Oriskany Tech Trip Planning

[DiveTucson]

Tech Gurus of ScubaBoard. I am looking to put together a trip to the Oriskany in 2020 for a group from Arizona and Southern California.

Who should we dive with? They have to be able to support CCR and OC tech divers with gas, tank rentals, etc.

What is the best time of year for the diving?

Thanks in advance.

 

[broncobowsher]

Dove it last year. MTB was the shop. No booster, no sorb. But were willing to fill O2 to bottle pressure (2000 PSI-ish).

Boat was H2O below. Good boat, supports tech trips. Watch how you book it. You may end up with a single dive if it is a regular rec trip. You really need to book it as a tech boat if you want the day and a chance to double dip. Boat has a nice 500HP Cummins engine in it. When the captain cracks the throttle open, the boat moves. http://ussoriskanydiver.com/services/technical-divers/ Nine is a cool gal. Jumping off the side of the boat with a heavy chain in hand and tying off to the wreck.

But this was all before the hurricane blew through last summer. I've heard the area is really messed up and has had little recovery.

My only trip was blowing bubbles and deck limited with only AN/PB 150' rating. The island is OK. See it once, that's enough. But I know there is a lot more inside to see. The others that were on the boat going deep, long, and inside were bringing there own gasses with them. Not sure if there are any tech shops around. I don't remember any.

 

[MaxE]

Pensacola was not damaged by the hurricane. There was some minor changes to the upper structure of the wreck, I have not heard of more down deep but not sure. H2O below is a great outfit

 

[fish149]

I'll 2nd MTB dive shop and H2O below. That boat will get you out and back fast.

 

[BAMA6977]

FYI it’s MBT,(Maximum Bottom Time) rather than MTB. Take a look at Below 130 on Facebook. Contact him great guy and Wealth of info on Tech Diving around Pensacola, I.e. .Oriskany

 

[Billy Northrup]

get with Barry at 130 below, solid guy to plan a trip around or anything else really

 

[divezonescuba]

We did an Oriskany Trip in 2017.

One of the problems that we encountered is that two of the boats we booked trips thru sold the boat out from underneath us. In one case we had ten divers booked on the boat and another shop that had twenty took our place on our two previously scheduled and confirmed trips. In a second situation, we booked two six packs one with six and the other with four people. Again the boat with four people was sold out from underneath us.

The one boat that was sold out from under us twice, rescheduled us without out our knowledge nor permission to a time after we were scheduled to return back to Houston. The joke was on them since we did not dive with them at all, nor will in the future.

Fortunately, we were able to book the scuba shack vessel for our group of ten at the last minute and were able to complete the oriskany dive. The scuba shack vessel is larger and slower than the previously mentioned vessels, but we were not rushed so the boat could do another run that day, were fed lunch and ice cream, and had a super time.

On the other dive we used capt Ralph (can’t remember the company) and he secured the Viking charters boat for the rest of our group. Capt Ralph was a great guy and we would dive with him anytime. The people on the Viking boat were similarly pleased.

We wished we had checked trip advisor before hand as that would have provided us some warning to the possibility that this would happen as it has happened to other people before with some of these boats.