Go Dive Crazy - Sportdiver.com

Image by Geri Murphy

Island madness can cause you to befriend a volleyball – just ask Tom Hanks. Fortunately island madness is nothing like Cayman Madness. For the eighth year in a row, Grand Cayman will become a diver’s asylum as Cayman Madness sweeps the island. Fortunately, you can join the craziness during a seven-day vacation package packed with zany evenings, festive parties and days filled with the best diving Cayman has to offer. Cayman Madness is six weeks of one-week events from September 6 to October 18 where you can dive, party and meet new people. The events include a beach luau, Caribbean night, an underwater treasure hunt with more than $50,000 in prizes and much more. ''This is a great way to mix diving and social activities, without having to plan your own detailed itinerary,'' said Ron Kipp, owner of Bob Soto’s Diving. ''Singles and couples can meet people, and there’s terrific family activities. There is really something for everyone.'' If you like gear, there will be plenty to keep you busy. Dacor will conduct its test dive program, which lets you make dives with the newest equipment available today. You can dive with SeaVision’s innovative color-correcting masks. Sea & Sea will run its camera dive program and there also will be instruction on camera and strobe use. If you like to party and eat, Cayman Madness will offer plenty to keep you busy. A rum punch party with a steel drum band, a beach luau, a Caribbean buffet and an outdoor barbecue are just a few of the food-based festivities on the agenda. Of course, in between all of these things you’ll have to find time to get in the water. And $50,000 is a good reason to get wet. That’s the value of the prize kitty for the underwater treasure hunt that will take place on the house reef behind the Sea View hotel. Equipment, trips, clothes, cameras – it’s all there for the taking. As long as you’re in the water, you might as well take advantage of the world-class diving that’s included in the Cayman Madness package. In addition to unlimited shore diving, you can do four two-tank boat dives and one one-tank night boat dive with Bob Soto’s Diving. And you can always add more dives into your week. Trinity Caves, Big Tunnels, Orange Canyon and North West Point Drop Off are a few of the best-loved dives of the West Side of the island. These sites are filled with swim-throughs, canyons, tunnels and pinnacles with schools of fish crowded around them. The shallows are teeming with clouds of snappers and grunts. Cayman’s North Wall is famous for its sheer drop-off and chimneys. Frequent schools of eagle rays and horse-eyed jacks circle and play in the clear water, ever watchful for the cruising hammerhead or blacktip shark. Explore canyons lined with sponges and towering coral formations with lobsters, crabs and moray eels watching you. Visit sites such as Eagle Ray Pass, Black Forest, Tarpon Alley, Chinese Wall and No Name Wall, to name but a few. And of course, no trip to Grand Cayman would be complete without a dive at Stingray City in the shallows of North Sound. Swim with more than two dozen wild Atlantic Southern stingrays, which seem comfortable in the company of humans. No matter where you want to dive around the island, Bob Soto’s can take you there on one of its seven dive boats. And if you want to complete your next level of dive training during your week, Soto’s is a PADI 5-star training facility. Cayman Madness packages include airfare, accommodations, diving and all event functions. You can choose to stay at one of four participating hotels, which are priced to meet a range of budgets. Also included are airport transfers on the island, hotel taxes and service charges.

	Paul Humann; he'd help me ID fish
	Cathy Church; she'd help me set up the perfect shot
	Alan Rebbe; we'd have the wildest dive adventures
	Teddy Tucker; I want to find treasure!
	Richie Kohler; wrecks are where it's at.

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