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

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

Blog

by

It's All Over

It is now Saturday and Tek Week 2008 has drawn to a close.  It started out a little tumultuous with Hurricane Gustov causing havoc in the Carribbean.  But as the winds moved on into the Gulf, memories were being made in Grand Cayman.

 


Ray Turek getting ready
Ray Turek getting ready

My cadre of students finished their courses.  Ray Turek completed his Normoxic Trimix course and may have been convinced that CCR was the only way to dive deeper because you could stay longer.  Of course, he’ll now have to explain the need to his wife and then decide on which unit is right for him.  He certainly got to see a variety of units here this week.  Kim Smith from KISS rebreathers was here as was Peter Den Hann from Silent Diving Systems the North American distributer of the Evolution and Inspiration rebreathers.  Paul Rainmaker, designer of the rEvo rebreather was here showing off his new rebreather.  Then there were the divers themselves sporting a number of units including the Sentinel from VR technologies, several Inspirations, Evolutions, Evolution Plus’, an Optima, a Titan or two, a Megalodon, a few KISS Classics, a KISS Sport, and some rEvo’s.

 

 

 

 

While Ray was completing his Normoxic course, Madison Lee and Mark Nawman were working on their Trimix Course.  They ended their training on Friday with a 300 foot dive near Dolphin Drop-Off in the west bay.  All three of them received preliminary certificates at the closing session on Friday evening.

 


Madison ready to Go
Madison ready to Go

The training was a minor part of the week at least for me.  The best part was the diving.  Due to the winds from Gustov and Hanna, our diving was primarily off the West Bay portion of the island.  Of course, this is not a real problem since these walls are beautiful and the aquatic life is abundant.

 

 

 

 

Diving deep in Grand Cayman is a real treat because not only are the deep portions of the walls beautiful, but your decompression is spent on the walls as well.  This makes for a more entertaining stay and a more relaxed dive.

 

Coming up the coral canyons at Big tunnels treated us to more than 14 lobsters milling about and two chasing one another around the reef.  In Orange Canyon and at both Leslie’s Curl and Dolphin drop off we were treated to exhibitions by the ultimate free-divers – the turtles.  Rays and sharks greeted the divers on most dives and even the sharks made an appearance.

 

All in all it was a fun event and we had some great dives.  The staff at Cobalt Coast and DiveTech work hard to make these events special and they succeeded once again.

See the press release at https://www.caymannetnews.com/news-9858–1-1—.html

 

Tek Week Group
Tek Week Group

by

Tek Week Update

Hurricane Gustov made the start of Tech Week in Grand Cayman a little interesting.  We spent much of the week following the hurricane tracking maps and models on Weather Underground, www.wunderground.com, and talking to people down here.

 

Saturday morning found us going to the airport on faith that the Cayman government would open the island to non-residents by the time our flight left.  I had spoken to Nat Robb early Saturday morning who indicated that this storm was more of a non-event for them (not true for the sister islands however).  They had some wind and little rain.

 

Arie, the owner of Cobalt Coast, called me at 11:15 to tell me that the government on Grand Cayman had given the “all clear” and that visitors could now return to the island.  Of course Continental had not received the message as quickly – the gate agent infomed me that “they were the airline” and it was up to them.  However, the supervisors at Continental quickly cleared the flight for visitors with confirmed reservations (of course they wanted to see a printed confirmation…).  After getting a number from Arie (just in case someone needed to confirm it with him) we were on our way.

 

Things were a little out of sorts and most of the windows on the island were boarded up as were some of the windows at Cobalt Coast and Dive Tech.  The benches were pushed together and the dock was a little worse for wear.  The most surprising thing was to see all of the Dive Tech cylinders in front of Cobalt Coast—lots of cylinders.

 

This morning the staff showed up and things were pulled out, moved swept and by lunch time you would never have known there was a storm except for the pier which by the end of the day was ¾ repaired – the only thing that stopped Jay and his crew was the fact that they ran out of wood and it was Sunday so getting more was not possible.

 

Nancy and the staff, pulled the boats out of the mangroves, cleaned them up, re-equipped them and toured possible dive sites by 12:00.  By 1:00 we were diving on the North wall.  The water heading out was a little green and the visibility at the dive site was not more than 60’ but we had a nice enjoyable dive, with Ray Turek completing his skills for his Normoxic Trimix course and Madison Lee learning more about free diving or breath-hold diving from Simon.

 

At last count 16 people canceled mostly because getting here at a different time or on a different day made it impossible.  But, 33 participants still agreed to come and at least ½ of them were here by dinner time.

 

The seas should continue to lay down overnight and Nancy is predicting that shore diving off Cobalt will be available by tomorrow.  Tomorrow’s dive plan calls for a 200 foot dive for Madison and Ray. 

by

Coral Sex

Dive Mom, Wade and Ashton have just returned from the last Gulf Coral Spawning trip aboard the M/V Spree.  They all had a great time and got in a lot of diving.  Here’s Captain Frank’s comments:

 

5 folks didn’t show for the 2008 coral spawn, which made the boat a little more comfortable for the 19 who assembled at the dock on Wednesday night for a lumpy ride out to the East bank. The plan was to go to the East bank first, dive 1 or 2 there, do a rig, then wander off to the West bank to stay away from the filming that was taking place at the East bank. Alas, all good plans tend to be shot down by the rules nature dictates. The current was ripping on the West bank and would for the entire spawning time.

 

We arrived at the East bank and tied to Buoy 6. After 2 dives, I determined that the conditions were a little rougher than I wanted to contend with a rig, so we moved to Buoy 6 for the duration of the week. Current was noticeable in the morning, water temp was 84 degrees, waves were the biggest 1-3’s I’ve ever seen (more like 2-5’s), air temp was in the 80’s to 90’s, visibility was pretty good at 100 feet, and there was evil stinging crap in the water. Those without wetsuits are tougher than I am.

 

The entire week we were treated to a manta ray that kept coming back. I’m sure this is the same ray that has been here most of the summer. She seems to be curious about divers, but does not come close enough to touch She was mostly feeding, with her cephalic fins unfurled, and doing barrel rolls under the boat. The divers got lots of photographs of a marbled grouper defending his (or her) hole in the coral, since 4 days were spent on one site, the divers got to know it very well. They found the tiny nudibranchs we have here, painted alysias, as well as Ann’s favorite character from Star Wars, Jah Jah Binks (also known as a red-lipped blenny), mustached jawfish, yellow-headed jawfish, sharks of unknown varieties, and a strange blue glow from under the Fling. The Fling had a feature film crew onboard, and their lights made the ocean glow with the coolest blue color ever.

 

The big show was supposed to be Friday night, but only a little spawning activity was seen. Saturday night, however, was the big show. Spawning was scheduled for 9 PM, I got in at *:45 to watch for the start and signal Melanie to jump divers. At 9:05, right on schedule, the brains started. Soon after, the male cavernosa (large boulder coral) had their thing on. I came up before Franksii (small boulder coral) did their thing, but the divers were all in for that.

 

All in all, it was a good spawn, not the best ever, but Manuel (who has done this 5 times) said it is the best he has ever seen. Everyone saw it happen, and the guys all remarked how soft their hair was.

 

Sunday morning we moved to Stetson Bank. Current was coming up the wall, visibility was 100+, and all the fish were out on grand parade. The divers spotted Sailfin blennies, ubiquitous undefined sharks, rays of many descriptions, mantis shrimp,  scorpion fish, deer cowries, and “dancing” angel fish. CP was surrounded by 5-7 sandbar sharks, a spotted eagle ray, southern stingrays, and a manta. The guests continued to rave about the coral spawn.

 

It’s sad to see our last coral spawn in the Flower Gardens go under our belts, but we’re looking forward to two of them next year in the Dry Tortugas.

 

Captain Frank

M/V Spree

Freeport, Texas

 

See you in the Dry Tortugas!

by

Another CCR Diver Emerges

Boy was Cozumel HOT!  Francisco Ortigosa and I have just returned from 3 days of diving in sunny Cozumel.  Despite the air temperature, we had a great time diving with Pepe, Giovanni and Ramon  We did two spectacular dives on Palancar Caves, others on Santa Rosa Wall, Cedral Wall, Palancar Bricks, Delilah and the Buckle Up wreck.

 

Francisco agreed with me that Lake Travis would be a poor place to finish his rebreather course opting instead for warm, clear water and a boat to take us there!  There is enough frustration for an advanced diver (Francisco is an Advanced Trimix diver and an Instructor) learning to make the transition to a rebreather without having to deal with zero visibility and a dry suit.  I know a number of people who have done it and I have taught some of them, but the experience is much better in the tropics!

 

Upon hearing that Francisco had completed his course, the Pepe baptized him with cold water and everyone congratulated him.  Congratulations Francisco!  A silent diver is born and another set of doubles are relegated to the garage.

 

Next stop – Grand Cayman for Tech week…

by

Cozumel and more new divers


Part of the group
Part of the group

June 29 finds me in Cozumel Mexico with Ann’s dive group for a week of CCR diving.  Ann had a very fun group diving with her in Cozumel this time.  There were the entire Neblet family, making their first saltwater dives and the Alonso’s learning what Juan had discovered during his college years.  They were joined by Pat Croll, an Instructor with Oceanic Ventures and Ann and Steve Brennan (who is also a Dive Supervisor with OVI).  Jenny,  David Jo, Rich Walker and OVI Dive Supervisor, Zaide Scheib rounded out the group.  Looking at the group, would to think it was a staff trip!

 

 By the time arrived you could tell they had been having a lot of fun and bonded as a group. There were jokes about one of the dive masters telling them to dive without snorkels and then finding that they needed them (I guess next time they will listen to their OVI Instructor instead).  They all had fish stories galore and even funny stories about one another.  Zaide and Steve took some classic photos on the trip making for some fun memories.

 

As the group departed for Houston, Steve Ann and my Ann continued to dive so Ann would have some time to finish her CCR course.  She has sat through three of them but life happens when you own your own business and she had not been able to get all of the dives in until now.  We had some great dives and some challenging dives but Ann finally got enough hours to complete her course.

 

Dave Snyder and Martha Gurwit joined us near the 4th so like Ann, Martha could finish her rebreatrher course.  Of course Ann and Martha bought their rebreather together so only one of them could dive it at a time and now it was Martha’s turn.  And dive it she did, finishing her course dives in record time.

 

Congratulations Ann and Martha!  Welcome to the world of silent diving!