Saturday was a busy day for the Oceanic Ventures staff as Santa Claus visits the West University Recreational Pool and posed for photographs with swimming children and adults. This is the third year that Santa has visited the pool, posing for photographs underwater and the first time in the new recreational facility. If you missed him this year, Santa will return in November 2011 for a repeat performance. If you would like to see the photos from the event, click here.
Thank you to the team that made this possible, especially Travis Hershey and Tamara Moser.
Social Activities
Where can I meet younger scuba divers?
One of our divers returned froma trip and said “don’t get me wrong, I had a good time but, this trip was all older people. I would like to go on a trip with more people my age.” Well, I never thought of myself as older but with my birthday rapidly approaching, I am feeling older. I guess I understand his thoughts even though I still feel as you as the rest of them.
Ashton and David thought about this too and decided what we needed was a social and diving group with a focus on younger divers. And so the new OVI X-Divers group was formed. Now that the concept was found, they needed a way to form it and execute it. David being the idea man, decided a happy hour to get things started and some events focused on the group would be the method of getting people involved.
So, beginnig with the happy hour this Thursday (November 11, 2010) at the Union Bar and Grill, the group is in motion. Ashton and David also decided that they wanted to run an X-Diver trip to Little Cayman in August as well (August 13-20, 2011). Their plans are to host a series of Happy hours at various clubs around town over the next several months and to have some diving events (diving, food, social and fun) at one or more of our local lakes as the water warms up or the need to go diving is too great.
For those of you who want to meet a fun group of generation X divers, you should plan on dropping by the happy hour this Thursday. David and Ashton are buying the first drink! Contact Ashton for more details or send me an email and I will send you the invitation even if I am not invited!
2 matches, 4 Chukkers Each with Wine
Polo anyone? Did you know that Houston has one of the oldest Polo clubs in the South? The Houston Polo Club is celebrating its 80th Anniversary this year and has been voted as one of the top polo clubs in the United States according to the Robb Report.
We were the guests of the Elizabeth Himes with the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, sponsors for the club this year. After a little white wine the first match started. Who would have thought Ashton was such polo fan – he kept an active score sheet and was familiar with some of the players. In looking through the guide, we found that several of our clients actively played polo at the club and others were supporters. It is always fun to find out what other activities your clients are involved in outside of Scuba.
Between the two matches, we were treated to wine from a small California winery, a tour of two Jaguar convertibles and a Rang Rover all mid-field. The wine was nice and the cars were beautiful. Ann really wants a Jaguar convertible so this did not really help squash that desire…
We followed the Polo match with dinner and drinks (mostly Iced Tea). It was a fun day and definitely different from what we normally do – Polo anyone?
Wild time – Marina & Mathew had no idea…
Ok, who brought the edible body chocolate…the question followed Connie’s surprise at opening the gift during the White Elephant gift exchange. We had the annual Oceanic Ventures holiday party at Stan and Stephanie Watowich’s home. Little did they know what they were in for during this year’s party.
The evening started with an opportunity to see how Stephanie’s oven worked – since my died just as I was putting in the bread and lasagna. Ann made a quick phone call to Stephanie asking simply, how is your oven working – followed by great, would you set it to four hundred degrees and Eric and I will be over 30 minutes earlier.” Thank goodness they had working appliances or Mike’s Eggplant Lasagna would have had to be stretched even further.
While the dinner was cooking our official Oceanic Ventures Mixologist, Chuck, was blending Scrapinos (1/4 cup vodka, ¼ cup Prosecco, 1 cup lemon sorbet, garnished with a lemon – combine the vodka and sorbet in a blender, put in a champagne glass and top with the Proseco) while the appetizers including some extra fine cheeses were being served to the attendees.
As usual everyone was there (ok, Wade was in Mexico, Pam was in Dallas, and Ed was in Ohio) and the talents of the staff and/or their spouses or significant others was apparent in the food served.
The highlight of the evening was the White Elephant or Gift Exchange. As the game progressed, the most popular items were the Lava Lamp and the Rum. Mathew, age 8, was desperate to get rid of the coffee and “butt crack” coffee mug. Stan finally took pity on him and exchanged an iTune download gift card with him. Of course the other gift traded a few times was the edible chocolate and licorice laces. No one would admit bringing them but the single guy, Ashton, ended up with them. Hmmmm.
As many of you know, the staff works hard all year and this is one of our ways to say thank you to them for all of their hard work and support. They are a wonderful bunch of people and I am glad to get to work with all of them during the year.
Go team go! Let’s have fun in 2008!
Food, Drinks & Holiday Cheer
How about some Ham, some homemade cherry pie and a nice glass of wine? Well there was more for our Holiday Open House, Ann and I just can’t help ourselves. We had about thirty people visit us and try some snacks during their busy shopping day. Of course Ann tried hard to help them relax and finish their shopping right here at Oceanic Ventures so they could go straight home. I think it worked with some.
During this time of year, we really try to thank those who have helped us stay in business and have given us their support over the past few years. We really do think of our clients as family and I’m afraid we sometimes like this family better than the ones we were born into. Mostly we think of both of them fondly.
As we begin the final phase of our year we wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Nollaig Shona, Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year!
Santa Blowing Bubbles
Ho, Ho, Ho!
Nollaig Shona or Happy Christmas!
Hey kids, did you know Santa was a diver? Well, on December 7 at the West University pool Santa made an appearance in his scuba equipment and posed for photographs. It was amazing to see Mr. Clause swim around the pool, his beard flowing, a red wetsuit complete with fur trimming and a Zeagle BCD! It is not everyday you get to see such a site.
To keep Santa company on this visit, several members of the Oceanic Ventures family, Barney Corbin, Barbara Corbin, Zaide Scheib and yours truly, helped to take photographs and hand out diving magazines prneuded by Mark Young at Dive Training magazine. The pool prneuded hot chocolate, which was not in high demand on the 72 degree day and life-guards to make sure that everyone had a good time.
Funny as it may sound, there were more adult visitors than there were children. Of course, they say we are all children inside and the difference between men and boys are the price of their toys. All-in-all we had about 30 people come by and visit and have their photographs made with the dear old man.
It was fun working with the children. It is amazing how long some people could hold their breath. During the day we even had a visit from a reporter from the Examiner Newspapers. It seems Santa and his elf made it onto the front page of the West university Examiner. To see samples of the photographs taken, please visit www.oceanicventures.net.
In talking with Santa and Brittany Baakes, the manager of the City of West University Place athletic acilities, this is a fun event that both would like to make an annual event. I for one will be back next year – it was a lot of fun and hopefully the weather will be as wonderful as it was this year.
Slán
