11/21/2011

November is for Flounder & Artifacts!


Here is Spencer, last weekend with a 5.5 inch perfect Megalodon Tooth!
Spencer again with a Cobbs Spearpoint that he recovered
Hello Divers,

Since our last newsletter, we have had several great adventures with many of you. For those of you that have not been diving with us in the past few weeks, we need to tell you about what all we have been doing. We have just returned from a couple of very enjoyable trips diving from our new boat in South Carolina. This type of diving is swift water with little to no visibility but since it is artifact hunting the divers have the right training and equipment to locate what they are looking for.

One of our groups with a haul of Flounder
We also have had many dives along the Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast recently including some good trips to the Oriskany. The Oriskany is the largest man made artificial reef in the world at almost 900 ft long and it rests about 23 miles off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The visibility had been good to great for these dives as well as all of the spearfishing we have been participating in lately. Several divers from our area had an excellent tournament competing in the Alabama Spearfishing Association's Pleasure Island Classic. The results can be seen here: RESULTS Also, we have had four excellent Flounder trips the past two weeks and look to continue doing this for the next few weeks until the water becomes too cold.

New Equipment and Ideas for Christmas
We are receiving shipments daily in the latest in gear from companies like Aqualung, Sea Life Cameras, Spearfishing Specialties and others. We have a good selection in the brand new Legend LUX Supreme regulators (sure to be the hottest regulator on the market) and hooded SOL AFX wetsuits from Aqualung. Today we received several packages of the new 14 megapixel cameras from Sea Life.

From now until Jan 31/2012 you can download a rebate form here at and use it towards your purchase at Southern Skin Divers Supply. If a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera is more your style, Ikelite manufactures housings, ports and strobes and we have several to choose from. We also have a very good selection of spearfishing equipment as well as several custom guns from Spearfishing Specialties. This is a good time of year to try one in our on site pool.

All of this gear makes very good Christmas presents but what if your diving loved one already owns all of the equipment they need? Why not send them on one of our dive trips next year?

Upcoming Trips & Classes
Both our upcoming Cayman & Hawaii trips are on Liveaboard Diving Yachts that we have chartered and we have selected times of year that anyone should be able to go (Spring Break and Summer).  We have taken many trips to both of these locations and have had nothing but great vacations there. SSDS has many trip options in the next few months & you can see the dates here on our calendar. All of these listed have availability right now. If you are wanting to go, please let us know quickly because we are selling them every day. We also have an enriched air (NITROX) class coming up Dec 3rd. Click HERE for details.

Fishery News 
Well it appears that Federal Regulators have finally admitted that they
underestimated the Red Snapper population recovery that has been
apparent to divers and offshore fishers for years. All they had to do was go
diving off the Alabama Gulf Coast to see first hand the abundance of RED
Snapper EVERYWHERE! Somebody teach these guys to dive before they cram more regulations down our throat. To read the most recent Red Snapper data go HERE

Happy Thanksgiving!

Forrest Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply