This has been a busy week at Oceanic Ventures. The week started off with new divers Kurt Kreiter, Emily Vacek and Will Kuers finishing their course with Pat and ended with Ray Walther, Aaron Walther and Josh Walther completing their certifications with Ed and Ann. Congratulations to everyone and now the fun begins!
We had a pre-trip meeting for our September Truk trip. We have thirteen divers headed over at the end of August for a week of technical diving on the deep wrecks and then we are teaming up with Matt Reed for another week of wreck diving on a more recreational charter. Some of the people from the first week will remain for the second week but we also have some new people arriving for this week.
I am excited about returning to Truk. This will be my sixth trip to Truk Lagoon. Every time I tell myself, this will be the last trip, I should go somewhere else nest time, I find the lure of these wrecks, the warm water and the people I have met calling me back. In preparing the trip information sheet for this year’s trip, I looked back through some of the earlier packets as well as the photographs from earlier trips. A lot of friends have joined me on these trips over the years and it was fun to look back and see some much younger faces peering back at me.
Many of those people moved away and started diving in their new home waters; others like Eric & Patricia Bancroft are busy raising children and find little time for technical diving. Still, there are a number of the people who remain active divers with us, exploring the hidden wonders in other exotic locations.
As we march steadily toward our twentieth year in business, I suspect we will be looking back at a number of old photographs and remembering trips and friends from the past. We have trained a lot of divers over those years and have taken thousands of people all over the planet to look under the lapping blue waters. We have been touched by the many special people we have met in those locations and our outlook on the world will be forever changed.
For our new divers, welcome to the family, for those from all of those past years…why don’t you write?????
