The Fling cancels all(most) June trips to Flower Gardens

[rakpix]

I get three phone calls per day to go to the Spill, from various contractors. Mel and I chose to honor our commitment to divers, although we have made a different choice in the past, so I fully understand where the Fling is coming from.

It is interesting watching this thread. As I said this morning, we had a shop drop a bunch of spots this morning for a July trip. We are supporting divers by continuing to offer trips right up until NOAA, USCG, or NPS closes our areas to diving. Divers are not honoring their reservations. Makes this whole thread a little one sided.

well, i'm going to 'honor my reservation' with the fling until the last minute. july 12th. if i hear otherwise before then, i'll just putz around the murky depths of lake travis that weekend. if not, i will be ever so gracious the operators have 'honored' theirs. first trip to the flower gardens and all. but my fear is that i'll get a notification sometime around july 8th saying "yeah, sorry about that ... we're going to keep on doing what we've been doing ... indefinetly ... and you can go pound sand "

i can see the headlines now in the chronicle: "deranged diver hijacks containership for one-man-liveaboard cruise. port of houston closed until further notice."

 

[Nurseshark01]

Frank one different question. You still have a couple charters scheduled in the FG at the end of July for Coral spawning and weekend trips. Do you feel those will be a go for you . I have several divers (and of course MEMEMEME) interested in going but are afraid to jump in due to the gulf oil crapola.
Karen

 

[rakpix]

at least they let me know a month before my trip. those poor bastards scheduled in june have no time to arrange another dive elsewhere. this wouldn't be such a problem if there wasn't a monopoly on the flower garden banks, i agree. but what really irks me that the operators have the gall to spin this!!! you are accepting a contract for non-dive work. its your boat. you're going where the money is. its a free (dare i say 'liquid') market, so have fun ...


please don't come back ...


i'm going to wait until there is a committed dive op in the area, who has a more solid business model before i even begin to think about making this trip. i'm going to try and hit the clipper that weekend instead. perhaps american diving will one day have the resources and wherewithal to open up 1-2 day trips to the reef in a few years. until then, the flower garden banks live only in my imagination: the mv fling HAS PERMANENTLY LOST ONE MORE CUSTOMER.

 

[blueeyes_austin]

Very, very poor showing on the part of the owners of the Fling. Abrogating a contract to make more money elsewhere is really bad form and will cast a pall over their business for a long time.

Perhaps the trips have been so close to the edge in profitability they are just going to cash out due to the oil spill and then end their FG charters.

 

[paulw]

Fling Charters son of a ...

Wait... Wait.... Take a deep breath and hold it... Now let it out slowly............
There now it will be all right

 

[rakpix]

Wait... Wait.... Take a deep breath and hold it... Now let it out slowly............
There now it will be all right

paulw, you're forgetting the other half of capitalism: "WE ARE MARKET FORCES." the problem here, is i can't call up another dive operator and ask how much to board their next liveaboard trip to the banks. i can't pay ANYONE a premium price to insure i visit the flower gardens (which was the main driving force behind ALL my effort this year to train, get rescue / nitrox certified, and rack up saltwater experience) no matter how much ca$h i am willing to throw down for the experience!

in a healthy market, the fling's cold feet would be a huge financial boom for its competitors: THE FLING HAS NO COMPETITORS HOWEVER. so its move does nothing but wash 50-100 people's money down the drain! those dollars will never impact the Texas dive economy. Perhaps never the Texas economy as a whole, as people look outside the state for ANY coral reefs worth diving. Perhaps not the US economy as people look for last minute deals in Cozumel / Roatan / ABC.

Or many will simply putz around the lakes of Texas (beautiful as they are ... i think ... its kinda hard to see.) wasting those yummy, yummy dollars on ... electric bills ... as we collectivley Proof in the hot, steamy oven that is a Texas July X_X

 

[ReefHound]

The Spree is coming here for some charters in September and there seem to be some spots left...

 

[scubafanatic]

The Spree is coming here for some charters in September and there seem to be some spots left...

...much as that might be appreciated, Sept is the historical peak hurricane month, and the last time I scheduled a Labor Day Trip ( 2008 ) it was blown out by a hurricane, moreover, having gone to FG many times, I always personally considered Labor Day to be the realistic end of the diving season in FG, as the weather goes rapidly downhill right after Labor Day. I suspect SPREE is at FG for that brief window of time mainly because the probablility of a hurricance is even higher in Dry Tortugas in Sept than it is in FG, which isn't much to rely upon...it's hard to get too excited about scheduling a dive trip in FG in Sept when such a trip would suck slightly less than a Dry Tortugas Sept trip.....the lesser (slightly) of two evils.
...not wanting this to come across as negative, I just have to be honest here about the historical track record here....kinda like trying to schedule a springtime FG trip, great if you can manage it, but the odds are pretty low of the trip actually going.

 

[rakpix]

...much as that might be appreciated, Sept is the historical peak hurricane month, and the last time I scheduled a Labor Day Trip ( 2008 ) it was blown out by a hurricane, moreover, having gone to FG many times, I always personally considered Labor Day to be the realistic end of the diving season in FG, as the weather goes rapidly downhill right after Labor Day. I suspect SPREE is at FG for that brief window of time mainly because the probablility of a hurricance is even higher in Dry Tortugas in Sept than it is in FG, which isn't much to rely upon...it's hard to get too excited about scheduling a dive trip in FG in Sept when such a trip would suck slightly less than a Dry Tortugas Sept trip.....the lesser (slightly) of two evils.
...not wanting this to come across as negative, I just have to be honest here about the historical track record here....kinda like trying to schedule a springtime FG trip, great if you can manage it, but the odds are pretty low of the trip actually going.

better than the odds the fling will restart by then, if ever.

 

[FloridaScubaNews]

It has been interesting reading this entire thread. To me, most of the comments are made on conjecture and suppositions, rather than fact. You assume the Fling abandoned their customers chasing more money, but you don't know that for a fact. You don't even know if they will get paid for the work they will be doing, or when they will get paid. You assume they abandoned their customers, but perhaps they are helping on your behalf to try and preserve an area so close to their heart and yours. Are you volunteering to help on your vacation? Or helping in any way? This is a massive ecological catastrophe that demands massive immediate help. All the speculating on their motives for helping with the disaster should be put on hold until a discussion can include the interested parties. Until then, divers should applaud their efforts to help and appreciate their sacrifices--can't you sacrifice one trip with a little compassion for the work that needs to be done. Perhaps their passion for helping cleanup such a catastrophe is driven more by their core values--now I am speculating based on how I would make such a decision. They may have considered long-term vs. short-term business, you just don't know, but reading how compassionate these people are, I suppose they probably thought divers would have more patience and compassion because of the work they would be doing for the greater good. I also respect Wookie's position and decisions. He did an admirable job explaining why he made those decisions and provided all of us with a better understanding of the demands on the liveaboard business and why all divers should be more supportive if you want them to continue. In diving, as in life, you should always have a plan B so you won't be so disappointed if A falls apart--there are just too many variables that affect boat diving despite how much long-term planning you may do. While I am on my soap box, I can't help mentioning if you have Florida diving as your plan B, you won't be disappointed because you can more easily shift your plans even at the last minute. Florida has so many options from the Vandenburg to the Oriskany, the Bibb or Duane, the fabulous Florida East Coast from Jax to Miami, plus all the great inland dive spots like Blue Grotto and Devils Den--there are way too many to list here--but you can be sure you can dive somewhere great on plan B. We all need to be more cognizant of the need to support USA businesses whenever possible, don't be so quick to head to Cozumel or the Carribbean, give the airlines the finger and drive to Florida to dive. Spend your money where it may keep your friends employed to provide you a lifetime of adventurous diving. Florida has it all--from great artificial reefs, fossil diving, lobster chasing, spearfishing, great photo ops, river cruising, historical diving, underwater trails, camping and diving, kayaking and diving, lots of cave and technical diving, wreck diving or exploring close inshore reefs, tanks and airplanes or diving with manatees to name just a few. You can see making a plan B is a whole lot easier in Florida. To assist you with your plan B, check out our new dive guide (that is a work in progress) at Give the Airlines the Finger. Drive and Dive Florida Instead. | Florida Scuba News | Your Source for Diving News and Information on the World's Number One Dive Destination. I applaude all the boat captains for the hard work they do on behalf of all divers, whether it is assisting in emergencies or catastrophic oil spills or just assisting YOU.