News
Caribbean Dive Operators collaborate to Launch Saba’s First Trimix Course
Located in the Northeast Caribbean, just 28 miles southwest of St. Martin, the small island of Saba is just the tip of an undersea volcano. With a land mass of only 5 square miles, you might think that not much happens there, but in actual fact, there’s lots happening in Saba – most of it underwater.
Beneath the surface, Saba is a labyrinth of lava flows, caverns, deep sea pinnacles, sea mounts and mind blowing wall dives. If you like big marine life, Saba has it. Hammerheads, whale sharks, mantas, eagle rays, turtles, eels, huge schools of fish, and much more. With so much great deep diving available, two local dive operators Octopus Diving and Saba Deep have decided to get together to run Saba’s first Trimix course.
Tony Waterfield of Saba Deep and Chris Davies of Octopus Diving and Caribbean Technical Diving first met when Tony hired Chris to service his scuba compressor. Tony was delighted to find out that not only was Chris a great compressor mechanic, he was also a certified IANTD Technical Diving Instructor. What cemented the partnership was that Chris is located on the nearby island of St. Martin, just a short 1 hour ferry ride away. As luck would have it, Tony was looking to do a Trimix course and Chris wanted to do a Trimix Instructor course.
To teach the course, Chris brought in his diving mentor Rich Stevenson of Diving Marine Solutions in the UK. Rich, a certified Trimix Instructor Trainer, also an accomplished underwater cameraman, has been quoted by CBS news program “60 Minutes” as being the “world’s most accomplished underwater cameraman”. Together they conducted Saba’s first Nomoxic Trimix Course. With private villa accommodations in the “Haiku House” provided by the Queen’s Garden Resort, not only was the course a great learning experience, it was great to experience some of the best accommodations and the finest cuisine that Saba has to offer. During the course both Chris and Tony soon discovered that Nomoxic Trimix is the idea gas for diving Saba’s plunging walls and deep coral pinnacles.
“The beauty of Nomoxic is that with 20% oxygen in the mix, there is enough oxygen to sustain divers on surface and due to its helium content, at 60 meters, Nomoxic has an END (equivalent narcosis depth) of only 36 meters where nitrogen narcosis isn’t a problem. Diving this gas will allow our customers to comfortably experience the deep walls and pinnacles of Saba and the deeper wrecks of Saint Martin,” says Chris Davies.
For further information on diving in Saba or St. Martin contact Octopus Diving at:
info@octopusdiving.com www.octopusdiving.com or phone +1-914-487-1315.
For a week at the end of February I was invited to sample the diving with Orca Dive Club based at the Breakers Diving and Surfing Lodge by courtesy of SOMABAY.
Somabay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds. Somabay caters for scuba diving as well as many other sports, including windsurfing, golf, sailing, go-carting, horse riding and many other activities.
All the activities are of a world-class standard and any or all of these can be booked directly from The Breakers.
I took Easyjet from Bristol (UK) to Hurghada. Easyjet are not by any means my favourite airline but the flight was cheap and direct (except for the surprise extra £48 I was charged at the gate for my carry-on bag).
I was met at Hurghada airport by a driver and car and taken to the Breakers 28 miles (45Kilomaters) south along the coast. Once at the hotel I was too late for an evening meal and so a basic meal was delivered to my room. That and a beer from the fridge and I was fast asleep.
Early the next morning after breakfast I arrived for my rep meeting at the Orca Dive Center for 8.00am. I was immediately made to feel welcome, and after brief introductions I got some dive gear from the store, had a chat with my dive guide Mohamed and got ready to try the house reef situated at the end of a very long wooded pier where all diving gear and divers are taken out by buggies.
Once at the end of the pier, a helping hand from staff makes sure your gear is set and then it’s a short walk to the very end where you can either climb down a ladder of simply jump in the water next to the reef. The house reef extends both north and south giving a very easy and safe dive with plenty to see. At this time of the year the water temperature was a constant 22 degrees Centigrade and there was little or no current, so there were no issues in swimming back to the pier.
Quite a few divers were in dry or semi-dry suits, but being from the UK and used to the cold I found a 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm neoprene vest quite comfortable. Even after 50 years of diving I still find that first dive of a trip slightly nerving until I am actually underwater and then all becomes relaxed and I ease into auto diving mode. There was plenty to see with many of the Red Sea favourites along the way.
After the dive and a buggy ride back to the hotel for a very good buffet lunch I was back in the water, once again on the house reef for an afternoon dive.
Check in for part 2 tomorrow when Jeff gets on a day boat and dives a few of the off-shore reefs.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
In an interview recorded exclusively for Scubaverse.com, Jeff Goodman interviews Jeremy Higson from Sea to Sky about the itineraries the tour operator offers in Oman.
For more information about diving in Oman, contact Sea to Sky now:
Email: hello@mysetaosky.co.uk
WhatsApp: + 39 379 236 7138
Website: www.myseatosky.co.uk
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