Main Homepages: http://www.vancestevens.com | Vance's Scuba Page Portal | Vance's logbook and Vance's DiveBLogs | http://tinyurl.com/vancesdiveplans | UAE and Oman Diving Directory | UAE and Oman Dive Sites | FrogLegsScubaClub | Vance's Coral Sea shark photos
Info on: Padi Open Water course | Advanced Open Water course | Rescue Diver course
On PADI Active Teaching Status through 2019 since 1993 |
Click here to check Vance's Dive Plan
(no plans for near future, left UAE in July 2018)
Weather: Windguru | Freemeteo
Global tide predictions: http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide
Descriptions of UAE and Oman dive sites: My Own
FrogLegsScubaClub <== click on link to join mailing list
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In UAE I taught scuba classes for 20 years from 1998-2017, basically 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 |
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Divernet Diver Magazine Online: http://www.divernet.com/
Emirates Diving Association: http://www.emiratesdiving.com/
Richard White last updated his fish guide to the Gulf of Oman and UAE waters in 2000: http://richardfield.freeservers.com
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PADI Open Water Diving Course |
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| UAE and Oman Dive Sites | |
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My wife Bobbi and oldest son Glenn have both been PADI Advanced Open Water divers since 1995. Bobbi certified as PADI Rescue Diver in 2005, the same year Glenn completed all the open water work for Rescue Diver (still needs 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 have made over 1500 dives over the past 40 years. My logbooks go back to July 1991. In addition 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.
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.
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 (fabricated by the editors).
I have reproduced the article here, showing the statements I in fact made, but which were not used in the article.
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