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Click the thumbnails for more information.
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More Yackin’ than Rackin’
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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The warming weather gave myself and DW the dive itch; so we thought Venice Beach for the 2011 first dive. Toofless and Sir-Jeff Meg Master were kind enough to host the SC fellas. We had eyed the weather…it was iffy…but we were jonesin’ to blow some bubbles and collect. Day 1 was bright and sunny, with a bit of a breeze. We anchored and soon the motion of the ocean had me woozy. I jumped in and went negative quickly to dive sans nausea…got a few teeth, a few worn megs, an almost complete meg,... |
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Scuba Diving in Venice Florida - 2011
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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Venice is the called the shark tooth capital of the world, so naturally its a place I like to visit every once in a while. Mi hermano fósil, da fossz, joined me. We trekked the 9 hours south to sunny Florida and met up with toofless from meghunter.net. His fossil shirt designs are world famous and he happened to be taking a break from the biz ... |
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Tooth time! finally!
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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It is that time of year again! The water is starting to warm up over in the Gulf and the constant wondering what the winter storms may have uncovered drives us to go see. This is a combination of two trips, neither of which went without the technical difficulties often associated with dragging a big heavy boat all the way across the state. Had a blow out on the trailer. Had a fuel line issue on the boat...damn ethanol. But its all fixed and we did find some nice stuff. See for yourself.... |
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Exiled to the fossil grounds!
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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After all of our qualtiy time together the wife had had enough and told me to go find more bones and teeth so a quick call to my buddy Jeff and we headed to Venice for three days of fossiling. We found the usual stuff except for one tooth in particular that I found which I feel is "heavenly". I also had a interesting shark encounter. It is funny how non scuba divers think that sharks must be everywhere when you are diving, and they may be, but in over 15 years of diving I have only act... |
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Anniversary Diving
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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The look from my mother in law was one I had seen before. I struggled to hold back my smile as I explained to her that for our anniversary I was not taking her daughter to Venice, Italy but to Venice, Florida which, I tried to convince her, was better. That we would be scuba diving for bones and teeth from long dead critters didn't help my position as I continued along passionately describing how we would spend a night in the boat and have two whole days of diving. Sounds like a Honeymoon to me!... |
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Bringing the BRFC Rivrdigr Fest to the Digr!
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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The BRFC was long due for a fossilerous road-trip. I made the tract down to Venice Beach, FL with DW and Dafossz. We would later meet up with ScubaPaul at the hotel. The next da... |
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Mucho Mammoth
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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I have been reading this site for somtime now and I must say I learned most of what I know from here. When I got the email from Rivrdigr that the fossil hunting "summit" known as Rivrdigr Fest would be held in Venice, Florida, a mere three hours from my house and that I had been extended an invitation, well, I was a little excited! It is always cool to meet new ... |
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A Fossil Fest to be Remembered
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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The last few summers of BRFC had always featured BRFC Digrfest in SC with trips to Cooper, Edisto and some land hunting. But this time myself, T$, DW and ScubaPaul decided to don our finest SCUBA gear at world-famous Venice Beach, Florida. The plan was 4 days of diving off the Venice coast and hopefully multi-post-dive Mexican celebration grub. Day 1 and Day 2 were at different locations not far off the beach. On my first dive, I realized this was the first time in 15 years I had more t... |
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Fossil Diving at Venice Beach FL for Megalodon and Mammoth
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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I have always wanted to hunt shark teeth at Venice Beach, Florida. Commonly referred to as the shark tooth capital of the world, Venice Beach boasts a plethora of miocene aged shark teeth from the Bone Valley formation. Also found there are numerous pleistocene ice age fossils. I usually take at least one long distance fossil hunting trip a year, and when da fossz, t$, and scubapaul said they would be down for a trip to Venice, we contacted rivrdigr and started making plans. The past fe... |
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Finally! It's warm in Venice.
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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At least the freakin' air was warm. But, a sissy's collection of fossils is easy to pick out and I am tired of being that guy so I decided to "Man Up" and brave the fridgid waters of the Gulf of Mexico early in April. There is a buoy or something in the inlet that posts the water temperature online which I have access to and I also have the knowledge that its much colder on the bottom out near the bone yard than what the buoy says but sometimes you just have to go for it. Not alone of ... |
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When you're NOT good...
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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You have to work hard. And, deal with adverse conditions, etc.
The water in the gulf seems to stay cold for a long time. On the east coast, with the gulf stream nearby, our water is usually pretty warm. At least warm enough to dive comfortably with a 3mm wet suit. Not so over where the fossils abound. But, week after week of daydreaming about the tooth littered bottom tends to make water in the 60's seem somewhat hospitable if not enticing. So I booked a dive with Florida ... |
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surf and teeth
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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Toofles has contacted me a couple of times to go diving with him at Venice beach, but seems I always have something else planned when he's down. Luckily this time I was able to fit in a tank with him After a little confusion on my part on where to meet we got my gear loaded up and headed out. The water was flat calm and the visibility was awesome 20'+. The water temp is still a little chilly, it was 68 at the top but around 60 at the bottom.
After about 20 min I was ... |
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Ironman Toothapalooza (Fall '07)
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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This was the third and last Ironman dive trip for '07. It starts by my buddy Jeff and I towing the 7000 pound Parker across the state on a road thats just a smidge wider than the trailer. White knuckle driving at its best. But the bottom of the gulf littered with monster meg teeth is all I see when I grit my teeth and close my eyes each time we meet a on-coming semi on one of the to narrow bridges keeping us from the promised land...Venice Beach.
We arrived around midnight Friday and... |
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The Beginning of an Obsession.
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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This trip is from May 2007. I had just gotten my Open Water cert. in Sept 06 and this was my 1st true dive. Venice, Florida, and I could not have had a better time. Great viz, and I also found a couple things. I'm sure every collector has that "1st find" that no matter the size or condition, is just Cool. I carry mine around in a Tupperware bowl trying to show anyone who will listen.----( Drives my... |
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My new dive buddy
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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My son has been waiting patiently for this summer to role around, this summer he is getting his jr. open water certification. His check out dives were at Venice beach so I had to join in. He did great with his dives and passed all of his tests. He's ready to do some serious tooth diving.
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Spring diving time
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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It's perfect diving weather here in Florida, and with some free time on my hands I'm going to be doing alot more diving in the coming months. This weekend chuck and I hit Venice beach. The vis was awesome 25+'. We burned 2 tanks. I racked. I got the big one 10 min into the first tank. I love being in gravey mode.
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Diving Between Fronts
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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We had a strong SW wind along the Gulf Coast all last week and the visibility off the beach was terrible. I waited it out as long as could, but with a TS heading our way, I figured that the visibility was only going to get worse and be bad for a long time. I used two tanks and got a solid 3 hours of bottom time. The visibility was better as you got further off the beach, the best was maybe 2 - 3 feet (until I got to rooting around and then it went to zero). I mostly found bulls, sand tigers, ... |
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A Day At The Beach
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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I was able to get out this weekend and get two nice tooth dives in. I went to my favorite candy spot and racked. I found the ususal suspects: bulls; tigers; duskys; sand tigers; lemons; makos; and a 1.5 inch meg. The meg has a little feeding damage, but it will be a nice addition to my collection. I placed a few of the teeth out for a pic, but got lazy and left the rest in a pile. You'll get the idea of what I found. It was a beautiful day and the water was in the high 80's. I had 20 feet... |
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It's a sad day....but a new year!
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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We headed down to Sarasota to collect at a construction site that has been our primary land spot for several months. When we got there we found that the main areas had been covered with topsoil and rolled with heavy equipment. The big dirt piles from the ponds were all gone too. We also noticed paving equipment parked on the property. It was obvious that this was our last trip to this site. It's a sad day. We didn't find much at all. I called the developer who promised to put me on a new ... |
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Is This Florida or What????
Sarasota County, Florida, USA |
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It was 36 degrees and the wind was blowing like 50 mph when I woke this morning! Dang, is this Florida or what! My wife and I had planned on a day of fossiling and we were going no matter what. It rained hard all day on Christmas day and we both felt we should hit a land site today. We decided on a construction site that had produced some nice pieces for us over the summer. We left the house early and made the 1.5 hour drive to the site. It looked good and we didn't see any other footprint... |
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