Of course, I wasn’t aware of any of this, because I was out like a light.  What I did get to see as a result of my laparoscopic surgery, however, was the immediate aftermath.

So, why is this of any interest?  Well, when I woke up from my surgery, despite being groggy, I probably had one of the weirdest reactions that the nurses were expecting.  I came to in the actual surgery theatre, which is in itself a tad unusual.  As I came round, a nurse said, “hi Chris, you’ll still feel a little woozy for a bit and you’ll notice some strange effects on your body, but the surgery went well and you should start feeling better soon”.

What I picked up on instantly, were the words “notice some strange effects on your body”.  I asked her what she meant and she told me that I had a slight case of subcutaneous emphysema and that it would go away on its own fairly quickly.  I guess the average Joe would either be a little concerned that they had “subcutaneous emphysema” and would not likely have any clue what it was.

My reaction was what made the nurses laugh.  My hand immediately flew up to my neck, IV drip and all, setting off a warning beep from my monitor and I started prodding my neck, saying “so cool”.

So what is subcutaneous emphysema?  It is a condition whereby air or some other gas gets into the tissue just under the skin.  This happens most commonly in the neck area or chest.  When the skin is touched, it creates a crackling sensation and noise as the gas is pushed around.  What had happened to me is that some of the carbon dioxide from the surgery had migrated up and just under the skin at the base of my neck.

So I merrily lay there in no pain (there were some damn fine painkillers at work) crackling my skin, smiling and as giddy as a kid.

The reason I was excited about having subcutaneous emphysema was that it was a real life opportunity to come face to face (well, fingers to neck) with a condition I teach about but hopefully will never have to deal with as a professional scuba diving instructor.

As a scuba diver, you actually learn about such conditions very early on in your dive career.  We discuss it briefly on the Open Water course, but most people have no clue as to what it is that we are actually describing.  In fact, it is not until the Rescue Diver course that we start looking more closely at this form of emphysema and its three related cousins.

Subcutaneous emphysema is one of the four types of emphysema commonly associated with DCI … otherwise known as Decompression Illness.  DCI is an umbrella term encapsulating both Decompression Sickness and Lung Overexpansion Injuries.  Emphysemas occur generally through one part of DCI: lung overexpansion injuries.

If you are relatively new to diving, you are likely asking, “what is a lung overexpansion injury?”

When we go scuba diving, we breath compressed air at depth and thus under pressure.  When we breathe underwater, our lungs equalize with the surrounding pressure with each breath.  Technically, if we hold our breath during an ascent using compressed air, then the reduction in surrounding pressure and the expanding gas can result in a lung overexpansion injury.  More properly, lung overexpansion injuries are called lung barotraumas or pulmonary barotraumas and ordinarily these conditions are life threatening.  Let me just make it clear, however … lung barotraumas are in fact, very very rare, especially if people have been properly trained.  When they do occur, however, it is usually as a result of breath-holding and an excessive ascent rate so that the gas expands faster in the lungs than it can be released.

When this happens, the lungs don’t “explode”, they simply tear.  Air in the lungs then escapes into the surrounding tissue and bloodstream.  There are four common effects of a lung overexpansion injury: subcutaneous emphysema, pneumothorax, mediastinal emphysema and an arterial gas embolism (also called an air embolism).  This is an illustration of a dive-related subcutaneous emphysema:

(Courtesy: Scubish.com)

Lung overexpansion injuries are obviously a very serious injury, but they are also very easily avoided.  The most obvious measure we can adopt to avoid a lung overexpansion is to remember the most important rule of scuba diving, to always breathe and never hold our breath.  In particular, it is critical to breathe out as we ascend, as this reduces the differential between the ambient pressure of the water around us and the pressure of the compressed air in our lungs.  Additionally, if we make sure that we slowly ascend during our dives (as PADI likes to say “be a SAFE Diver … Slowly Ascend From Every Dive), this further decreases any sudden changes in pressure that may prevent us from being able to equalize our lungs quickly enough.

Slowly means slowly.  The way that scientists and divers have determined the safest ascent rates in the past is to use Doppler ultrasonic detectors to determine the amount of nitrogen bubbles that form in our bodies after a dive (called “venous bubbles”).  These bubbles have principally been used to determine our susceptibility to getting Decompression Sickness (otherwise known as DCS or “The Bends”), however, they have also been used somewhat to determine the best ascent rate to prevent both DCS and lung overexpansion injuries.  Just as an aside, certain studies suggest that venous bubbles occur on virtually every dive, regardless of our ascent rate, but at the safest rates, these bubbles are so small (they’re also known as “silent bubbles”) that their impact on divers is negligible.  Effectively, what that says is that all divers experience extremely mild forms of DCS on virtually every dive, but that it is so inconsequential that is has no long-term impact.

As a result of countless studies over the last 20 or so years, there have been different safe rates of ascent suggested.  Interestingly, the rate of ascent that has been prevalent since the 1960’s is actually based on a very unscientific basis.  For the longest time the suggested safe diving ascent rate for almost all divers was (and still is for some training programmes) no faster than 18m/60 feet per minute.  Where did this rate of ascent come from?  From the late 1800’s through to the 1950’s, there was no agreed on rate of ascent and it was all over the place.  Some physiologists recommended rates of 3 feet (1 metre) per minute, whereas others were slightly faster at 30 feet (9 metres) per minute.  From 1920 to 1957 the generally accepted rate of ascent was 25 feet (7.5 metres) per minute.

But then in 1958, the U.S. Navy Diving Manual was introduced.  During the production of the manual, it was the obstinacy of a single person that ultimately dictated the rate that was relied on by both the U.S. Navy and a number of schools of dive training.  The Navy finally changed its rate of ascent in 1993; however, many schools of training continue to use the 1958 rate to date.  It was a gentleman by the name of Commander Francis Fane of the West Coast Underwater Demolition Team who caused the rate that existed for over 50 years.  Fane demanded a rate of ascent for his frogmen of 100 feet (30 metres) per minute or faster.  Fane’s divers were “no decompression divers”, however, and other Navy groups, which primarily consisted of decompression divers, had an ascent rate that was typically 10 feet (3 metres) per minute.  A compromise, therefore, was reached at 60 feet (18 metres) per minute.  This rate was then advocated by and adopted by early recreational diving tables and even computers, all based on a purely empirical finding.

Studies as far back as 1999, however, have also identified that a rate of ascent of 18m/60 ft produces far more venous bubbles than a much slower ascent rate of 9 m/30 feet per minute and is, accordingly, riskier for DCS and, slightly less so, lung overexpansion injuries.  As a result, most modern dive computers are set to an ascent rate of 9 m/minute or even slower.  Funnily enough, many training programmes have now slightly adapted their approaches and advise and tell students to ascend no faster than 18 m/minute or whatever speed the computer tells you to ascend, whichever is slower.  This is now taught instead of the industry “standard” of 18 m/minute.  Invariably, the computer is slower and some have suggested that this new approach, of “either or” is to protect those schools that previously adopted the 18m/minute standard.

The Diver’s Alert Network (DAN), one of the foremost authorities on diving medicine and medical theory, even considers the rate of 9 m/minute as being too rapid an ascent to the surface.  In fact, recent DAN studies have suggested not only a 9 m/minute ascent rate, but also the inclusion of a deeper stop, in conjunction with a shallower stop.  In 2011, DAN studies indicate that there is a significantly lower potential of DCS in dives where a 1-2 minute stop is made at half the maximum depth dived to, along with a shallower stop for 2-3 minutes as well at 6-7 m.  Here’s a link to that research: DAN Article

What this all boils down to is that safe diving means ascending very very very slowly and making a couple of safety stops if air permits.  Which shouldn’t be a problem since scuba diving is all about being relaxed. Watch your air consumption, relax, enjoy the dive, monitor your No Decompression Limits and then make a slow an ascent as you can.  A common suggestion is to ascend slower than your smallest air bubbles (some people say the size of champagne bubbles).  Even slower cannot hurt.

It is even more important to ascend very very slowly in the final stages (i.e. the shallowest) because this is where the pressure changes and affects our body the most.  This is why in the last 15-feet/5 metres we should actually ascend as slow as absolutely possible.  Further, making a safety stop and rising at a metre a minute for the last 5 metres reduces our nitrogen saturation (the major cause behind DCS) by huge percentages.

Another step we can take to assist and prevent subcutaneous emphysemas or their nastier cousins raising their heads is to take courses that help us to better understand the phenomena.  The most obvious and earliest course, at least under the PADI system of education and through the Toronto Scuba Club, is the Rescue Diver course.   Ultimately, it is only through the Instructor Development Course, through personal interest and through experience (especially experiencing real-life DCS instances) that we start to truly appreciate the harmful effects of ascending too fast.  The Rescue Diver course, however, opens our eyes to the many forms that Decompression Illness can take and the most effective and immediate treatment that a rescue diver can provide.

(Courtesy: PADI)

Is there anything else we can think of that can increase our chances of getting the bends or a lung overexpansion injury?  Well, unfortunately, there is.  Anything that weakens us physically is certainly thought to increase our susceptibility to the bends, although not perhaps as much to lung overexpansion injuries.  Some very recent studies have suggested that moderate exercise before diving may actually be beneficial to reducing our chances of getting DCS, however, generally we advise that if any “secondary” variables apply to you to exercise particular caution regarding pushing the limits for DCS.  Secondary variables include such things as obesity, heavy drinking, smoking, heart disease, etc.  Basically, anything that physically weakens you overall.

During the Rescue Diver course we identify the obvious and not so obvious symptoms of DCI, as well as how to assist a diver in the water and out of the water.  We train you how to get a diver in clear distress to the surface, how to help them at the surface and how to treat a person until such time as we can transfer that person to the appropriate emergency medical services.  DCI is no joke, despite my fascination with my own subcutaneous emphysema. Knowing how to spot it, knowing what to do and knowing how to do it all calmly and collectedly is critical.

Hopefully, none of you ever experience subcutaneous emphysema, let alone any symptom of DCI.  Here’s the rub:  if you want to avoid any of the DCI effects, live moderately healthily, exercise and take particular caution if a secondary variable applies to you and SLOWLY ASCEND FROM EVERY DIVE!!!

(Courtesy: Breakfast Television)

Yesterday morning, the Toronto Scuba Club had the distinct pleasure of being on City TV’s Breakfast Television.  We had Jennifer Valentyne join us at the Bishop Strachan School very very early in the morning (Peter and I were there at a lovely 5:00 a.m.) and we gave her a chance to try scuba diving in the pool.

(Courtesy: Breakfast Television)

Over the course of three hours, Jennifer, along with 8 great kids who came and joined us before school, had a blast swimming around the pool and breathing underwater.  We swam, we laughed and we were all over Breakfast Television!!

Here are the links to the show:

7-8 AM:

http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/1571363550001.000000/thursday-7am8am/

Clip – 8-9 AM:

http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/1571365769001.000000/thursday-8am9am/

Rather than make you watch the whole thing, here are the times when the TSC segments are:

• For the 7-8 a.m. segment: 14:58, 41:27 and 45:17
• For the 8-9 a.m. segment: 18:36 and 35:01

And even after the show, Jenn kept on giving!!  Right after wrapping up with the camera crew, Jenn shot a quick video with us, which she will be tweeting very soon.  To follow her twitter, you can use this link: twitter.com/#!/jennvalentyne.

And finally, we talked to Jenn about a beach and shore clean-up in late July, early August that we hope to be running in conjunction with our friends over at the Dive Academy in Oakville.  Keep your eyes on this spot if you want to participate in a few months.

(Courtesy: Clark Pest Control)

Talking of the Dive Academy, we want to send a huge shout out to Dean and Paula, who came and helped out yesterday, Paula with some great stills footage and Dean with his great underwater videography.  And a huge huge shout out too to Andy Lamontagne, who came and DM’d with us throughout the whole thing and Lisa Beaumont, who brought all the kids who came and had a fantastic time with us.

A great time!! Thanks to all and thanks to BT!

Toronto Scuba Club is getting it’s television premier on Breakfast Television this month. Those of you who tune into Breakfast Television each morning will get the chance to watch us introduce the world of scuba diving to Jennifer Valentyne on April 19 at our downtown training facility.

The opportunity came along after seeing Jenn trying SeaVenture at Discovery Cove in Florida. SeaVenture is an experience where you wear an underwater helmet and feel what it is like to breathe underwater. We wanted to help her take that extra step and get her in SCUBA.

(courtesy: ErinDavis)

The difference between SCUBA and the SeaVenture experience is that the air you breathe underwater comes from the tank on your back with a SCUBA device (Self-Contained-Underwater-Breathing-Apparatus). The SeaVenture experience instead provides air to the diver through a hose from the surface (connected to the helmet), which allows you to walk on the bottom of the pool (which is itself designed to look like the ocean).

During the show we hope to teach Jen how to put her gear on, do a giant stride entry and then learn a couple of skills like mask and regulator removal. Most of the time however we will just be encouraging Jen to swim around and feel what it is like to swim and breathe underwater. Just fun.

We are also going to have as many of our team present and assisting in the water. These include some of our wonderful Instructors and Divemasters who will be setting their alarm clocks nice and early to join us in the pool. We’re buying breakfast though, so we hope they’re happy to get a dive in before work starts!!

More importantly, this is an opportunity for Toronto Scuba Club to launch it’s first charity event for 2012. Those of you who read our blogs and visit our website will know that last year we worked closely with TAVIS (the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy), which gives disenfranchised children the opportunity to try new activities. Charity and giving back is an important part of our business. Which makes it even more meaningful to us when it ties in with our philosophy of always helping people reach the goals they set for themselves.

This year, in association with Breakfast Television, we will be donating to a charity chosen by BT.  And we will donate to that charity from every Open Water course taken with Toronto Scuba Club in 2012 from April 19^th on.  Additionally, we’re working with BT to create a mechanism, so that those who see the television show will also get a discounted rate for their course.   At the end of the year, we will then present what we raised on Breakfast Television.

So, even if you don’t normally watch BT, we ask you to please tune in on April 19^th from 7am in the morning and tell your friends to do so too. And if you know anyone who wants to learn Scuba, our offer on the show is a great incentive for them. They’ll be giving themselves an opportunity of a lifetime and also contributing to a life-changing opportunity for someone else.

See you on Breakfast Television on the 19^th April 2012 at 7am on!!!!

Most of the life that we know about in the world’s oceans lives in the light zone of the intertidal and epipelagic zones (basically, coastal waters and the light zone of open water).  The life that exists there is largely as a result of the amount of sunlight available for photosynthesis.  What is little appreciated, however, is that this is only the smallest fraction of our oceans.  The rest is deep, dark and very very cold.  Photosynthesis doesn’t occur past 200 metres and sunlight is absent altogether below 1000 metres.

Sounds deep, doesn’t it?  Let’s put that into perspective. The deepest part of the ocean is the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific Ocean.  A very long, but narrow trench, it has been charted as deep as 10.91 kilometres (6.78 miles) at one specific spot (the Challenger Deep, a small slot-shaped valley in the floor of the Trench), but there may be deeper spots (and some measurements have even charted it as being as deep as 11.03 kilometres (6.85 miles).

(Courtesy: Wikipedia)

It was the first; it certainly won’t be the last!!!

In January 2012, Toronto Scuba Club led it’s first international dive trip, which was nothing short of spectacular. Comforted by the fact that Grand Cayman is always a top-ten dive location and on the bucket list for most divers, we were confident that this dive trip would be a real success. It was.

Nine Toronto Scuba Club divers headed down to the Caribbean’s world famous diving Mecca, where we stayed at the ever-popular Sunset House. Over one week, the group racked up nearly 20 dives.  A couple of our more eager divers even managed 24 dives in just 6 days. The weather was fantastic, the accommodation perfectly located and comfortable and the group was ……….. great!!!!

Organizing and leading a group of people on any kind of holiday can be demanding.  What made this trip so memorable was the effort that everyone put in to make the most out of such a great opportunity.

Most of the group had never dived in the ocean before, which, in part, made the trip even more exciting.  All that we, the Toronto Scuba Club, had to do was point the divers in the direction of the water and let the natural beauty of the Caymans do their own thing.

Each day, after a great breakfast at Sunset House, we would start the morning with a two-tank boat dive led by a great boat crew. The trusted crew took us to some great dive locations day after day.  Over the week, we dove magnificent walls, shipwrecks and a couple of night dives.  One of the most memorable dives for our divers included the beautiful swim-throughs of devil’s grotto.

After the morning boat dives, we’d have lunch then prep for our afternoon or night dives.  Sunset House is perfectly located on Grand Cayman.  Right off the resort is some amazing shore diving.  All we had to do was walk from our rooms to the on-site dive shop, gear up and walk into the ocean right there!!  In fact, as we had unlimited shore diving at the resort, finding a time to rest was actually the toughest part. Another handy little feature, was that the resort stored our equipment in private lockers right by the ocean.  If we wanted to hit the water, we just needed to have a buddy ready to go.  The ocean was, of course, willing to accept us at any time of the day or night.

A few of the more notable dives included Stingray city, of course … a must-do dive whenever someone visits Grand Cayman.  The group had a great time. Perhaps even more exciting, however, was Grand Cayman’s newest dive location, the wreck of the USS Kittiwake.  Located just off the internationally renowned seven-mile beach, the wreck was sunk by the Caymanian government early last year.  The wreck was perfect for our group, as many were new divers who wanted to experience a wreck in an extremely fun, but safe way.  The wreck was specifically sunk and prepared with divers in mind.

The Kittiwake is huge!  Lying in only 60ft of water, the ship is reachable for all levels of divers. We also decided to hire Cathy Church, a local and well-known professional dive photographer, who joined us for two dives.  She took some fantastic pictures of the whole group.

In addition to this fantastic shot, a few more of the guys on the Kittiwake are below, but we’ve put a bunch more on our website on the new “Interactive Diving” page, so make sure to take a look: Cayman Trip Photos

There was no end of stories that came out of the trip.  What I wanted to focus on in this blog, however, is the trip itself and what made it successful.

An important consideration for anyone leading a trip like this, or taking part on a similar dive trip, is that you should travel with someone who really knows the location that you’re going to.  Our knowledge of Grand Cayman helped tremendously.  We didn’t experience any bad dives or even have a bad meal.  In fact, by the end of the trip, we needed a holiday to recover!!!

Another key to a good trip is that a dive leader should be able to keep everyone busy, especially if they are asking to be kept busy. In leading a group,  people are paying you for your expert knowledge.  They deserve to be led well, with consistency and with a certain amount of local knowledge. On a live-aboard this would be much easier, but with land-based trips, a good deal of planning is required.

With the Rescue Diver course we teach, we emphasize that one of the first things to consider in a good ‘Rescue’ is prevention. Dive trips follow a similar process.  Successful dive trips happen if the people leading are able to foresee and prevent those things that might otherwise upset the groups’ expectations.

In this instance, the group itself helped the Toronto Scuba Club.  All of our divers were willing to participate in everything together. This is not always going to be the case.  If you can get a good bond forming in the group early, however, then the chances of the dive trip being successful significantly increase. Based on the success of the Cayman trip, we even anticipate that most of the group will travel again with us as a group on our upcoming trips to Mexico and Galapagos.

If anyone is looking for a great place to go for their first, second, third or even tenth dive vacation, then, in the words of the Caymanian people, the answer is simple, CAYMAN? YEAH MON!!!

Ok.  I’m getting close.  Promise.  And yes, it may be one of those long blogs, but there’s so many cool things.  I am narrowing it down.

In the meantime, Pete is saving the day!!  He just finished a very awesome trip report on our recent excursion down to the Cayman Islands.  We’re in the midst of a last edit and getting some images together, then it’ll be up.  Hopefully in the next couple of days.  Keep your eyes peeled!!

Our tech wizards are currently re-jigging the interactive part of the website, so that our students pictures go up much more easily.  We hope to have that on track next week, because Peter managed to snag some fantastic shots of our recent group that went down to the Caymans.  They’ll be up as soon as we can get them up.

Talking of fantastic, one of our divers, Yan Laporte, was in Mexico at about exactly the same time as TSC’s Cayman’s trip.  Yan was diving with our friend, Christine Loew, who breathes and works and lives scuba and cave diving in the cenotes and in the ocean surrounding Playa del Carmen.  He also took some great shots, so we will have them up to, but in the meantime (and if you have been on our Facebook page, you may already have seen at least one of these), here are some of his pictures:

Ok, last, but not least … two more snippets:

1)   I’ve been working on the weird and wonderful and will have that up in a blog very soon

2)   We have always been affiliated with and continue to be affiliated with some guys who have their own travel show.  They’re about to launch a new series with a bit of a twist.  Until they have their official launch, I won’t say more, but you’ll hear more about it then and hopefully get excited about it too.

Keep your eyes peeled for our new blog soon and for our coming-soon newsletter!

Pete finally got a chance to briefly debrief (teehee) me yesterday.  I saw some fantastic pictures from the trip and once we have a proper chance to download and debrief the full trip, I will post a trip report.

In the meantime, I got to hear some wild, crazy and sheer ludicrous stories.  I will also be meeting some of the culprits for drinks soon to hear their side of the story, but they’d better be prepped, because I hear there’s some ‘splaining to do!!

All in all a hugely successful trip, even though it seems that as soon as you take the nice, gentle, easy-going gang out of Toronto you set the world ablaze, at least where their feet land!

Peter and I now have our sights set on some ridiculously cool trips in the next year to year and a half.  Locations in consideration: Playa del Carmen (yeah cenotes); Roatan; Galapagos; and, Papua New Guinea.  Don’t tell Pete, because I have yet to raise it with him, but I’m also thinking Indonesia and Bermuda!!

(Courtesy: Shipwreckexpo.com)

One of the things the wreck do not have, however, is a significant level of marine life.  There are a number of fish and eel varieties in the St. Lawrence in that area, but one wouldn’t probably categorize them as “colourful”.

So, why am I talking about wrecks and the St. Lawrence again?  Because I was reading an older article this morning on efforts being made to sink a decommissioned Canadian Annapolis-Class helicopter-deploying destroyer just outside of Vancouver, B.C.   (you can read the article here: http://www.cdnn.info/news/industry/i100413.html).

(Courtesy: Cool Dives)

One of the most memorable dives I have made was on the HMCS Chaudiere, another decommissioned and purposefully-sunk ship off the coast of Sechelt, a little north of Vancouver (memorable mostly because it was freezing bloody cold, but also a great wreck with interesting swim-through penetrations).

(Courtesy: West Coast Wilderness Lodge)

Although the waters might be a bit chilly, the wonder that this area of Canada provides, below the waves, is a stunning variety of marine life, from wolf eels, to octopus and a host of corals.

There has actually been a global increase of ships being purposefully sunk in the last few years.  The benefits appear to be plentiful.  Obviously, divers get to pop down and enjoy wrecks in spots specifically chosen for recreational diving purposes.  Aside from our enjoyment, however, the sinking of these ships also appears to be massively beneficial to the marine ecosystems in those waters.  Generally (and I say generally, because it is a little difficult to verify this for further-flung corners of the world), prior to sinking, the ships are meticulously cleaned and de-toxified prior to sinking.  A large part of the purpose for sinking these ships is to create new artificial reefs and to encourage marine life to set up shop.  Toxic substances would quite simply stop that from happening.

Yet opposition to the sinking of these vessels often centres on the environmental damage that will be caused.  Personally, I love diving on unintentional wrecks, even though they clearly would have a more negative impact on the environment (not having been specifically cleaned of course), because of the story that goes with exploring the wreck.  The argument, however, that a ship that has been environmentally cleaned will actually cause damage seems to me to be a little contradictory.  Especially if the sinking of that ship will encourage new reef and marine ecosystem growth, because sadly, our world is losing what little it still has!  It seems to me that local residents who oppose such sinkings are perhaps woefully misinformed.

As many divers can tell you, there is an awful lot of garbage and an awful lot of odd and ends that are lost, thrown or sunk in both the oceans and in fresh water.  You might consider a destroyer a huge piece of garbage, but if a number of eels, corals, fish and critters call it home, and safely as well, how can that be bad?

I think opposition to these schemes possibly has more to do with a NIMBY protocol, as evidenced by the article above, when local residents are worried about a mass invasion of hordes of scuba divers.  Gods forbid that a number of divers would want to add to the local economy.  The idea of hordes of scuba divers in coastal B.C. waters made me have a chuckle in any event.  Perhaps Howe Sound will be the new Cayman Islands?

I know that this sounds like an excuse before I even say it, but in the past posting the blogs can be a bit of a tough thing.  In case you haven’t noticed, the blogs are quite informative.  Which, in turn, means that before I post them, I have to: a) write them (which in and of itself can take quite a bit); and, b) fact-check, double-check and gather images for them.  Now, perhaps, you may understand the delay between blogs.

In the past I have heard some constructive criticism that my blogs can be too voluminous and too detail-driven.  I hear that, but at the same time I have also received a lot of positive feedback on what has been posted to date.  So I will continue to post those intermittent “big” blogs, because I like writing them, I like confirming my research and I think people both get some pleasure from them and information at the same time.

What does all of this have to do with the webinar?  Well, the webinar taught me to stay on top of the ball when it comes to website functionality and interaction.  One of the more interesting aspects of the social media phenomenon and website productivity generally is the use of blogs.  I write the blog because I like to disseminate useful info (and occasionally silly stuff too).  But it needs to be more frequent, not only for website savviness, but also because blog readers don’t like long delays.

So … and there are a few things I intend to push forward as a result of my think-tanking after the webinar yesterday … I intend to update the blog on a fairly frequent basis from here on out.  In fact, I have put it in my calendar!  I won’t simply blog to spam, I will still try to make each posting meaningful and scuba related, however, the interim blogs between large blogs will be much shorter and likely happen two to three times a week.

By the way, if you have any feedback, please, keep it coming ….. you can use either chris@torontoscubaclub.com or info@torontoscubaclub.com