One year later...

After almost a year in Florida, I have quite possibly spent more time underwater than above... here is a little lens into my world that I put together before heading out to sea for the past two weeks:

ONE YEAR VIDEO

It's not high quality and doesn't include coverage from every place that I have dove or snorkeled, but it's definitely a start... in fact, I shot about half of it diving and swimming in the springs for fun on the weekends before officially starting with David and Dee at Valeo Films. I am so excited and enthusiastic about all that I have learned since shooting this and am already looking forward to improving both my shooting and editing skills. Footage was all shot with either a GoPro or my little SeaLife camera. I'm looking forward to more filming with the big fancy underwater cameras and many more explorations and adventures to come... cave and cavern training starts soon now that we're back on land for a few weeks. Check out our latest adventure in the Bahamas on my "Passion to Profession" blog :)

Later Gator!

On Saturday (July 14th), I will be leaving the home of the Gators and departing on an epic journey. I will be with the fish until August with questionable internet/phone service... the easiest way to contact me until then is to send a message via barracuda or shark. Or perhaps a message in a bottle.

Crazy map of our epic journey... See you in August!

From Gainesville, I will drive south to Ocala to meet up with David and Dee. From Ocala, we will head down to Orlando and catch a plane to Nassau, Bahamas for GatesFest 2012. We will immediately climb aboard the Carib Dancer for its inaugural voyage and and cruise around exploring the underwater world of the Exuma islands for a week. On July 21st, we will fly back to Orlando and drive up to Cedar Key where a boat will take David and I out to the Weatherbird II research vessel. We will spend 8 days doing scientific diving at the Middlegrounds with Andy for a NOAA archaeological research cruise. At the end of our time at sea, we will return to the boat's home port at USF in St. Petersburg, pick up my car in Ocala, and head back to Gainesville where I will attempt to remember how to walk on solid ground and breathe without a regulator.

If we have internet at any point, I will share a few photos or maybe a blog post, and once we get out into the Gulf on the 21st, I will be writing a part of the official NOAA blog... will post the link for that asap!