Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Certifications for March 2010

Congratulations to all our students ...............

PADI Seal Team  : Paulo Garcia

MASTER Seal Team : Paulo Garcia

Jr Openwater Diver  : Rhutresh Moodley, David Viljaen

Openwater Diver : David  le Poder,  Philip Morgan, Inka Bauermeister, Daniel Bifuk, Felixs Jaskiewicz, Glen Whittekiend, Nasangga Siregar,  Claire Knight,  Elizabeth Harris,  Janet McKnight.

Jr Adventure Diver : Anthony Hayman

Emergency First Responder  CPR & First Aid  : Simon Brooks

Rescue Diver : Charlotte Pryor


Specialty Courses:

Boat Diver : Anthony Hayman

Coral Reef Conservation : Anthony Hayman

Naturalist : Anthony Hayman

Peak Performance Buoyancy : Anthony Hayman

Digital Underwater Photographer : Claire  Knight

Enriched Air NITROX : Justin Niland, Tony Marie - Jeanne

Well done to all of our students..........keep up the good work!!

Monday, March 29, 2010

USS FARRAGUT ( DDG 99) visits Seychelles

We have had  several days of  fun  dives and snorkel trips for service men of the USS Farragut during their 4 day visit to the island .

Port Victoria, Mahe   with visiting war ship enjoying a few days R & R

Two hard working sailors  also managed to complete their PADI Openwater certification following the PADI e- learning  on line training program in  just 2 days.  The on line   training  allows  students to complete ALL theory training  on their personal computer and has a lifetimes access to a virtual manual of their course . So far PADI have Openwater  , Advanced Openwater  and Enriched Air NITROX  availabe  on line .  To select  this training option just open our web site and click on the PADI  e- learning link ......its so easy to learn!!
    Healthy coral  with  Green Cromis   and Blue Damsel fish

All who visited with us had never been to Seychelles before but  it seems all are keen to return...................so we look forward to the next visit!

Stina's first day of her 2 month Divemaster Internship

Christina has joined us from Finland for 2 months to get lots of Dive Resort experience as a Divemaster .
This was her first views from the UNDERWATER CENTRE  beach  fronted resort  at the  Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Hotel.

She was very impressed with the long white sandy  beach of Beau Vallon Bay , the  blue seas  and sky  and the easy acces to the dive boats and Dive Resort .   Lots of photos already taken for  friends and family !! . Standing on the beach   and looking to the right one can see  it is only a  few minutes walk to the   Augerine  Guest House and the Coral Strand Hotel


Looking to the left it is only a short walk to the Le Meridien Fisherman's Cove Hotel.

The weather at the end of March is beautiful...........calm , clear seas, blue skys and   magnificent views.   We even had a Seychelles  traditional fishing perogue go by  ..............a boat and fishing  techniques  mostly  unchanged since  the first settelers to  Seychelles

Friday, March 26, 2010

Local PRE School get a class on underwater ''HABITAT''

We just love being asked  to give talks and photo presentations to young  kids and today had us talking to  a group of  3  to 6 year old youngsters   from a local pre school .



'' HABITAT '............................ noun meaning the natural home of an animal or plant

                                          Two GOBY fish on a whip coral

We had over  30 photos  to look at and  underwater   creatures to name....... just see how intensly the kids are paying attention.    But it's not all work  and there was lots of fun taking  the group photo plus playing with the toys and, of course,  sweets that followed.

group photo  with PADI  Instructor  TONY
.


Thursday, March 25, 2010

Bay Ternay Marine National Park..........such a great dive and snorkel destination!

A 20 minute boat ride along the coastal waterway  from the Underwater Centre will bring you to this large protected bay surrounded by granitic rocks and palm trees.   The water is calm  and current free and is ideal for snorkelling and diving  excursions .

Passangers onboard ''Reef Diver ''


The reef is edged  with white sand and student  divers  can safely stay in the shallow  sloping coral section of  6   to  10 meters   before dropping down the ''wall '' of coral  to 18 meters were they may meet the other certified divers  There is always lots to see  as soon as you get into the water ....you are surrounded immediately  by sargeant majors and pygmy batfish  soon to be followed by the large batfish !!  This is a Marine Park  protected area and home to several hawksbill and green turtles .  How do you tell the difference.......???  just look at the  shape of the beak. Long and very pointed is the Hawksbill ( just like the parrot) round and smooth edged is the Green.

Trips here are scheduled on a regular basis so just ask at the Dive Centre reception desk  when you come to visit us 

Healthy corals  are seen everywere  with small green  chromis darting in and out ,  bat fish  follow you around for most of the dive  and you have to look twice at the needle fish which  are always there.   Its such  a great dive  you have to come see it for yourself!

Easter School Break starts this weekend!

              Underwater Centre  Snorkel Guide NIGEL and students

The  kids at the International School have been working hard  and all  have now completed courses for DISCOVER SNORKELING ( 8 - 10 year olds)  and JR OPENWATER DIVER  ( 10-11 year olds) .

                       Rutresh, David , Instructor Lilian  and Andears

Paulo has also completed his PADI SEAL TEAM and  MASTER SEAL TEAM  certifications.

We wish everyone a happy 3 week holiday and  next term  we start the new  classes..........JR ADVENTURE DIVER !!!

.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

PADI Certifications for February 2010

We would like to congratulate all our students for a job well done !!

SCUBA DIVER :
Manuel Vazquey, Ivan Gomez

OPENWATER DIVER:
Romain Deteve, Philip Morgan, Huy Phan, Matt Mazzarese, Carolyn Collins, Rebecca Lyal, Diana Mandeer, Susanna Neubacher, Benoit Pauget, Emmanuel Regent, Milton Reichart

EMERGENCY FIRST RESPONDER :
Justin Niland

RESCUE DIVER :
Edward Bridge, Nels Carlson, Neils Prinssen, Justin Niland

DIVEMASTER:
Adrian Kuehn, Justin Niland

ENRICHED AIR SPECIALTY :
Annika Mikkelsen, Ross Collins,  Kayla Riley, Gary Johnson, Adrian Kuehn,
Sally Conyers, Jonathan Richards, Tony Marie- Jeanne, Justin Niland.

OPENWATER SCUBA INSTRUCTORS & EFR + CHILD CARE   INSTRUCTORS
Annika Mikkelsen, Ross Collins, Kayla Riley, Gary Johnson, Adrian Kuehn, Jonathan Richards, Kirsten Gilray,  Ara Aslanian, Sheldon Hoarou, Simona Esposito,

MASTER SCUBA DIVER TRAINERS  for Digital Underwater Photo, Deep, Night, Wreck, Enriched Air Specialty Courses.
Annika Mikkelsen, Ross Collins, Kayla Riley, Gary Johnson, Adrian Kuehn, Jonathan Richards, Ara  Aslanian

INSTRUCTOR DEVELOPMENT STAFF INSTRUCTOR
Tony Marie-Jeanne

A fantastic job and we are proud of you all!!!!!!

St David's Day.............National Day of Wales, March 1st.

Owner and managing director of Underwater Centre, Dr David Rowat is   Welsh born so when we also get a Divemaster from Wales we just had to show the flag!!

Sally was presented with the national vegetable '' the leek''  which took her by surprise  as this is tropical Seychelles.   Sally leaves us this week  so its Bon Voyage and  Bon Plongee.

Monday, March 1, 2010

PADI RESCUE DIVER COURSE ..... a lot of serious fun

             Exitig the water with  diver . Equipment handler to the side

Happy to say that the weekend saw 3 more PADI Rescue Divers qualify with flying colours!    To start the course you need to be a PADI Advanced Openwater Diver with EFR certification or equivalent other agency ratings.   Then its 2 or 3 days    of search and recovery techniques ,  dealing with distressed and paniced divers  and exiting with unresponsive  divers to the beach or boat

 
Placing diver into recovery position

Once you have this certification there are many options to take next..........you can move on to proffessional level DIVEMASTER  training, .....take Specialty courses and  become a MASTER SCUBA DIVER.  There is so much  to see and do!!

             Immediate certification from  Instructor  Sabrina Dodin

So , check in and see what courses are available for you next weekend.!

MASTER SCUBA DIVER TRAINER course starts today

Its another  hard day at the office.......7 new Instrictors taking Specialty training courses  and  they are starting with  presenting NITROX  ,  DEEP,  WRECK  and NIGHT



  Good luck guys as off you go to 40 meters using Nitrox 28%  on the Seychelles latest wreck ALBADRAN .

16 CANDIDATES ALL PASS PADI IE !




 The 27th and 28th February were two  very  intense days of examinations from PADI Examiner Richard Somerset.   He took them through all  theory  exams  , classroom presentations, confined water presentations, openwater diver  skills and Rescue Diver  performances.....and all 16 passed.  Spirits  were  high and celebrations began immediately.

We were pleases to be joined by 6 candidates form the  different islands  of Praslin and Silhouette   and to have all Course Directors, IDC Staff Instructor  and examiner group together for the final photo .

7 OPENWATER INSTRUCTORS  start specialty trainig tomorrow !