Northwest Divers

Thursday Night Fun Dives

2009-07-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you know Toms' Diving has started the Thursday Night fun dives for the year.
People start getting to the shop about 5:15 and we try to head out about 5:45. If you need rental gear it is half off at $27.50 for everything and if you have all your gear we pay for your air. All skill levels are welcome we have Divers just out of Open Water class all the way to Instructors diving with us. I hope to see you all there.

Shark Water

2009-03-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

Bottom Line: This eye-opening shark-umentary packs considerable bite.

By Michael Rechtshaffen

Looking to reclaim some of the integrity snatched away by Mr. Benchley and Mr. Spielberg, "Sharkwater" is both a startlingly photographed portrait of that maligned denizen of the deep and a chronicle of filmmaker Rob Stewart's efforts to curb rampant shark poaching in Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands.

While those twin intentions don't always merge swimmingly, Stewart's documentary is seldom less than compelling in its quest to raise international awareness about a situation that is threatening to put sharks on the endangered list.

The Canadian production, which had the largest opening of any indigenous docu when it opened north of the border in March, should attract some "An Inconvenient Truth"-style attention when it opens Nov. 2 in 20 U.S. markets on the heels of a regional Florida release last month.

Stewart, an award-winning photographer who has been swimming with the sharks since he was a child, initially sets out to show the heavily sensationalized creatures through his eyes, intermingling the vibrantly breathtaking HD footage with archival snippets of old black-and-white shark attack instructional films.

Myths are debunked in the process, with narrator Stewart noting that in 2005, human encounters with the mighty predator led to just five fatalities worldwide, a fraction of the deaths caused each year by tigers and charging elephants.

But what starts off as something of a marine version of "Grizzly Man" soon changes course when Stewart hooks up with renegade conservationist and Greenpeace co-founder Paul Watson.

It turns out that China's appetite for shark fins -- specifically for soups and medicinal purposes -- has created a multibillion-dollar shark-finning industry, and though some countries have banned the practice, illegal long-line fishing has contributed to the slaughter of 100 million sharks a year.

A trek taken by Watson and Stewart to Cocos Island off Costa Rica uncovers the presence of dozens of clandestine shark fin-drying operations overseen by the Taiwanese mafia, contributing to the serious depletion of the world's shark populations.

In between all the environmental derring-do, ducking both pirates and police, Stewart finds himself sidelined with a life-threatening flesh-eating virus, but it isn't long before he again takes up the cause.

With all that stirring underwater photographer and a buoyant, propulsive score by Jeff Rona -- complemented by song selections from Nina Simone, Portishead and, appropriately, Moby -- it's hard to resist climbing aboard.

Underwater cleanup

2009-03-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone I just wanted to let you know that Tom's Diving is doing their Underwater Beach Cleanup June 20th this year. You will be helping clean up the environment and have fun diving on top of it. They are also looking for volunteers to help on the surface if you don't dive. You can check out the Tom's Diving web site for more information.

Coeur d' Alene Lake Diver Videos

2009-03-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

I found some Dive videos on YouTube from one of the tech Instructor in town take a look. The links would not work so you might have to Copy and Paste.

Video 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y_PIEHZgcs

Video 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5x61FmX7_M

Who are we

2009-03-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

Northwest Divers is a group for divers that are looking for new dive buddies, looking to talk to other divers or any one that has ever dreamed about taking that first breath underwater. We don’t care what Dive shop you dive out of, if you have experienced a night dive or if you are a Cave instructor every one is welcome. Ask any questions you may have “The only bad question is the one you and the 20 other people have but know one will ask”. Most of our fun dives will be around the Couer d’ Alene Idaho area but I encourage you to post dives you would like to do in your area. So no matter if you have logged thousands of hours or if you don’t have a snorkel we would love to have you join our group.

Remember Diving is about fun if it’s not, think about your favorite Bob Marley song and it will get better.