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SCUBA Diving Page

for Vance Stevens, PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor #64181
In 2011 celebrating 45 years of diving, since 1966

On PADI Active Teaching Status through 2010 since 1993
To conduct a PADI Pro Chek on me use Glenn V Stevens owsi #64181

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Click here to check Vance's Dive Plan
(for what's coming up, where & who's on board)

Weather: Abu Dhabi Weather | UAE Weatherunderground | Windguru
On Dec 28, 2007 - LA Times Marine Forecast and Tides | Find Local Weather | Freemeteo
Hourly updated barometric and local wind conditions (Fujaira) at times given in UTC: National Weather Service
Maps: Nice app with Google integration, find locations on map via their latitude/longitude OR pinpoint a location, get its lat/long, put that in your GPS http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

Descriptions of UAE and Oman dive sites: My Own and another good source is Carole Harris and Tony Schroder (c.2002) UAE Underwater Explorer, Explorer Publishing, ISBN 9768182-17-2
I help organize dives in the UAE through FrogLegsScubaClub <== click on link to join mailing list
Froglegs have started a community wiki for buying/selling SCUBA gear: http://uaegear4sale.wikispaces.com

In Abu Dhabi I have resumed teaching scuba classes. I teach in return for students picking up my diving related expenses.

Otherwise, I teach to enjoy myself, to intensify friendships, to train people who will go diving with me, and to keep up my skills as a dive instructor.

Vance on Barrier Reef in Australia
Summer 1998

Global tide predictions: http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide
Abu Dhabi Dept of Civil Aviation website: http://www.dcaauh.gov.ae/english/index.htm
Abu Dhabi International Airport Weather Office forecasts with Tide Tables and Sunrise/Sunset: http://www.adiamet.gov.ae/forecast.htm

You can persuse back issues of Divernet Diver Magazine Online here: http://www.divernet.com/
Emirates Diving Association: http://www.emiratesdiving.com/
Richard White published a fish guide to the Gulf of Oman and UAE waters and posts his fish photos at http://richardfield.freeservers.com

PADI Open Water Diving Course General Info \| FAQ's	PADI Advanced Open Water Diving Course
Vance's logbook	UAE and Oman Dive Sites
PADI Rescue Diver Course	UAE and Oman Diving Directory
List of divers certified by Vance	Copy Vance's sample dive log page

"Experienced Diver" Certification

Getting dated: Scuba Equipment Prices and Rental Guide

My wife Bobbi and oldest son Glenn have both been PADI Advanced Open Water divers since 1995. They have done all the open water work for Rescue Diver (need to take the exam). Dusty achieved PADI Jr. Open Water certification in 1998, Advanced Jr. Open Water in 1999, and Rescue Diver in 2005. I was their certifying instructor, of course.

I was a Dive Leader while a member of BSAC, the British Sub Aqua Club, from 1997-2003
I started a homepage for ADSAC here.. The real ADSAC homepage might be at http://www.adsac.co.ae

Diving Resume

From 2005 to present Independent instructor in Abu Dhabi, see list of divers certified here.
August 2003- December 2004 - I was the dive instructor at the Abu Dhabi Health and Fitness Club in Abu Dhabi, giving regular courses, arranging equipment for pool training and boats for diving, locating dive sites via GPS and depth sounder and reckoning as appropriate, directing anchoring at the sites (or grappling them in the case of wrecks), and leading dive excursions from novice students at easy sites, to refresher, advanced, and rescue divers at more challenging sites, up to 30 meter wrecks at offshore sites in sometimes less than ideal sea conditions.
2000, June - Completed a BSAC Advanced Nitrox course, Brian Taman, Instructor
1997, Dec. 13 - I received a BSAC Oxygen Administration Award on completion of BSAC course OX/97/376/B.
1993, Aug 30 - Certified as PADI Medic First Aid Instructor
1993, Aug. 29 - Certified as PADI OWSI #64181 after IDC conducted near Guymos, Mexico, by the venerable, late Commander Jim Williams and his Arizona-based cross-border traveling Diving Services Consultants.
1992, Oct. 30 - Certified as PADI Divemaster DM-64181. Trained at Oman Dive Federation by Paul Morall and staff.
1965 - Certified by the National Association of Scuba Diving Schools, Paul Keene instructor #461. My number might have been 053450 (not clear from photocopy of lost dive card)

I have made many hundreds of dives over the past 40 years. My logbooks go back to July 1991. In addtion to my unlogged dives from 1966 to 1991, I have logged hundreds of dives before and since arrival in the UAE in July 1997.

Click here for list of divers certified and dates.

Diving in Oman and elsewhere, 1985-1995

Dive Log exerpts: Damaniyite Islands, Oman | Shark feeding at Osprey Reef, Coral Sea

Between 1985 and 1995 I did quite a lot of diving in Oman, mostly at Bandar Khairan and Fahal Island, and with one eventful trip up to the shark infested/enhanced Straits of Hormuz. I did my divemaster training at the Oman Dive Federation and I got my instructor card in the Sea of Cortez off Guyamos and afterwards dived a few days more off Cabo San Lucas, Baha.

I was fortunate to see two whale sharks during these years, one off Fahel Island and the other in the Damaniyites. On one of my most unusual dives, I was clinging to a bucking whale trapped in a net while trying to cut it free during a successful rescue effort in 1995.

While in Oman, I also made trips to the Maldives, the Red Sea off Jordan and Sinai, Bali and Manado in Indonesia, Ko Tau, Phuket and the Similian Islands in Thailand, Bohol, Cebu, and Boracay in the Philippines, Fiji, Cook Islands ... I can't remember all the places. Palau was probably the best diving I've ever done (I'm often asked that question), for masses of sharks and tuna and other big fish. I saw the manta rays off nearby Yap. Just north of these stupendous dive spots, Guam disappointed, most big fish having been killed off by uncontrolled spear fishing.

Other places of note have been Madang in Papua New Guinea, various places in Fiji (Beqa Lagoon and Taveuni) and the Cook Islands (Roratonga, Aitutaki), and off Maui and the Big Island in Hawaii. My last really interesting diving was in Sipadan with my family on our trip through Borneo to California. That diving was some of the best we've ever enjoyed, first time I ever saw a hammerhead.

Lately I've been diving off Abu Dhabi, frequenting sometimes boring but occasionally surprising breakwater dive sites. I've also dived some more interesting but redundant wrecks 30 miles offshore (e.g. Hannan, Lion City, Jasim, and the more interesting Ludwig!). I've twice dived 50 meters down on the Energy Determination, a supertanker wrecked off Musandam in almost 90 meters of water, with my BSAC acquaintances (deco dives are sanctioned under BSAC rules).

I've also been often to Khor Fakkhan and Musandam in the Northern Emirates, my favorite spot in the waning days of last century being (on a good day) Martini Rock just outside Khor Fakkan harbor. In the early 2000's Dibba Rock was THE place to dive, with consistent sightings of black tips, devil rays, turtles, etc. etc. until the place was hammered with Cyclone Gonu and later a devastating 6-month red tide. Increased harbor and other coastal construction in the area has prevented come-back. Now in 2012 Musandam, where the rocky coast prevents development, is the best diving around, with whale sharks frequently sighted in early summer.

Bobbi and I have also made recent returns to the Oman Dive Federation for a pleasant revisit to Bandar Khairan (people there even remembered us). Even more recently, we enjoyed superb diving around the Damaniyite Islands of Al-Sawadi in Oman.

Some Dive Sites I visited last century, when there were still reefs

Cozumel, Bahamas in the 1960s.
Hawaii in the 1970's and 80's (Big Island and Maui)
I'm often asked what in my opinion is the best place I've ever dived; that would be Blue Corner, Palau, from: Carp Island Resort
Garden Island Resort in Taveuni, Fiji
Jais Aben, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Sipadan Island, Borneo Divers 1995
Manado, Suluwesi, Nusantara Diving 1995
In July, 1998, I made a trip to the Coral Sea and Barrier Reef of Australia, from Cairns.
Drake Bay Wilderness Resort, http://www.drakebay.com, Summer 1998, with diving off Caño Island, Costa Rica, August 8th & 9th, 1998
Maldives, Kuredu, http://www.kuredu.com, March 1999; didn't care for Pro Divers all that much. Also dived on Kuramathi, much nicer.
Aruba, Mermaid Divers and Red Sail Sports, Dec. 1999; some excellent, mostly mediocre diving (lots of octopuses); at least one poor dive spot

On Friday Dec 29, 2006 an article about my diving experiences appeared in the FRIDAY magazine of the Gulf News in Abu Dhabi and in the UAE. There were differences between statements I made during the interview process and those attributed to me in this article; specifically the quote under my picture and the last three paragraphs here (the editors made these up; I didn't express any sentiments of this nature): http://www.gulfnews.com/friday/People/10092703.html. I have reproduced the article here, showing the statements I in fact made, but which were not used in the article.

For comments, suggestions, or further information on this page,
contact Vance Stevens, page author and webmaster.

Last updated: July 13, 2012 at 8:00 GMT

Copyright 2012 under Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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January 14, 2007

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