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

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

Scuba Diving Activities

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DUI DOG Rally and Demo Days

David Morris Dry Suit Diving
Why would anyone want to put on a dry suit and go diving?  I heard myself say that in my early years of diving and never thought I would ever don one.  Then I met Faith Ortins of Diving Unlimited International and Julie Footman of Aqua Diving Academy in Portland Maine.  Both of these ladies wondered why I would dive in anything else.  Julie went as far to say that she got cold in wetsuits so she always dove in a drysuit, no matter where she went.
Over the years, I have changed my tune.  I found that dry suit diving was not as intimidating as people made it sound and it really extended my diving season.  Diving dry has also opened up new dive locations and made others more comfortable.  I cannot imagine diving in 14mm of rubber again (a 7mm one piece suit with a 7mm xip up vest)!  Ashton learned to dive in a dry suit so he could go ice diving in New Hampshire.  We now run a trip there every year.  We also ran a trip to Antarctica earlier in the year – definitely a dry suit location.
One of the ways to find out more about Dry Suit Diving is to attend the Diving Unlimited International DOG Rally and Demo Days.  DOG stands for DUI Owners Group and there will be divers there from all over the area.  Additionally, you can try out a suit or any type of DUI undergarments.  They bring a truckload of stuff to allow you to try anything in their product line.  Join Oceanic Ventures staff members, Ashton Arsement, and David Morris as they travel to Terrell Texas for the annual Diving Unlimited International, DUI, DOG Rally and Demo Day. 
 For $10.00 (15.00 at the gate) you can try the equipment, have lunch and receive a cap. There is also a dinner Saturday night ($10.00 ticket). Prices are higher at the gate so get your ticket from Oceanic Ventures before the event. You can order them by phone or by emailing Ashton@oceanicventures.net.
Need to know where to go?  Here is more information on Clear Springs Scuba Park [https://www.clearspringsscubapark.com/] Need more details, drop Ashton a note or call us.

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Need to Get Wet & Have Thursday Off? Let's Go Scuba Diving!

We have had several requests to get wet!  Some of those requests came from bankers who had Thursday off.  So, since the weather is so nice right now, we thought it would be fun to go diving.  We have arranged to go to 288 Lake for some fun in the sun and to practice buoyancy skills.  The plan is to meet at the store at 9:45 and then go down to the lake.  My thoughts were to do a few dives and go somewhere for a late lunch.
If you are interested, please send me an email at divesafe@oceanicventures.net or call me at 713.523.3483, so I can make sure there are enough cylinders.
Let’s go diving!…Eric

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Dive Around Texas

DiveAroundTexas.com challenges Texas divers to get out and explore some of the great diving that Texas has to offer. Texas is blessed with over 30 different incredible dive spots including rivers, quarries, lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico.
DiveAroundTexas.com is about divers going diving in Texas and receiving the chance to win prizes and awards based on the number of verified dives you have in your Logbook. The more times you dive in Texas, the better your chance to win valuable prizes and trips. More information at DiveAroundTexas.com.

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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

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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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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!