Saturday, July 30, 2011

Anne Japan Back in Action

Congratulations to Marco who completed his advanced yesterday and is now free to explore many of the deeper shipwrecks Malta has to offer!

Anne Japan has been in the UK for a while. She arrives back in Malta today and will be back at Divewise on Monday just in time for some of our Japanese students who have long been awaiting her return so they can learn to dive in their own language.

Kenji’s English is good enough that he didn’t need to wait for Anne Japans return. He completed his Open Water course with Darrell yesterday and was Darrell’s first Open Water student so it was a big day for both of them!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

People Come and Go ... and then Come Back Again!

Darrell arrived back last week. Darrell did his IDC with us in May. Since his return he has been gaining lots of experience teaching Discover Scuba's and Open Water courses and is going to be working here for the rest of the summer with not much intention of going back to the UK for the winter either. If you are interested in Photography he's the person to speak to . . .

Morty completed his Divemaster course yesterday and came to Toni's to say goodbye before Alan took him to the airport. He's planning on returning in September to gain more experience, and there will be plenty of opportunity for that as September has been fully booked for about 2 months now!

We had a group of DSD's yesterday that did their dive in rather poor visibility because of the wind however they all said they had an amazing time and even managed to find an Octopus. Two are coming back to dive the Maori later this week.

Since it’s cooled down a little bit Jack has been eager to get out and about . . .

And he’s certainly making sure his demands are not being ignored, ‘Come on mum let’s go!’ . . . .

Meanwhile Phil and Darrell are getting equipment ready for the 14 DSD’s we have this morning! Luckily the water has calmed down a lot since yesterday so the visibility will be much better for them.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Welcome Back Steve!

We have a new member of staff with us that I have forgotten to mention in the last few blogs. Steve Hill has come over from the UK for 6 weeks to give us a hand during the busy season now that his college has closed for the summer. Many of you may already be familiar with Steve as he comes out every year during the summer to get a tan and his annual fill of physically demanding work!

Helen is back after doing her DSD last week to do her Open Water course. Sarah is starting her off with some theory and the RDP . . .

Morty and Peter are doing Search and Recovery today. Morty has to do Search and Recovery as part of his Divemaster course as the skills you learn on this course such as knot tying and appropriate search patterns are very useful in many aspects of diving.

Let’s hope they find all the various things Steve has lost!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Shiny New Gear

The house reef has calmed down now so that means all the Open Waters can get in the sea today. We also have James a DSD going off to the Maori with Joe who needs to try out some shiny new gear.

Speaking of new gear, we have just got some new aqualung fins in that look very smart . . .

These fins are going to be saved for certified Open water divers and above so they stay in good condition.

Phil has added the finishing touches to our new wash basins . . .

Now all he needs to do is to paint the Divewise logo on the welcome area!

Friday, July 22, 2011

It's a Bit Choppy Today . . .

The wind has been picking up the last couple of days on the house reef so there’s a change of plan for the dives this morning all divers are now heading to Cirkewwa. Our 7 Open water divers luckily have plenty of classroom and pool sessions to keep them occupied so the bad weather isn’t a problem for them.

Morty spent yesterday helping out Aaron with his courses, which means running around getting cylinders and kit, entertaining everyone and sorting out problems both above and below the waves.

Two of these people, Mickey and Matthias, have expanded their range of the underwater world by completing their advanced course so they can now go off and explore some of the amazing shipwrecks that Malta has to offer that were originally too deep for them.

Louis also qualified as a scuba diver yesterday just in time for him heading back to France tomorrow.

Pau was on a mission to sort the pool fins that are forever getting mixed up with all the snorkelling, taster dives and pool sessions we have. They are now neatly organised . . . we’ll see how long that lasts!

Squeaken Squeak!

Jack has a new toy, a rather loud one to be precise. He’s extremely happy about it but it’s been driving Viv mad!

On Wednesday we had Megan, Elizabeth and Hannah doing their bubblemaker. They took to the water like fish I don’t think I’ve seen anyone so relaxed in the water as these guys were.

We have another team of bubblemakers coming in this morning to go critter spotting in the confined area.

Last week’s group had an awesome time but there was a bit too much excitement for one little guy.

Morty our new divemaster has been working hard with Nev the past few days doing some long days in the water and some long evenings in the classroom . . .

Yesterday Peter, Coem and Justus did a DSD with us. Peter is a qualified Open water diver but wanted to come along to refresh his skills. They were naturals in the water. It’s a shame they couldn’t stay longer and get qualified but they made sure they got another dive in and went off with Pau and Steve in the afternoon to explore the Maori.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

It's All About DSD's!

Fran’s sister Ale, who is over here learning English, came and did a DSD about a week ago and went on to do her Open Water which she completed yesterday. Congratulations Ale! She has also been lending a hand around the dive centre because we can’t get her to sit still and relax!

We had the kids from the bubblemaker here yesterday doing the DSD with their dad. Dad number two will be here today to do his DSD experience while Fran takes the kids snorkelling. Speaking of DSD's we have a grand total of 19 today along with pleasure divers and Open Water courses. I think it might be one of those days where the kit room is emptied!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Friday Morning Bubblemaker Sessions

We had a gang of young divers yesterday that came over from the Westin to do a Bubblemaker. The Westin is promoting the Bubblemaker experience for all the kids staying at the Hotel. The experience is held at 9:30 every Friday morning. Because some of the kids that are interested are younger than 8 so aren’t old enough to do the Bubblemaker we still get them in the water for a snorkelling session where they can look at the fish and crabs in the confined area and watch their siblings swimming around on scuba.

One of the little guys yesterday was determined to be like his older brothers and wear a wet suit for the snorkelling despite the fact that it was a little bit too big . . .

Yesterdays gang all had an awesome time and the older ones are back again this morning with their parents to do DSD’s and will be doing yet more snorkelling tomorrow!

Alan got an odd collection of Balloons for his birthday yesterday.

Jack is not amused by them . . .

Friday, July 15, 2011

Alans Fake Birthday . . .

Yes the rumours are true . . . it is Alans fake birthday today.
He hasn't turned up at the centre this morning so he must have something good planned! Everyone's hoping another birthday means another excuse to eat cake.

Yesterday we had an awesome excursion to Comino on the boat. Jan, who did a DSD with us the other day came along to get a feel for some real diving. He had a go at driving the P31 and explored the Santa Marija caves along with all the other pleasure divers. Everyone had a go at feeding the fish which are getting pretty greedy now.

We’ve had lots of visits from EC language school over the last few days. A group of kids from Russia went out on the boat snorkelling on Comino yesterday – if you call finding the highest point on the boat and jumping off it snorkelling! The group were also here the other day doing taster dives. Their leader said she’s never seen them smile so much on an activity before – that’s got to be a good sign!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Goodbye Jenny!

Now that summer has arrived it has been rather crazy the last few days so I’m going to have to catch you all up.

My parents came to visit last week and decided to give diving a go as did Ed’s brother. They all had a great time exploring the house reef. . .

We’ve had some confusion over the phrase “make sure you put everything back in your box”. Guys we do have to fill the cylinders again between dives . . .

Jack has had some trouble dealing with the heat. Viv has been keeping him in the office to keep him cool and out of mischief however yesterday when we had both a Gozo and a Comino trip . . .

Jack spent the day expressing his jealousy by eating through the wetsuit hangars . . .

Nev has found an Unidentified Floating Object (UFO) on the house reef which is seriously troubling him. I will keep you up to date on what he thinks it is . . .

Sadly Jennys month with us has came to an end the other day. No she didn’t cry thou I think that’s because she was too concerned aouth the fact she hadn’t had time to pack with all the dives and Specialities she’d been trying to fit in! We threw her a BBQ on her last night . . .

Steve was in charge of the BBQ . . .

Luckily Harriet is still in one piece!

And Aaron signed her paperwork so now she is a qualified Divemaster! Woohooo!

Hopefully we will be seeing her again in August to do the Instructor Development Course – if she can fit it in befer going back to uni.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Neoprene Pocket Shorts

Have you ever noticed that one of the only down sides to wet suits is that most of them don’t have pockets. Given that not many of us actually live on the coast, and cycling in scuba gear above water is not the most sensible of ideas, it makes sense that most diversz have to drive to the dive site. Which leaves us with one problem, where to put the keys? . . .

Not only are our keys a problem, there are various other pieces of equipment we might want to takes such as a backup mask or wet notes or a torch. If we had them all hanging off our BCD's we would look like Christmas trees and it’s not so easy to pull stuff out of BCD pockets.

For all these problems there is potentially one solution . . . The NEOPRENE POCKET SHORTS!

Here they are being modelled by Ed . . .

They are pretty much identical to the types of pockets you get on a dry suit. Make sure you get a pair that fit properly thou, you don’t want them falling down when the pockets are full!

Alan is going be wearing these magic shorts today. He’s taking them down to Polynesian at 65m to really test their durability. We will have to wait for him to report back on this one . . .

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Zombies and Aliens!

Congratulations to Kaya who has taken some tome off working on the film set to do her Open Water course which she completed today. She and her dad are planning on doing some diving together when they next get a day off from shooting Zombies . . .

Those of you who have chosen to work in the diving industry at some point in your life will know that diving isn't the most highly paid of jobs. To put it plainly we do it because we love it! Because of this Sarah has started growing her own vegetables – sensible idea. She brought one in today and I have the uncanny feeling these really aren’t tomatoes . . .

Friday, July 1, 2011

A Child's Perspective of Diving

Jenny and Phil have finished mapping the house reef after a couple of days of attempting different methods. Now they are back to heavy lifting and assisting the Instructors. There’s no rest for the wicked!
Simon William left yesterday after a week of diving. See you in October Simon, hopefully we will all have a bit more energy by then!

Our search and recovery divers Tim and David are off to Zurrieq with the pleasure divers to practice various search patterns and learn when it would be appropriate to use each type. Fabio and his 10 yr old son had two awesome dives at Cirkewwa yesterday. His son was so excited about getting to 12m and said the dive made him feel like he was in a video game!