Houston's Premier Scuba and Dive Shop Oceanic Ventures Inc.

(713) 523-3483 (dive)
5808 Newcastle Drive
Houston, TX 77401

Archives for December 2010

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Holiday Hours

Just in case you missed them, we will be leaving a little early tomorrow, Christmas Eve and will be closed on Monday.  To help lessen the confustion, here are our hours:

  •  
    • Christmas Eve, Friday December 24 we will be here from 10:00 to 4:00;
  • Christmas Day, Saturday, December 25 we will be closed;
  • St Stephen’s Day, Sunday, December 26, we will be closed;
  • Christmas Holiday, on Monday, December 27 we will be closed;
  • New Year’s Eve, Friday, December 31 we will be closed;
  • New Year’s Day, Saturday, January 1, we will be closed; but,
  • On Monday, January 3, the first Monday of the year, we will be here from 12:00 to 6;00!

We look forward to seeing you this holiday season and in the new year.  Don’t forget, Christmas is a great time to give the gift of SCUBA.

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Ashton Graduated!

Graduation Ceremony
Friday was the day! Ashton Arsement graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Economics.
You may not know this but Ashton has been working full time and pursuing his college degree from the University of Houston.  On friday all of his hard work paid off and he attained his goal and was awarded his degree.  We are all very proud of him.  It took a great deal of work and perseverance to reach this point.  Ashton has shown a great deal of dedication to achieving his goals.
After his last exam. we asked what he is going to do now, he did not say he was going to Disney World, but rather he felt funny because there was no more studying to do or concern over classes for next semester.
On behalf of the entire staff of Oceanic Ventures, Congratulations, Ashton!

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Technical Diving and Commitment

Now what would possess one to want to strap over 100 pounds of stuff onto their body and jump into water over their head? When you find the answer you have found a technical diver.
My answer was that I wanted to go to places that required that commitment. It all started when I first went to Bikini Atoll. Prior to our trip, I had heard about that Nitrox thing and since I knew we were going deep I decided to take a class. Well back in 1995 Nitrox was still a voodoo gas in many eyes. So after much searching I found someone to teach it. In addition to the Nitrox class we took a Deep Air class, sort of a introduction to decompression stop diving. Didn’t think we needed it, but what the heck. After completing the classes off to Bikini we went. We knew what we were doing now!
Well, all dives in Bikini are decompression stop dives. The average dive depth is 155 feet. After a week of this diving, had a great time, but we realized we did not have a clue and that clearly was not acceptable. So after our return, back to the dive shop we went and said we wanted to finish our training. Finish our training meant hypoxic trimix and cave.
At that point I had made the commitment to become a technical diver. After completion of the trimix and cave classes I was a certified cool tech diver, or was I? In the fullness of time I have realized that to truly be a technical diver you have to do technical dives. In order to do technical dives you have to want to do technical dives. So in the end the Why is because there is something down there you want to see and technical diving is how to see it safely.

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The Misunderstood Great White Shark

Today’s post comes from Amos Nachoum, an award winning photographer, specializig in Big Animals, like great white sharks, leopard seals, polar bears, etc. We first met Amos as we were planning for our Antartica Trip. Talking to Amos you immediately get wrapped up in his enthusiasm and his love of the sea. If you talk to him long enough, you’ll be making some incredible dives in some unusual places, think Antartica or the Artic. If you ever meet him, tell him you know Dive Mom!
Written by Amos Nachoum

Great White Sharks – Nasty Predator?

Great White Shark by Amos NachoumMy expeditions to encounter the Great White Shark tend to sell out fast. That’s what just happened to my last two October expeditions. My favorite spot in the world to see Great Whites is in Mexico’s Baja California. The trips sell out fast for a good reason. People are fascinated with Great Whites, even though these sharks have the undeserved reputation of being a nasty predator. They’ve got a lot of teeth, as many as 300. They’re big – 12 to 16 feet long, and they weigh a couple thousand pounds. Steven Spielberg gave a starring role to a Great White in Jaws, and that didn’t help their reputation as a ferocious man eater.
But the truth is they are one of the most fascinating animals you’ll ever encounter, and one of the most rare.
When young, they feed on small harbor seals and later go after sea lions, elephant seals and even small toothed whales. They like to ambush their prey from below – one big bite usually does the trick. They will also scavenge – eating the carcass of a whale shark. They will sometimes eat sea turtles and sea otters.
Let’s be fair, though. Scientists and others who study the Great White say that in the past 100 years more people have been killed by dogs than by Great White sharks. That’s not to say that they don’t look scary. They do, especially when you’re facing one close up. But that’s only part of what makes them so fascinating.

The Great White Shark: A Rare Species

There are only about 100 adult Great Whites in the state of California’s waters. Scientists say less than 3,500 Great Whites are left in the world’s oceans, making them rarer than tigers. They are long distance swimmers, capable of traveling 12,000 miles over a nine month period. A trip from California to Hawaii is a common trip for them. Scientists have tracked them swimming from South African to Australia and back in nine months’ time.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has been capturing young white sharks, exhibiting them for a a short time, and then releasing them. The first time they did this, in 2004, the shark had almost a million visitors. The aquarium’s executive director Julie Packard said the shark was “the post powerful emissary for ocean conservation in our history.” The aquarium is also studying the adult Great White sharks to learn how to protect them from overfishing and the effects of bycatch – sharks that get caught in the nets of industrial fishing operations, get injured and can die because of it.
That’s what happened to one of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s White sharks, a female. Captured on August 26, 2009 and released on November 4, the shark traveled more than 500 miles, from Monterey Bay to Baja California. There, she was accidentally caught in a gill net and died.

Baja California – One of the Best Dive Sites for Epic Shark Diving

There’s no doubt that Great White sharks are worthy of great respect. They’re found in the waters of Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It’s true that are amazing dives to be enjoyed in all of those locations, but my favorite place to see them is in Baja California. The water is clear and warm and the shark encounters will always be your best memories of shark diving.

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Lose Weight When You Go Diving

Today, David Snyder talks about his goal of losing weight for diving.

Is this some “Biggest Losers” program? Ah, no. Lose weight when you go diving refers to you kit (equipment). As we continue to dive, over time we acquire more and more things. Very important things when we acquired them but are they still important?

Stahlsac 10 lb Premium Roller Bag Great for Travel, Scuba Diving Equipment, Snorkeling, Jet Skiing, Kayaking, Swimming, Triathlon, Camping equipment. It is a Versitile Rolling Travel Case.
As the airlines have become more strict with checked luggage, I have embarked on a quest to lighten the load. This quest takes two paths. First is do I need a particular piece of equipment? Do I really need that fourth light, or that second slate, or that spare whatever? My idea now is if I am not certain that I will use something it gets left behind. I plan to enter the water carrying everything I brought and my dive bag empty.
The second path of my weight loss quest is to change heavier for lighter. Ounces add up to pounds. Do you really need a 12″ knife when a 6″ knife will do just fine. Lights, if your light is more than three years old you should be able to double the capacity or half the weight with a new one. I look at each piece of equipment to see if there is a lighter or more capable substitute.
My goal for this process, is one bag 40 pounds, two weeks of diving, nothing rented (except bottles) or borrowed. I am getting there.
How much do you weigh?

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Underwater Camera Maintenance

You may have heard the saying that underwater photographers like to tell new photographers, it is not if your housing will leak, it is when.  And while there may be some truth in that phrase, there are ways to reduce your risk.
Here are some things you can do to keep your camera in working order:

  • Before you leave town, assemble your camera so you make sure you have all of the parts.  It is a lot easier to locate missing items while you are at home rather than on your trip.
  • Check your spare parts kit.  You should have a spare set of o-rings for your camera housing, ports, cables and strobes.  It should also include the appropriate lubricants for the o-rings, an eraser to clean contacts and some contact cleaner.  Don’t forget spare batteries, cables, cards and Moisture Muncher® packets.
  • One of David Snyder’s suggestions is to store a set all of the tools you need to assemble your housing and strobes in your camera bag or box.  This allows you to assemble everything without having to find your diving tool kit.
  • Develop a packing check list so you make sure you have everything.  I developed one for our group traveling to Antarctica and you are welcome to use it too.
  • When you arrive at your destination, take time to carefully assemble your camera.  Remember, be methodical when you are working with your camera.  Clean all the o-ring seating surfaces (requires you remove the o-ring from the groove.  Grease your o-ring according to the housing manufacturer’s guidelines and before you close-up the housing, check the o-ring and the seating surfaces one more time.  I had a client who flooded a camera because of a beard hare that broke the seal on his o-ring.
  • After your dive, it is important to rinse and dry the camera.  It is better to leave it in a water bath until you are ready to deal with it.  However, one word of caution, leaving it in the boats rinse tank may result in a leak because the motion of the boat may break a seal especially on cameras with ports or waterproof lenses (Nikonos Camera).
  •  I recommend creating a work surface using a Microfiber Towel.  These handy towels keep parts from bouncing away and absorb any moisture that may be on the camera.  Use a separate towel to dry the camera and clean the sealing surfaces.  You want to keep all saltwater away from the seals and sealing surfaces.  The salt crystals that remain after the water evaporates may cause a leak.
  • Again, whenever you open the housing, be methodical about cleaning and checking the o-rings.  You may not have to open all of the o-ring protected areas between dives but, if you break the seal, you need to re-prepare the o-rings, sealing surfaces and grooves.
  • As a note, before you seal the camera in the housing, add a Moisture Muncher® to absorb the condensation typically caused by the heat generated by the camera and battery.
  • As you start your descent, check your housing for bubbles and for any signs of leakage.

 If you are careful, your inevitable flood may be minor or even delayed for years and years.