Please support the shop and think of them when you need instruction, travel, equipment or tank fills.  Here is a link to the web site: Santa Cruz Scuba Diving.  The new owners are Charlie and Jayme Cooper.  Stop by to say hi!

Invest in a SCUBA Shop and get paid for seeing the world!

Tired of paying for expensive vacations that are too infrequent?  Every day you work hard so that you can do the things you love, like traveling and SCUBA diving, but you don’t get to do them often enough, and you have to pay big money to do it.  Now you can get paid to see the world, above water and underwater, by owning your own dive shop!

By owning your own dive shop, you get to vacation and dive as much as you want.  Previous owners went on 7 – 8 trips per year to places like Fiji, Galapagos Islands, Bikini, Cozumel, Hawaii, Jamaica, Maldives, Tahiti, Africa (including safari), Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand, and more!

This business is great for someone who loves SCUBA and likes not only to get the write-off trip and SCUBA expenses, but likes to get paid for going to exotic places while trying out the latest dive gear.  One of the other benefits of owning a dive shop is you meet a lot of people and make a lot of friends in a hurry, so this is definitely an opportunity for someone who likes social interaction.

The advantage of buying a business versus starting your own is that it eliminates all the time and money required to get established; count on five years or more.  In that time, you don’t get to enjoy the business because you’re busy marketing and getting established; people who don’t have exceptional marketing skills frequently don’t make it.  During the time when you’re getting established, you’re also pouring a lot of money into the business and covering your own salary. Add up five years of your salary to see what that’s worth. Let’s face it, you’d rather be teaching, diving, and traveling for 5 years than marketing a new business.  When you buy a company that is already established, that initial ramp up is already done, so you can immediately enjoy benefits of a successful business in scuba diving, teaching and adventure travel.

Here is what the Scuba Center offers:

• Retail center with SCUBA inventory
• Classes: SCUBA Diver, Advanced SCUBA, Rescue Diver, Divemaster, Assistant Instructor, and Nitrox
• Dive Travel
• Services: Airfills, Equipment Repair & Maintenance, and Rentals

The company has been in business since 1987 with an excellent reputation for safety, quality, and service.  The present location is also a valuable asset with visibility from Highway 1 in Santa Cruz, California, on the way to Monterey, Carmel, and Point Lobos.  We believe so much in the company that we invested last month in a new Bauer air compressor!

-John Houghton

— Update 9/25/13 —

Passing The Torch

News travels fast, and many of you may already know that Aqua Safaris is now under new ownership!  On behalf of the Houghton Family, both past and present, I would like to extend a warm and heartfelt thanks to the dive community of Santa Cruz and the many patrons of Aqua Safaris who encouraged and supported us through the difficult period following the loss of the shop’s owners, David and DeDe Houghton, in July 2011.  Since then our primary goal has been to sustain the diving enterprise launched by David in I987 and to provide excellent service to the regional diving community.  I have very much enjoyed getting to know many of you and being a part of this community of great folks united by a passion for diving.  Among all of us, the dedicated members of our staff and loyal patrons, the continuation of Aqua Safaris has truly been a community effort and a fitting memorial to our shared vision.  We made it, Aqua Safaris will continue, and we couldn’t have come to this point without you!  Thank you!  We are happy to entrust the enterprise to the experienced leadership and hands of Charlie Cooper, who brings an ideal combination of backgrounds in business, marine biology, and most importantly, a life-long enthusiasm for diving!  He has been diving for more than forty years and draws on a broad range of experience in instruction as a PADI Master Instructor.  While he shares the Aqua Safaris commitments to competence, quality, and integrity, the new energy and changes are already visible at the shop. Be sure to stop by to check it out, say hello, and stay tuned for exciting plans, new equipment lines, and expanded programs of both instruction and travel.  In the well known words of David and DeDe,

“Let’s go Diving!”

- Cathryn Houghton

http://www.aquasafaris.com

Extra Note: Tonight, my wife and I went through all the cards that everybody sent.  It’s been hard, and that’s why it has taken a while for me to get to them.  Thank you everybody that sent cards, donations to charities,  food and flowers.  The cards are touching, everybody’s comments, and believe it or not, the stock print on some of the cards spoke to me.  All we really have is their memory and to be touched by the special things they did when they were here.

I also want to go through all the notes (comments) on this blog.  There are nearly 350.  A lot of them came in the first few weeks and I was pretty numb when they first came through, so they didn’t register.  I am so happy to have them and be able to look back on them.  Everybody has been so special and supportive through this whole process.   I really appreciate everything everybody has done and written.

I’ve been recovering the family’s photos and while I have a lot, I feel like I don’t have most of them.  It’s fun to see their photos from Africa, Washington D.C., Thailand, and all over the world.  They really did live a lot when they were here.  I still have recent videos that need to be edited from Bonaire and a family day trip to Death Valley.

I got some more insight on the crash from one of David’s friends.  I probably don’t want to go into it too much, but it’s starting to make more sense what happened and how.  We’ll wait for the NTSB report for the final determination and I’m not sure what I’ll be saying about it when that happens.

I do have one request of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator (which David had loaded on his computer).  The simulator has a Mooney program (same as my brother’s airplane) which is realistic in every respect, but it’s my understanding that it does not properly simulate stalls or the spins that can happen after a stall (as happened with my brother).  I would request that this be added.  Other flight simulators and even radio control flight simulators have a realistic and physically accurate simulations of stalls and spins (and how deadly they can be).  Here are  excerpts from Amazon reviews of Microsoft Flight Simulator:

Stalls are too easy to recover unlike real aircraft…

The things this simulator lets you get away with (Yes, on Full Realism) would kill you several times per day in a real aircraft…

I don’t fault Microsoft, because I know it takes more effort and expense to add such features and it would be a reasonable business decision to decide not to, but it’s a request.  (If somebody could let me know if I’m incorrect here about what the simulator does, I’m happy to update this post).

Some pilots spend a lot of time practicing stalls and recovering from stalls.  In talking to the people who saw him fly, my brother was meticulous in his safety preparations, even to the point of driving his co-pilots crazy, but somehow he seemed to be inadequately trained in the dangers of stalling.  We’ve seen this before, even in commercial aviation.  The crash of Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 on approach to Buffalo, N.Y. (2009) killing 50 was caused by a stall.  Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing 216, was also caused by a high speed stall.  In the face of danger, the pilot instinctively pulled back on the stick to gain altitude, when they could have avoided the catastrophe if they had not pulled back and maintained airspeed.

Anyway, I’ll always treasure the moments and memories that David, DeDe, Luke and Ryan brought to me.  I can still see their happy faces and loving smiles…

Monday 8/15: Noon – 4pm
Tuesday 8/16: Noon – 4pm
Daily Thereafter: 10am – 7pm

We’re open for full service, classes, tanks filled, repairs and retail center is open and well stocked.  We’re also going to be updating the website.  Old website for now: http://www.aquasafaris.com Hope to see you in there!

First of all, we are overcome with grief and this has been a very hard time for the family.  We have also had a lot to deal with regarding David and DeDe’s business ventures going forward. I’ve spoken to my sister, Cathryn Houghton, and on behalf of the family, I wanted to let you know our vision for Aqua Safaris Scuba Center.

We feel that David and DeDe would want to keep the Scuba Center going, so our plan is to reopen the shop, and explore future possibilities, one of which is to look for a buyer.  Aqua Safaris helped David and DeDe make so many friends and live a lifestyle of travel and fun, so we would like to continue what they started.   Please check back here for hours of operations and services as we scale the scuba center back up.  If you have questions, I can be contacted at 650 888-1816 or john at johnhoughton dot com.