For a scuba diver, it’s OK if you get dragged to the bottom. As long as your air tanks hold out, that is.
Ron Bland, owner of Tortuga Bay Scuba in Greeley, has felt the sensation of being dragged down, down, down deep. The nosediving economy largely carried his business, the only dive center in Greeley, down with it these past few years.
The air supply, little by little, grew precariously thin.
Initially, after moving in 2005 from a space at Market Square to the current location at 6200 9th St., a site that featured its own 14-foot-deep saltwater pool, things were going swimmingly for Tortuga Bay.
In 2007, “when the travel industry started downhill with all the problems with the airlines — that’s when our business started downhill, as well, which was about a year before everyone else felt the hit from the economy,” Bland said.
Tortuga Bay is essentially five businesses in one — retail, dive training, travel, service and rental.
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