80 replies to this topic

[WreckWench]

Great trip!! Great people!!!
Thanks to all u'all for making my first SD Trip soo wonderful!!! (can't wait till next time)

Yesiree!!! And we'll see you over New Year's for sure...maybe even Curacoa in Nov!

[WreckWench]

Roatan was awesome! The shark & dolphin dives were definitely the highlight of the trip for me. It was great meeting everyone and diving with you all, or should I say y'all. I've got to go through my pictures and figure out how to post on this site and I will probably post the shark video I took on "youtube". Sisiq-- glad you made your flight. I had a couple of martinis while I waited for my departure which left & landed on time. Martinis are as effective as xanex which I did not know but will remember for other trips.
Anthony

Its not hard. Click on this link here.

1. Click on the far right tab/button that says NEW IMAGE.
2. It will open a dialog box where you enter the title of your picture and the same info in the box. (Note you must enter something in the subject line AND the dialog box.)
3. Choose to add the copywrite info if you like.
4. Then click on BROWSE button to locate the picture on your harddrive.
5. Then click on POST IMAGE button at the very bottom.
6. And you can choose to let you know if others make comments about your pictures. (This is optional!)

Its that simple. Simply do the same to load another picture!

[acas1207]

I went back out later Saturday night to check out the local scene. Brian and his testacles were playing again. I think that was the name of the band. They were good... they rocked. This was the same band that played the one night we all went out.

Mitch,

I think it's "Brion and the Genitals". He must have a hard time getting band mates with a name like that. It'd be an even tougher sell to find other bandmates to be "his testicles". I had wanted to go back to that spot the next night but I didn't want to miss the pig roast. Sounds like you had a good last day.

Anthony

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

OK, I haven't seen a lengthy trip report for Roatan, so I'll add a few details for all the new members who have never been on an SD trip. This was my first trip with SD and I didn't know what to expect, but I have to say that I had a great time! Everyone was friendly and more than helpful when needed. I met a lot of great people, laughed a lot, dived safely and made some new friends. Far exceeded my expectations, and I'm already looking to book my next SD trip.

Most of us arrived on Saturday, but with the rough seas we did not get a Saturday checkout dive done, so I snorkeled the house reef on Sat. afternoon. On Sunday, we were separated onto 3 boats and we did 3 dives each of the next 5 days, with some of us doing 2 more dives on Friday morning. Some were drift dives and others were moored dives, but all of them were fun. We were allowed to dive our computer profiles, which is not usual with a typical boat group. I was lucky enough to dive with all 3 boats during the week, so I got to dive with just about everybody - thanks, everyone! The waters are extremely warm and the coral is suffering from that, with some bleaching and algae growth, and careless divers do some damage too. But, there was a wide variety of corals, both hard and soft. Some dive spots had more sea life than others, but in general there was less fish than other locations I have dived (what Caribbean site can compare to the vast quantity of sea life in Bonaire??) I have posted a few pictures, but hope the folks who have better camera gear post some for you to see.

We had breakfast before we headed out for 2 dives each morning, returning to the resort for lunch before heading out for the afternoon dive. Some took advantage of the optional 4th "drop off" dive at the house reef. There was 1 night dive and we saw several very large crabs out on the hunt, many lobster and an octopus too. I will let someone else talk about the shark dive, as I did not go on that one. The dolphin dive was very cool, we were down nearly an hour on that dive, watching/touching/petting the dolphins. There was a videographer on the dive, and many of us purchased the DVD of our group dive. Both SusiQ and I had our 100th dive on this trip, and we each buddied up with Kamala. I ended up slightly behind SusiQ on the dive count, as I fought with mal-de-mer the first 2 days until Stan aka Scubaski came to my rescue with some effective meds. So, we did not have the same dive as our 100th as we hoped to. After the afternoon dive, we did our own thing until dinner. Monday afternoon many of us went to town to scrounge for costumes and souvenirs, and/or adult beverages.... The costume contest was fun, and Starfish and I won. I'm sure someone will post the incriminating photos.... The fund raising crab races held on Thursday night almost started an internation incident, with ScubaKen from Canada and Knighthawk from Oklahoma mixing it up in a "Canada vs. USA" side bet, which helped raise a bunch of money for the kids of Roatan. Don't know what the Canuck was feeding his crabs before the races, but he smoked the USA crabs. We want a re-match! SD now holds the crab race distinction of holding the #1 and #2 spots for "most raised funds" - kudos to Kamala, who really works hard to open our hearts & wallets for the kids. Friday afternoon was the zip line at Gumbalimba, which was an absolute blast for most of us. Friday evening, while Cam and Kamala were at the airport working on the TACA issue, some kids came to play the steel pan drums for us, and 6 of us were "volunteered" to learn a short song, and we played for everybody. I really don't know how that sounded to the audience, but I enjoyed playing!

All in all, a fun trip with many fun people, with some quality diving thrown in. What more can you ask for?

[ev780]

So the gear is rehabed and ready for the next trip. Cozumel in December if you must know.

Anyway Tammy about covered it but I will add my grades.

BIBR overall -- B
Kind of a quaint place all in all. I was in an offsite condo that was very nice except for the little water situation.

Food -- C-
Breakfast was OK. Lunch grill and the salad and beans and rice were OK. Dinner was always an adventure. I recommend skipping the shrimp night. Several of us were not quite right after that.

Food Staff -- A

Dive Staff-- A

Diving-- B
I had built it up a little in my mind and it was not quite there. Turtles, eels, seahorses. But the fish life is just coming back. Small stuff was hard to find. I would say good not great.

Crab Races and Pig Roast -- A+
Go Canada!!! I may be American but I knew Ken had talent. Thanks for covering my bets!!!! Oh Canada...... $1600 bucks in one night!!! Outstanding. I asked Cam what a normal night was and she said "Oh about $250." We did six weeks in one night!!!

Cam and her huge Heart -- A+

Single Divers -- A+
Great comraderie, good fun and some great new friends. I will see you all soon.

I will try and get a couple photos uploaded although I had a bad photo trip. Gotta love digital. Delete regroup.

Fred

Edited by ev780, 09 September 2008 - 09:21 PM.

[uwfan]

Crab Races and Pig Roast -- A+
Go Canada!!! I may be American but I knew Ken had talent. Thanks for covering my bets!!!! Oh Canada...... $1600 buck in one night!!! Outstanding. I asked Cam what a normal night was and she said "Oh about $250." We did six weeks in one night!!!

As someone who works with kids on a day to day basis....I have to say BIG KUDOS to the group!!! Those dollars will go a LONG way and mean a great deal in the lives of some youngsters! YOU ALL ROCK!!!

[ev780]

I managed to get a few of my better photos uploaded. Let me know what you think. Not my best work but I was a little impatient this trip for some reason.

Fred

[WreckWench]

OK, I haven't seen a lengthy trip report for Roatan, so I'll add a few details for all the new members who have never been on an SD trip.

At first I was afraid you had NOT gotten the memo that YOU were nominated to write the long trip report...but then I realized you had when you wrote that AWESOME dive report!

[WreckWench]

I managed to get a few of my better photos uploaded. Let me know what you think. Not my best work but I was a little impatient this trip for some reason.

Fred

Thank you Fred! Impatient or not...you were...er...I mean 'they' are great!

Check them out HERE!

[WreckWench]

Looks good to me....

Feather Duster by ev780

[WreckWench]

Cool shot of the wreck...ev780!!!

[WreckWench]

Great turtle shot ev780!

[WreckWench]

Ok one more...then you can check the rest out yourself... Thank you AGAIN ev780! Great shot of the seahorse!

[WreckWench]

Hey Tammy aka Landlocked Dive Nut....I'm soooooooooooooooooo glad this was NOT my butt!