Why choose Iridium for your satellite phone rental?

If you are preparing to be in a remote location that doesn't have dependable land line or cell phone service, the Iridium satellite phone (aka sat phone) should be your best option in choosing a true worldwide communications solution.  Unlike other satellite networks that do not provide true worldwide communications, the Iridium satellite network is designed to support phone calls from virtually any location in the world. 

Being a Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite system, the Iridium phones do not need a large aerial like what is required with a geo-stationary satellite network where the communication satellites are installed at a much higher altitude.  This makes the Iridium satellite phone the only solution that offers truly worldwide communications in a portable handheld unit. 

With a system of over sixty satellites that work together in a matrix as they orbit the earth, you can count on the Iridium network to persistently maintain a good connection.  The Iridium network communicates directly back to the public telephone network on the ground so any cellular phone or landline phone located  can communicate with an Iridium satellite phone. 

The Iridium satellite phone provides typical voice mail and text messaging support, similar to what is provided by your mobile phone.  The satellite phone package even offers internet access that allows your laptop or computer to connect to the internet network through the Iridium satellite network.  The data service can be much slower than standard internet performance but it is convenient when you are in a remote location and need to access your email or bring up your web browser in a pinch.  There are also many accessories availabe for the Iridium phone like a solar charger and fixed dock unit.

Iridium satellite phones are more expensive than mobile phones but if you require communications from isolated areas that have no other form of communciation, they are worth the expense.  The typical cost of an Iridium satellite phone package ranges between $1,495.00 and $2,295 depending on the type of package.  Satellite phones are generally available for rental, so if you only need it short-term that is ordinarily your best option, since the satellite phone rental rate is typically between $40 - $90 per week.   And depending on whether you rent or own the satellite phone, the Iridium airtime rate is between $1.49 - $2.49 per minute, with no roaming charges

One of the advantages of using an Iridium sat phone is that you do not have to worry about whether you are in range of a cellular network.  The Iridium satellite network supports a connection in any area of the earth including oceans, deserts, jungles, moutaintops, etc…  The Iridium satellite network is also not affected by natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc…  When the cellular or public telephone networks stop working, the Iridium satellite network keeps on working to provide you the communications you need.  This is why Iridium phones are so popular with emergency rescue teams and other similar industries.  You can be sure that you will stay connected at anytime and from any location with an Iridium handheld satellite phone.

land spearfishing supplies,why choose iridium

Dive Cocos Island For Unbelievable Underwater Costa Rica Ecotourism

Cocos Island is a national park of Costa Rica nearly halfway to the Galapagos Islands from Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. It remains one of the world’s natural gems though most people who take Costa Rica vacations have never heard of it and will never get to see it.  

Indeed, though Costa Rica ecotourism is world renowned and tens of thousands of visitors come, in part, specifically for that experience, remote, wild Cocos Island remains largely unknown. 

The famous adventurer Jacque Yves Cousteau called it the most beautiful island in the world, Costa Ricans voted it one of their country’s Seven Wonders, and it is a finalist for one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The island is some 340 miles off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Though it is a very small island, only about nine square miles, its fame today comes from its undersea treasure---and a fellow named Michael Crichton.

You probably never heard of this island but you've visited it in your imagination.

Unquestionably it is one of the truly great places for scuba diving, considered by many divers to be the best place on the planet for large marine animal viewing. The island sometimes has so many sharks around it that it has also been known as Shark Island.

There are an incredible number of kinds of tuna, rays, sharks and other fish, not to mention sea turtles, porpoises, and whales in the waters surrounding Cocos.  Hammerhead sharks are common and some of the largest Hammerheads ever encountered have been seen off this island.

The Island has long been famous for pirates, real and imagined. It has been claimed by some that it served as inspiration for Robert Lewis Stevenson's famous tale Treasure Island but real pirates often  sailed to  it to get away from the English fleet,  to bury treasure, and to rest up for their next adventure.

Indeed,  to this day two great treasures, called the Devonshire Treasure and the Lima Treasure, may still be buried there.  How much plunder may still be buried on the island?  Think hundreds of millions of dollars. Intrigued?  We found a real treasure map of the fabulous Cocos Island Lima Treasure.  Imagine great Costa Rica ecotourism AND fabulous pirate booty!

This romantic, mysterious island also ignited the imagination of author Michael Crichton whose epic  Jurassic Park is set off the coast of Costa Rica.

Except for a few Costa Rica park rangers whose job it is to protect its waters from poaching, the island is uninhabited. Its isolation has protected its rain forest from depredation and until recently its spectacular underwater splendor was safe from destruction.

Because of its remote location and complete lack of tourist facilities, Cocos Island is not a heavily visited Costa Rica vacation spot.  The only way of getting to it is by boat.  Several operators offer Costa Rica scuba diving tours to Cocos Island but plan for at least 30 hours on open water.  And be sure to bring Dramamine!

If you are lucky enough to visit Cocos, you will only be allowed ashore with prior permission of the rangers and no one is allowed to stay overnight except on their boats.

But, if you are allowed to go onto the island be sure to walk its coast because there are rocks and boulders bearing inscriptions from sailors over the centuries.  A hundreds years or more before “ Kilroy was here”, seafarers inscribed their names and dates of visits on Cocos Island rocks.  You may even find a sea boulder with the name of Jacque Cousteau's son, who signed it a couple of decades ago.

And, should you be graced with the good fortune to travel to incomparable Cocos Island, remember what Captain Cousteau said: “A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it.“  

If you're an adventurous scuba diver who wants to experience big marine animal diving at its finest, Cocos Island is for you.  Make it part of your wonderful Costa Rica ecotourism experience.

costa rica spear diving,Michael Connolly Costa Rica

Diving In Florida: Exciting Destinations

Diving in Florida is different from most other scuba diving experiences. You will soon discover there are just so many places to choose from, so where do you begin?

Florida has more coast line than any other state in the USA and for scuba diving starts on the north east coast at Palm Beach with the Atlantic coast line travelling down to Fort Lauderdale. Follow the Atlantic coast line further south and you are very quickly in Miami. A short trip further on of 90 miles and you have arrived at ‘The Keys’.

The Keys stretch from Key Largo at the northern end all the way down through Islamorada and Marathon to Key West, the furthest point south.

As you head west around the southern tip of Florida you are into the Gulf of Mexico and there are plenty of places to go diving in Florida as you travel up the west coast all the way north to Tampa.

When you consider that Florida has such a long and varied coast line it is not surprising to know it is such a popular destination for scuba diving.

Off all the destinations in Florida, Key Largo is the best known of all. Known as the “Scuba diving capital of the world”, Key Largo was always a popular destination. Over the years the other major areas of Florida have continued to expand their artificial reef programs and now offer some excellent diving sites.

Diving in Florida can offer you the experience of the riches of Palm Beach which now has some amazing diving sites such as Governors River Walk Reef. Do you know of many diving sites that was created using not one shipwreck but four!

The four ships that form Governors River Walk Reef are the Shasha Boekanier, St. Jaques, Thozina and the Gilbert Sea which sit on the seabed at a depth of up to 90 feet. This is typical of the commitment to developing artificial reefs around the Florida coast line.

Miami has achieved similar fame with diving sites such as Army Tanks yet another unusual diving site in Florida. Of course Miami also has an exciting city to offer when you are not in the water and has famous beaches such as South Beach with its art deco , cafes and bars, and of course not forgetting some fabulous shops.

Planning to go diving in Florida needs to take into account some of the great places you can visit and may or may not include a trip to Orlando. Even here in Orlando you can still do some Florida scuba diving.

However Florida scuba diving is all about its fabulous coastline and when you scuba dive in Key Largo you will fully understand why it was ‘the place to go’.

Key Largo has everything from easy shallow reef dives to deep wreck dives such as the USS Spiegel Grove which was the biggest shipwreck ever to be intentionally sunk in these waters and takes numerous dives to fully explore.

Diving in Florida is one of the most exciting pastimes and continues to grow in popularity.

scuba diving spearfishing,best spear fishing places in florida,Spear fishing blog Miami

Fishing the Salt Flats and Lagoons of Tulum Mexico

Upon arriving on the Boca Paila Fishing Lodge beyond the long row of beachfront Tulum Hotels promptly at 7:30 am, we noticed the place was by now jumping.  Guests had been  finishing up breakfast and the guides were getting the last of their equipment in the boats while being proficiently directed by  Chico, the general manager and the principle host of the property.  Clearly this was not the opening time these guys had done  this, in actual fact Boca Paila has been present since the late 1960s.  To say these guys are pioneers of fishing in this area is  a real understatement, they have been the only game in town back then and it had been a 2 hour drive from Tulum, not 20 to 30 minutes as  it is now.

We came in favor of the fishing and they had been ready on behalf of us.  After momentary introductions with Chico, he informed us that our boat and  guide Alfonso had been by now waiting on the pier on behalf of us.  A quick review of our tackle and off we went.  Chico made sure we  also had a variety of the very best flies and jigs in favor of the locale and season before we departed and handed those to our guide Alfonso  following he personally escorted us into the boat.

Once on the water, Alfonso didnt fritter away much time and we took off across the glass lagoon in the hunt for our first fish of the  day.  There was a brief stop at a cut inside the lagoon, where it meets the ocean, and Alfonso said we needed to stop in favor of  something there.  Without giving away all the secrets and techniques of the locale, the stop proved to become rather helpful during the day.

Following the “stop” where the lagoon meets sea, we made our way to the first of many of what I imagine are Alfonsos favorite  spots within this magical lagoon.  There awaited at least 30 miles of nearly untouched and guarded wetlands and  interconnected natural waterways.

Alfonso killed the engine as we arrived at the first spot and he began poling us across the black rooted mangrove shores as  he surveyed the water with his practiced ability to see.  Within 10 minutes he saw first bone fish and we had been directed to “11 ‘o  clock about 30 feet out,” and then the swift plea to “strip it, strip it, strip it!” We followed our guides instruction and  bingo, my Dad had our primary fish on. Inside two minutes, an additional respectable sized bone fish was caught and released by me.  This  was gonna be entertainment!

Further along the shore, Alfonso continued to scrutinize the waters from his 3 foot platform in favor of the next catch.  This time it  was Permit and I had one on the line.  If you have not caught a Permit fish on a fly rod or maybe light tackle, its difficult  to explain the amount of excitement it genuinely is.  It had been run of the mill size on behalf of the locale, about 10 pounds but it fought for 15 minutes  before relenting and after a quick photo it was released.  What a rush and what a ravishing fish!

a few more Bone Fish and a mixed bag of Jack, Mud Snapper and Porgy and off we went to the next spot.  I thought to myself,  if all of the spots are like that, one of my arms might not make it the day.  We had some issues with the line on my rod and had  to return to the lodge more line which procured Alfonso no time to get back up and running.  

Following about an hour of poling down inside the briny waters close to our first prize pool we had caught a variety more of the  undesired Snappers, Jack and Porgy so we decided to move along once more.  I should point out that there is seldom a uninteresting moment  on the lagoon.  Even when you arent catching fish, theres a lot to see.  In the course of the day we in all probability saw 12 rays of  varied species and witnessed several cases of Mullet boiling, bursting and leaping out of the water to escape from a  striking Barracuda with many birds of countless species and insignia.  We also saw a nesting couple of Sea Eagles  (Osprey).

We crossed the lagoon at great speed the afternoon fishing before gliding in, engine off and back to the poling for  Alfredo.  I ought to point out that Boca Paila Fishing Lodge has an especially able fisherman and guide in Alfons.  I didnt  catch sight of a tenth of what he spotted for us, however he was sitting up 3 feet higher than us, but he was amazing.

Just prior to lunch I got into my second Permit and this one was closer to fifteen pounds and he wanted to run.  The Permit are  relatively common inside the Tulum, Boca Paila locale of the lagoon so I shouldnt have been overly startled to see Alfonso making lunch  while I fought this fish.  What did amaze me was that when I said “I think he’s coming in, grab the net”, Alfonso didnt  stir.  The fish gave me my reply when he took off on an additional long run and I caught a wry smile from Alfonso and went back  to my fish.  an additional 10 minutes and I would finally land that one, and yes, Alfonso had the net ready this time.

Subsequent to lunch, which was wonderful by the way, a ham sandwich, chips and a beer. Subsequent to being in the sun for 4-5 hours, it was one  of the very best lunches I have had in a while and Alfonso showed us the Mexican method of adding some hot sauce to the  sandwiches…it was good.  We moved closer to shore and once more started to stalk the next catch, it was hot and the fishing  appeared to slow a little inside the afternoon heat, but Alfonso was persistent and when he caught me sitting on the bow he demanded  that I stand up. “You can’t catch fish sitting down…stand up ready!”  I was up and about in an instant and was somewhat  embarrassed but that ended instantly after I hooked into another Permit, this one was somewhat smaller, probably 8 pounds but  the battle lasted 10 minutes and the thrill was definitely not gone.

We stalked a variety more small groups of Bone Fish and Permit pairs, landing a few more average sized Bone Fish before  moving on once again.  This time, as we arrived at the new spot, Alfonso informed us that this was a sizable channel and one  of the deeper areas of the lagoon.  Still only 12 to 15 feet deep but we changed up the tackle and went to a large jig with  a significant leader.  I am guessing about 20 to 25 pound test.

This is where things got very attention-grabbing.  We must have hit that channel as a school of baitfish were passing through or  had just passed since it was a feeding frenzy!   The first casts for both my father and I produced two large Snook in the  20 pound range, pretty good fights for both, but pound for pound I believe the Permit is hard to beat.   Anyway, as things  got peculiar, and cast after cast produced larger and larger Snook, I started thinking about the obscure “Super Slam”; Bone  Fish, Permit, Snook and Tarpon.  I would have been ecstatic to possess such an incredible day and fall short but then as if on queue  an additional whopping strike and from the water it arrived, the Tarpon ran beyond the boat at full speed then prepared a run back with  an additional spectacular leap.  While it was relatively undersized a Tarpon at about 10 pounds, it was the icing on a perfect day  of fishing.

We stayed on the channel for 20 minutes or so and I was so tired and completely pleased that I handed my rod to  Alfonso and watched him catch a few more Snook while my Dad did the same and brought in a couple more Bone Fish   measure.

All in all, I must say that this was the very best day of fishing EVER.  Between the company, the Boca Paila Fishing Lodge  services and the brilliant number of fish we caught, this one will be tough to beat.  I would like to once more personally thank  the staff at Boca Paila for this glorious experience we will both never forget!

spearfishing from shore in rivera maya

Spearfishing Tournaments 2010

Spearfishing Tournaments 2010

Here's a small list of some of the up and coming spearfishing tournaments for the year 2010.  If you know of another spearfishing tournament in your area and would like to add it to this list let us know or post a comment.

Because of the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, you may want to check the sites tournament to make sure it is still scheduled or if it has been moved to another date and time.

Dive Locker sponsoring the "Not a Red Snapper" Tournament on April 17, 2010 from Panama City Beach, Florida
47th Annual Hell Divers Rodeo, June 3, 4, 5, & 6, 2010 Louisiana
Swollfest (Freediving Division) " Swell fishing rodeo which is a competition for the biggest fish where we all have a good time!" – June 10-12
Aqua Aces - Annual Aqua Aces Rodeo: June 24-27, New Orleans, Lousiana
Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament - July 14th - 18th, Louisiana
2010 Hooks for Hearts Rodeo will be held at Bridgeside Marina in Grand Isle, LA - July 15- 17th 2010
35th Annual - Alabama Open Spearfishing Rodeo - July 23, 24, 25, 2010 - Terrebonne Sportsman League - Aug 6,7,8th
Council Shootout – Aug 20 & 21
Sheepshead Rodeo - TBA
2010 Louisiana State FreeDiving Tournament - September 9 - 12th, Location TBA
Terrebonne Sportsman League - Aug 6,7,8th
Council Shootout – Aug 20 & 21
Sheepshead Rodeo - TBA
Frogmen Catfish Rodeo – Nov 5 & 6, tentatively

spearfishing catfish

Octopus Steals Underwater Camera

Just saw this video on Youtube that was captured by this underwater camera, is amazing in detail. It's fascinating to watch this spearfisherman get his camera taken away by an octopus. It came out from underneath him and snatches his camera. Takes him about 5 minutes to get it back as he chases after the octopus. This happened off the coast of New Zealand.

Some people might have given up and let the octopus just take off with the camera, some are fast in the underwater current, by this guy persues the creature. Wrestles the camera away from it and uses his speargun to distract him. Even after he got his camera back, the octopus wouldn't let go of the speargun, so he let him hang on as he swam back.

This is a great video clip with some amazing colors from under the deep.

Spearfishing Outfitters – Welcome

Spearfishing is an historic technique of fishing that continues to be practiced around the world which began by earlier cultures. These days there are more modern day advances, such as bands, or pneumatic driven spearguns used to strike the your fish. Although some countries still use historic techniques, other anglers have become avide sportsman in the sport of spearfishing. Modern techniques include free diving, snorkling and scuba diving. Whether you've been active in the sport or beginning to learn, you will find a vast amount of reviews, ratings, blog and a resource of information for finding your gear at affordable prices.

"From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to the earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface...and he is free."  - Jacques Yves Cousteau

SPEARFISHING OUTFITTERS

« Previous Page