Return to the water and ODC Alternatives in Muscat Oman

Photo by : http://www.flickr.com/photos/giveawayboy/503744564/

The events described in this post took place on Nov 6th , 2011 in Muscat, Oman. For those of you viewing this through Facebook 'Notes', the original post is available on www.henrickatlarge.blogspot.com. It will enable you access to photo galleries and other multi-media material which don't transfer into 'Notes'
So today I got back into the water for a dive. It has been almost a year (the last one was in Jan).  The reason behind my not diving was mostly procrastination of the most general variety.  Though, I have been struggling with the high cost of diving at the dive center I usually use, Oman Dive Center.

I know that there are alternatives to ODC, but it has sort of 'dominated' my mental landscape when it comes to dive centers in Oman.  It has a great location and is very well advertised and marketed.

There were a few recent events that, well, 'broke the camel's back' so to say. First, the price of a two tank dive went up at ODC (now, it's like 50 OR). Also, there was a mass exodus of their divemasters and instructors (never a good sign).  With that in mind I decided to go out on a limb and try one of the other dive centers.  The one I went with was Blue Zone diving. There were some familiar faces on the boat (from the ODC), and it was generally a great dive.

We launched out of the Marina Bander Al Rowder and had a quick 20 minute boat trip to two of the usual dive sites in that area.  The water temperature was about 25 celcius at the surface and 22 at the nadir of the dive (13 meters). The visibility could have been better. The view was obscured a bit my detritus and flotsam in the water.  I believe it could have been the result of an algae bllom that washed into the gulf of Oman. Though, it was still pretty good.

Our first dive was at Mermaid.  nothing too out of the ordinary there.  There was the usual array of Gulf fish.  Truth be told, I was more concentrated on getting accustomed to being underwater again than really seeing anything (I did however cross paths with a rather large honeycomb moray). Toward that end, the dive was a success. 

The second dive was at another local spot called 'Seahorse Haze'.  This was more of  a scenic dive. We saw a sea turtle straight out.  It was about half a meter long, sitting on a batch of soft coral on the bottom. We also spotted a lionfish hanging out in crevice.  I was super stoked to see one, they are by far one of my favorites.  Another highlight was the worlds most giant starfish I had ever scene.  Unlike other starfish, this one was shaped like a perfect nautical star.  It looked like it was drawn by an 'old school' tattoo artist.  And there seemed to be a inordinate amount of clownfish around.  Everywhere I looked there were 'little Nemos' buziing about, darting to and fro.

All and all, not a bad return to the ocean.  So for anyone thinking about trying to find an alternative to ODC, I highly recommend Blue Zone.  It was essentially the same experience for about half the price!