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

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

Local Diving

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DUI Demo Days

 


Chef Eric
Chef Eric
 

It is hard to believe it has been a year since we were last here for a rebreather confined water for Mark Conrad, Wade Sparks and Terry DeWolf.  But here we are again for the DUI Demo Days at Lake Travis and this year the water level is up to a reasonable level. 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

his year I was joined by a number of our staff including Dive Mom herself, Pat Croll, Vernon Dittrich, Bob Sloan and Wade Sparks.  Vernon and Pat were finishing a class, And I had scheduled this weekend as a practice session and a chance to get some skills out of the way for our Grand Cayman and Inner Space experiences.  Joining me for this session were CCR Normoxic Trimix students Harvey Sisco and Matt Booth.

 Saturday found most of us in the water except for Wade who became the cook for the day, keeping all of the


Chef Wade
Chef Wade

 participants well fed.  Vernon and Pat ran their students through their drills and mine were troopers as well, accomplishing most of the skills leaving only a few for our later dives.

Sunday found me with a plugged up head and students who had accomplished a lot the previous day.  Matt had to teach a class of his own, so Wade and Harvey went diving so Harvey could continue working on his trim.   This left me with Wade’s job from the previous day – that’s right Chef for a day.  Of course, during the night a storm blew in, dumped a lot of rain which continued the next morning.  This made cooking more ao a challenge although it had slowed to a slight drizzle.   The biggest challenge was sinking in the mud in front of the grill or walking around with 20 pounds of Texas Clay caked to my feet.
 

 

All-in-all we had a great time and the event was a success.  On top of that, we all had a good time.       

 

 

 

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Wreck diving in Florida

I have just dropped Pam and Bob off at the airport after returning 4 sets of twins and 14 stage bottles back to Fill Express.  This brings to a close another Technical Wreck diving trip to Florida. 
Pam Radford, Terry deWolf, Kelly Plato, Bob Sloan, Dave Snyder and Geoff Streitel, joined me for this wreck diving weekend.  We started diving on Friday with the Hydro Atlantic and ended on Sunday with the R.B. Johnson.  We had some great dives and and saw some big fish.  Terry saw a bull shark on the R.B. Johnson and we all saw a BIG turtle on the Lowrance.
Of course the trip started with a challenge — Capt. Oliver blew an engine and our plan was put into a bit of a tailspin.  But thanks to a little help from some friends (thanks Oliver and Mark), I was able to do a fast shuffle and set-up the diving with another operator.  Jeff and Suzanne rearranged some of their diving and found us boats and let us pick the dive sites.  They helped make the trip a success; and, their large boats were a treat!
We also set-up a few dives with Capt. Conrad who took our group out to the R. B. Johnson. 
The diving in the Ft Lauderdale area is primarily on artificial reefs — i.e. sunken ships.  Florida has been very aggressive in creating artificial reefs for fishing and diving.  The resulting dive sites are varied both in design and depth.  They offer something to almost every diver.  There are also some natural reefs but I have yet to dive them (too much wreck diving).
Thanks everyone for a fun trip and some great dives!

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The Texas Dive Show

Eric & Wade Sparks In the IANTD BoothA dive show in Houston that wants retailer to participate and cares that we are there.  Amazing but true, the Texas Dive Dhow sponsored by Dive Chronicles Magazine is precisely that – a show focused on getting new people into the sport and helping the retailers find new business.

 

The show replaces the old SeaSpace show which folded last year due to lack of good management, poor customer relations and inadequate advertising.  The new show is trying to rebuild the relationships with the local stores and the diving community.

 

This show was held in a smaller venue – the JW Marriott Hotel ballroom which made for a more intimate show.  The advertising was varied, including email, internet advertising and a novel idea of sending free tickets to the area private schools.  How did it work?  The crowds were not huge but we did receive some positive traffic and we met some new people.  Wade and I had a lot of interest in the rebreathers that we showcased in the IANTD booth.

 

I did a presentation of Why Rebreathers and Peter DennHahn did one on the AP Diveing rebreathers.  Both presentations were well attended and we generated a great deal of interest in Rebreather diving.  We even decided to host a Rebreather Demo, two weeks after the show for people who want to learn more or experience one in the pool.

 

I look forward to seeing what other people thought about the show and what business follows.  We felt positive wnough about the show that we have agreed to participate again next year.