ScubaBoard SURGE 2017 Cayman Brac Trip Report
A few short weeks ago we wrapped up another wonderful Diving Social Event,
ScubaBoard SURGE 2017.Here’s my trip report.
Our Travel Agent
We (Cardzard and I) started the event planning by again choosing Bay Adventures for our travel agent. The ScubaBoard SURGE group ended up with a group of 66. Bay Adventures was there to take care of all the bookings for the group, answer questions, and assist with travel insurance and airfares. I must say that Al and Felix did an exceptional job which made our planning so much easier. All the SB members just love Al and Felix from Bay Adventures!
Our greatest travel related drama for the entire trip was due to an incident at the Cayman Brac Airport. They had a firetruck crash on the runway a week before. This incident caused all larger planes to be cancelled and rebooked to smaller planes. We can’t thank Al and Felix from Bay Adventures enough for helping everyone with this issue!
Our Resort
We chose the newly renovated Cayman Brac Beach Resort for our destination. Our transports were outside the airport waiting for us and once on property the resort Manager Trudy and her staff welcomed us with a smile. Our room was ready, clean and worked well as a home away from home for the week. We felt the rooms and property were well maintained and spacious. Our group of 66 Crew members had plenty of room to spread out. You could sit, swim and relax by the pool with others or if you chose to be more private, there was more than enough room to do so. We heard more than 1 crew member fell in love with the hammocks during the week and were planning to smuggle it home in their suitcases, lol. They even provided chairs outside of each room if you chose to relax there.
As always we could use an extra hook or 2 in the rooms for hanging up wet items to dry. They did however have a self-serve laundry mat on site near the rooms with an outside clothes line as well, how nice! A gym, Spa, Volley ball, tennis courts and bicycles were also available for use during the week.
The beautiful new bar was a fun and happening area though out the week to say the least. With our package we received 3 beverages per day, i.e. sodas, beer, cocktails. They provided the week drink card for each person when you check in. We do wish there was a better way than to try to keep track of one card for the week.
The food and serving staff were friendly and worked hard to take care of us. The food was good, plentiful, with nice variety and beautifully presented.
The resort also provided a spacious conference room for our welcome and farewell party. They even provided our CEO of ScubaBoard with a gorgeous cake for his 60thth birthday! The resort manager, Trudy and the rest of the Cayman Brac Beach Resort staff did an outstanding job of taking care of our group! We cannot thank them enough for all their efforts!!!!!!!!!
Our Dive Operator
Reef Divers Cayman Brac was our onsite hosts for diving. They worked with us in advance with information on the boats and preplanning. The 1st morning was a little rough loading the boats as to be expected, but everything went pretty smooth after that. We had 54 divers and they handled us efficiently boarding the boats. Reef Divers are known for their Valet Diving. Some of the SB Crew loved the valet diving and some did not. We personally didn’t care for it as we felt it took longer to get divers in and out of the water. Valet diving also meant that there was a DM in the water for half the dive. There is a captain and only 1 DM instead of 2 on each boat. They assist everyone into the water and then 1 of them joins the divers to lead the dive for a short amount of time those who wish to follow. Then they must get back onboard before the rest of the divers to assist them getting out of the water. Some of the Crew were frustrated on how the dives were lead and some were happy to go off on the own.
There had been a change in Reef Divers management and I don’t think the negotiated arrangements for the event were not communicated to all of the staff. The ScubaBoard SURGE and our vision of diving social is not your normal dive group, but most of the staff of Reef Divers took us in stride. Barb and BJ were some of the Crews favorite DM’s. Unfortunately, we did have some staff that complained not only to us, but to others in our group throughout the week that the special arrangements created stress and extra work for them. We felt this to be unprofessional.
Most of the dive sites were nice and the walls were absolutely beautiful. We did have some high winds at the beginning of our week which I think kept the larger animals we expected to see away. And some passed on the shallower afternoon dives dues to the winds and surge. We did especially love the 2 tank trip over to Little Cayman, just gorgeous!
Prize Sponsors
To all the wonderful ScubaBoard SURGE 2017 Prize Sponsors who donated around $10,000 in Prizes for the Crew to win, thank you again! Some prizes were simply raffled at the welcome and farewell parties and some were won in contests adding to the fun. We had prizes to give away like trips, gear, software and gift certificates. Check out the
SB SURGE 2017 Sponsor's Page to see all the generous donations and the lucky crew who won! What wonderful generosity and support from all of these great SURGE Sponsors. You Guys and Gals ROCK!!!
An enormous thank you to our special Guest Sponsor Jim Decker from
Backscatter.com! He not only brought Demo gear for the Crew to try, but shared his vast knowledge of underwater photography in afternoon workshops and critiques. I was the very 1st diver ever to use the GoPro Hero 5 with Backscatter Flip 5 filters, Macromate Mini +15, and Light & Motion Sola 2500 light set up. And I also tried out the Olympus TG-4 with single Olympus UFL-03 strobe. It was fun trying different cameras and setups out of my normal routine. We learned so much and really enjoyed Jim joining us!
In closing, Cardzard (Dennis) and I want to sincerely thank all the ScubaBoard Members, their Families and Friends who truly made this year’s SURGE such a success. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of people! Everyone joined together, enjoyed the sport we’re passionate about and made new friends. What great ScubaBoard camaraderie! All the laughs and memories are priceless! Check out all the fun in the event video made with all the Crews images from the week.
Favorite memories from the SB SURGE 2017
We’ll be heading to Roatan for the next
ScubaBoard Invasion 2017 and then off to Bonaire for next year’s SURGE and know we'll see some of you there! We love Diving Social and wouldn't want it any other way.
ScubaBoard’s infamous mascot
@Moonie has already confirmed he will attend.
When I needed a dive buddy Matt and Erin jumped right in and volunteered. 
