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

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

Rebreather

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Another Disappointment

Well, I should be talking about the fantastic dive we had and how incredible the brine lake looked just off the Flower Gardens, but instead, I am relaxing in air-conditioned comfort at home updating my blog.

It seems the weather god has decided that we do not need to see this unusual sight right now. The waves while not excessive, 3 feet, are such that getting a technical diver in full equipment back on the boat might be difficult. Remember that here in the Gulf, the period of the waves is short making them more akin to a high chop rather than a large roller. When the seas get up, boarding the boats becomes more challenging.So, after discussing it with Captain Frank, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and called the trip.

However, the good news is the Spree has some openings in October so we can reschedule to trip and try again. Of course, we have to convince everyone else to roll to the next time frame.

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The Victoria Eludes Us

During the week in week in Grand Cayman, it became apparent that our Lebanon trip was rapidly falling apart. The trip that started with 12 people for the first week and 10 for the second had within the past thirty days dwindled to 6 people for both weeks. During Tek Week two more people dropped out leaving the “Houston contingent” (Dave Snyder from Manhattan, Nat Robb from Cayman, Randy Terrill from Atlanta, Mark Conrad from Houston, and me)as our travel agent termed us. While we were committed to the trip, with deposits and air seats it became apparent that others were not as committed and for various reasons felt the need to drop out.

The problem for those of us remaining is that we have barely enough people to safely dive the Victoria and if someone has any issue (Ear clearing problems, equipment problems, etc) the dive would be scrubbed for everyone. Additionally, the costs for the dives would now be covered by 4 divers instead of 10-12 divers.

So after a lot of late night discussions, talking and soul searching we all decided to cancel this year’s trip and put one together for ourselves next year. I sent several notes to Walid in Lebanon, who was understandable upset about everything falling apart especially after he had purchased $5,000 of sorb and supplies for the trip, and explained our position and then told him we wanted to put our own trip together for next year. We also promised to handle it more like we would a conventional Oceanic Ventures trip complete with deposits for everyone.

This was a very disappointing development. We had all spent money and time preparing for the trip and the diving. It was especially disappointing since I spent the week in Grand Cayman diving in a DRY SUIT!

But as they always say in baseball, there is always next year.

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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. 

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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…

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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!

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Matt’s Adventure

Matt could not make Inner Space due to some prior commitments but he could come in after Inner Space so I sacrificed and agreed to stay in Grand Cayman for a few extra days so he could finish his Normoxic/Trimix CCR course.  We got is some fantastic dives, taking full advantage of the line we had set two weeks ago during our Expedition Trimix course. 

 

Robert Hew, a friend from Jamaica, joined us on several of our dives.  We even did one dive off Lighthouse Point finding a wall full of life and untouched coral stands including several large stands of black coral.  Of course Robert and I had more fun on some of these dives since Matt still had some skills to complete during these dives.  

 

We had some great dives and it was a lot of fun staying and diving more after Inner Space.  Thanks Matt for the excuse and congratulations on completing your CCR Trimix Diver program!