http://forum.scubatoys.com Going somewhere fun? Use this scuba forum to get opinions, ideas, or share your trip with other forum members. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:37:11 GMT vBulletin 3 http://forum.scubatoys.com/images/misc/rss.jpg http://forum.scubatoys.com http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28116-dive-puerto-morelos-operator-cancun.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:09:14 GMT Has anyone been diving with Dive in Puerto Morelos, an operator in Cancun? I want to know if they're a good fit for newly certified divers, one of which is 10 1/2 years old.
]]> lc3035 http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28116-dive-puerto-morelos-operator-cancun.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28111-red-sea.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:38:26 GMT Having a good time diving in the Red Sea. Dove three days in Sharm El Shiek and now in Dahab for three days,. Tomorrow we ride camels with our dive gear for about an hour and half to make two dives then come back.
when I get back to my home computer I'll do a better trip report along with photos.:smilie39::smiley30: ]]> mcr0112 http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28111-red-sea.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28083-dominica-june.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:50:24 GMT I have a group trip planned for Dominica staying at Castle Comfort Lodge from June 21st through June 28th this summer. Price for the trip (not including air) is $995. Details: Seven nights accommodations in standard room with round trip airport transfers, breakfast daily, 5 days of unlimited shore diving from the resort and 5 days of two tank boat dives, all taxes and service charges. Deposit $100 due by Jan 15th and balance due by March 25th. As of this moment I only have 4 spaces left! I have a group trip planned for Dominica staying at Castle Comfort Lodge from June 21st through June 28th this summer.

Price for the trip (not including air) is $995.

Details: Seven nights accommodations in standard room with round trip airport transfers, breakfast daily, 5 days of unlimited shore diving from the resort and 5 days of two tank boat dives, all taxes and service charges.

Deposit $100 due by Jan 15th and balance due by March 25th.

As of this moment I only have 4 spaces left! ]]> azdiver http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28083-dominica-june.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28057-anybody-been-bohio-resort-grand-turk.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:01:57 GMT We're contemplating a trip and wondered what people thought. ]]> GoldHillDave http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28057-anybody-been-bohio-resort-grand-turk.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28041-vortex-destin.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:09:51 GMT After planning a trip for a few weeks nothing worked out as planned! I made plans to check out vortex then morrison spring and cypress spring and only got to see vortex. I tried to get in touch with the man that rents canoes at cypress but had no luck. I did stop and check out morrison in the flooded state and have a few pics I might try and post.

My g/f and I drove over to vortex thursday and got there around 3pm and set up camp and got to bed early. Friday morning we rented her gear and geared up. There was one class that made it into the spring before we did so that water was nice! We checked over each others gear and decided after we looked around we would do an OOA drill. We looked around for about 20mins then dropped down into the main cavern which is about 35ft. We proceeded to do our OOA drill and thats when stuff headed south. She must have exhaled as she was taking her reg. out and trying to use my octo. Her eyes got big and she dropped my octo. then started swimming for the surface. I grabbed her but she was adding air to her bc and swimming hard for the surface! I tried to put the reg. back in her mouth but she just looked at me then spit it out and kept swimming. I managed to grab onto the rope and slowed us both down.
She broke the surface and made a big gasp for air and that got everybodys attention! I asked if she was ok and she just said no get me out of here then complained about it being hard to breath! I swam her to the nearest dock which happened to have a few people about to splash and they helped take her gear off and make sure she was ok. After I made sure she was breathing fine and didn't show any major signs of sickness I got her to take a hot shower then laid down and took a nap while I kept an eye on her. She woke up then started saying she couldn't take a deep breath without it hurting. I started getting worried at that point and we finally figured out that between the 7mm wetsuit being on the small side and wearing a hood and having the bc over inflated made it hard to breath. We are pretty sure she had a few bruised ribs because it was her ribs that were sore not the breathing.
After talking to her about what happened I think between the cold water and cavern walls she was already on edge but never let me know about it. (we never went into any overhead just dropped down into the main cavern) When we did the OOA drill she just freaked and didn't think about what she was doing. Later that after noon she decided to get back in that water and that we would stay shallow. We only made a 15 min dive but she got back into the water after what happened earlier that day which surprized me! I'm not sure I would have been able to do that!

Saturday we decided to take the day off from diving and headed to Destin. We ended up stopping by scubatech and found out they had a boat running sunday morning.
She didn't think she would be up to diving but talked to the folks at scubatech about what happened and they recemended to hire a divemaster. So we hired a dive master for her and he talked to her about what happened and went over a few things.
Our first dive was the liberty ship (thomas hayward I think) and the vis sucked! 10ft at the most! She was able to make it to the wreck but thumbed the dive when she got uncomfortable and headed back up. I had a good dive max depth of 89ft. and a dive time of 27mins. After about an hour surface interval we were brought to browns barge and she decided not to dive but she did get in the water and mess with her mask which was the problem from her first dive. The DM was very understanding and very helpful with her issues and did everything he could to help. My 2nd dive was 80ft and 29mins because we passed up the line anchor then got into deco time on my computer so I had to do a deep stop but had plenty of gas left.
It was a really nice weekend, the seas were calm and a little surface current. I learned alot over this past weekend as did my girlfriend! She decided she wants to get some pool time to go over skills(purge clear) and to communicate when she has any type of issue with anything underwater. I know now I do not have a cave buddy
Sorry about being long winded ]]> mrmccoy http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28041-vortex-destin.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28040-vortex-destin.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:37:19 GMT Please delete double post Please delete double post ]]> mrmccoy http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28040-vortex-destin.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28037-trip-report-aquarena-springs.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:12:37 GMT Hello :)

Ok, this is NOT anywhere near as exotic a destination as some on here, but...

My hubby and I are fairly new to diving. A few weeks ago, we were certified / authorized to dive at Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, Tx and just took a short weekend trip to do our first "volunteer dive" this past weekend.

We had a really nice, relaxing time. It is a very enjoyable weekend trip for those in Texas or nearby- especially for new divers. The diving may not be Cozumel or Hawaii or Fiji, but it's quite pretty.

If you aren't familiar with Aquarena Springs, the website is here: Aquarena Center : Texas State University Basically, it is a natural spring lake in San Marcos, Tx, located on the campus and maintained by Texas State University. There is a lot of history associated with the place, and it has the oldest Indian / archeology site as well as glass bottom boats and kayaks and a conservation center.

San Marcos is in the Texas Hill Country, which is really pretty, with lots to do nearby that's non-diving: antiques, wineries, scenic drive tours, near Austin and San Antonio.

Diving:

The diving at Spring Lake is definitely for those who enjoy the "slow lane" at times. It's very shallow (25' max) and relatively small. The water is always 70-72 degrees. So, you need a wetsuit. The visibility, however, is great. Sometimes it is as much as 100', but when I've been there, it was less because of silt from other divers. That said, it's still been a solid 30-40 feet in clear blue water. There's enough fresh water stuff to see (bass, sunfish, turtles, the bubbling springs themselves at the bottom of the lake) to make it fun.

Diving is also very regimented. I.e., since they are -very- conservation oriented, and adhere to federal conservation laws, you have to do an initial 2-day certification class that costs $230.00. The class itself was pretty cool, though, focusing mainly on conservation, buoyancy, and a bit of archeology and general history of the place. First dive of the class is a buoyancy / skill / obstacle course check-out, and the second is a swim through of the sites.

The trade-off for the class, though, is that once certified, there are no park fees. The facilities and folks there are really nice. There's easy dock entry and a very nice, convenient setup for showers and gear.

Once certified, you have to dive under a reservation as a "volunteer diver." They are pretty strict about not letting you dive without a reservaton and also strict about -where- you can dive while there. There are about 6-7 dive sites, separated by shallow "no dive" zones. The sites are relatively small, and when you arrive, they will assign you a site to go to and want you to stay pretty much in that site.

Mainly, the strictness is due to the presence of the glass bottom boats since those suckers are silent and it is shallow... if you surface or swim around where they don't know where you are...er... it can cause the boat divers some stress. ;) They also make you wear a pretty horrid yellow jumpsuit over your wetsuit for visibility purposes.

This trip, we decided to head out there on Wednesday. I shot an email to the diving coordinator and got a reservation for Saturday and Sunday. We drove up from Houston Saturday morning and got 3 dives in - one on Saturday afternoon and 2 on Sunday.

We stayed with a friend nearby, but there are quite a few bed and breakfasts and even cheap motels in the area.

Since I got to test out my camera, I figured I'd give a little report on the trip and post some pics and... also, I was wondering if there are any other similar places to dive inside the US that could make a fun weekend getaway?

Pics:



Mr. D entering the dive site :)



Me. Aren't the jumpsuits sexy?



One of the springs



Clear water and a few fish



Part of the archeology site. ]]> Divalicious http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28037-trip-report-aquarena-springs.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28013-trip-report-cobalt-coast-dive-tech.html Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:01:59 GMT just got home a few hours ago and need some time to get notes together-trip was interesting to say the least, mostly good but a few very strange things happened underwater-promise i will be prepared tomorrow just got home a few hours ago and need some time to get notes together-trip was interesting to say the least, mostly good but a few very strange things happened underwater-promise i will be prepared tomorrow ]]> scubagirlj http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/28013-trip-report-cobalt-coast-dive-tech.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/27957-heading-back-bonaire-jan.html Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:41:50 GMT we like to take things (not heavy stuff) to leave for folks on island. This time I was thinking of the drugstore type of reading glasses (assorted strengths). Do you think these would be helpful, and where would I drop them off? We already have an assortment of leashes and collars for the animal shelter. we like to take things (not heavy stuff) to leave for folks on island. This time I was thinking of the drugstore type of reading glasses (assorted strengths). Do you think these would be helpful, and where would I drop them off?

We already have an assortment of leashes and collars for the animal shelter. ]]> boates http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/27957-heading-back-bonaire-jan.html http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/27933-back-around-world.html Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:15:24 GMT back from around the world, I started posting some of my best photos http://whitecollarnomad.fototime.com/ Enjoy... back from around the world, I started posting some of my best photos http://whitecollarnomad.fototime.com/
Enjoy... ]]> Scubakraut http://forum.scubatoys.com/trips-travel/27933-back-around-world.html