It is sometimes hard for me hard to believe that I used to be an avid skier. In college, I spent a number of weekends, a week around Christmas and Spring Break skiing. It was fun, exhilarating and challenging. My underwater camera saw more frozen moisture than liquid.
After mneung to Houston in…well let’s not go there…I changed from a skier to a sailor and a diver. White powdery slopes were replaced by soft sand beaches, boats, bikinis, dive equipment and clear blue water. Oh, and yes the warm weather.
Winters in Houston are a far cry from the cold wind-blown snow and ice of Lubbock, but I still find that winters can be cold. I guess I have just gotten used to the warmth so the mild winters here seem cold to me at times.
Despite the executives from Continental trading in their shorts and t-shirts for wool sweaters, wool pants and poly-propylene long underwear, Houston remains the gateway to the Caribbean and the soft sand and clear blue waters I discovered later in life. In the Caribbean there is plenty of warmth to go around and diving on some of the worlds most beautiful reefs. The walls stretch for miles down the coasts and in some places for miles down as well.
While Bing Crosby is singing “Let It Snow…” I am picturing a boat parked over a tropical reef, the top of the reef opening up eighty feet below me with the nearby wall plunging down 400 feet and the current guiding me along this natural aquarium. The fish are swimming, feasting in the current and the corals are gently swaying in the water.
The easiest place to go for a long weekend is Cozumel, Mexico a limestone island once home to the Mayan Oracle and a Mayan pilgrimage destination. Cortez removed the Oracle and used the island as a staging area for his conquest of Mexico.
Jacques Cousteau helped make the island a diving Mecca when he first visited the island in 1960. He found the sleepy little island a paradise above and below the water. Of course he probably would not recognize the Cozumel of today with 2 cruise ship terminals which can accommodate up to six ships. The current economic slowdown in the United States has thankfully reduced the number of ships visiting the island but unfortunately to the detriment to the local people.
Cozumel is the home of the second Marine Park founded in Mexico and is the first not to allow local fisherman to spear fish or line fish on the reefs. The primary industry in Cozumel is tourism with divers making up a large part of the tourist business, especially with the reduced cruise ship traffic.
The reefs, which took a beating in Hurricane Gilbert are still beautiful. The southern end of the island has steep walls and beautiful corals and fish, while the North end of the island was sloping walls and fast currents with up and down currents to boot. For rebreather divers especially, the areas without the up and down currents are more enjoyable and my favorite dives are in the vicinity of Palancar Gardens and Palancar Caves. It is really special to come up from the stark limestone depths into a garden of colour and lives, swirling around you as you swim in, out and around the pillars of coral. You float along, the currents carrying you along toward the north (generally) with the scene constantly changing and renewing the colour and life.
Hmm, I think I need to go diving! Luckily for me, the travel department at Oceanic Ventures, namely Ann, has put together a long weekend in Cozumel so I can complete some training for some students who are also looking forward to warm water and wetsuits instead of the cold water and dry suits I have been making them use for training up to this point. But, despite my being involved in a training class, there are a number of people who, like me, want to escape the cold and enjoy some warm tropical breezes.
If you can get away, you are welcome to join us in Mexico 13-17 January 2011. If you cannot make it this time, keep your head warm and remember someone else is staying warm for you.
Cozumel
Horns or Halo???
July 4th finds in Cozumel with 39 of our close, warm, personal friends. Ok, this included the three staff members who joined me on this holiday trip. Why so many staff members you might ask? Well, there are a number of reasons with the primary one being we don’t normally run large trips; but, when we do, we try and make them have the feel of our smaller more personal trips. So, despite the large number of divers, we had three boats and separate, local Dive Masters for each group. Of course we all met for lunch at the pier each day so we had the best of both worlds – lots of friends and a personal touch.
Of course, there were some clients who would have preferred a little less attention to their needs. Ashton Arsement, Brittan Clark and Stephanie Watawich were under the watchful eye of their Principals of Technical Diving Instructor – none other than our own Dave Snyder. Dave has a reputation of being a little devilish at times, so his students came up with a hand-sign for him during the dives. Dave was fortunate to have discovered this sign after Stephanie’s son Mathew visited at dinner and asked are you the Dave (with his hands on his head making horns) or are you “Dave” with a faraway dreamy or nice look (this would be Dave Sweeten).
Yes Stephanie saw the hand-sign starting but was too far away to have stopped the revelation. The cat was out of the bag and Dave Snyder had a new hand-sign for himself underwater. In fact, his wife Martha even started using in when she signaled to me asking “where is Dave.”
The diving was really nice despite some unusual currents. Harvey Sisco commented that looking up a wall in Cozumel from 300’ was really spectacular and he could see why we liked doing those dives on a wall. The wall itself at this depth was sparse but looking up at the coral heads, the fish and the surface way in the distance creates a lasting impression that carries you through the 90 minutes of decompression. Of course you do have the advantage of decompressing on the reef you were looking at from below, so it is a wonderful way to dive.
Stephanie celebrated a birthday with us and Brittan Clark, Morgan Hann, and Liz Kreiger all completed there 100th dive on this trip. Ashton, Brittan and Stephanie finished their Principals of Technical Diving Course and Harvey Sisco completed his CCR Trimix Course on during this trip. Congratulations everyone!
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.
Tradition!
You can just hear Tevia singing Tradition in the background.
Tradition you ask? Well this trip has reoccurred for over 10 years and many of the participants have span>been going on it for most of those years. We celebrate two birthdays – Steven Hann and Anu Baji, and an anniversary, mine.
The only reason I get to go is because our wedding anniversary usually falls over the trip. But don’t get too sentimental, I am a working diver who gets to take sixteen of his close, warm personal friends diving each year.
This year, like the last, I had two rebreather students silently plying the waters off the coast of Cozumel with a tremendous amount of problems, albeit simulated problems. You would think people would rather just dive than take a course on their vacation. Matt, on of my students even made the comment “Here I am again, taking a class in Cozumel – I can’t remember what it is like to just dive here.” Of course, I reminded him we could have done the eight dives and eight hours of diving in beautiful Lake Travis!
This trip had a number of firsts – 500 dives for Jean Jansen, now an SSI Gold Diver, rebreather divers Matt Booth and Wayne Cooper, Dale Keyworth and Cecilia Chipman finished their Deep Diver course and as such, finished their Advanced Diver certifications and Ann put up with me for another year!
We had some great dives and ate some fun meals at some of our favorite restaurants. Anu is another year younger and Stephen feels another year older (especially since he moved just before leaving for this trip). Traditions are so much fun!
