Nitrox and Refreshing! UPDATED

If you haven't been in the water in a while, you'll need to get some diving in so the trip is more fun... so why not do it now?

We have 2 trips coming up... and I can teach you Nitrox at the same time! How do you like them Apples?

This week: Sand Dollar to Catalina $115 + Nitrox SOLD OUT
You'll get three dives at Catalina, all your meals (and they feed you a lot!), air fills, tanks and weights. I'm bringing the DPVs as well, so you can play with those. If you want to get in the water before the trip this is probably your best option. Plus, I'll teach the Nitrox class... on the boat! (I'm also doing Advanced Open Water, if you still need that.)

Next week: Island Time to Catalina $95 + Nitrox
The Island Time is a nice half day trip to Catalina. You get snacks and sandwiches, two dives, tanks, and air fills for $95. The boat gets back to the harbor around 1:00 or 1:30 and I'll be teaching a Nitrox class there in Long Beach right when we get back.

Both trips are selling out, so if you are interested, please let me know as soon as possible.

UPDATE: We will probably be adding another boat next week, I'll let you know. If we don't, I can do a shore dive with you as well.

UPDATED AGAIN: We added more spots, so get on this Sunday boat on April 6!!!

Luggage Goodies

You'll want to check out the Philippine Airlines information about baggage. Parts of it may seem confusing. For example, there is a part about charging a fee for sports equipment including SCUBA equipment. Fear not! As long as your gear bag is one of your two checked bags within the limit, you'll not be charged for the contents. The excess baggage fee only counts towards bags over and above the checked baggage limit.

Your gear bag may exceed the linear restrictions a little. While it's not airline policy, it's not likely that a few inches will push you over the edge. They don't make a habit of taking out a tape measure. However, they will definately weigh your bags. Do not exceed the weight restrictions or you'll be charged.

Liability Release

All divers must also complete and return by fax the Atlantis Resorts liability release you see below. The fax number is (310) 398-5769.

Read this doc on Scribd: Atlantis Diving Liability Release

Resort Check-In Form

If you have not yet completed this check-in form and faxed it back to Brian, please do so as soon as possible. The fax number is (310) 398-5769.

Read this doc on Scribd: Check-In-Form

Equipment Packages

Do you own your own SCUBA equipment? Or were you planning on renting for the trip? I can't stress enough the benefits of diving in your own gear. It's not too late to pick up equipment before the trip and get a day in the pool to acclimate to the gear and get a free refresher.

If you need to rent, you can do so from Eco Dive Center or Atlantis. A full set-up from either place will run you:

Atlantis Resort $175 for the 6 days
Eco Dive Center $195 for the trip

If you want to rent a dive computer, those are additional:

Atlantis Resort $90 for the 6 days
Eco Dive Center $70 for the trip

Having at least one dive computer is going to be mandatory for the diving we'll be doing. But you might really want to consider purchasing one. The Suunto Gekko is a great starter computer that does Nitrox and is a reliable Suunto. The wrist version is only $315, which you get to keep when the trip is over and it will store all your dives for easy logging later on!

Sleeping Arrangements UPDATED

Our trip has two room set-ups. Those of you that are coupled will be in rooms with a King Bed. For those of you being buddied up, the arrangements are a little more creative.

There will be one Queen bed in the room and one Twin bed. This is a popular room arrangement throughout Asia. We had a similar arrangement in Thailand.

UPDATED: If you would like to upgrade your room, it can be done. You can upgrade to a Seaview Room or Coconut Terrace rooms. The Coconut Terrace would be a shared room with two "reduced queen" beds. The Seaview room is similar to the Twin Deluxe Room, but with an ocean view. The upgrade for either room is $123 per person. You need to let us know ASAP if you want to upgrade.

More information about the rooms availabe can be found here.

Meals

A few folks noticed that the information from Atlantis said that "juice an water" are provided at breakfast. So the obvious question is, what is provided the rest of the time.

According to the resort:

Meal package includes breakfast, lunch and dinner; this would be blackboard menu or Mongolian Wok for lunch, blackboard menu and buffet (on weekends) for dinner.

Drinks with breakfast only: coffee, tea, fresh fruit juice from the buffet table. Please note that these drinks and 'FOC' during breakfast only, hence until 10:00am

Other drinks like soft drinks, shakes, bottled water are charged for and not included with the package.

They include drinks at breakfast. You'll need to pay a little extra for drinks -- alcoholic and non-alcoholic -- for other meals. Remember, soft drinks aren't nearly as cheap throughout the world as they are in the US.

You will have three meals a day available at the resort, but from a fixed menu, similar to what you would have on a liveaboard. There are other dining options as well.

Why a blog?

I;ve been getting individual questions as we get closer to the trip and I feel like we should have a clearing house for information on the trip.

Please check here frequently, at least once a day or two, and see what new information is posted. If you have questions you want posted, email them to me at brian@ecodivecenter.com or post them in the comments!