Wednesday, June 30, 2010


During these long summer days as we have people coming in, we're giving out gear, then washing the gear, giving the gear a wash and at the end of the day we wash the gear. But on those few occasions all the gear is washed we have have a whole list of other jobs to be doing. So the other afternoon we took the chance to tick some of these off. So we were all in the sunshine working on our tan, and I'm not sure if anyone saw the facebook status the other day but apparently the new divewise technique of tanning is to stand by me and even paper looks brown! At least i stand out in this golden bronzed country! Anyway, we were delegated jobs and we worked away like bust bodies, Dorianne was marking up our snorkeling fins ready for the summer hit, Pau and the boys were going through the tool kits double checking so we're never left at a divesite with no O rings or alan keys. Dude was cleaning up the Poseidon re-breather ready for some keen first timers and I was, if I don't say so myself, made Hannah, Harry and FX as clean as they had been in years, squeaky keen, cleaning of a perfectionist one may say! To those who may not know Hannah, Harry and FX aren't unfortunately unclean customers they are our fleet of nearly flawless transport. Come cheack it out, maybe we'll get some added business as a car wash as well!!




Monday, June 28, 2010

3 Generations of Milton diving with divewise

A good 40 years ago Malta was blessed with the opening of Divewise by a Sarah and Vince Milton, at a time when recreational diving was a new and unknown phenomenon they showed their faith of what diving was going to become. They were not disappointed as they would have seen their center and the love for diving grow over the years, now with over 40 dive centers on Malta the can look at theirs with pride.

It didn't stop there, the family passed on the divewise torch to their son Patrick about 10 years ago who continued to develop and adapt diving for everyone imaginable and we were happy to see him yesterday diving with his son 10 year old Luke who has clearly got the hereditary diving bug and is starting his open water course with his dad. Best of luck to him, and hopefully no family bickering between them!

What else has been going on around the center i hear you ask, well nothing really, ha we wish! Today we're sending Dude away captaining his own boat and taking his crew of divers to some new sites off the west coast of Malta. He'll start with a reef dive to Devil's Reef where we hope to find an old cave that shows signs of stalactites and predatory fish such as barracuda, dentex and amberjack then head to Scott's Craig which was a ferry operating in the Thames, it was then used as a filming vessel for the "popeye" movie and when that finished it became another wreck for the keen divers of Malta. Can't wait to hear the outcome of the dives when the guys get back and I'll let you know as soon as i do. Pictures will follow of the three generations and the dives sites.

Thursday, June 24, 2010



So its been a while since the divewise blog has been out but we all know distance makes the heart grow fonder and now that summers here the dive shop is packed there's plenty to report back on!

Now, as one of the newer, younger members of the divewise team, its been a few weeks of getting used to the way things are run here. The holiday feeling has worn off, actually lets be honest I don't think that will ever wear off, my Scottish skin doesn't know what the big, bright, hot thing in the sky is!! But I now know how the compressor works, so yes I get to fill tanks, new systems and find my place in the hierarchy- i tell you its a very long view from the top, i mean to the top!!



Since the Instructor course run by Alan earlier in the year we've got a lot of brand spanking new instructors who are all very keen and fighting over Open Water Courses, DSDs and anything they can get their hands on, so if you walk into the diveshop and see lots of smiley people looking like they'll pounce on you do not fear they're just hoping that you're their student for the day! In the past week we've had plenty of these courses going on, congratulations to our welsh boyo Owain for finishing his open water course today and going straight into his advanced doing some navigation at Zurrieq.

Also on Sunday we had to part ways with our beloved group from Dive Wimbeldon who we were honoured with for the week. We watched them grow, improve and qualify- open water, Deep and Enriched air specialties and one of their own tech courses along the way. The were also involved in trip to Gozo, Comino, tho house reef and everything in between. Diving aside, they also saved a flat tire on Hannah and ended up having to push one of Maltas renowned buses while they stopped for ice-cream! Could of used those muscles to move some more of those tanks!!







I was lucky enough to join a beautiful trip to Comino with a boat full of newly certified divers, we had Viktor who had just finished his open water course and showed off his brilliant buoyancy dodging the many jellyfish the wind brought us, Asa on her first dive as a qualified Advanced diver watching over Phillip and Christoffer, our fantastic Swedish twins, as they completed their boat and deep dives that day! Congratulations to all our divers that day, all surfaced and not one sting between the lot of us!