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

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

Trimix

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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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Deep Wreck Trip


Pam Radford & Kelly Plato
Pam Radford & Kelly Plato

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
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!

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Wreck Crawl

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.

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Trimix In Cozumel

It has been a long time since I did any Technical Diving in Cozumel.  My last experience was in 2003 and the logistics and dealing with the “technical” dive shop on the island made doing it there more effort than it was worth. 

 

Recently I was introduced to Don Labruzzo, owner of Dive Extreme who like any good salesman pursued our business and invited us to dive with him.  He came with good references, Wayne Cooper, a recent Optima rebreather student spoke highly of him.  Wade Sparks, one of our Assistant Instructors, agreed to try him out while he was on a vacation with his wife in Playa del Carmen.  Wade too brought back good reports of Don’s operation.

 

 In talking with my current Trimix students, Madison and Jerry, I proposed the idea of completing our open water session in Cozumel.  Looking at the costs of going to Florida and the quality of the deep diving in comparison to the walls in Cozumel, it made good sense to go to Cozumel (cost wise it was about $200.00 more).  Two other of our technical diving clients, Kelly and Geoff, also agreed that a weekend of diving in Cozumel sounded like fun, They joined us.

 

The plan was to do one dive on Thursday, two on Friday, two on Saturday and return on Sunday.  Maximum depth, 240 feet.  We arrived in Cozumel with a strong north wind which made the diving a little rough.  The first dive was on Villa Blanca Wall, not too far out by boat so we could get a long dive in and be done before dark.  Don’s boat is a 40’ modified sport fisher with lots of room and a good crew.

 

The next day the winds were still up but had shifted so the waves abated a little.  Dives onto Yucaab wall and Paradise.  Not the most picturesque walls in the area but a reasonable run with the weather the way it was and the drills I needed to do with the students.  In-between dives, Don and his crew treated us to a lunch of fresh baked bread (from that morning), cheese, cold cuts, fresh made salsa, tortillas and guacamole.

 

Our plan for Saturday included a run down to Palancar for some truly spectacular wall diving.  Unfortunately, the winds shifted again and the port was closed to all baot traffic.  That meant no diving offshore.  Don offered to take us all to a local Cenote but I was not comfortable taking everyone into one of the small openings found in Cozumel with their current skills. 

 

However, Kelly and Geoff jumped at the offer.  According to them, they had an adventure that involved a local army/police unit, a stalled truck, no change of clothes and a fantastic dive.  I think they are truly hooked on Yucatan diving.

 

Unfortunately the storm did not abate so we returned to Houston, still in need of some extra dives. 

 

I did find diving with Don’s operation a pleasant surprise when compared to my previous experiences.  He is runs a good operation, with a great group of men and woman who understand customer service and want to build a relationship with their clients.  We will be back.