Singer Island 2022
In October 2022 Diving with Heroes returned to South Florida for another week on Singer Island. The divers began arriving in West Palm Beach one day after Hurricane Ian cut its way across the Florida peninsula. The southeastern coast of Florida suffered little impact from the passing hurricane, but offshore the oceans were churned up. Conditions were not nearly as favorable as on the 2021 excursion (think warm pea soup), but the group of divers enjoyed themselves nonetheless.
Similar to 2021, the divers stayed at Sunshine Shores Boutique Apartments and dove with Pura Vida Divers (PVD) for the week. The DWH group logged nine boat dives with PVD, including the group favorite blackwater night dive where the divers drifted 3.4 miles in the Gulf Stream over 700+ feet of water. This type of diving is conducted beyond the outer edge of the reef where it begins to drop-off to the deep ocean. This edge is where the diurnal vertical migration of larval marine life occurs, and allows for divers to encounter some pretty out-of-this-world creatures. The group also dove the famed Blue Heron Bridge.
The bulk of this excursion was spent conducting the Diver Alert Network (DAN) Diving First Aid for Professionals (DFA Pro) and Scuba Diver International (SDI) Rescue Diver courses. Participants learned first aid, basic life support and emergency oxygen provider skills during the DFA Pro course, which served as a prerequisite for the Rescue Diver course where participants learned how to respond to in-water emergencies both on the surface and at depth. In total seven divers earned their DAN DFA Pro certification, three divers continued on to complete their SDI Rescue Diver certification, one diver earned their SDI Computer Nitrox cert, and another achieved their SDI Master Diver certification...Talk about productive!
DWH Beneficiaries: Josh Grzywa, Victor Hernandez, Mark Krotzer, Melanie Krotzer and Ronny Sweger.
Returning Alumni: Neal Hamilton (as a DWH volunteer), Marc Hale, Julio Villanueva and Rocio Villanueva.
