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FIND SANTA’S GIFTS UNDER THE TREE AND UNDER THE WATER
By Anonymous Greater Cincinnati December 24 2003--Red suit? Check. Black belt? Check. Gifts? Check… Scuba Gear? Check.
Santa checks a different kind of list this year when he gears up for underwater adventures at the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Ky. He is the featured attraction in the Aquarium’s first annual Santa’s Water Wonderland. Santa interacts with sharks, fish and loggerhead sea turtles in unique underwater presentations.
Thousands of visitors from around the country have heard Santa talk about the gifts the animals hope to get for Christmas. During these unique and fun presentations in Newport Aquarium’s Cinergy Theater, Santa wears the only custom-made Santa Claus dive suit in the U.S. and uses state-of-the-art “Dive Comm” technology to communicate with his audiences.
Appearances from Scuba Santa are scheduled every half-hour* from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on December 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, 2003.
*Times subject to change without notice.
Aquarium guests can experience this winter fantasy and enjoy thousands of aquatic critters from around the world at the Newport Aquarium. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended holiday hours Dec. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and Jan. 1, 2 and 3: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. General admission is $16 for adults, $14 for seniors (65+) and $10 for children (3-12), children under three are admitted for free. Visit www.newportaquarium.com for more information.
The Newport Aquarium is an AZA-accredited state-of-the-art facility located two minutes from downtown Cincinnati, featuring 12 galleries and thousands of animals located in a million gallons of water.
*Photos available upon request.
This article courtesy of http://www.scubadiversafety.com/.
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Scuba diving operation in San Juan Islands expands and offers new services.
By Anonymous EASTSOUND, Wash. – January 4, 2002 – Island Dive & Water Sports, the premier dive center in the San Juan Islands, today announced its acquisition of assets of Emerald Seas Outfitters and expansion to Friday Harbor, Wash. Island Dive & Water Sports will retain its original location on Orcas Island and relocate its company headquarters to Friday Harbor.
“We are very excited about our expansion as it will allow us to better serve our customers from two key locations in the San Juan Islands,” said Ron Kenny, owner and operator of Island Dive & Water Sports. “Emerald Seas has done a wonderful job of introducing the San Juan Islands to thousands of divers throughout the years and we look forward to continuing to share the spectacular diving here for many years to come.”
Island Dive & Water Sports operates year-round and offers dive charters, dive instruction, equipment rental and sales, equipment inspection, air fills, and custom dive packages. With its new location in Friday Harbor, the company will now operate dive charters originating from both locations serving the entire San Juan Islands region and southern British Columbia. In addition, Island Dive & Water Sports will expand its services by offering new packages that include multiple lodging options and multiple-day trips.
Island Dive & Water Sports will assume the Emerald Seas dive center location located at 2A Spring Street Landing in Friday Harbor, Wash., and plans to be in full operation at this location in February. Its Orcas Island site, the company’s current headquarters, is located at Rosario Resort. Both locations are easily accessed from the mainland via ferry or air service.
Island Dive & Water Sports offers 2-tank boat dives at $75 per person. Dive packages including lodging start at $175 during the winter season, and discounts are available for groups of six or more. For reservations and information, customers may contact Island Dive & Water Sports at 360-376-7615 or via its web site at www.divesanjuan.com.
About Island Dive & Water Sports
Island Dive & Water Sports, located in the San Juan Islands in northwest Washington State, is the only full-service destination dive center in the Pacific Northwest. This Gold Palm 5-Star PADI facility operates from two convenient locations including San Juan Island and Orcas Island and is open year-round. Island Dive & Water Sports features a charter service with two custom dive boats, dive school, equipment rental and sales, and dive packages. Rodale’s Scuba Diving Magazine recognized the company as one of the top three dive operators in North America in 2000. The San Juan Islands region is known worldwide for its quality diving and vast marine life including the Giant Pacific Octopus, large kelp forests, and colorful macro life. For more information about Island Dive & Water Sports visit www.divesanjuan.com or call 800-303-8386.
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From Bricks to Clicks: How Scuba.Com Defied the Odds and Changed From a Retail Chain to an Online Powerhouse
By Anonymous Rancho Santa Margarita, CA June 4, 2004 -- Business schools rebuke the practice. Countless books caution against this foolhardiness. And thousands of former dot-com executives know first-hand that it just won’t work.
So what prompted James and Melinda Herndon, the owners of a successful chain of scuba diving shops, to close their stores and evolve their business to an online operation? After all, these were both smart, college-educated professionals who knew how to run a business, and had witnessed the dot-com meltdown that affected so many of their friends and neighbors. Was their decision-making process impaired due to staying underwater for too long?
To understand their motivation, we need to roll the clock back to 1995. The Herndon’s were the married team that owned and managed virtually every aspect of the Discount Diver’s Centers — a chain of 8 retail stores located throughout California and Nevada. And while business was good, the hours were long and there was little time for life outside of work… and certainly no time to start a family.
They took a long and hard look at the challenges and opportunities of moving their business from a retail operation, to strictly an online business. After weighing the pros and cons, projecting the potential profits from a web-based business, and comparing the significant labor intensity of running the retail stores to the seemingly more manageable time demands of an online operation, they decided to take the leap and move from the world of bricks to the world of clicks.
Of course, the big unknown was whether or not it would work. The experts all cautioned them against the move… and once they pulled the plug on the stores, there would be no turning back.
They began working on their idea, modifying and refining the interfaces, features and graphics, until late into the night. At this point in time, it seemed to the Herndons that the new online business would consume just as much of their time as did the retail operation.
Complicating matters was Melinda’s dream of having an online repository of information that would function as a help desk – holding the answer to virtually any customer question that could arise. Only long hours and extensive programming sessions would accomplish this goal.
Eventually their tenacity paid off and the website was officially launched in 1996. It was a smash hit from the very beginning. A virtual scuba instructor named Kotie functions as an online help desk, and has over 250,000 answers to virtually any scuba-related inquiry. Over 6300 in-stock items provide a depth and selection that is unbeatable. And with live help from diving instructors who possess in-depth knowledge about the sport, www.scuba.com has rapidly become a favorite site for tens of thousands of people looking for the right gear, with the right information, at the right price.
Today, scuba.com has over 40,00 unique visitors each day, making it one of the highest rated sites in the industry. Revenues now far exceed those of the former retail operation, and continue to grow each year.
Yet despite this tremendous growth, the company founders have found a way to enjoy a personal life, and now take pleasure in seeing the colors and splendor of the undersea world through the eyes of their child. Yes, their new business model paid off in many ways.
For more information, visit www.scuba.com
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