Good evening.
After spending the last six weeks traveling I'm finally back to give the report I promised some new friends out in Vegas. (My humble apologies to Dave and Jerry as I had a number of items vying for my time since I got back in town.)
While Vegas is a nice place to visit the first few times, after the novelty of it wears off and "you" have seen the all the shows that have any interest, I was looking for something new to do this time around.
I posted a question "way back when" about diving options in Vegas and have to admit, I was starting to think that I was about to embark on a rather lengthy surface interval. I wasn't coming up with anything that was workable as far as diving was concerned.
I was referred to International Scuba Center (702-566-9898).
After checking their website and getting a phone number I called them to introduce myself, ended up talking with a guy named Dave. After introducing myself and asking what they had available for a hopeless addict I was pleased to hear that they did, indeed, run "charters" on Lake Mead during the week. I am immediately looking forward to Vegas now. After the initial introduction on the phone, I thought to myself, well, Dave sounds like a pretty nice guy and couple that with the fact that I didn't need to hang out on "the strip" once again or watch the shows for the umpteenth time brought a wave of enthusiasm to me.
I called Dave several times to confirm that we were "still on " for our dives on a Thursday and Friday and he indicated that "yes we were still playing on diving on Thursday and that we'd see how Friday was going to unfold. Music to my ears....
The day comes around, clients are happy so I'm off to meet some new friends. Drop the top on the convertible and smile in the anticipation of the days events. I arrive at International Scuba a few minutes later than anticipate (wasn't looking for the larger than life dive flag on the garage) and signed the necessary paperwork and I was off to Lake Mead, a very nice 20 minute or so drive. It was around 85 degrees in Vegas in the middle of winter back in Indiana it is low teen temps, this is nice. This was my first visit to Lake Mead and for someone that is from Indiana and when traveling to Vegas only sees "the strip" this was a great way to chalk up new experiences. Lake Mead is beautiful and the drive to get to the marina is very nice. The winding road and the sun-drenched rock formations, it sure beats the cornfields and flat lands back home.
Finally get to the Marina as Steve is loading up the boat. Looks like I'm diving with a few other people today from Michigan (howdy neighbors). Do the usual "meet and greets" and get the initial intro's out of the way. Hmmmm I think to myself, this should be interesting as the people I'm now diving with aren't regular divers. Oh well, let's have a good time and make sure everyone has a safe dive.
We head out and dive ... had to look it up in my log, thought I had the name of it but I didn't write it down...a houseboat. It apparently was someone famous, partied a little too hard one night and ended up sinking it. From someone who dives Gilboa or a similar quarry on a weekly basis, I thought the dive itself was fairly basic, which wasn't bad, heh I'm wet and it beat the alternative. Since I was diving with new people and buddied up with an individual I only just met it gave me a chance to take a mental note on "my buddy". It was a shallower type dive ( looks like the deepest on that is 63').
We drop down on the houseboat and "my buddy" is doing his rendition of Jeff Gordon around the houseboat. I keep up with him for the first few laps around it then I have a change of heart. I'm out here to have fun not to race some guy around a sunken boat. I stop and take position over the top of the boat so that I can watch "my buddy" burn his air supply. I take a position about 10' higher in the water column in case he gets into trouble. I figure he wouldn't know I was even gone as during the initial laps he didn't seem too concerned about me as he didn't even look back or to his side even once to see if I was even still there. Based on his lack of buddy awareness skills I figured I'd sit back and watch the race. NASCAR fans eat your heart out. I look back and there is Steve, our Boat Captain. I look at him,point to my so called buddy and give the proverbial " got's me?" signal with both palms turned up and shrugged shoulders. I then notice "my buddy" go inside the boat. I wait a few seconds, don't see him exit ( from my birds-eye vantage point I can see the entire boat)...wait a few more seconds...still no "buddy" so I leave my chit chat I'm having with Steve and we drop down to one of the boat openings. Knowing that it is only a houseboat, how much trouble could someone get into;however, when I didn't see him exit and he had no light, well, curiosity got the better of us.
I go into the boat with light on anticipating that I will soon be breathing off my bungeed necklace as this guy is no where to be found on the outside of the boat and there's not that much to see on the inside, so what's going on? Steve goes to the other side trying to find him. I go inside, light shinning,left,right,up, down, no "buddy" hmmm??? I go in a little futher, so no one??? (Glad I learned how to do the backwards kick in my DIR/F class) I'm confused now.?. he wasn't on the outside, he wasn't on the inside? was he swept off by a non-existing current and carried thru Hoover Dam? How will this look on my dive log? will anyone want to dive with me again since my "buddy" went MIA and there was no evidence of the body? Lance Burton has nothing on this guy, he just vanished! Well, we are in the magic capital of the world....
Eventhough I could have some fun with the drama, I find out that, as suspected, my "buddy" burned up his air supply and headed topside to the boat. Must have went up while Steve and I were looking for him. Nice buddy skills there... Not once did he acknowledge my presence when we entered the water nor when he decided to exit. Steve, I felt sorry for the guy, as he had about as easy as a job keeping the other three divers together as any of us would have herding a bunch of cats. Steve goes to check on the other two divers and I signal to him that I'm doing my stops and "I'll hook up with you in a few minutes". The log indicates the dive time was 31 minutes at a max depth of 63, realistically the bulk of it was at 53-55'. Darn I have way too much air in my tank to be getting out of the water. Oh well, it could be worse, I could be in one of the casino's.
We pull up anchor and head over to the "Batch plant". This is where the various mixtures of concrete were mixed when Hoover Dam was constructed. As we head over Steve indicates that Jerry's wife has made us lunch. (Jerry is the owner of the shop). This is good, another check in the mental "plus" column for International Scuba Center. We arrive at the Batch Plant and I ask Steve if it is alright if I solo this next dive. I have a number of solo dives and feel comfortable engaging in them. Steve agrees and surprises me by allowing me the use of one of his scooter. Another "plus" for International Scuba.
We do the Batch Plant and while practicing various drills (always try to get in some practice on every dive) I notice one of the other divers go under the batch plant wall to deeper water. I notice Steve chasing the guy and I think, well I have a scooter (Steve's) if there is "an issue" I can get to this diver sooner and get him back much faster. Steve is trailing the guy, I go over the wall, keeping a birds eye view of the situation, about 8' or so from Steve and this rogue diver. Steve catches him in water maybe 50'-60', not a lot but the vis was real bad and this diver had no business being away from "his buddy" in a new environment heading off to who knows where? (I hope they tipped Steve at the end of the day as he earned his wages that day). Again, thankfully nothing happened but if it did I had Steve's scooter and my 7' hose ready to deploy is needed, plus Steve knew I was watching in case he needed something quick.
These guys from Michigan were incredible!!! Did they learn nothing in their basic OW class? I handed off the scooter to Steve and they go back into the Batch Plant and that is the last I see them until I go topside again.
Knowing that I don't have to be an extra set of (self-appointed) eyes for Steve I can enjoy the dive. Steve has quite the knowledge foundation and I don't want to give the impression that he couldn't handled any situation that may have arisen, because he was more than skilled, I just thought since my "buddy" wasn't concerned for my whereabouts, I'd be an extra set of eyes for Steve. Who knew what these three were going to do???
I burn up my tank, get topside and the Michigan folks are taking a nap. Dive time 63 minutes, 36' depth.
Side note: I indicate "Michigan" throughout this report not to impune Michigan divers, it is more a genric label I have given them to protect the names of the divers I was with.
I find out a good friend of mine is flying out to meet me and to do some diving on Friday... cool I get to dive another day.
We head out to " Wishing Well" which takes quite a while to get there and is back in a protected cove. This is going to be neat! We drop down and get a max depth of 70'. Very impressive rock formations and the vis is great since it is protected by tall rock formations on three sides.
Since this report is bordering on no longer being succinct I'm going to paint some broad pictures for the rest. Email me for specifics if you are heading out to Vegas looking for a place to dive.
We get in another dive that day and overall had a great time.
What impressed me the most was the attitudes of the people I met at the shop. Dave,Steve and then Jerry. I also met one other guy in the shop that I believe was going to be one of their instructors but I forget his name, forgive me. These guys know what "customer service" is all about. They took real good care of me and my friend that flew out to meet me. Jerry even took it upon himself to get an issue resolved regarding my friends c-card. Local shop never sent in his info and has since been put on PADI's suspended list. Anyway, I made a mental note of that, and yep, they get yet another check mark in the plus column. They even took some time to wrap my long hose and bungee necklace with a blue hose wrap. ( One of my DIR/F instructors had them and I thought they looked slick...plus I wanted to adhere to rule #2 about how good you look in the water) After some friendly jabs about my gear configuration and upon leaving, I felt a sense of mutual respect, I can honestly state that I will be back to patronize their shop many more times.
If you are in Vegas looking for some place to go diving with, International Scuba in Henderson (just outside of Vegas) is THE PLACE to talk to first!
Best Regards
Don
After spending the last six weeks traveling I'm finally back to give the report I promised some new friends out in Vegas. (My humble apologies to Dave and Jerry as I had a number of items vying for my time since I got back in town.)
While Vegas is a nice place to visit the first few times, after the novelty of it wears off and "you" have seen the all the shows that have any interest, I was looking for something new to do this time around.
I posted a question "way back when" about diving options in Vegas and have to admit, I was starting to think that I was about to embark on a rather lengthy surface interval. I wasn't coming up with anything that was workable as far as diving was concerned.
I was referred to International Scuba Center (702-566-9898).
After checking their website and getting a phone number I called them to introduce myself, ended up talking with a guy named Dave. After introducing myself and asking what they had available for a hopeless addict I was pleased to hear that they did, indeed, run "charters" on Lake Mead during the week. I am immediately looking forward to Vegas now. After the initial introduction on the phone, I thought to myself, well, Dave sounds like a pretty nice guy and couple that with the fact that I didn't need to hang out on "the strip" once again or watch the shows for the umpteenth time brought a wave of enthusiasm to me.
I called Dave several times to confirm that we were "still on " for our dives on a Thursday and Friday and he indicated that "yes we were still playing on diving on Thursday and that we'd see how Friday was going to unfold. Music to my ears....
The day comes around, clients are happy so I'm off to meet some new friends. Drop the top on the convertible and smile in the anticipation of the days events. I arrive at International Scuba a few minutes later than anticipate (wasn't looking for the larger than life dive flag on the garage) and signed the necessary paperwork and I was off to Lake Mead, a very nice 20 minute or so drive. It was around 85 degrees in Vegas in the middle of winter back in Indiana it is low teen temps, this is nice. This was my first visit to Lake Mead and for someone that is from Indiana and when traveling to Vegas only sees "the strip" this was a great way to chalk up new experiences. Lake Mead is beautiful and the drive to get to the marina is very nice. The winding road and the sun-drenched rock formations, it sure beats the cornfields and flat lands back home.
Finally get to the Marina as Steve is loading up the boat. Looks like I'm diving with a few other people today from Michigan (howdy neighbors). Do the usual "meet and greets" and get the initial intro's out of the way. Hmmmm I think to myself, this should be interesting as the people I'm now diving with aren't regular divers. Oh well, let's have a good time and make sure everyone has a safe dive.
We head out and dive ... had to look it up in my log, thought I had the name of it but I didn't write it down...a houseboat. It apparently was someone famous, partied a little too hard one night and ended up sinking it. From someone who dives Gilboa or a similar quarry on a weekly basis, I thought the dive itself was fairly basic, which wasn't bad, heh I'm wet and it beat the alternative. Since I was diving with new people and buddied up with an individual I only just met it gave me a chance to take a mental note on "my buddy". It was a shallower type dive ( looks like the deepest on that is 63').
We drop down on the houseboat and "my buddy" is doing his rendition of Jeff Gordon around the houseboat. I keep up with him for the first few laps around it then I have a change of heart. I'm out here to have fun not to race some guy around a sunken boat. I stop and take position over the top of the boat so that I can watch "my buddy" burn his air supply. I take a position about 10' higher in the water column in case he gets into trouble. I figure he wouldn't know I was even gone as during the initial laps he didn't seem too concerned about me as he didn't even look back or to his side even once to see if I was even still there. Based on his lack of buddy awareness skills I figured I'd sit back and watch the race. NASCAR fans eat your heart out. I look back and there is Steve, our Boat Captain. I look at him,point to my so called buddy and give the proverbial " got's me?" signal with both palms turned up and shrugged shoulders. I then notice "my buddy" go inside the boat. I wait a few seconds, don't see him exit ( from my birds-eye vantage point I can see the entire boat)...wait a few more seconds...still no "buddy" so I leave my chit chat I'm having with Steve and we drop down to one of the boat openings. Knowing that it is only a houseboat, how much trouble could someone get into;however, when I didn't see him exit and he had no light, well, curiosity got the better of us.
I go into the boat with light on anticipating that I will soon be breathing off my bungeed necklace as this guy is no where to be found on the outside of the boat and there's not that much to see on the inside, so what's going on? Steve goes to the other side trying to find him. I go inside, light shinning,left,right,up, down, no "buddy" hmmm??? I go in a little futher, so no one??? (Glad I learned how to do the backwards kick in my DIR/F class) I'm confused now.?. he wasn't on the outside, he wasn't on the inside? was he swept off by a non-existing current and carried thru Hoover Dam? How will this look on my dive log? will anyone want to dive with me again since my "buddy" went MIA and there was no evidence of the body? Lance Burton has nothing on this guy, he just vanished! Well, we are in the magic capital of the world....
Eventhough I could have some fun with the drama, I find out that, as suspected, my "buddy" burned up his air supply and headed topside to the boat. Must have went up while Steve and I were looking for him. Nice buddy skills there... Not once did he acknowledge my presence when we entered the water nor when he decided to exit. Steve, I felt sorry for the guy, as he had about as easy as a job keeping the other three divers together as any of us would have herding a bunch of cats. Steve goes to check on the other two divers and I signal to him that I'm doing my stops and "I'll hook up with you in a few minutes". The log indicates the dive time was 31 minutes at a max depth of 63, realistically the bulk of it was at 53-55'. Darn I have way too much air in my tank to be getting out of the water. Oh well, it could be worse, I could be in one of the casino's.
We pull up anchor and head over to the "Batch plant". This is where the various mixtures of concrete were mixed when Hoover Dam was constructed. As we head over Steve indicates that Jerry's wife has made us lunch. (Jerry is the owner of the shop). This is good, another check in the mental "plus" column for International Scuba Center. We arrive at the Batch Plant and I ask Steve if it is alright if I solo this next dive. I have a number of solo dives and feel comfortable engaging in them. Steve agrees and surprises me by allowing me the use of one of his scooter. Another "plus" for International Scuba.
We do the Batch Plant and while practicing various drills (always try to get in some practice on every dive) I notice one of the other divers go under the batch plant wall to deeper water. I notice Steve chasing the guy and I think, well I have a scooter (Steve's) if there is "an issue" I can get to this diver sooner and get him back much faster. Steve is trailing the guy, I go over the wall, keeping a birds eye view of the situation, about 8' or so from Steve and this rogue diver. Steve catches him in water maybe 50'-60', not a lot but the vis was real bad and this diver had no business being away from "his buddy" in a new environment heading off to who knows where? (I hope they tipped Steve at the end of the day as he earned his wages that day). Again, thankfully nothing happened but if it did I had Steve's scooter and my 7' hose ready to deploy is needed, plus Steve knew I was watching in case he needed something quick.
These guys from Michigan were incredible!!! Did they learn nothing in their basic OW class? I handed off the scooter to Steve and they go back into the Batch Plant and that is the last I see them until I go topside again.
Knowing that I don't have to be an extra set of (self-appointed) eyes for Steve I can enjoy the dive. Steve has quite the knowledge foundation and I don't want to give the impression that he couldn't handled any situation that may have arisen, because he was more than skilled, I just thought since my "buddy" wasn't concerned for my whereabouts, I'd be an extra set of eyes for Steve. Who knew what these three were going to do???
I burn up my tank, get topside and the Michigan folks are taking a nap. Dive time 63 minutes, 36' depth.
Side note: I indicate "Michigan" throughout this report not to impune Michigan divers, it is more a genric label I have given them to protect the names of the divers I was with.
I find out a good friend of mine is flying out to meet me and to do some diving on Friday... cool I get to dive another day.
We head out to " Wishing Well" which takes quite a while to get there and is back in a protected cove. This is going to be neat! We drop down and get a max depth of 70'. Very impressive rock formations and the vis is great since it is protected by tall rock formations on three sides.
Since this report is bordering on no longer being succinct I'm going to paint some broad pictures for the rest. Email me for specifics if you are heading out to Vegas looking for a place to dive.
We get in another dive that day and overall had a great time.
What impressed me the most was the attitudes of the people I met at the shop. Dave,Steve and then Jerry. I also met one other guy in the shop that I believe was going to be one of their instructors but I forget his name, forgive me. These guys know what "customer service" is all about. They took real good care of me and my friend that flew out to meet me. Jerry even took it upon himself to get an issue resolved regarding my friends c-card. Local shop never sent in his info and has since been put on PADI's suspended list. Anyway, I made a mental note of that, and yep, they get yet another check mark in the plus column. They even took some time to wrap my long hose and bungee necklace with a blue hose wrap. ( One of my DIR/F instructors had them and I thought they looked slick...plus I wanted to adhere to rule #2 about how good you look in the water) After some friendly jabs about my gear configuration and upon leaving, I felt a sense of mutual respect, I can honestly state that I will be back to patronize their shop many more times.
If you are in Vegas looking for some place to go diving with, International Scuba in Henderson (just outside of Vegas) is THE PLACE to talk to first!
Best Regards
Don
I have to admit, you are a really good guy to dive with. Yeah, had a great time regardless of the other divers. Heck, after the first few minutes I figured I might as well hang out with Steve and just watch the antics going on. 
