, 2009 and include 7 nights lodging and 5 days of 2 tank boat dives. Don't miss out- space is limited!
For a brochure and pricing information, click here.

High Country Divers "Scuba Olympics"

Soon it will be time for the Summer Olympics. Not to be out done, Adventure Scuba and the High Country Divers are hosting their own version. Scuba Olympics test you basic scuba related skills- Naviagation, gear set up and the always fun "fin races". It's a family event and divers and non-divers are welcome to partipate.

We will have "Fabulous" prizes for the champions and Root Beer Floats for all.

Join us on June 25 at 6 PM. We will meet at Adventure Scuba and test our skills across the street at Rose Park.

(The Olympic "events" are all done on the grass- so, no, we don't get to see you in your swim suit this time! Maybe next time.)

Looking forward to the Summer Dive Season

Memorial Day weekend for many of us is the start of dive season in Montana. Don't get me wrong, many of your fellow divers have been diving all winter long- tropical trips and even at one of our local dive site- Yellowtail. (They reported visablity of 40 feet last weekend!)

The Adventure Scuba staff will be diving a Canyon Ferry for the Memorial Day weekend. We will be joined by the divers from the Sports Cove in Bozeman. We will have several divers completing their Open Water Certificaitons as well as divers completing their Advanced and various specialities. For details about joining us, call or e-mail the shop.