I got a call last weekend from a friend I met a month ago or so, his name is Randy Duncan and he's the Chief Warrant Officer of Company 16, Mobile Diving & Salvage Unit One, based out of Hawaii. He and his crew are currently stationed on the USS Safeguard and have been removing coralheads from the shipping channel in the Saipan lagoon. He said that he and a bunch of the Navy divers would like to dive the Grotto and they wanted me to lead the dive for them. These guys dive for a living and take it very seriously, so they know the inherent risks with diving a spot you're not very familiar with, and of the importance of having someone who knows their way in and out of all the holes. I was quite honored that they chose me to be their dive guide for the day. It should come as no surprise that Axe Murderer Tours gets the call when the military wants to go diving though, we have a long and colorful history together. Speaking of Axe Murderer Tours, now that I'm an instructor and getting things going with instructing, I've decided to finally make my fictional tour company official and went in to get business licenses for Axe Murderer Tours both as a dive instruction company and a professional dive guide service as well. So Axe Murderer Tours is now in business and is ready to become a professional dive service on Saipan. Hopefully I'll stay pretty busy with military, Americans, English speakers or Japanese who want an interesting American dive guide. So it's probably time to look into getting a clothing line, and diving accessory line going with the Axe Murderer Tours logo on it that is affordable. Cafe Press is convenient and doesn't require an investment on my part, but it's not cheap. So I'll be checking into a few different options locally, and also seeing if I can get some good deals from companies abroad to supply me with scaps, mask headbands and rash guard dive shirts, and maybe even bikinis and board shorts.
There may be some pretty big developments in the coming months regarding diving on Saipan and my future, stay tuned and I'll keep you informed. But in the meantime if you want to get certified to dive by the old Axe Murderer himself, or you want a custom Axe Murderer Tour yourself, let me know. Axe Murderer Tours is open for business and is official, FINALLY!
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7 comments:
Nice picture of the Navy guys at the Grotto! Yay for Axe Murderer Tours!
Let's go get Axe Murdered!
Fantastic shot. :)
USNS SAFEGUARD: The ship is now operated with Civilian Mariners. End result is the ship deployes 90% of the time instead of sitting in Sasebo Japan for months on end like it did when it was a USS. Glad to see the divers getting some positive PR, they are true friends of Saipan! JTS Chief Engineer.
USNS SAFEGUARD: The ship is now operated with Civilian Mariners. End result is the ship deployes 90% of the time instead of sitting in Sasebo Japan for months on end like it did when it was a USS. Glad to see the divers getting some positive PR, they are true friends of Saipan! JTS Chief Engineer.
Go Navy! Thanks guys for the great job done. in 1996 to 1998 the CPA paid a commercial dredging company (can we say Korean?) big bucks to take the channel down to 30 feet at MLW, coral heads included. A local civil engineer was hired at the price of $1.2 millon to conduct construction management over sight. Feeding at the government trough was his specialty. Deep draught ships have been scraping and bumping those coral heads for sometime. 10 years have past with a few attempts by a local commecial diver to remove them. You guys saw what had to be done and took care if swiftly. Again thanks.
Diving *sob*
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