It is sometimes hard for me hard to believe that I used to be an avid skier. In college, I spent a number of weekends, a week around Christmas and Spring Break skiing. It was fun, exhilarating and challenging. My underwater camera saw more frozen moisture than liquid.
After mneung to Houston in…well let’s not go there…I changed from a skier to a sailor and a diver. White powdery slopes were replaced by soft sand beaches, boats, bikinis, dive equipment and clear blue water. Oh, and yes the warm weather.
Winters in Houston are a far cry from the cold wind-blown snow and ice of Lubbock, but I still find that winters can be cold. I guess I have just gotten used to the warmth so the mild winters here seem cold to me at times.
Despite the executives from Continental trading in their shorts and t-shirts for wool sweaters, wool pants and poly-propylene long underwear, Houston remains the gateway to the Caribbean and the soft sand and clear blue waters I discovered later in life. In the Caribbean there is plenty of warmth to go around and diving on some of the worlds most beautiful reefs. The walls stretch for miles down the coasts and in some places for miles down as well.
While Bing Crosby is singing “Let It Snow…” I am picturing a boat parked over a tropical reef, the top of the reef opening up eighty feet below me with the nearby wall plunging down 400 feet and the current guiding me along this natural aquarium. The fish are swimming, feasting in the current and the corals are gently swaying in the water.
The easiest place to go for a long weekend is Cozumel, Mexico a limestone island once home to the Mayan Oracle and a Mayan pilgrimage destination. Cortez removed the Oracle and used the island as a staging area for his conquest of Mexico.
Jacques Cousteau helped make the island a diving Mecca when he first visited the island in 1960. He found the sleepy little island a paradise above and below the water. Of course he probably would not recognize the Cozumel of today with 2 cruise ship terminals which can accommodate up to six ships. The current economic slowdown in the United States has thankfully reduced the number of ships visiting the island but unfortunately to the detriment to the local people.
Cozumel is the home of the second Marine Park founded in Mexico and is the first not to allow local fisherman to spear fish or line fish on the reefs. The primary industry in Cozumel is tourism with divers making up a large part of the tourist business, especially with the reduced cruise ship traffic.
The reefs, which took a beating in Hurricane Gilbert are still beautiful. The southern end of the island has steep walls and beautiful corals and fish, while the North end of the island was sloping walls and fast currents with up and down currents to boot. For rebreather divers especially, the areas without the up and down currents are more enjoyable and my favorite dives are in the vicinity of Palancar Gardens and Palancar Caves. It is really special to come up from the stark limestone depths into a garden of colour and lives, swirling around you as you swim in, out and around the pillars of coral. You float along, the currents carrying you along toward the north (generally) with the scene constantly changing and renewing the colour and life.
Hmm, I think I need to go diving! Luckily for me, the travel department at Oceanic Ventures, namely Ann, has put together a long weekend in Cozumel so I can complete some training for some students who are also looking forward to warm water and wetsuits instead of the cold water and dry suits I have been making them use for training up to this point. But, despite my being involved in a training class, there are a number of people who, like me, want to escape the cold and enjoy some warm tropical breezes.
If you can get away, you are welcome to join us in Mexico 13-17 January 2011. If you cannot make it this time, keep your head warm and remember someone else is staying warm for you.
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Underwater Video Anyone?
On one trip to Pohnpei, I toured Nan Modal with a Kayak, paddling through the canals of this very ancient city. It was a beautiful day and a spectacular way to see these ruins and to get a real feel of how it one was when this city was alive and active.
One thing I realized while paddling along is the importance of having a camera to capture the moment. However, I also realized that a large camera was not very desirable because of the space requirements and the balance issues.
On my recent trip to Indonesia, I was once again assigned underwater video. This is only the second time in 20 years of working with Ann at Oceanic Ventures and the first time was in Thailand over ten years ago. The advantage of this second time was that the camera was a video camera the size of my iPhone that was housed in a small plastic housing from Ikelite. Now don’t be misled, I am not a videographer by any stretch of the imagination but it was fun trying to get a little video of the people and creatures we encountered.
I am a still photographer at heart so much of my video looks like still shoots. I am sure that someone with a video outlook could achieve better results. It was fun taking video underwater but even more memorable taking video on the surface. Imagine mother and daughter dancing to hip hop tunes while heading out to the dive site or incredible beauty zooming by captured as it appeared.
A small video camera is always handy and you are more likely to carry it with you. At times, it was just clipped off to my harness and at other times I was trying to capture a frog fish or two. I am sure with some additional time with the camera and perhaps a light, my video images would improve. I never really played with the on-camera adjustments, I just shot it when I had a free moment (yes, it was a working trip).
The video results were better than I thought they would be, especially with an inexperienced operator. I think that with some practice and a little tweaking with the camera settings, I can improve my results and generate a more professional looking film. But in the meantime, I’ll just keep shooting a few short clips to help me remember things. I guess I’ll have to return to Nan Modal so I can try it from a kayak or maybe I’ll just borrow the one from the store and head out!
Thanksgiving Memories of Travels, Adventures, Scuba Diving and Divers
There are a lot of things that have happened this year but the things that stick most in my mind are the people and the adventures I have been on during the year. It is hard to forget the stark beauty of Antarctica and the crystal clear waters lapping up against the ship or having a “wee drop of the water of life,” with Steve Brennan at each landfall. There were penguins and seals that came right up to us and birds that flew down and landed in front of us. Who can forget hearing Neal Peake and Giles Adam retell their encounter with a sea lion or the simple joy in Monica Alonso’s face as she showed her photographs of a mother penguin and her child?
In Indonesia, it was fun watching the group discover that a leaf underwater was not really a leaf or that there was really exciting things to be discovered on the sand and mud flats. It was fun watching the kids discover things underwater on their own and to watch them interact with the local children while playing ball. Perhaps the thing that sticks in my mind most was watching the school children standing in uniforms all along the cliff waiving goodbye to Moniquita Alonso.
During my two trips to Grand Cayman, I watched students blossom and find their way. Yes even technical students can have epiphanies and discover how to dive again with all of their new equipment. We even got to do a night boat dive on a wall, a rare occurrence in Grand Cayman and a dive time that is even rarer for me (Ann is the night diver).
But my memories are not limited to diving in exotic places. It was a real treat to watch David Morris plan and complete his first 100 dives which were all done in his first year of diving. His excitement was contagious and even included a party up at the lake to celebrate the achievement.
There are a lot of memories, experiences and things to be thankful for this year. I am glad that I have been able to open the door to adventure for myself and for other people as well.
Thank you to all of the people who helped create the memories for me! I only wonder what memories I have helped create for them…
Santa Visits West University – an Underwater Santa Visit
Saturday was a busy day for the Oceanic Ventures staff as Santa Claus visits the West University Recreational Pool and posed for photographs with swimming children and adults. This is the third year that Santa has visited the pool, posing for photographs underwater and the first time in the new recreational facility. If you missed him this year, Santa will return in November 2011 for a repeat performance. If you would like to see the photos from the event, click here.
Thank you to the team that made this possible, especially Travis Hershey and Tamara Moser.
Where can I meet younger scuba divers?
One of our divers returned froma trip and said “don’t get me wrong, I had a good time but, this trip was all older people. I would like to go on a trip with more people my age.” Well, I never thought of myself as older but with my birthday rapidly approaching, I am feeling older. I guess I understand his thoughts even though I still feel as you as the rest of them.
Ashton and David thought about this too and decided what we needed was a social and diving group with a focus on younger divers. And so the new OVI X-Divers group was formed. Now that the concept was found, they needed a way to form it and execute it. David being the idea man, decided a happy hour to get things started and some events focused on the group would be the method of getting people involved.
So, beginnig with the happy hour this Thursday (November 11, 2010) at the Union Bar and Grill, the group is in motion. Ashton and David also decided that they wanted to run an X-Diver trip to Little Cayman in August as well (August 13-20, 2011). Their plans are to host a series of Happy hours at various clubs around town over the next several months and to have some diving events (diving, food, social and fun) at one or more of our local lakes as the water warms up or the need to go diving is too great.
For those of you who want to meet a fun group of generation X divers, you should plan on dropping by the happy hour this Thursday. David and Ashton are buying the first drink! Contact Ashton for more details or send me an email and I will send you the invitation even if I am not invited!
