New Open Water, Stress & Rescue, and Search & Recovery Divers

Congratulations to all the brand new Open Water Divers certified this past weekend at Husker Divers' private sandpit lake near Kearney! After two days of dives, exploring the lake, showing their newly acquired skills, and seeing the HUGE crappie and bass, we now have a new crop of divers and dive buddies certified and looking forward to wetting their fins again soon.

While the Open Water Divers were doing their thing, another group of divers was completing their SSI Stress & Rescue and Search & Recovery classes. Congratulations to you guys, too! These are two separate specialty classes, but when combined, the skills of each can be used to complement the other, making for a truly valuable training experience. SSI's Stress & Rescue course can be taken right after the Open Water Diver course, so if you're a newly certified diver or have never taken the Stress & Rescue course, you can get the book anytime, along with the Search & Recovery book if you'd like, and sign up for the next class. We'll be holding these two classes again on July 25th and 26th.

Gorgeous Photos from Raja Ampat

If you enjoy looking at the beauty of the underwater realm, check out these photos taken at Raja Ampat: http://www.rhkuw.com/gallery/lembehraja09/content/LembehRajaAmpat2009-037_large.html. Incredible!

Congratulations to Our Newest Instructor!

Congratulations to Greg Koellner, Husker Divers' newest Open Water Instructor! Greg, who lives in Imperial, Nebraska, has been a DiveCon for a couple of years now and has a lot of experience, not to mention great talent, with working with dive students. He's a fantastic asset to Husker Divers and makes a wonderful addition to the team. Way to go, Greg!

Congrats to New Divers from Union College!

Congratulations to the students from Union College who completed their Open Water Diver certifications this past week! These students come from as far away as Maryland, Tennessee, and California, as well as from right here in Lincoln, Nebraska. Four of them are planning to go on to training with Dive Rescue International as part of their college majors.

Again, congratulations, and we look forward to diving with you guys again in the future!

Stress & Rescue and Search & Recovery Classes Coming Up

Are you a certified Open Water Diver? Do you want to build your confidence and competence as a diver? Do you want to pursue a Master Diver or higher rating? Do you want to have fun and challenge yourself at the same time? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Stress & Rescue class is for you! Search & Recovery is a great class to take along with Stress & Rescue, and Husker Divers is offering both of these classes the weekend of May 23rd and 24th.

In the Stress & Rescue class, you'll learn to recognize stress in a fellow diver and how to deal with stress in order to prevent an incident from happening. You'll also learn how to handle a dive accident if one does occur.

The Search & Recovery class covers search patterns you can use to locate lost objects. You'll even learn to bring objects to the surface using a lift bag!

In addition to the May 23rd and 24th session, Husker Divers is offering these classes on July 25th & 26th and September 26th and 27th. Each of these classes has a book and DVD you'll need to complete before the class. Cost of the Stress & Rescue class is $165 and the cost of the Search & Recovery class is $95. These classes are held at our private sandpit lake near Kearney, Nebraska and cover two days of training and diving.

The Stress & Rescue class is required for Master Diver and all professional ratings, including DiveCon and Instructor.

New Open Water Diver

Congratulations to Katie Shoemaker on earning her Open Water Diver certification today! Katie is one of the 13 students in the Union College scuba class this semester. Because of a scheduling conflict (she leaves for her home in Ohio on Friday), Katie did her open water dives yesterday (Sunday, May 3rd) and today. She did a great job and especially enjoyed the compass navigation part of the dives.

One highlight of the day that both Katie and her instructor enjoyed happened on the surface of the lake. They were putting their fins on in the water in preparation for their second dive of the day when a bald eagle came swooping out of the sky about 40 yards away. It flared its wings, stuck its legs out ahead of it with talons spread wide, and snatched up a fish. Then it flew away, landing in a tree on the far side of the lake to enjoy its meal.

Again, congratulations, Katie!

Digital Underwater Photography Tip: Get Close

In underwater photography, close is key. You need to be as close to your subject as possible. Because the water absorbs light, the further away from your subject you are, the less light you have to work with. Remember that the path of light from your strobe is twice the distance from you to your subject, because the light must travel from the strobe to the subject, then back to your camera sensor. So get close!

Stop by Husker Divers next time you're in the neighborhood and see the photos from this winter's trips to Statia and to St. Lucia! And if you have any questions about underwater photography, we'll be happy to help you.