This past week the family did two days of diving with Panama City Dive Center.
Executive Version:
Pros: Great staff. Great boat. Animated shop owner that was encouraging of us newbies. Would definitely go with them again.
Cons: Only one, a hodge-podge of octopuses/regulators and rental BCs that were well worn. My BC was held together with a weight belt because the original belt was broken. On Monday my octopus put the console on my right side with my two secondaries. This was forced because of the orientation required for the LP inflator hose. Not a deal breaker but it was noticeable. Because this was my first time at a "vacation" site, I have no idea what the norm for boat rental gear is expected to be.
Monday; Three tank inshore; Span 12, Red Sea, USS Strength; 2-3ft seas; 87F air temp; 80F at depth. Thursday; Two Tank inshore; Black Bart, Span 14; seas like a bathtub. Wonderful staff. Reef Runner is a nice boat. Loved the full shade on the back of the boat. Be prepared to ferry your tanks and rental gear from the shop to the marina. That surprised us. Maybe i missed it on the webpage. thankfully we had pickups. Bring your own snacks. They provide water and an ice chest with ice.
Longer version:
As documented in other threads my wife has struggled with anxiety. She fought it Monday. Combined with a fairly bad bout of seasickness, it kept her to one dive. Thankfully it was the dive with our best visibility and crazy amounts of wildlife, Bridge Span 12. We saw a Goliath Grouper, Toad fish, Starfish, Kupang Damsel (?), sea cucumbers, Barracuda, tons of other fish, amazing swirling bait balls. The absolute best part was that when we both signaled time to ascend, when we got to the ATM (we were moored just above the ATM) the wife punched in her PIN and acted exasperated that no cash came out. I loved seeing her so relaxed. Alas, at the safety stop she got nauseous and it never really relented.
The rest of the family dove Red Sea next. It was a fun dive. 50-ish feet of visibility. Another Goliath. Trigger fish! A neat tug. And easy for us newbies to navigate around and to be able to easily see into and through. Plenty of wildlife again.
The brother in law also fought nausea. So we were down to five family members for the dive on the USS Strength. 30-ish visibility. That boat is blown to smithereens! It was neat to see something that looked like real wreckage, and we saw a Goliath pair, but this was the least favorite of our dives. possibly because of the vis. As a father it also had me mildly cautious a few times watching the boys, as there are lots of things to get hung up on without ever penetrating the boat. The double Goliaths were cool. We also saw a Mantis Shrimp. Sea Cucumbers were prolific.
My wife talked about disappointing me by only making one dive. I talked with her and queried about how much was anxiety and how much was sea sickness. She acknowledged anxiety but said that she missed teh two dives because of the sea sickness. She reiterated that she wasn't done diving. At which point I told her that the only real answer to addressing anxiety caused by the unexpected, was to practice through the unknowns until more and more of them became "knowns." And with that she agreed to go out again on Thursday.
We researched and implemented a 24hour Dramamine regimen. That and the calm seas really did the trick. No sea sickness!!!!
Because of time constraints we went for a two tank dive this time. The seas were very calm. We had a lot of the same divers, outside of the family, on this trip that we had on Monday's. We had a different captain from Monday and he made sure to ask around and see what we had already seen. He got us to two new dives sites. And the wife had two really good dives. Her only issue was that she had planned to get in the water and get under the water as fast as possible. As her buddy it made me WORK to keep up.
We dove the Black Bart first. 45-ish visibility. Another neat boat. Several places to let my oldest son get "into" the boat without getting into overhead compartments. Saw another Goliath. A spade fish was different for us.
We finished the day at Span 14. At the safety stop the oldest and I saw two, huge to me, ramoras. The largest was probably 30 plus inches and it had a 20 plus inch one stuck to it. Another great dive for the wife. So happy to have ended the trip on a high note. She asked me to start thinking about a BC for her so that her equipment is similar each time. She felt like that would help with some of her tensions. All I heard her say was "I'm planning on doing this more, wanna help?" Ummm, yeah, as a matter of fact I do!
Executive Version:
Pros: Great staff. Great boat. Animated shop owner that was encouraging of us newbies. Would definitely go with them again.
Cons: Only one, a hodge-podge of octopuses/regulators and rental BCs that were well worn. My BC was held together with a weight belt because the original belt was broken. On Monday my octopus put the console on my right side with my two secondaries. This was forced because of the orientation required for the LP inflator hose. Not a deal breaker but it was noticeable. Because this was my first time at a "vacation" site, I have no idea what the norm for boat rental gear is expected to be.
Monday; Three tank inshore; Span 12, Red Sea, USS Strength; 2-3ft seas; 87F air temp; 80F at depth. Thursday; Two Tank inshore; Black Bart, Span 14; seas like a bathtub. Wonderful staff. Reef Runner is a nice boat. Loved the full shade on the back of the boat. Be prepared to ferry your tanks and rental gear from the shop to the marina. That surprised us. Maybe i missed it on the webpage. thankfully we had pickups. Bring your own snacks. They provide water and an ice chest with ice.
Longer version:
As documented in other threads my wife has struggled with anxiety. She fought it Monday. Combined with a fairly bad bout of seasickness, it kept her to one dive. Thankfully it was the dive with our best visibility and crazy amounts of wildlife, Bridge Span 12. We saw a Goliath Grouper, Toad fish, Starfish, Kupang Damsel (?), sea cucumbers, Barracuda, tons of other fish, amazing swirling bait balls. The absolute best part was that when we both signaled time to ascend, when we got to the ATM (we were moored just above the ATM) the wife punched in her PIN and acted exasperated that no cash came out. I loved seeing her so relaxed. Alas, at the safety stop she got nauseous and it never really relented.
The rest of the family dove Red Sea next. It was a fun dive. 50-ish feet of visibility. Another Goliath. Trigger fish! A neat tug. And easy for us newbies to navigate around and to be able to easily see into and through. Plenty of wildlife again.
The brother in law also fought nausea. So we were down to five family members for the dive on the USS Strength. 30-ish visibility. That boat is blown to smithereens! It was neat to see something that looked like real wreckage, and we saw a Goliath pair, but this was the least favorite of our dives. possibly because of the vis. As a father it also had me mildly cautious a few times watching the boys, as there are lots of things to get hung up on without ever penetrating the boat. The double Goliaths were cool. We also saw a Mantis Shrimp. Sea Cucumbers were prolific.
My wife talked about disappointing me by only making one dive. I talked with her and queried about how much was anxiety and how much was sea sickness. She acknowledged anxiety but said that she missed teh two dives because of the sea sickness. She reiterated that she wasn't done diving. At which point I told her that the only real answer to addressing anxiety caused by the unexpected, was to practice through the unknowns until more and more of them became "knowns." And with that she agreed to go out again on Thursday.
We researched and implemented a 24hour Dramamine regimen. That and the calm seas really did the trick. No sea sickness!!!!
Because of time constraints we went for a two tank dive this time. The seas were very calm. We had a lot of the same divers, outside of the family, on this trip that we had on Monday's. We had a different captain from Monday and he made sure to ask around and see what we had already seen. He got us to two new dives sites. And the wife had two really good dives. Her only issue was that she had planned to get in the water and get under the water as fast as possible. As her buddy it made me WORK to keep up.
We dove the Black Bart first. 45-ish visibility. Another neat boat. Several places to let my oldest son get "into" the boat without getting into overhead compartments. Saw another Goliath. A spade fish was different for us. We finished the day at Span 14. At the safety stop the oldest and I saw two, huge to me, ramoras. The largest was probably 30 plus inches and it had a 20 plus inch one stuck to it. Another great dive for the wife. So happy to have ended the trip on a high note. She asked me to start thinking about a BC for her so that her equipment is similar each time. She felt like that would help with some of her tensions. All I heard her say was "I'm planning on doing this more, wanna help?" Ummm, yeah, as a matter of fact I do!
