is a long way from sunny Bonaire.But this is where I find myself today.As I noted yesterday, “lost” is what people I know at the show, think of when they see me.Perhaps I am a little lost because there is a lot of coverage of the New Jersey Wreck diving and I really have no first hand knowledge of it nor do I plan or learning more about it while being underwater – it is cold and dark with currents and potentially rough seas.There seem to be so many more places to go in the world that I have decided to postpone my visit to these waters until I run out of places to see.
So what is this all about?Well, Beneath the Sea is a consumer trade show in New Jersey.It is well support, well attended and probably the largest retail show in the US.There are booths from all aspects of the diving community – manufacturers, travel destinations, dive retailers, educational companies, certification agencies and the peripheral groups.So who did I talk to at this show?
Keith – Sunset House, Grand Cayman – Their year has been off but more importantly, their bookings have been different.He said that people seem to be booking at the last minute.They have gone into months with a 4% occupancy and then they are relatively full the last three weeks of the month.Everyone seems to be looking for travel deals, is afraid to commit too far out and schedule things at the last minute.
Frank & Melanie Wasson – This is a new show for them but it has been interesting.There seems to be a lot of interest in their offering but no commitments yet.Of course they sewed up some deals they were working on before arriving and they generated a lot of interest.Frank said he felt it would be a week or so before they would know the net results of the show.However, they did feel it had been a good show – good enough to try it again
Evelyn Dudas – Dudas’ Diving Duds – Coming off her PFO reprair surgery last year, she has been taking it easy with her diving only doing a few one or two hour long dives with limited decompression.So far she has had no symptoms.She said they have been busy and Michael has a lot of travel in the works.She has been traveling a lot, mostly to Florida for some diving and visiting her daughter.
Dave with Leon in Inner Space systems Booth
Leon Scamerhorn & Jerry, Inner Space Systems Corporation – They are in a good position right now since they have a number of new product offerings and customers wanting them;Business has been steady and while they have seen some slowdown in rebreather sales, they are still getting new orders.Both Leon and Jerry feel that this year will be a good year for ISC and that the economic problems will not impact their business too negatively.
Kim Smith – Jetsam technologies – The KISS rebreathers remain in demand primarily because of the price point. Kim said that they have been very busy assembling rebreathers since the first of the year.They were busy at the show and in talking to Kim it would appear that she feels that 2009 will be a good year for rebreather sales.
Tamara Thompson, Technology in Depth (VR Technologies) – Their booth was very busy and in talking to Tamara, she has been doing a lot of diving already this season and it seems others are diving a lot as well. She indicated that the sales of a of the new VRx computers are doing well as are the rebreathers.
Curt Bowen, Advanced Diver Magazine – Curt has been working hard integrating the operations of Advanced Diver Magazine and Rebreather World along with various diving expeditions. He said it is funny, people keep asking him to do things forgetting that someone has to actually put the magazine together. He seems to have a guarded optimistic outlook for the year.
Mike Fowler, Silent Diving Systems – He indicated that things had slowed a little but that they were still busy and shipping rebreathers. Their big seller is now the Evolution + which incorporates the Inspiration scrubber with the Evolution electronics and 2l bottles. He feels that the year will be fine and they are looking for a good year.
Tom Mount, IANTD – Tom realizes that this year will be difficult for some of their dealers but feels overall there will be a steady growth in the rebreather training, especially when the more recreational rebreathers (e.g. Poseidon)come on line. IANTD has been working on upgrading their training materials and creating some of the technical diving’s best courses.
Joe Diuri, IANTD – Joe is very excited about the new materials that the agency is producing. He is especially excited about the new instructor training materials that he has been working on. According to Joe, they will “change how we train instructors” in the future. He has a positive outlook for 2009.He feels there will be some changes both positive and negative.
Pete Nawrocky, Dive Rite – Talk about a guy who is high on diving. Pete is traveling with the Dive Rite booth to consumer shows all over the US as well as traveling with the Dive Rite Tech Tour. Wherever he goes, Pete is talking diving, from the cold dark dives of the New Jersey shore to the gin clear caves of Florida, Pete will tell anyone who will listen that they should be diving! Of course, Pete will also tell them that they should be diving in Dive Rite equipment! As far as this year goes, Pete will tell you that it will be whatever you want it to be. You just have to get out and go diving and take people with you.
Big Wave Dave, DEMA – It is always nice to visit with Big Wave Dave; he loves the scuba industry and his energy in contagious. He said they have had the pool out working at various shows and there still seems to be a lot of interest in scuba. The hardest part is for the retailers to capture the interest and turn it into a committed diver.
So what else did we do?Well other than shocking people by being in New York, Dave and I attended a few seminars, looked at a portable recompression chamber, dreamed about going diving in Komodo, ate some fabulous meals in the City, and talked about diving and what we wanted to accomplish this year.
The 2009 diving season will be an interesting year, full of scary points, disappointments and really cool moments. While the economy will influence our business, Ann, Dave, Ashton and I as well as our entire staff have elected not to participate in the downturn, instead we are focusing on the 90%+ people who are still working and need hobbies, diversions and fun things to do.
We arrived in Key West at about 3:00 in the afternoon and found some of the other divers already loaded and waiting for our arrival.Of course for Dave Kenny and I it was more than just loading equipment it was making sure the Gas Blending station was loaded and ready.The final arrangements and filling would have to wait until after dinner at a local restaurant, the anchor.
Captain Frank had intended to have the bank system and blending system completely set-up but the previous day was spent making sure the generator would work, remneung the temporary generator from the roof and replacing with the 54 bottles of gas that we would need for this 5 day trip.
Terry DeWolf & Richie Kohler
This left the final assembly to us.The task was daunting because all of the diver’s bottles were wither full or contained the wrong mix of gas *mostly air and we would need trimix).So the bottles were drained and the first fills – deco cylinders were started.While Kenny and Dave filled these bottles, I continued plumbing the deco station, adding the quick disconnect fittings, changing some of the other fittings and getting ready for the next phase.We were lucky that Capt. Frank had filled the bank with Trimix prior to leaving Houston.This made this part of the job easier.Of course Kenny and Dave still had to work
Perhaps the best report of this trip comes from Captain Frank’s trip report:
This trip ROCKED!!! Mike Barnett, Richie Kohler, the crew at Oceanic Ventures, and 12 loyal customers joined us for the Deep Week wreck trek off of Dry Tortugas and Key West. As with all plans, some things changed from the original, but holy cow, what a great week we had. We boarded as usual after a great meal at the Rusty Anchor, with at least 50 tons of rebreathers, doubles, stage bottles, deco bottles, 24 cylinders of helium, 30 cylinders of oxygen, 10 tubs of sorb, and a partridge in a pear tree. We set out at 9 PM for the wreck of the Rhein.
We arrived on-station at the Rhein at 0700 on the 17th. We threw a spot buoy, Mike and Richie swam down the up-line and tied into the wreck, and we were anchored above the wreck by 0800. The divers waited for Mike and Richie to come back up with a conditions report, then splashed onto the Rhein. The Rhein was sunk by Dutch and British warships before the US had entered World War II. A complete description of the sinking is available in Mike Barnett’s book Shipwrecks of the Sunshine State. Richard Mork shot some amazing video of a baitball above the wreck, and Richie returned with a square porthole to start the collecting. Most people did not come prepared to collect (no tools, no plastic bins), so a large pouty face was collectively seen. By the second dive, the crew was starting to get the program figured out regarding fills, etc. After pulling the grapple, we motored off to the Araby Maid.
The second day was spent on the Araby Maid. The Araby Maid was sunk in a collision at the turn of the last century, and was a wood over steel sailing ship. The weather was slightly choppy and the Spree was hanging by her stern to the seas making for a uncomfortable ride and a grumpy captain. Richie again started with a brass something or another, and, on his second dive, came up with a matching chamber pot, pitcher, and butter dish, probably from the captain’s cabin. OK, it isn’t a butter dish, I don’t know what it is, but it’s freakin’ cool. China fever had hit the Spree. So we moved onto the U-boat U-2513.
The U-2513 was sunk with Hedgehogs and Weapon Alfa’s (ASROCS for the old navy guys) in the 50’s during the cold war. We captured the 2513 from the Germans and brought it back to the US as a war prize. No collecting is allowed on the submarine as it is still owned by the US Navy, but it is penetrable, has cool placards on the torpedo tubes, has some monster goliath grouper and a big baitball on the conning tower, and is really really cool to boot. After 2 dives, we were supposed to go on to the S-16, but china fever had taken hold, and the vote was to return to the Araby Maid.
Day 4 found us anchored over the Araby Maid once again, with divers wanting to borrow gloves and prybars (no!). Even without, some real finds were discovered. Mike found a porthole with glass intact, Richie found a globe from a hurricane lantern, Terry found an intact red globe from a lantern of some sort, many brass door locks, hinges, and many pieces of catch and release junk were brought back to the Spree. The junk was released unharmed. Wade and the scooter got a little misplaced, but not lost!!
Day 5 found us at dawn on the USS Wilkes Barre off of Key West. When we arrived, conditions were slick calm, no current, and a beautiful anticipated dive. After dropping the anchor, current picked up to a knot and a half, and visibility dropped to about 25 feet. The anchor was hauled and the dive turned into a live boat. Some divers did not understand “drop hard” and missed the wreck altogether. Some hit the bow section, and some got to dive the whole thing (by Braille). After 1, most divers were ambivalent about a second dive, and the rest were drinking beer. Off to the dock we went, looking for more beer, as well as getting home a little earlier. The guests universally had a great time, most signed up for one of three trips planned for next year, including a rebreather-only trip to the Key West Ghost Fleet, max depth 420 feet.
Capt. Frank
M/V Spree
Stock Island, FL
Not much more can be said except I cannot wait until next year.Maybe I can even dice more!
Our Deep Wreck Charter begins on Monday and you can come into Key West on Sunday evening or Monday morning.Here was an opportunity to do some more diving and maximize the weekend.Of course most of the diving around the keys is shallow reef diving which did not sound like a way to start our Dry Tortugas wreck adventure.But, we could do some more wreck diving…this sounds like the perfect fit.Of course getting everything put in place for such an adventure took advanced dive planning and coordination.
The only way any of this made sense is if we used the early dives as a tune-up for the more advanced dives in the Dry Tortugas.This meant that everyone needed their doubles, decompression cylinders, or rebreather cylinders and. bailout cylinders along with appropriate amounts of absorbent.
Thanks to Barney Corbin, who traveled to Florida over Memorial Day delivering our cylinders and the ever friendly UPS divers who delivered copious amounts of sorb, cartridges and Dave’s dry suit. We were set.
Our diving adventures for this part of the trip were with Conch Divers from Tavernier Florida.They operate two boats and offer Technical as well as recreational charters.We had 9 divers so we were able to charter our own boat.
The first day, Pam Radford, Geoff Streitel, Ron Hicks, Dave Snyder, Terry DeWolf, Wade Sparks, Jess Stark and your’s truly all decended on one of Florida’s premier recreational wrecks – The USS Speigel Grove and artificial wreck sunk in the late 90’s.Of course, we were not doing it like most divers.Our intent was to dive it on a more technical basis – one long dive!
We all jumped in and as we sank down the mooring ball, the ship came into sight.Our group would spend the next 90to 120 minutes exploring the both the inside and outside of the ship.Diving to below the decks, through the superstructure, down to the engine room through the galley, crews quarters, officer’s mess, and other spaces our group explored the vessel ending in the shallows of the wreck and then up the mooring bal back to our waiting boat.
The next day Jerry Kiselwinski joined us for our dive on the USS Duane, a Coast Guard Cutter.This ship rests on her side but in clear water.More penetrations are available for the group, especially by the bore and tunnel crew.Another 90-129 minutes passed underwater and then after a quick lunch, a chance to refill the OC bottles and it was off the USS Bibb, the sister ship of the USS Duane, which sits upright.The penetrations continued and another two hours underwater clicked away.
We have one more dive before we zip down to Key West to meet up the M/V Spree.This morning’s dive is on the Eagle, another ship resting on her side.The intrepid divers whiled away another 120 minutes exploring this wreck and fine tuning their equipment and diving style before the deep diving begins.Another 120 minutes underwater.
After the dive, we checked out of the condominiums, loaded the trucks and headed out for Key West where the MV Spree and the remainder of our group awaits our arrival.
