Scuba Diving Assholes of Surly

[Teamdirtyleg 1,062]

We were in Roatan earlier this month. The water was a little less clear than normal for the first part of our trip (but pretty clear still).  That hurricane was rolling over Jamaica and Cuba and the prevailing wind directions were a little off.  

[CHIEF 5,098]

Got the first day under the belt in Cozumel. Hit up Rage last night. We dove with Mario, which he told me is who Troph dove with. Hasn’t been bad so far. We pick our spot, pick our weights, and he pretty much stays out of the way. He is ok, if you already know what to do. Rage isn’t a fan at all. I can see him sucking for new divers. 
 

Chief

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

5 hours ago, CHIEF said:

Got the first day under the belt in Cozumel. Hit up Rage last night. We dove with Mario, which he told me is who Troph dove with. Hasn’t been bad so far. We pick our spot, pick our weights, and he pretty much stays out of the way. He is ok, if you already know what to do. Rage isn’t a fan at all. I can see him sucking for new divers. 
 

Chief

It's really not just a "new diver" thing. This is some of the stuff we have personally witnessed him do, and confirmed by by other random divers:

- beginning the initial descent before checking that everyone is ready, in multiple cases, leaving people on the surface with weight/mask/reg issues

- taking quick, sharp turns into hidden swimthroughs on heavy current wall dives, forcing everyone in the group to blow through a ton of air fighting to get back to where he turned off

- not checking individual air levels or general status checks during the dive, ignoring or not hearing tank bang signals directed at him, forcing people to waste more air double timing it to get close and alert him

- ending the dive when he is ready, not when the group is...and I mean the group is ready to end the dive, but he keeps swimming around in his own little world

- just a general careless "IDGAF" attitude underwater, like only pointing out things that he thinks is cool, like some 1" tall baby squid only he can see from 20 meters away and not the group of lobster that people in the group may have never seen before.

- On the boat, he really only gets interested in talking if there are hot women or mexicans in the group. Anyone else really doesn't interest him. This screws the boat crew, who live on tips; most people base their tip amount on how they liked the DM.

 

Anyway, glad you guys didn't die and he remembered to check if you made it back on the boat, I just prefer to dive with Sherif, Rich, Nat or Steve. And never Mario.

Edited July 31, 2021 by rage-a-holic

[CHIEF 5,098]

We are done with him today. He had a couple of significant mistakes. 
CHIEF

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

3 hours ago, CHIEF said:

We are done with him today. He had a couple of significant mistakes. 
CHIEF

My advice is to tell Memo at Aldora and ask for a different DM. Sherif, Rich, Nat or Steve will give you a much better experience.

[troph 24,928]

He was really good to me when I freaked out and helped me get down on my second dive BUT he did seem to skip the steps. It was unnerving and he was also attentive. Odd combo tbqh.

[troph 24,928]

We haven’t scheduled for next week yet anyone other than Aldora ? 

[Bevo14 8,432]

Given this is Surly, was worried this thread was going to be about something else.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Bevo14

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

9 hours ago, troph said:

We haven’t scheduled for next week yet anyone other than Aldora ? 

Aldora has many other really good DMs, just request one. Sherif, Nat, Rich and Steve are all great. And Aldora is the only major dive op that uses steel 120s. Any other op is gonna provide AL80s for 50-60 minute dives.

Living Underwater is a nice alternative, they use steel 100LPs, but they only have one boat and may be booked. The owner Jeremy is a good guy. He is jewish and from some godforsaken canadian suburb (Michigan or Miinnesota). His boat (the Jewfish) is a custom build, lots of space and a wash tank in the middle. They are also the only other op I know of that does surface intervals at the same place Aldora does (Palancar Beach Club).

http://living-underwater.com/

 

 

[CHIEF 5,098]

9 minutes ago, rage-a-holic said:

Aldora has many other really good DMs, just request one. Sherif, Nat, Rich and Steve are all great. And Aldora is the only major dive op that uses steel 120s. Any other op is gonna provide AL80s for 50-60 minute dives.

Living Underwater is a nice alternative, they use steel 100LPs, but they only have one boat and may be booked. The owner Jeremy is a good guy. He is jewish and from some godforsaken canadian suburb (Michigan or Miinnesota). His boat (the Jewfish) is a custom build, lots of space and a wash tank in the middle. They are also the only other op I know of that does surface intervals at the same place Aldora does (Palancar Beach Club).

http://living-underwater.com/

 

 

Saw him yesterday at the beach club. We took today off to fuck around on the island, and day drink. The kids stayed out late and are sleeping in a bit. At least they can walk to and from the bar. 
CHIEF

[CHIEF 5,098]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:38 AM, rage-a-holic said:

It's really not just a "new diver" thing. This is some of the stuff we have personally witnessed him do, and confirmed by by other random divers:

- beginning the initial descent before checking that everyone is ready, in multiple cases, leaving people on the surface with weight/mask/reg issues

- taking quick, sharp turns into hidden swimthroughs on heavy current wall dives, forcing everyone in the group to blow through a ton of air fighting to get back to where he turned off

- not checking individual air levels or general status checks during the dive, ignoring or not hearing tank bang signals directed at him, forcing people to waste more air double timing it to get close and alert him

- ending the dive when he is ready, not when the group is...and I mean the group is ready to end the dive, but he keeps swimming around in his own little world

- just a general careless "IDGAF" attitude underwater, like only pointing out things that he thinks is cool, like some 1" tall baby squid only he can see from 20 meters away and not the group of lobster that people in the group may have never seen before.

- On the boat, he really only gets interested in talking if there are hot women or mexicans in the group. Anyone else really doesn't interest him. This screws the boat crew, who live on tips; most people base their tip amount on how they liked the DM.

 

Anyway, glad you guys didn't die and he remembered to check if you made it back on the boat, I just prefer to dive with Sherif, Rich, Nat or Steve. And never Mario.

This was the issue we had. Mrs. CHIEF uses six pounds, he only put two pounds in her BC. She is not one to mix words, he got the message. It was embarrassing, I had to calm her down. We went ahead and finished the week with him, they sent an "intern" that was new to the company, Arturo, and he was killer. He was with us for the last four days. 15 years experience as a divemaster, interesting, educated, Mexican upper class from what we could tell, spoke perfect English. He will be a real asset.

We met up with our old divemaster Dario a couple of times, apparently some of the older employees had a parting of ways during COVID shutdown. He runs his own boat now, and just dives with friends. CHIEF Jr. has an "in" with Centurion boats. Dario wants him to design a dive boat with ballast tanks to sink a stern swim platform to make it easier to get elderly and weaker divers into and out of the water. He has people that have dove with him for 35 years, some of them want to keep diving.

CHIEF 

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

51 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

This was the issue we had. Mrs. CHIEF uses six pounds, he only put two pounds in her BC. She is not one to mix words, he got the message. It was embarrassing, I had to calm her down. We went ahead and finished the week with him, they sent an "intern" that was new to the company, Arturo, and he was killer. He was with us for the last four days. 15 years experience as a divemaster, interesting, educated, Mexican upper class from what we could tell, spoke perfect English. He will be a real asset.

We met up with our old divemaster Dario a couple of times, apparently some of the older employees had a parting of ways during COVID shutdown. He runs his own boat now, and just dives with friends. CHIEF Jr. has an "in" with Centurion boats. Dario wants him to design a dive boat with ballast tanks to sink a stern swim platform to make it easier to get elderly and weaker divers into and out of the water. He has people that have dove with him for 35 years, some of them want to keep diving.

CHIEF 

Glad you guys got a new DM that worked out. Aldora has a great track record hiring DMs, Mario is just an aberration.

 

[troph 24,928]

Dove with Nat yesterday and Mario today, Nat is on our boat though. Both good dives, Mario is NOT the guy for first timers bud he was great today at planacar. Took us down and around and through and it was great.  That reef is crazy amazing. Like another planet down there. Flying like fish under water blue water on one side and reef on the other. Saw huge eels and some predator fish in the distance making the reef even more active. Bright sunny day, visibility was good.  Next dive after a surface interval.  Dove San Clemente and tormentos yesterday. Enjoyed practicing buoyancy control with the current at tormentos.  One more dive tomorrow morning just in time for the 24 hour rule. 
 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by troph

[CHIEF 5,098]

4 minutes ago, troph said:

Dove with Nat yesterday and Mario today. Both good dives, Mario is NOT the guy for first timers bud he was great today at planacar. Took us down and around and through and it was great.  That reef is crazy amazing. Like another planet down there. Flying like fish under water blue water on one side and reef on the other. Saw huge eels and some predator fish in the distance making the reef even more active. Bright sunny day, visibility was good.  Next dive after a surface interval.  Dove San Clemente and tormentos yesterday. Enjoyed practicing buoyancy control with the current at tormentos.  One more dive tomorrow morning just in time for the 24 hour rule. 
 

 

Troph, if you have enough people to fill a boat, we had five, and had a boat to ourselves, Aldora will do a twilight dive any night of the week at Paradise Reef. It's shallow, little to no current, really easy. We saw probably 8-10 octopus, a school of squid, crabs and lobster out in the open, a lot of stuff that is holed up during the day. Aldora's flashlights suck though, two out of the six lights in our group quit working during the dive. 

CHIEF

[troph 24,928]

20 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

Troph, if you have enough people to fill a boat, we had five, and had a boat to ourselves, Aldora will do a twilight dive any night of the week at Paradise Reef. It's shallow, little to no current, really easy. We saw probably 8-10 octopus, a school of squid, crabs and lobster out in the open, a lot of stuff that is holed up during the day. Aldora's flashlights suck though, two out of the six lights in our group quit working during the dive. 

CHIEF

We will do that soon, not this trip. I love their set up as we sit here and watch the other dive boats in the water and none but Aldora allow for lunch on the beach. 
 

 

[CHIEF 5,098]

54 minutes ago, troph said:

We will do that soon, not this trip. I love their set up as we sit here and watch the other dive boats in the water and none but Aldora allow for lunch on the beach. 
 

 

Their virgin Pina Colada is awesome, as were the shrimp quesadillas and beef quesadillas.

CHIEF

[troph 24,928]

Mr Sanchos yesterday it was really good. Had el foco two nights ago and punta sur last night. Stayed in town this time better choice.

[troph 24,928]

Cedral drift dive for our last dive saw two nurse sharks one sizable and a YUGE turtle hanging out then I’ll decided to move up to the surface from 50 feet down. So cool. Current was ripping.  Had a moment of wtf with my sons as they don’t know what they don’t know.  We settled in though and had a good time. 

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

3 hours ago, troph said:

We will do that soon, not this trip. I love their set up as we sit here and watch the other dive boats in the water and none but Aldora allow for lunch on the beach. 

As I mentioned earlier, Living Underwater does SI breaks there too.

[troph 24,928]

2 hours ago, rage-a-holic said:

As I mentioned earlier, Living Underwater does SI breaks there too.

Oh I didn’t see that - well there were 4 Aldora on the beach for lunch and no others and I counted 17 other dive boats out on the water during that mid dive period. Seems crazy.

[troph 24,928]

San Francisco wall dive today, man that was a great dive. Nice easy drift, juxtaposition of the reef on one side and the open blue water on the other side was amazing. Saw rays, a shark, and just enjoyed a long calm drift.  I could stare into the abyss for hours. The ray swam right by us so cool. Kids and I agree best so far out of 10 dives.  This morning Planacar gardens visibility wasn’t great but had a turtle swim next to us that was nice - they all seem so happy.  Happy turtles make for happy divers. Saw a big ass crab too. We wore our reef safe sunscreen a lot this week but dang we are crispy.  Good times, I’ll have a few new sun spots to show for it and an early visit to the dermo soon to check it out I’m sure.  Private chef tonight then breakfast and head em on out. May come back with just the lady in October after Tahiti. 

Edited August 9, 2021 by troph

[troph 24,928]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:38 AM, rage-a-holic said:

 

- beginning the initial descent before checking that everyone is ready, in multiple cases, leaving people on the surface with weight/mask/reg issues

- taking quick, sharp turns into hidden swimthroughs on heavy current wall dives, forcing everyone in the group to blow through a ton of air fighting to get back to where he turned off

- not checking individual air levels or general status checks during the dive, ignoring or not hearing tank bang signals directed at him, forcing people to waste more air double timing it to get close and alert him

I found these three to be especially true after this week.  I spent a lot of time managing my kids below the surface or feeling like I had to. He did well with my youngest on the SF wall dive though but that was after a lot of messaging on the boat. 
 

you do have to watch him for quick moves. He was good on the pseudo caves in Planacar but on the drift dives he’s slowing with no notice and off we go drifting in cedral at a 6-7 minute mile.  I try to stay behind him and my kids so I can see everything but when he slows or ducks under a reef it’s hard. He did help explain on the boat after but still. 
 

some of this is we are new and I’ve asked around and Cozumel isn’t the easiest. Part of its my own head space, I am always one moment away from a freak out, I can over come it and calm down but my heart rate is ready to jump and part of it is I want to control things especially when my kids are involved and that’s hard. My boys did great and were unaffected. But they don’t know what they don’t know. And I feel like I have to compensate more with him than we did with Nat. 

on the air side I routinely finished sub 500 and I had to get his attention for 90% of my air checks. He just doesn’t ask. 
 

we knew to be ready to submerge before we jumped in. So we had no issues going down but he is quick. You gotta be ready. Weight adjustments didn’t happen at the surface he added 2lbs for me half way down. One gal had equalizing issues we were already 30 feet down she was near the surface. I had to point that son’s inflator/deflator was under his bcd buckles. It all worked out but yeah he’s not the greatest. 
 

I do think he’s good for a fuck it let’s go diving mode and we probably did some cool shit Nat wouldn’t have done with us and so I don’t count him all bad. But maybe Nat would do those things I dunno. 
 

great outfit for sure however, thanks for the recommendation.  Definitely glad we finally made it to diver status. 
 

[troph 24,928]

On 8/8/2021 at 11:32 AM, CHIEF said:

Their virgin Pina Colada is awesome, as were the shrimp quesadillas and beef quesadillas.

CHIEF

My kids live on virgin pinas in MX. 

[troph 24,928]

Texas monthly with an article and cover story on flower garden reef off the Galveston coast. I know about them but didn’t know it was as good of a reef system as the cover makes it to be. Should be a good read. 

Edited August 19, 2021 by troph

[CHIEF 5,098]

12 hours ago, troph said:

Texas monthly with an article and cover story on flower garden reef off the Galveston coast. I know about them but didn’t know it was as good of a reef system as the cover makes it to be. Should be a good read. 

Pretty good article, would be a fun dive. The window will probably close by mid-October.

CHIEF

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

On 8/18/2021 at 9:26 PM, troph said:

Texas monthly with an article and cover story on flower garden reef off the Galveston coast. I know about them but didn’t know it was as good of a reef system as the cover makes it to be. Should be a good read. 

The main problem is that there is only one dive op/boat that goes out there and they are notorious for canceling more than half of their scheduled trips

[CHIEF 5,098]

Some of the former Aldora employees Dario, Chino, and Gato have just bought boats. They found two 150 Yamahas in Playa, new, in the box. $41k for both, we are putting money together to help them purchase the engines. CHIEF Jr. is going to take a long weekend off from school and fly down and rig the boats out. This should give him an idea of logistics and working conditions and if it is worth trying to start a marine repair business on the island. If anyone wants in on it, this could be used for prepaid diving. Corona has been rough on these guys, tourism is making a comeback, but it put quite a few islanders behind the eight ball.

CHIEF

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

3 hours ago, CHIEF said:

Some of the former Aldora employees Dario, Chino, and Gato have just bought boats. They found two 150 Yamahas in Playa, new, in the box. $41k for both, we are putting money together to help them purchase the engines. CHIEF Jr. is going to take a long weekend off from school and fly down and rig the boats out. This should give him an idea of logistics and working conditions and if it is worth trying to start a marine repair business on the island. If anyone wants in on it, this could be used for prepaid diving. Corona has been rough on these guys, tourism is making a comeback, but it put quite a few islanders behind the eight ball.

CHIEF

I hope it works out for them, I've dove with all those guys for years. And hopefully they are getting legit marine park boat licenses and not going rogue.

[CHIEF 5,098]

5 minutes ago, rage-a-holic said:

I hope it works out for them, I've dove with all those guys for years. And hopefully they are getting legit marine park boat licenses and not going rogue.

PM sent.

CHIEF

[troph 24,928]

Love hearing about guys taking entrepreneurial risk, Chief Jr too.  Definitely hoping they do it legit.  We may scoot down there or somewhere else in October. The itch is back. 

[CHIEF 5,098]

3 hours ago, troph said:

Love hearing about guys taking entrepreneurial risk, Chief Jr too.  Definitely hoping they do it legit.  We may scoot down there or somewhere else in October. The itch is back. 

They are doing it legit. They have been renting licensed boats by the day. Apparently a lot of operators had to sell their dive  boats to eat during the shutdown. If you have a dive boat, you can rent it out every day that you don’t have customers. It is expensive, and dive masters are fighting for the scraps. 
 

CHIEF

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

The Rescue is a great watch. Old British nerd cave divers kick ass and embarrass the Thai Navy Seals.

[solamente73 1,132]

Earned my divemaster certification at UT in the 90s.  Used to help teach students out at Lake Travis - Windy Point.  Holla to the SCUBA Club and Starnes Island.

I’ve been fortunate to dive many places.  Did a lot of mud diving state-side, but of course the action is in the salt.

Key Largo, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Grand Cayman, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, St. Thomas, Bonaire, Curacao, Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Fiji, Mo’orea, Bora-Bora, Maui, Big Island, Eilat, Sharm El Sheikh.

Wreck diving and wall diving rule.

Have spent the last several years having kids, hunting, fishing, farming.  Once the boys are old enough, look out, I’m taking them to depth.  Can’t wait.

Whale sharks...Truk... liveaboard... Those I think are on my bucket list.  GBR wouldn’t suck as part of an Australia/NZ trip.

Love the stories in this thread.  Keep at it.  Nothing beats a 5 dive day (2 in AM, 2 in PM, 1 night) followed by fresh seafood and an ice cold local beer (or rum drink).

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by solamente73
Liveaboard

[AUinHsv 580]

Take me with you to Truk

 

[nolongerU2horn 768]

Got certified this weekend, checkout dives in balmy Lake Travis. Now to book a trip to Cozumel…

[Biff Tannen 45,767]

Joining this thread.  Was certified when I was 12 years old, but only dove (dived?) a couple of times.  Re-did my certification and heading to Bahamas on Monday.  Only one day of diving planned (not everyone in the group certified and also probably waited too late to get reservations), but looking forward to it.

My main passion is backpacking, but really happy to get back into the diving world, as it's sort of like backpacking underwater, in my mind.

Not sure how often I'll get around to it, but once or twice a year would be awesome.  Dive on!

[Biff Tannen 45,767]

That said, any recs for affordable underwater cameras?  I've got a knock off GoPro that MIGHT do the job, but I haven't looked into anything else.  Under a couple hundred bucks would be ideal.

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

15 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

That said, any recs for affordable underwater cameras?  I've got a knock off GoPro that MIGHT do the job, but I haven't looked into anything else.  Under a couple hundred bucks would be ideal.

I have several Yi 4K cameras. They have been solid for hundreds of dives, but most people don't have them in stock. If you can find one used or on ebay, I'd grab it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/YI-Action-Sports-Camera-Control/dp/B01FU6KDEG/ref=sr_1_4?crid=38H09KARW6O6C&keywords=yi%2B4k&qid=1651083028&sprefix=yi%2B4k%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-4&th=1

 

You should be able to get a GoPro Hero8 for around $200 used on craigslist, I have several friends that dive with them., they are only about $280 new.

[Biff Tannen 45,767]

My knock off worked fine.  Getting the vids and pics off and to my phone was an interesting adventure, but I figured it out.  Didn't get a ton of great stuff, as I was more focused on not dying on my first dive after certification, but here's some anyway.  Half Moon Reef and Stingray Reef in Exuma.

 

[HiggyBaby 2,559]

What’s everyone’s thoughts on Catalina Island, Costa Rica? I’m not a fan of Pacific coast diving in general but am just wondering how it is that far south? Going next month and trying to decide if it’s worth including on the activity list.

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

47 minutes ago, HiggyBaby said:

What’s everyone’s thoughts on Catalina Island, Costa Rica? I’m not a fan of Pacific coast diving in general but am just wondering how it is that far south? Going next month and trying to decide if it’s worth including on the activity list.

If you want to dive Costa Rica, I'd recommend diving Cocos, it's a bucket list dive.

https://www.bluewaterdivetravel.com/cocos-island-diving

[CHIEF 5,098]

Rage, we are hitting Coz on the first of August. Would love to meet up, if you are there. Buy you a few beers at the popular cerveceria. Diving with Dario, Gato and Chino's outfit, extra room on the boat. Headed North.

CHIEF 

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

16 hours ago, CHIEF said:

Rage, we are hitting Coz on the first of August. Would love to meet up, if you are there. Buy you a few beers at the popular cerveceria. Diving with Dario, Gato and Chino's outfit, extra room on the boat. Headed North.

CHIEF 

Thanks, but I'm in Puebla now. Curious to hear how their new dive op is doing.

[CHIEF 5,098]

17 minutes ago, rage-a-holic said:

Thanks, but I'm in Puebla now. Curious to hear how their new dive op is doing.

Will post about it here.

CHIEF

[HiggyBaby 2,559]

If you want to dive Costa Rica, I'd recommend diving Cocos, it's a bucket list dive.
https://www.bluewaterdivetravel.com/cocos-island-diving

Thanks. We ended up switching gears and are in Belize. No bad options here.

Change of subject. My older kid wants to get certified. Any recs for a good shop in DFW? I did all my training back in the 90s on lake Travis with a now defunct shop so I’m way out of the loop.

[CHIEF 5,098]

Just got back from a week in Cozumel. We dove last Monday, Tuesday, took a day off on Wednesday, and dove on Thursday and Friday. There were four of us, and we had the boat to ourselves for the whole week. We dove with our old divemaster Dario Hernandez (35 years experience), another divemaster Jorge', and Gato (35 years experience) was our captain. It was the best diving we have ever done on Cozumel. They are a "one boat" company at this time, and offer fishing trips as well.

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100072294356926

Our group of divers are not early risers, so we left at 10 am, the first day, and dove Palancar Horseshoe, hit Palancar Beach Club for our interval, then drifted Yukanaab on the second dive. Both great dives, not a lot of current.

The second day was awesome. Dario recommended we not leave out until 4:30 pm to get an evening dive and a night dive. We went to Palancar Bricks (we haven't been able to dive it for the last three years) and were able to really see the backside of the reef lit up by the evening sun angle. We had forgotten what a magical place it was. we just went shallow and ate on the boat for our interval. We then idled back out to Palancar Gardens for a night dive. We saw octopus, squid, cuttlefish, lobsters, crabs, CHIEF Jr. even found a Splended Toadfish.

Wednesday was a blowoff day. We went to Coconuts, CHIEF Jr. met a Cutie that goes to Tarleton with him. Hung out at Rastas, then we all went back by Mega, loaded up on beer and rum, and let those two mug and play grab ass at the rooftop pool at our condo.

 

Thursday was drift diving. We left at 10 again and went to Santa Rosa on the first wall dive, then Cedral Wall for the second dive. Saw a lot of turtles (saw them on every dive of the week), and one of the biggest Nurse Sharks I have seen.

Friday was by far the best diving day we have ever had. This is also the only day we had to leave early before the wind got up. We went about 8-10 miles offshore, north of Cozumel, to a cave that has sleeping Carribean Reef sharks. You are completely out of sight of land. However, fishermen had been to the area, there weren't any sharks in the cave, no lion fish to kill, no lobsters, etc. Hard to believe but the fishermen had picked it clean. We had homemade tamales in banana leaves and homemade guacamole that Gato had made for lunch. Dario and Gato were disappointed for us, and they discussed going to another reef about three miles farther north. This place was the jackpot.

The last dive, we saw more big fish than anywhere else we had ever dove. On the decent there were huge schools of Permit and Amberjack. At no time could you not look up and see 25-40 barracuda. We had several tag along with us, staying about 4-5 foot away just watching us. This also where we saw Caribbean Reef sharks, a huge Spotted Eagle Ray, and a big Moray. 

We have become really good friends with everyone in this organization. CHIEF Jr. talks to Dario about every other week. He had broken his clutch and brake lever on his Harley, so we went by the Harley shop, in Ft. Worth, and got him a new set and took them to him. They are the first operators to run dual Mercury engines on their dive boat. My wife has several new laptops that her sales force won't use, so we are setting them up with a laptop and diagnostic cables, to be able to diagnose any problems they may have in the future. I love the setup, basically customized for you. You tell them what time you want to go out, what you want to see, where you want to go (or if you don't know, they will recommend a location for the type dive you want to do). They aren't the cheapest on the island, they have a new boat, park permits, and diving equipment to pay for, but aren't on the expensive end of the spectrum either. We dove with four people, they can hold up to eight, and the price gets cheaper the more divers there are in your group.

I told them I want to see them be successful,  and to offer a Surly discount. If anyone heads down for some diving DM me, and I can give you the DM's phone number to call direct before heading down.  

CHIEF

 

[Biff Tannen 45,767]

Is anyone in Austin a member of the Aquanuts?  If so, how is it?  
 

I have two buddies that are certified, but getting them to dive anywhere that isn’t a flight to the Caribbean or further is like pulling teeth. Trying to get opinions on ways to get out for some weekend dives in texas. 

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

5 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Is anyone in Austin a member of the Aquanuts?  If so, how is it?  
 

I have two buddies that are certified, but getting them to dive anywhere that isn’t a flight to the Caribbean or further is like pulling teeth. Trying to get opinions on ways to get out for some weekend dives in texas. 

Have you done the training for Spring Lake? That's a nice free dive (it does have some required volunteer work per dive). I used to buddy up with my neighbor there until I moved south, he's always looking for a partner.

 

https://www.meadowscenter.txst.edu/

[Biff Tannen 45,767]

1 hour ago, rage-a-holic said:

Have you done the training for Spring Lake? That's a nice free dive (it does have some required volunteer work per dive). I used to buddy up with my neighbor there until I moved south, he's always looking for a partner.

 

https://www.meadowscenter.txst.edu/

Yeah, that's actually where I did my certifying dives.  

[rage-a-holic 4,548]

1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yeah, that's actually where I did my certifying dives.  

Did you do the training? It's a $285 course, required for independent dives. 

Had that discussion in Cozumel during a dive boat ride with a guy from Austin who thought because he got checked out there, he could dive there any time he wanted. Not true.

https://www.meadowscenter.txst.edu/Stewardship/Diving/AquaCorps/DiveAuthorizationCourse.html