Captain's Chronicles March 2025

Madness! / Thump / Aquatic Phoenixing

There’s a lot of madness going on right now! All sorts of upsets and takedowns taking
place. Top names in the game are being handed the pink slip. We’re all on edge to
witness the next big termination. Isn’t the college basketball tournament fabulous! The
beautiful thing about the NCAA March Madness is that the winners have to earn it.
Through hard work, dedication, and striving to do the right thing. Countless hours of
sacrifice and commitment to make the right choice in the spur of the moment, to benefit
the team. You can’t lie, cheat, and coerce your team to be the victor in this tournament.
That’s the beauty of March Madness, pretenders will be exposed and those unworthy
will be dismissed. Wow! I got off on quite the basketball tangent there. It's probably
because my beloved Florida Gators have the best team that they’ve had in 18 years.
GO GATORS!! So please pardon me, why don’t we talk about politics?

I love giving people nicknames. They come to me naturally. A while back I came up with
a couple of good ones. A new friend of the dive shop, Greg came into our lives. His
affection for diving was equal to mine and he came across as an honest, stand-up,
straight shooter. I dubbed him ‘G-Reg’ as in “Good Regulator”...Jessi has deleted the
rest of this rant. If you would like to read it please come to the shop on Thursday at 5:00
for our monthly gathering, or shoot an email and we will send.

Breaking News: studies have shown that scuba diving illicit the opposite physical and
emotional responses than watching/reading the news. Although the long-term health
implications aren’t entirely clear yet, many are suggesting that scuba diving may
possibly be healthier than watching an electronic screen (unless you’re viewing your
depth and/or no stop time). Seriously though, what’s going on? Marvin Gaye level what’s going on! I can tell you what’s going on at Scuba Marco; we’re reverse-phoenixing! If we're going to burn it all the way down, there’s going to be a vast pile of ashes to rise above.. OR dive below! That way, we won’t have to breathe the smokey air
and we will be neutrally buoyant, even birds have to contend with gravity. Bring a lot of
air, consider buying steel 100 or 120cf tanks before their price goes up again. It’s likely
to be dark for a while. A strong primary and a reliable backup light are encouraged.
Those are available at Scuba Marco. Plenty of other equipment and apparel is in stock
too, much of it discounted as Scuba Marco enters phase 1 of our Moving Sale.
Speaking of, we were told we would likely have more time than the originally stated 2-3
months time frame to vacate. That’s nice but relocation is imminent and the search for
our next location is underway!

We should all be searching for our next dive spot... NOW! It is officially prime dive time
in SW Florida. The rapid fire cold fronts have stopped (nothing forecasted for the next
10 days) and rainy season is still a couple months out. The tropics should also remain
calm. I mean, that use to be the case, but we’re in the new norm now. That essentially
means nothing is normal any longer. Yes, there’s plenty of craziness going on above the
surface but all is well under the sea! Breathtaking cool critters integrated into a natural,
harmonious ecosystem. Yes, that is still happening, but it can only be viewed
underwater. Despite the fact that most of those amazing creatures are constantly tryingto eat one another while avoiding being eaten, everything seems to be just fine. There is cohesion and understanding down below. There is mutual respect and admiration transpiring. There are endless symbiotic relationships all playing out on a beautifully majestic, colorful stage known as the coral reef. Hopefully we will return to that recipe above the water at some point in the future. Until then, dive here and dive there. Dive dive dive everywhere. Dive Cuba, dive The Bahamas, dive Ft. Lauderdale, dive
anywhere you go. Right outside our back door you can dive the Gulf of Mexico! 

Hope you’re able to swing by the shop this Thursday evening. We can talk about
anything and everything going on in our world right now... Underwater!!

Live Love Dive. — Jeff