Tag Archives: Aquatic Frontier
Perfect And Not So Perfect
Life is made up of so many perfect and imperfect moments. Eventually we realize that each happens for a reason one way or another.
So here’s a run down of the perfect and not so perfect moments of our 5 year anniversary weekend happenings.
First, many people asked, what did you do for your anniversary weekend? How did you celebrate…well we went to the East coast…naturally.
Some of the new dive students said,”Mrs.B, you don’t dive”, “You are okay just hanging out for the weekend?”
The answer is, I enjoy it. Getting to watch Mr. B totally in his element, reading a good book I just downloaded, relaxing, and snapping pictures, chatting with friends, meeting new people. What a perfect gift! Hmmm well… minus the stomach bug that’s been plaguing me for the past 2 1/2 days. If you didn’t already assume, chalk that up to the not so perfect moments.
Saturday morning started off a bit rocky. We wanted to be on the road at 4:30am…however… Father time totally worked against us. Yes, that sounds about right, blaming him! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Aka.. Didn’t hit the snooze button, turned the alarm completely off. Oops….
Still made great timing, no traffic. Everything worked out rather perfectly.
Saturday afternoon the skies sort of matched my stomach. Gray. Luckily the dives were going well for the eager group of 30. Unfortunately on the opposite end of things I was still on the fence, stomach not feeling 100% like itself.
In between dives I made myself get up and take a walk. Convincing myself that the crisp beach air would do me some good. I ended up leaving my camera in the car with final thoughts of it will just be a short walk, no need to carry anything extra.
Aren’t those your famous last words? Ah! I didn’t think I’d walk around as much as I did. I really should have took the camera with me.
Again, convinced myself to go back to the car and then If I felt up to it again I’d go back and snap some photos. Eventually that is exactly what I did.
Anywho, I enjoyed my walk up…
a mini mountain that hugged the harbor area the divers were using to practice their skills. It was pretty neat to look down on the ocean below to see if I could spot them.
I stumbled upon an elderly Korean couple singing to one another and taking in the oceanic views. Also on the walk I found a temple, and laughingly watched a Korean family with two children that were being playfully teased by their father for being afraid of the metal grated pathway affixed to the mountainside. I guess you can add to my list throughly enjoyed my people watching too.
Sunday morning the sun poked right out behind the gray skies. It turned out to be an absolute perfect day for the divers. Plus while my stomach continued to remind me I wasn’t going anywhere I had ample opportunity to catch some rays.
Ahhh…What an incredibly peaceful place!
I’m convinced even though the beaches here on the East coast are bare compared to that of one stateside, a beach is a beach, the feelings of calmness, peace, and relaxation still loft in the air. Heaven on earth.
Hope you all had a truly perfect weekend!
Dive On Into Memorial Day
Memorial Day! The “unofficial” beginning to the summer months! This is the day the pool opens. Gone are the worries that wearing white pants are judged. This weekend kicks off friendly Pennsylvanian neighbor lawn wars too.
Memorial Day weekend has always been one of my favorite long weekends of the year to look forward to. Not only because it gives me time to reflect on our past and current heroes, but because I get to celebrate my very own hero, my husband!
Typically, in the past this weekend meant going to the beach, eating my weight in ice-cream and fresh fruit, sand in my shoes, fireworks, long bike rides, and the smell of bar-b-que in the air.
This weekend always represents the little taste of summer before it really actually begins.
Just because we’re in Korea doesn’t mean we let the Memorial Day weekend festivities go by without getting out and enjoying ourselves.
Saturday we packed up the car and were some of the only crazies on the road at 4AM, bound for the (East Coast) Sacheon beach.
Lots of diving, cooking out, toes in the sand, and laughs all around.
Did you know Monday is also a significant Korean holiday? Yes, it’s Buddha’s birthday.
6 hours in the car…Need we say more? Ah well, totally worth it! Wonderful weekend with great friends!
How was your holiday weekend? How do you typically spend it?
Diving Gisamun Harbor
Diving…. You read that correctly. Yes, we are aware it is the beginning of January and it is indeed very cold out. Mr. B and his friends decided they were going to bring in the New Year right, scuba diving of course!
This was my first time ever tagging along on a dive weekend. I think mostly because a typical dive week starts at 3 or 4 AM on a Saturday morning and doesn’t end until late Sunday night. I love my sleep way too much to pry myself out of the warmth of my big comfy bed.
Mr. B took it easy on me this time. Well…sort of. We didn’t wake up until 5 AM, and didn’t leave the house until 6:30 AM. Hey! I will take all the spare minutes I can have to sleep in.
We hit the road bright and early. It was really nice getting to see new parts of Korea! I was really excited to see the site of where the 2018 Winter Olympics will take place. The city is called Pyeongchang and it’s beautiful! HUGE mountains covered in glistening white snow… ahhh! How picturesque!
We passed some shopping outlets that I cannot wait to visit sometime soon, an ice fishing lake where we saw a few families ice fishing, a multitude of beautiful hotels and resorts, ski resorts, and of course the Seorak Mountains.
We arrived at the rest-stop at around 9:30 AM a bit later than we expected. We grabbed coffee and a sweet potato latte and waited for the others to arrive. Once we were all there we got back on the road and traveled another hour or so until we reached Gisamun Harbor, where 38 Marine Resort is located and the guys had made diving arrangements at.
A few miles up the road from the resort we passed a large statue of a mushroom mascot of Yangyang. Allen told us that the region is famous for its pine mushrooms that grow wild in the surrounding mountains. Pretty Interesting!
This area is really popular for divers and surfers. You may remember Mr. B posting awhile back in the blog about the 38th parallel, well, that is where we were again.
(Map picture taken off google search for 38th parallel).
The guys all suited up and just like that they were loaded into the boat and gone. CRAZY! The temperature at the beach was ranging 23-32 degrees. Mr. B’s dive watch showed that the ocean water temperature was 49 degrees. I was beyond shocked to see so many surfers this time of the year. BRRRR!!! Much too cold for me! However, I am a HUGE chicken.
I finished my book while we were there, took a stroll on the beach and checked out the local harbor area, snapped pictures, watched the waves divers and surfers. I really just enjoyed the peace and calmness that the beach gave off even more so in the winter. As far as the typical beach goer, I think i was the only crazy hanging around.
The guys got in 4 dives the first day. Mr. B was ecstatic! I worried about him being too cold, he was the only nutty one in the group with a wetsuit and not a dry one. He said he was a bit cold but not as much as he expected himself to be. Those words made me feel a little better about the whole dive.
The guys worked up quite an appetite after the diving. We quickly found our hotel, thanks to Allen, threw our stuff in our rooms, and piled into one car to go get some good eats.
We went to a typical Korean BBQ restaurant located in the city of Gangneung . The food was outstanding! Really, what BBQ place isn’t? Never a letdown! We had pork jowl marinated in soy sauce and samgyupsal (pork belly). We also ordered and shared a nice big bowl of spicy beef and fresh vegetable soup with egg and glass noodles. DELISH! I seriously could eat Korean foods every day.
After dinner we went for desert at Baskin Robbins. The location was perfect, sitting right around the corner. We each enjoyed a nice scoop of heaven and then swung by the Family Mart to pick up breakfast for the next morning.
We got back on the road and checked in to our Korean hotel. We took some pictures to share with everyone. The place was brand new and get this it only cost us 50,000 won because the guys are Scuba divers! Yes! That’s almost like saying $50.00 US dollars for a night’s stay. I guess the Scuba diving card comes in handy! The rate without the scuba card was 80,000 won, still not bad at all.
Once we got back the guys hung out a bit and tried on Mr. B’s new dry suit. It wasn’t too long before we all were tired and decided to retire to our rooms and go to sleep.
The next morning we got up and meet at 8 AM. The sun coming up over the ocean was just beautiful! I snapped some pictures. When I was out on the balcony just about to go back into our room I heard what sounded like a cameras shutter opening and closing, Louis! Larry’s dive buddy Louis had seized the same opportunity to snap some quick pictures of the sun coming up so beautifully over the ocean and snow covered fields.
The guys wanted to get in two more dives today and that is exactly what they did. Another wonderful adventurous weekend to mark in the books!
So, how was your weekend? Would you be crazy enough to scuba dive in January??
38 Marine Resort Address: 138-15 Gisamun-ri, Hyeonbuk-myeon, Yangyang-gun
Phone: (82) 33-6710-3801
Diving with Aquatic Frontier at the Korean East Coast
Diving with Aquatic Frontier, the weekend of 26-27 November 2011. The owner, Allen Rivera, was able to conduct 4 diver specialties including: wreck diver, deep diver, night diver and peak performance buoyancy as well as conduct a Rescue Diver certification. Aside from an extremely busy weekend we were able to get some great diving and video in now that we are ending the year. Come dive with Aquatic Frontier in South Korea.
November 12-13, 2011 East Coast Diving
Once again I was out on the East Coast at Sacheon Beach and Kyung Po to do some great diving with Aquatic Frontier. This time I was finishing up my wreck diver specialty. I was able to complete my first wreck penetration, although small it was an exciting dive. The trip was almost a bust thanks to me forgetting to tie down my GoPro camera I just got the week before but Allen from Aquatic Frontier was able to find it at 82 feet just about 24 hours after I lost it. Check out the video below.
Sacheon Beach, Gangneung Scuba Diving
Got to go diving again with the people from Aquatic Frontier. We went to the South Korean East Coast, Sacheon Beach in Gangneung to be exact. We got in beach, boat and wreck dives. Although the weather wasn’t the best visibility was good and everyone there had a blast! I am always looking forward to diving with everyone from here.
Diving at Sacheon Beach, Gangneung, Gangwon-do South Korea
For Columbus day I (Mr. B.) was able to get away from everyone and join some great friends for some diving on the East Coast of Korea. Sacheon Beach, Gangneung, Gangwon-do to be exact, see link for more information on the area: Sacheon Beach Information
Aquatic Frontier (aquaticfrontier.com) held a dive trip weekend that got together divers of all experiences, from new divers going for their Basic Open Water Certification, Advanced Open Water Students (which was me) and some other divers who just went along to get some dives in on a great weekend. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. During the day the air temperature was around 65-72 and the water temperature was 68 on the surface and a few meters down.
During the weekend we were able to do several dives; beach dives, boat dives, wreck dives and a deep dive. Our deep dive took us down to 82 feet with a bottom temperature of 58 degrees Fahrenheit. The wreck dives were at 74-79 feet with a temperature of about 61 degrees F at the bottom. The ocean on the East Coast on Monday was lake conditions, very calm and flat; excellent for the ride to and from on the boat.
I would like to thank everyone at Aquatic Frontier for an EXCELLENT weekend getaway, and I am eagerly looking forward to my wreck dive specialty dives coming up! Great job guys!