"Dive, Dive, Dive!” with Mary Lynn Berzett
Costs of Scuba-Diving Trips
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: “I’ve been diving since Moby Dick
was a guppy,” says Dennis “Skinny”
Hallmark of Birmingham, Alabama. At the age of 15, Hallmark
made his first scuba dive with a friend in the quarry
near his home, and in his words, “I was hooked.”
Over the past 35 years, Hallmark has taught thousands
of first-time scuba divers and diving instructors and
owned dive shops in three Alabama cities in the 1980s.
Certified by the Professional Association of Diving
Instructors (PADI) and the National Association of Underwater
Instructors (NAUI), Hallmark also teaches instructors
how to teach firemen and police to perform rescue dives.
The International Diving Educators’ Association
(IDEA) of Jacksonville, Florida, honored Hallmark in
2002 as its Worldwide Instructor of the Year.
Night Hawk: What are your three favorite places to
dive and why?
 Hallmark:
Cayman Brac, a part of the Cayman Island chain, is one
of my favorite places to dive. The visibility is awesome
there. The walls are a part of the Continental Shelf,
and they can go straight down for 7000 to 8000 feet.
The coral reefs are outstanding and still healthy. Diving
in the Caymans is great. The government there has actually
created some shipwrecks just for diving, including a
257-foot Russian frigate. There’s also an anchor
wall with a pilot’s anchor encrusted in the reef.
The anchor itself is 12- to-14 feet tall. Another good
part about diving in the Caymans is the people. They
are very nice and polite, and even the children say,
“Yes, sir.” There is no crime, and I know
I always can leave diving gear on the boat, and no one
will bother it.
Honduras is also a good place. It is more rustic than
the Caymans. For some reason the critters you see in
Honduras, even though they’re the same you’ll
see elsewhere, are bigger in Honduras. For
example, a feather duster (a type of sea worm) in the
Caymans will be about the size of your hand. In Honduras,
it will be the size of a feather duster you have in
your home. The water is very clear. And, I also like
the Dutch island of Bonaire. It is a part of the ABC
chain of islands and is just off the coast of Venezuela.
I enjoy staying at the resorts on Bonaire. I’ve
been to Belize and Mexico, but I think further down
in Central America has a little better diving.
Night Hawk: What does a trip costs to each destination,
and what does that cost include?
Hallmark: The package deal I furnish includes 5-star
hotel rooms, three meals per day, taxes, gratuities
and outdoor diving costs. A trip to the Caymans will
cost about $1300 to $1500 per person plus airfare. If
you want to go to Honduras, the costs will be a couple
of hundred dollars less plus airfare. The  ABC
Island package will run about $1500 to $1700 plus airfare.
To contact Skinny Hallmark for further information,
call him at home, (205) 980-0008, call his cell phone,
(205) 907-0824 or contact him at skinnyhallmark@charter.net.
His website is currently being redone and is unavailable.
He also has a DVD that he’ll be glad to send out.
TOMORROW: HALLMARK’S
FAVORITE TYPE OF DIVING
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