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

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

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Local Texas Scuba Diving – Reveille Peak Ranch

Quarry at Reveille Peak Ranch
The Quarry
Off the beaten path is a little known dive site in Texas.  It is just four hours from Houston, in the Texas Hill Country.  This site, the former home to the Dixon/Southwestern Mining Company is an open seam graphite mine.  Once the site of large draglines and steam shovels, it is now a water filled oasis in the heart of the Llano geological uplift.  This crack in the earth is filled with rising ground water, a natural spring and rain water and prneudes a natural habitat for a small number of fish and turtles.  You will find most of the fish in the shallows among the hydrilla plants that occupy the first ten to fifteen feet of water.  Below that, there are relatively shear walls or granite, marble, limestone, sandstone infused with graphite.  It is this graphite which makes the deeper depths. Interesting.  The bottom is covered with black sand and sparkling graphite.  But, this dark bottom and the orientation of the body of water make the deep parts of the seam as dark as a cave dive – little to no natural light can be seen at the bottom.   And the bottom is relatively deep with depths ranging from seventy to one-hundred feet.

Aside from the opportunity to try out your new diving lights, the quarry prneudes you the opportunity to use your hoods, gloves, heavy wetsuits or a dry suit.  The water temperature in the quarry was a brisk 71 degrees at the surface to a much colder 56 degrees at the bottom.  But, with all of these variances, there comes a treat in Texas – visibility!  While the first twenty feet had a slight green algae induced hue, the visibility was a respectable fifteen to twenty feet but drop into the cold, dark part of the quarry and the visibility grows to 40 to 50 feet.  Of course, at this part of the quarry, your light is the limiting factor.

Pavilian at Reveille Peak Ranch
The Pavilian at Reveille Peak Ranch

This quarry sits in the middle of a outdoor enthusiasts dream location, the Reveille Peak Ranch.  Designed by owner Vol Montgomery, as a place where you can enjoy activities away from the hustle and bustle of the city but not give up all of the conveniences.  The central feature is a large pavilion with ponds, pools, a commercial kitchen and a bar, perfect for any company sponsored function.  It overlooks a manmade lake stocked with bass and pearch so the fishing is active and the fish are large.  The fact that the Ranch operates a hook and release program and also feeds the fish makes them larger than you might find in a natural lake – of course this is Texas and we only have one natural lake so who cares.  This is a mecca for mountain bikers with miles of trails with different skill level challenges.  There are walking and hiking trails with a new nature center under construction.  Kayakers and paddle boarders will also enjoy the small lake which has trees sticking up from the depths to add to the paddling practice.

Tent Campsite
Tent Campsite

The Ranch also has camp sites scattered around the pavilion area that prneude for tent camping or RV camping with electrical hook-ups for both 30 amp and 15 amp hook-ups.  There are warm and cold water showers for both and toilet facilities near the Pavilion so you don’t have to go too native.  The staff at the Ranch are on hand to help you find your way or to make suggestions.  Andrea is the diving coordinator for the Ranch with John, a former mountain biking circuit rider, is on hand to help coordinate things.  Vol is also on the property to make sure things run smoothly.

The Ranch staff can also host other activities for groups including skeet shooting, children’s activities and obstacle course events. 

While there are some motels and guest cabins nearby, our group of explorers, which dwindled from twelve to six, all stayed and camped at the Ranch.  Ann loves camping so this was just up her alley.  Of course I am not really a tent camper anymore so my solution was to rent a small teardrop camper from a local dealer here in Houston.  It turned out to be the perfect match for the weekend with a comfortable bed and a nice place to prepare food.  Remember our motto here at Oceanic Ventures – local diving is a Barbeque interrupted by diving and as David likes to say, it is all about the food.  Wade brought steaks, potatoes and fresh cord for Saturday’s post dive dinner and I brought two nice bottles of wine to go with it.  I also had a surprise – homemade ice cream, made on site.  Of course it was not the most appropriate dessert because the temperatures dropped to a brisk 48 degrees.  But in my mind, ice cream is perfect any time.  We built a nice fire and shared dive stories and adult beverages until one-by-one we began to fade and drift off to sleep.

The scenery of the Ranch make this a perfect escape for divers and non-divers alike.  The diving, while cold, was interesting and fun.  The geology underwater is interesting with the graphite seams in the formations sparkling in the light.  Navigation is easy since the quarry runs north to south and there are no known caves or major overhangs.  Surface intervals are relaxing with a deck near the campsite or on the floating dock.  There are also hiking trails around the quarry if you feel you need more exercise.

One note for divers – the quarry is not open to the public.  To dive here you must go with a dive store, like your friends at Oceanic Ventures. 

Dive Mom's Birthday BashHow did we enjoy the weekend?  Well, Oceanic Ventures has decided to throw Dive Mom and birthday bash up at Reveille Peak Ranch on 26-28 April 2013 (i.e. this coming April).  Everyone is invited to the party and if you are interested in renting a teardrop trailer contact Charlie at hitchandgoadventures.com ahead of time and let him know you what one just like ours (we have already put in a reservation).  But don’t worry; Steve Soulen will be coordinating the tent campers and the ever present campfire! 

So, mark your calendars for April 26-28 and plan on joining us for a VERY fun weekend!

See More Photos from the weekend on our Facebook Fan Page or by clicking here.

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Scuba Diving Practice – Local Lake Diving

open water october 2012
The Early Morning Arrivals for Wades Excelent Adventure Barbeque

Wow!  We had a great time up at Blue Lagoon yesterday.  Wade proved once again that he is a master at the smoker and grill.  The wild boar and grass fed brisket were awesome and no one went away hungry.  While the weather threatened and delivered on the ride up to Huntsville, the weather at the Lagoon was nice and we had clear skies in the afternoon. 

Practice your buoyancy skills locally…

I am often asked “do you still enjoy diving at Blue Lagoon?”  I think what they actually mean is, that since I have been all over the world what can I possible find to do at Blue Lagoon or any local diving venue for that matter.  What they fail to understand is that local diving affords you the opportunity to practice and maintain your skills.  There is also a social aspect to local diving which I have often described as a barbecue interrupted by diving.

In order to keep the dives interesting you have to go in with a plan or purpose.  In my earlier diving days I used local diving as a way to improve my navigational skills.  It was a challenge to find all of the objects in the lake and return to the beach without surfacing.  These skills have served me well over the years.  To keep these skills sharp, I still practice underwater navigation in the lakes. 

You can use your time underwater at these local venues to improve your buoyancy.  In an earlier article I talked about using the underwater boats as a fixed point of reference and forcing yourself to hover in place.  Another drill is to swim like a slalom skier maintaining neutral buoyancy and proper trim while swimming in and around rocks, trees, stumps, etc. 

Pick objects on the bottom and swim around them, maintaining your trim and placement in the water.  Work on making the turns without using your hands for steering.  As you improve, try making sharper turns and then introduce changes in depth to your drills.  Remember the first rule of scuba, breath continuously.  Some people start concentrating too much on the drills and maintaining neutral buoyancy that they start violating this rule.  Keep breathing but use your breathing to help you achieve these depth changes (unless you are on a rebreather of course). 

As you do these drills, work on not kicking up the bottom.  The tighter your turns, the more you will need to be in a bent leg diving position using “helicopter turns” and small very specific kicks to move through your course.  If you are unfamiliar with these turns or this style of diving, then you might find an Advanced Buoyancy Control class useful. 

The group diving with me this weekend got to experience this type of diving first hand as we wove through the boulder fields around the lake.  Of course they skipped a few turns because they thought I was just doubling back, lost.  Little did they know we were heading back to our entry point 50 more minutes in the future.

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Dry Suit Scuba Diving and DUI DOG Rally and Demo Days in Texas

Diving Drysuits is fun
Diving Dry Suits Is Fun and They Extend Your Diving Season!
If you did not already know, we dive all winter! Alex, David, Joel. Madison and Rich all dive year round locally. In fact we have diving almost every weekend already scheduled and you do not want to miss a single weekend!
 But despite our living in the South, the lakes tend to cool down a bit. Dry suits are the way to dive year round and laugh at the cold. And, to make it even more special, DUI’s DOG Rally and Demo Days is coming up November 10-1, 2012 at Clear Springs Scuba Park. This is your opportunity to get certified to dive a dry suit, try out the complete line of products from DUI and get fed lunch all for one price! And, if you want to, you can even camp with the rest of our divers!
 Sign-Up today and get ready for this winters diving marathon!

 Dive Mom, I hate being cold and I want to dive! (please sign me up or send me some more information)

 Tell Me More about the DUI DOG Ralley and Demo Event

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Scuba Divers Make Donation to Bonaventure Boys' Home in Grand Cayman

Eric Keibler Presents CheckEric Keibler, Managing Director of Oceanic Ventures presented a check for $3,630 to Jennifer Leach-Tippetts, Facility Manager for the Bonaventure Boys Home in Grand Cayman.  This donation was made possible by the generous donations from our friends, sponsors and staff at a weekend of rebreather diving in Houston.  During the presentation, Eric explained that Oceanic Ventures and the Oceanic Ventures Foundation wanted to give back to the communities that they travel to for diving.  Ann Keibler started encouraging clients and staff to bring school supplies with them in their luggage to donate to local schools.  She said, “It was a fun way to meet people and give back to the community!  It also helps you to leave a little room to buy some things to help support the local economy where you are visiting.”  Over the years this simple idea morphed into a program to help support schools and communities in diving locations like the Philippines or Grand Cayman.

To help the Bonaventure Boys’ Home, Oceanic Ventures and Innerspace Systems hosted a weekend of rebreather diving events March 29 – April 3, 2012 in Houston, Texas. The program included lectures, pool demos of a new recreational rebreather the Pathfinder plus a benefit dinner with keynote speaker Leon Scamerhorn, CEO and founder of Innerspace Systems.  While the organizations wanted to introduce the new Pathfinder Rebreather System to the diving community in Houston, they also wanted to use the event to raise funds for the Bonaventure Boys’ home. Grand Cayman has been the leading destination for rebreather divers with the first Inner Space Rebreather event hosted by Divetech in 2004 and now its ninth year in 2012.

Eric says, “Rebreathers are the latest trend in diving enabling divers to discover the underwater world in relative silence without disturbing the fish. This allows you to get closer to the fish and other creatures. Photographers find them to be a wonderful tool and a enjoyable way to go diving.” According to Ann Keibler, “this was a fun event that will allow divers to experience what it is like to dive silently underwater with no bubbles while helping out children. We chose the Bonaventure Boys Home as our charity due to the fantastic work they do and our continued visits to Grand Cayman and Divetech.”

The Bonaventure Boys’ Home is a not for profit government funded Foundation that is a part of The CAYS Foundation (Children and Youth Services) in Grand Cayman. The Boy’s Home serves at risks boys and families that need help to achieve their full potential. Jennifer Leach-Tippetts, Bonaventure Boys’ Home Facility Manager commented “We appreciate donation to help fund extra programmes and supplies for our residents and we greatly appreciate the donation Oceanic Venture Foundation is able to give to The Bonaventure Boys’ Home. The monies raised will be used to purchase recreational equipment, resident outings, summer camp fees, clothing and shoes, rewards for incentive programmes and/or bedroom furniture for parents’ homes in preparation for transition.”

We especially want to thak all of the people who made this possible.  Were it not for their generous support, nothing would have happened.  Those people we would like to specifically thank are:

We are also in the news at:

Bonaventure Boys Home in Grand Cayman
Here is a look at the weekend’s event:

 
 
 
 

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Success to Significance Honoree — Ann Keibler

Ann Keibler to receive honourIn a place far, far away (i.e. Arizona) Ann was the youngest person to serve a a board member on the Arizona Cactus-Pine  Girl Scout Council Board.  She was also the recipient of the Girl Scout’s “Thanks” badge, the highest recognition that the Girl Scouts USA and the local council at the time it was given.
If you know Ann, this would not be a big surprise.  She was very active in scouting having started young as a Brownie and progressing through Senior Scouting and on into Leader training.  She even served a Trainer Trainer.  Not only was she involved in her local community, Ann was a counselor at several Girl Scout camps including Timbers in Michigan.  She spent nine summers working in Girl Scout camps.
Ann is the first person to tell you that all of this previous experience prepared her for her current occupation, running a successful Adventure and Dream company, known as Oceanic Ventures.  “Leading trips with adults and children is just like working with girls at camp, you want everyone to have some special memories and experience the adventure of a lifetime.”
Jean Janssen, one of our clients nominated Ann for as a San Jacinto Girl Scout Council’s Success to Significance Honoree.   As the Girl Scouts celebrates 100 years in 2012 the Success to Significance luncheon … honors successful women leaders who have made significant contributions in their communities. 

All proceeds from “Success to Significance” benefit the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Research conducted by the nationally-recognized Girl Scout Research Institute demonstrates that only one in five girls believes she can lead the way for others and that the greatest barrier to leadership in girls is lack of confidence in their own abilities. Girl Scouts is the only organization addressing the significant female leadership gap by facilitating girl-led programs, advocacy and service projects, girl representation on high-level committees and the Board of Directors, and ample opportunities for older Girl Scouts to lead programs for younger girls.

 Dreaming big is what Girl Scouts does best! As the premier leadership organization for girls, Girl Scouts will usher tomorrow’s generation of women leaders while honoring those who have exemplified its mission and values today.

Jean, a member of the San Jacinto Girl Scout Council Board and her husband Steven Pate, an attorney with Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P, are sponsoring Ann for this honor.  They even invited Ann’s Senior Scout Leaders, Joyce and Bill O’Morrow from Arizona to come in for the event.
Want to find out more about Ann’s Girl Scout Career?  Here is a link to her Girl Scout Bio.
Here is another article about Ann.
 

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Dinner and Rebreather Diving with Leon Scamahorn

Christa Landowski On a Pathfiner Rebreather
Christa Landowski On a Pathfiner Rebreather

Last week was a busy week at Oceanic Ventures.  Leon Scamahorn, CEO of Innerspace Systems Corporation, was on town on a whirlwind tour.  He was in town to help us introduce the new Pathfinder Rebreather.  This new diving rebreather was designed with a recreational diver in mind.  It is small and compact and features a radial scrubber and their new ISCan electronics.

Dave and I got to try the new pathfinder rebreather during Eric’s Megalodon crossover training program with Leon and both Dave and I also did the Pathfinder Instructor Crossover program.  Diving this new rebreather is awesome!  It is light weight, simple to use and the electronics are state of the art.  Additionally, the ISCan electronics is based on the CAN bus technology invented by BOSH for the auto and aerospace industries.  This technology allows for dimple additions of optional devises like depth transducers and computers as well as allowing for in-field changing of components. 

The technology behind the unit is cool but it retains the breathing characteristics of the Megalodon rebreathers including their water trapping capabilities and set-point tracking.  But the Pathfinder, with its smaller packaging is ideal for a traveling, recreational diver or even a more advanced diver doing some light technical diving.

Of course, Dave and I were not the only people to get to try this new unit; twenty-four divers contributed $50.00 to the Oceanic Ventures Foundation to try the Pathfinder as well as the Megalodon rebreathers.  They were treated to an introduction and orientation from the man of the hour, Leon Scamahorn who explained his diving and manufacturing philosophy and the thinking that went into these rebreathers.  In talking to these divers afterwards, the $5,500 Pathfinder was of real interest and a few are even considering purchasing one of the rebreathers in the next few months.  It looks like Dave and I will be busy!

Leon was also the keynote speaker at our Club Aquarius meeting at the Black Labrador.  While his presentations at the demonstration were more technical, his evening presentation was centered more on people using their rebreathers.  Leon is passionate about diving and he focuses on having fun while diving.  Of course you cannot talk about InnerSpace Systems without a little technical history and product development, his presentation was mainly centered on people having fun while diving on his Company’s rebreathers.  As he said “look at those smiling faces, they are all having fun!”   For him that is the ultimate goal but he wants the fun to be done safely using the best life support equipment available – the Pathfinder and the Megalodon family of rebreathers.

Leon, the staff from Oceanic Ventures and our clients and friends donated their time and resources to help with the Oceanic Ventures Foundation and our goal of raising money for the Bonaventure Home For Boys in Grand Cayman.  We are still tabulating the results but it appears we raised over $2,500 for the home.  Thank you to everyone who helped with the event, donated items for the Sealed Bid Auction, bid on the items or paid to try the rebreathers in the pool  I know the group in Cayman will appreciate the gift!

Over the next few weeks we will be setting up schedules to get the new rebreather divers diving on their new rebreathers.  It will be a lot of fun.  As always, we have room for more divers…

Here are some of the highlights from the event.