Tales From The Reef

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

talesfromthereef — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:37:55 +0000

5/7/2010 It’s too soon to tell if the latest efforts will slow the leaking. The wind has slacked off allowing some surface burning of the oil which might not be so good for the air but it could keep some of it out of the mangroves and marshes.

Lost 2 more in the Keys last week

talesfromthereef — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:50:13 +0000

Two divers near one of the bridges were overwhelmed by the current and could not make it back to their boat. Instead of dropping their weight belts and floating on the surface until someone picked them up, they chose to hang on to a bridge piling in a screaming current. One diver didn’t even drop his weight belt and paid the ultimate price. In a scenario where they could have comfortably floated on the surface, laughing about their predicament, one of them died due to bad decisions. They shouldn’t have tried to dive in an environment known for extreme current. Having missed that clue, they could have done almost anything other than try to hang onto a bridge piling when swept away by the current. As I’ve said in the book, no one dies from drifting away from the scene, but many die trying to swim back to the boat. The other fatal event was a 67 year old who probably had a heart attack, but I’ve got no info on that one.

Getting some positive feedback

talesfromthereef — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:40:54 +0000

I always thought that if people read the book, they would like it. It’s hard to get the right people to read the thing. The one dive shop manager that read it suggested that all the crew read it. That was encouraging. The lack of tourist has a lot to do with peoples interest in buying the book. If you’d never been in the tourist business in the Florida Keys it would be hard to understand how quiet it can get this time of year. The dive boat captains that were complaining in March that there is no time off are complaining that they are going broke in October. I only know this because I was one. The fall is the best diving of the year, right up till the first cold fronts show up. There here now, Most dive trips were cancelled Monday and Tuesday. It was still blowing Wednesday but today, Thursday, quieted down a bit.

Back to the bad day on the reef, Sally’s question

talesfromthereef — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:14:35 +0000

I really thought I couldn’t write about this but maybe I can. It was probably 1975. I was running the “Reef Queen”, a 57 foot wooden dive boat. There were about 40 people on the boat. I had 2 mates and we split the passengers into 3 groups. In those days, we didn’t require C-cards so everything was done as a guided dive. The mates and I would each give a 30 minute guided dive and then meet back under the boat because by then the first of the divers would go on reserve and we would point them to the ladders and send them up. I generally stayed down till most of the divers were up, but on this day I was having wierd, something’s-not-right feelings. We had most all of the divers still in the water, under the ladders, a few had gone up. I was uncomfortable for some strange reason so I gave the last divers in my group to a mate and I went up. I knew how many divers were still on the bottom and counting the people on the boat, I came up one short. I put a snorkeler in the water to re-count the divers still down. Still missing one, I put another snorkeler in the water and called Coast Guard Islamorada on the marine VHF. I told them it was too soon to tell for sure but that I was coming up short on a diver count and we might have a problem. It wasn’t long after that one of the snorkelers was yelling that there was a diver laying on the bottom, he was under the end of the trail line that hung off the back of the boat.
We got him on the boat and rushed to meet the coast guard who was headed our way. When we picked him up, he was unresponsive. When we transferred him to the Coast Guard boat, he was gasping, I thought we’d saved him. The hospital pronounced him DOA.
He came to the Keys by himself, had no buddy so ended up grouped together with two other divers that he didn’t know. He was #13 on the manifest out of a group of 40.

The dragon raised his tail

talesfromthereef — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:03:20 +0000

The Florida Keys are full of dive shops and I knew they’d all want lots of my books. What I didn’t understand was that they would need time to read it first. Today I got an email from a dive store manager that read the book, suggested all the crew read it and ordered 6 for the shop.
They need to read it because we all have the same dive boat stories because we all are out on the reef everyday trying to come home with the same number of passengers that we left the dock with. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Divers don’t want to do something dumb and have to get rescued but the reef is a mesmerizing place and foreign to our everyday lives. That combination leads to problems. The book covers a lot of those problems and dive crews are desperate to solve those same problems so they don’t have the other problem, ie. getting back to the dock without the same number of passengers they left with.

The worst day on the reef

talesfromthereef — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:42:27 +0000

Sally asked me about my worst day on the reef. I’m anxious to answer but it’s one of those things that you A. Tried to forget or B. Don’t want to admit or C. Don’t think people really want to hear about that stuff.
The really bad days have to do with really bad things. Really bad things in scuba diving don’t turn out so well. For one reason or another someone doesn’t make it home to their family that night so we aren’t going to get into that catagory really bad days on the reef. There are some stories in the book that cover people that don’t make it home but the idea is to show other divers how quickly small problems can turn into large ones and how to break the chain of events before it becomes fatal.
On a not so morbid type of really bad day on the reef I’m torn between the ones that were really bad for me or really bad for someone on the boat. I’m mortified by the days when 31 out of 34 passengers are barfing because I’m young and stupid and not willing to tell my boss that it’s too rough to take 34 people out scuba diving. In those days we never considered cancelling a trip because the seas were off the chart. It was some macho thing. It’s also the reason there are no wooden dive boats today. We beat the hell out of them going to reef on days that we should have been in the bar drinking. As time went on, I got to the point where I just wouldn’t take people out on bad days.
So Sally, I’m going to have to think a while about my worst day on the reef and I’ll get back to you.

Picking up the books

talesfromthereef — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:12:55 +0000

I drove to Tampa and picked up a truck load of books on Friday the 16th. For 15 years I knew what to do with the books when this day came. It was obvious to me that dive shops needed this book and would instantly snatch them up. Problem one, I’m in Tampa and all the dive shops I know of are in the Florida Keys. On the way back to Myakka I’ll just drive down highway 41 through Bradenton and stop anywhere that looks like they need my book. West Marine sells books but I learn everything they buy comes from corporate in California. The nice lady in the dive/aquarium shop says 4:45 pm on Friday is a busy time and maybe I could email her some information. We’re off to a slow start but with zero preparation I’m not too surprised. My problem is that I’ve never tried to sell anything. At my one and only yard sale years ago I pretty much gave away everything because I couldn’t stand the bargaining process. After 2 strikes in the bookselling effort a bit of encouragement came when the manager of a major bookseller gave me a pile of paperwork to send to corporate and said we could have a book signing in his store after the paperwork went through.

Working for a living

talesfromthereef — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:39:15 +0000

Writing a book while you are working for a living is one thing. Life is still casual, no big rush because you don’t really think you’ll ever get the thing finished anyway. Trying to close the deal, come up with a cover, a bio, an ISBN, a library of congress number, and someone to print the thing, starts to cut into your free time. Trying to decide when you don’t need to read it one more time is a first step toward trying to recapture your life. I would think most people would keep trying to proof it one more time but I’m over that now. It’s time to give birth and let this thing see the light of day.

Tales From The Reef

talesfromthereef — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:41:10 +0000

The book started as a series of notes that came from the daily goof ups on the dive boat. Not that everyday had a problem but when you’re out there every day there’s no shortage of problems. 99 % of the divers can solve their problems. Add the potential help from a nearby boat and you cover nearly all the problems. But if you’re not paying attention and you let the problems start to stack up on you, things go down hill fast.

Tales From The Reef by Brad Neat

talesfromthereef — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:21:29 +0000

Tales From The Reef is a must read

“Limited Edition”
Only 400 original first copies available NOW. Author signature and gift wrapping are available for the discriminating buyers.

Tales From The Reef offers divers of all levels real life lessons to learn from.

The events are true and happened during the 25 years the author was running dive boats in the Florida Keys and the Caribbean.

Tales From The Reef is a must read for every diver that wants to know how professionals handle everyday challenges on the reef.

If you spent enough time with the Dive Boat Captain, these are the things he would tell you. Many areas of sport diving are covered including:

-Night Dives
-Weather
-Deep Dives
-Marine Life
-Reef Navigation
-Dive Planning

“Highly entertaining with Pearls of Wisdom.”
–R. Daniel Zieg, MD

“Brad Neat has used his many years of experience running dive boats in the Florida Keys to tell both novice and experienced divers what makes a safe dive on a dive boat. I highly recommend it as a fun and interesting read for all divers wanting to learn more about how to enjoy their sport in a safe way.”
–R. Duncan Mathewson III, Ph.D | Shipwreck Archaeologist for the “Atocha” project.

“Tales From The Reef” is an informative “common sense” approach to recognizing and dealing with the potential dangers and pitfalls in the sport of scuba diving. The book focuses on how common mistakes can become life-threatening when more than one of them occur at the same time. As someone who has survived a near-fatal dive accident, I can attest to the importance of considering how minor problems can quickly escalate into serious ones.”
–Frank Ireland | subject of Chapter 11

Tales From The Reef

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Lost 2 more in the Keys last week

Getting some positive feedback

Back to the bad day on the reef, Sally’s question

The dragon raised his tail

The worst day on the reef

Picking up the books

Working for a living

Tales From The Reef

Tales From The Reef by Brad Neat

“Limited Edition” Only 400 original first copies available NOW. Author signature and gift wrapping are available for the discriminating buyers.

“Limited Edition”
Only 400 original first copies available NOW. Author signature and gift wrapping are available for the discriminating buyers.