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

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

diving

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Dive Diva Trip October 2012

Divas in Costa Rica
The Dive Divas in Costa Rica

Dive Diva/Rock Beauty Semi-Annual Weekend Adventure to Cozumel Mexico El Presidente Intercontinental Hotel

October 19-23, 2012

Join us for a weekend of fun, sun, diving, spa, touring, beverages with beach umbrellas, snorkeling, and rest……. Friday thru Tuesday. The dive staff at SCUBA Du will offer valet dive service and beautiful fast boats so that we can be back in time for lunch and umbrella drinks on the beach. Or spend the afternoon in town shopping for Holiday gifts for friends and co-workers. One afternoon Ann will organize a trip to tour the Mayan Ruins and a visit to the beaches on the East side of the island. The spa has offered our group a 15% discount on all services booked in advance for our group. Night dives and night snorkeling available.

  • Package includes: RT Air from Houston to Cozumel via Continental Airlines, 5 days/ 4 nights El Presidente Intercontinental Resort Hotel, 3 days of two tank boat diving, plus a boat dive the day of arrival, air taxes on base fare, welcome cocktail, American breakfast buffet, transfers to the hotel, beach cylinders, weights, water on board, hotel taxes/resort fee, trip brochure and packet, trip shirt, and travel leader….Ann.
  • Fare: $1595 per person for Club Aquarius Members ($1545 dfc and club). $500 deposit due January 1. Final payment due on April 1, 2012. Trip insurance recommended, diving insurance required.
  • Not Included: Nitrox, extra boat diving, tips for the local staff, marine park fee, shopping, increases in air taxes, tours and entrance to the Mayan ruins. Space is Limited.

Dive Mom. Sign Me Up; I want to go diving!

 

Club Aquarius is an International Diving Club. Oceanic Ventures sponsors a local chapter. Membership is $75 pp family for a year and $65 for individuals.

Membership benefits include travel discounts, discounts on classes, monthly equipment specials, meetings, door prizes, a card and a gift.

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Price and availability subject to change until booked. Trip insurance is recommended as all deposits are non-refundable unless the trip runs full and replacement found.

 
 

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Why should you take an Advanced Open Water Scuba Course?

Lift Bag by Chuck GerlneuchNew divers often wonder how they can start an Advanced Open Water Course so close to completing their Open Water Course; they simply do not feel like advanced divers.  While it is true they are new to the world of diving, and they need to go out diving, it is also true that having a few more underwater skills under their belts would make diving more enjoyable.  This is really what an Advanced Open Water Course is all about; it is a combination of diving specialty courses designed to give new divers a few more underwater tools.

There is no substitute for simply going out and diving.  After you complete your open water class, you and your diving buddies should plan on going diving as much as possible so you can gain some confidence and put your newly learned diving skills to work.  At our facility, we try to promote this by offering dive local weekends at other times during the month.  We also encourage new divers to return with us on the next month’s Open Water Weekend.  By participating in these other events, there is a professional dive leader on hand to give you advice and to answer your questions while learning to dive outside of the classroom setting.

But, like I said earlier, one way to make an improvement in your diving is by learning some basic underwater skills. An Advanced Open Water Course combines the following specialty classes into one package:

  • Underwater Navigation
  • Deep Diving (over 60 feet)
  • Night and Limited Visibility Diving
  • Search and Relocation

 These specialties are designed to introduce you, the new diver, to new environments and equip you with come new skills that you will use throughout your diving career.  They are also tailored to give you more confidence and help you to relax more underwater.  Why these specialties you ask?  Well, let’s look at each of them in more detail.
Underwater Navigation – You probably noticed in your Open Water Class that you had no real idea where you were.  You just followed your Instructor or a Dive Control Specialist with your Instructor following behind.  You were mostly concerned with trying to maintain buoyancy and look around at things as you glided past.  However, when you are diving without your instructor, you will have to find your way around the lake on your own.  This course introduces you to the skills needed to navigate underwater and the ability to get lost creatively.
Deep Diving – While many people do not consider diving deeper than 60 feet deep diving, you were trained and certified in 20 to 40 feet of water so 60 feet is deeper than you have been.  Assuming you do not want to repeat those out-of-air skills you were forced to endure as part of your Open Water Program, there are some things you need to consider when diving deeper, like when to start back to the surface.  So here you will learn what to do to scale the equivalent of a 6 story building and return to the surface safely and proudly.
Night & Limited Visibility Diving – Here you get more toys!  You need lights to complete this specialty so, boys get toys!  Ok, it is not all about the toys but rather how to use them as tools to safely execute a night dive.  And remember, if you are ever planning on sneaking into the cocktail party from the water, you will need this skill-set.
Search & Relocation – With the introduction of more toys comes the need to find them when you loose them.  Here we introduce you to the fine art of finding the things you lost underwater.  As part of the class you also get to use a lift bag to lift up a heavy object.  This is a useful skill if you run across an canon underwater that you think will look smashing in your front yard!
While you are learning these skills, you will be getting more comfortable underwater and may even find you do not need as much weight to sink below the surface.  You even get the opportunity to purchase some necessary toys to safely execute your dives – cool, more toys!
Taking an Advanced Open Water Course is a good way to prepare yourself for the dives that you want to do on your next vacation.  The comfort you gain in the water will make those vacation dives more enjoyable and just plain fun.  Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your diving while having fun diving in a structured program.

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Winter Scuba Diving – Pool Tune-Ups

The cold fronts are coming in more frequently now and the leaves are falling all around us. It is winter in Houston and for many it is not contusive to diving. Of course there is diving at the local lakes but for the most part this is dry suit diving.
If you are not excited about jumping into a temperate Texas Lake in the winter, you probably think there is no way to go diving until Spring, right? Wrong! Maintaining your diving skills over the winter months just requires a little creativity and some water. What I am alluding to is going diving in the swimming pool. Here you can work on your buoyancy control, trim and swimming attitude.
This is the perfect time to try some new equipment. As a photographer you can work on strobe placement, critical focusing, color balancing or just perfecting your “people” photography.
The winter months are the perfect time to work on your skills and to practice your safety skills. That way you can be ready when the spring diving season rolls around.
Did you know that Oceanic Ventures offers a free SCUBA Skills update the first Monday of every month? Do you realize that this is done in a nice warm indoor pool with clear water and lots of light? Did I mention free? You can also set-up a pool session for you and your friends or open it up to others; just call Dive Mom and ask how you can get wet in the pool this winter.

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Escape the Winter Cold, Let’s Go Scuba Diving in January!

Eric Underwater in cozumelIt 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.
Parrot FishThe 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.

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Fall Festival & Tent Sale on November 6th 2010 from 9:00 to 4:00

Join us for our Fall Festival & Tent Sale on November 6 from 9:00 to 4:00 benefiting the Oceanic Ventures Foundation and International School Project. There will be new and used diving equipment specials, educational specials, Oil from Fiji, Sarongs from the Philippines, Balloons for the kids, Hot Dogs and an old fash…ioned bake sale!
We are also having our clients anf friends help so look for Perfect Gifts from Mary Kay Cosmetics, Handmade Jewelry, Family Portrait Specials, Bubbles Hand Car Wash Coupons, handmade watercolour greeting cards and paintings and much much more.
Door Prized, Sealed Bid Auction, Hourly Specials
Please come by for a fun morning or afternoon!
For more information download our fall festival and sale flyer!

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Dive Around Texas

DiveAroundTexas.com challenges Texas divers to get out and explore some of the great diving that Texas has to offer. Texas is blessed with over 30 different incredible dive spots including rivers, quarries, lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico.
DiveAroundTexas.com is about divers going diving in Texas and receiving the chance to win prizes and awards based on the number of verified dives you have in your Logbook. The more times you dive in Texas, the better your chance to win valuable prizes and trips. More information at DiveAroundTexas.com.