Maritime Training College students on work attachment

The Underwater Centre is always pleased to help out the young Seychellois  gain experience in the activities  and operations of a Dive Resort .  Regularly this is students from the local college for Maritime training .

The boys and girls come for several weeks and   get seamanship expereince helping the skippers on the dive boats, assisting the Dive Centre Receptionist , helping with Compressor room activities plus lots of manual labour jobs and bottles to carry .

The fun stuff comes in the water and everyone is happy to help out the snorkellers  on our afternnon snorkel trips  plus get in a few dives after the basic course .

MTC students learning basic theory before the dive

Divemaster Trainee James assists with  SCUBA class 



Ready for the water are our latest helpers Travis and Romeo . Both boys are doing Fisheries  studies so know most of the local names for the fish already !

Small really is beautiful

Often we hear about big rays , sharks, groupers  and giant parrot fish but sometiems on a dive it is the small things that are truley memorable !

Leaf Fish ........Comes in various colours..pink, white ,yellow and black

Mantis Shrimp ..small but very powerful !!!

We have had some wet and windy days lately and it has been playing  flip flop with the water clarity but even when its cloudy and the visability is not as good as it might be  you have to keep your eyes open or you will miss these  small but beautiful creatures.

Farewell to Yash

Our  young diver, Yash has finally come to an end of his holiday and is  winging his way back to India to start school studies.

He has kept everyone busy by completing 37 logged dives  in Seychelles ( a grand total of 77 in his log book) , 3 specialty courses plus his EFR and Jr Rescue Diver certification . He takes with him his application for Master SCUBA Diver  and becomes one of the few 12 year olds  to complete so much training  .

WELL DONE YASH!!!   The staff held a small farewell  party for him and his Dad brought the wine.....so thanks everyone

Bye Bye Yash ....... Safe Diving

Congratulations to our latest RESCUE Divers

 Sabrina has been very busy doing the last  three PADI  Rescue classes.....so well done everyone

                                                                                        



meet Hanna



meet Ashleigh



Yash has the Jr Rescue as he is only 12 years old.

 Hannah and Ashleigh   also had a successful weekend

Hopefully everyone will think about doing he PADI Divemaster training course .......even if its not in Seychelles!!

N.R.P. Alvares Cabral visits Victoria

The Portuguese Navy is in port  for a few days and several of the crew like to dive .  Seychelles is always a popular port of call for '' Rest & Relaxation''  and the crew are making the most of their short visit.

Some are already certified and some are doing the one day intro course and shallow dive . The 21st May was a very wet and windy day  but today  , the 22nd , was sunny and calm ..............

Tomorrow we have a few more divers  so lets hope we have no more rain!!!

Lots of PADI courses completed

Hi!!

Its been a busy time with several courses completed these last few days.

Our most active student is Yash who has now completed his 3 Specialty courses ....Boat, Search and Recovery and Navigation. Today he completed his Emergency First Responder & First Aid course and on Wednesday he begins his Jr Rescue Diver training.Within this short holiday he has logged a total of 37 dives in Seychelles and a grand total of 77 in his logbook . He is already asking about other Specialty courses he can take and I am sure he will be a Divemaster by 18 and PADI Instructor very soon after that. Well done Yash .

Next comes honey moon couple Valentina and Allesio from Italy .

Congratulations guys on both the marraige and the dive certifications!!

Gregson from the UK  came with a referral and completed the dive skills on holiday . He now returns to the Uk as a PADI Openwater Diver . From the happy look onhis face after the last dive  I think he will be an active holiday diver for years to come.

So a busy week for the instructors  but still they keep on smilling . Thank you Tony and Sabrina

Long Distance dive site of Conception Island South Point

Glad to say that the weather has improved, seas have clamed and winds are minimal again..........so it was off to the long distance site of Conception Island, south point  and Matoopa Point.

Our youngest diver was delighted to report that they had 6 sharks and a shoal of 24 eagle rays !!  .......so no complaints .

Our youngest diver this week  is 12 year old Yash from India. He is a Jr Advanced Openwater Diver with specialties in Enriched Air Nitrox and U/W photography  and his 10 day holiday has become a SCUBA diving  extraveganza .  Already pre booked is the 20 morning dives and  only yesterday he completed his 50th SCUBA dive.  He received underwater post cards of congratulations signed by all the  dive centre staff and a special  one form his Mum and Dad .

The afternoon dives have turned into training dives and so far Yash has competed the Boat Diver Specialty and is working hard on the Search and Recovery specialty with IDC Staff  Instrcutor Tony . Next is the Navigational Specialty so by the end of the week Yash will have 5  PADI Specialty courses and 70 SCUBA dives !!!

   Before going home he will complete his EFR and Jr Rescue Diver  and an extra 5 dives  . This means that he will be able to apply for the PADI Master SCUBA Diver certification .......... a monumental achievement for any diver .

So well done Yash and well done Mum and Dad for all the support  they have given .

We all wonder what milestones Yash will reach at 18 years,  21 years and 25 years ........ hope we can find out.!

Dive of the week

It has been a few days of easy dives within the Beau Vallon Bay area;

Grouper Point , Bay Ternay Marine Park , Twin Barges wrecks, Aquarium, Grand Bazar reef and  Joker reef.  With 2 dives each morning and one dive each afternoon we quickly  visit lots of places.  So what was special  this week??:

Lots of turtles.........like this Hawksbill have been seen on several sites . This is  seasonally early as mating is usually  later in the year when we expect to see lots of turtles around.   So lucky us!!!!!!!!!!!

A range of moray eels have been seen. This one shows a cleaning station with both cleaning shrimp and cleaning wrass . The  symbiotic relationship between the moray eel is clear to see ...........no  lunch here for the moray eel but lots of work for the cleaning team.



This Bat fish  photo was taken on L'Ilot Island . A site with lots of soft corals and large granitic boulders. One of our favourites .
                                                                             

Green Cromis are often seen in hard corals , particularly the table corals of the Beau Vallon reefs.
Although individually small  they always come in large shoals so expect to see a carpet of colour over the corals.

Weather has been mixed over the last few days  with a day of showers and high winds .  Today was perfect with calm seas inside the Bay area and a very sunny sky. So tomorrow we have planned another trip outside the bay to Conception Island .

Meet some of the divers of the May Bank Holiday

As previously mentioned, it has been very busy at the Underwater Centre due largely to the guys below .....many thanks indeed for  choosing Underwater Centre to show you the Seychelles underwater world.

Also , many thanks for doing so many dives each!!! .....it has been amazing with divers choosing upwards of 16 dives  .

 Simon, Renata  and daughter Aga  have been visiting Seychelles for many  years and we were delighted to see them again .  Simon is one of our Rescue divers from before and this year we were pleased to confirm Aga as a new PADI Rescue diver





Patiently waiting  for the boat crew  are a small group of divers from Germany and Switzerland  : John , Irene, Sabine and Patrick  dived every day.
 Meik and Heike  only missed a few days  but the trips to Praslin and La Digue are well worth it!

Heike and Meik
have already said that they will return to Seychelles again
which is fantastic news .  See you 2015 ???

Evgeny and Olga and daughter Katarina from Moscow , Russia travelled nearly every day from their resort on Cerf Island. Whilst Mum and Dad dived Katarina practiced her English, played chess with the Divemaster trainee James and  laterly helped us with all the equipement preperations ..........it is expected that she will be as keen a diver as her parents one day soon.



So these are but a few of our many divers these last few weeks .............thank you to everyone and come back again soon.

Academy by the Sea destination of surprise is DARROS ISLAND

Academy by the Sea, MCSS and Underwater Centre are thrilled to be able to thank the privately owned island of Darros for their invitation to bring 8 school children and supervisors for a weeks stay on their island

This weeks group still did not know were they were going so everyone managed to keep the secret ...but now all can be revealed

.
Each group got 7 nights accommodation, Marine education and conservation classes , snorkelling, bird watching, beach monitoring  and the thrill  of a life time.. The group above is due back on Saturday 11th May along with Academy teacher Abbi March of  MCSS.

A big THANK YOU to the staff of Underwater Centre

As previously mentioned this May weekend Bank Holiday  is very busy and all the staff are working very hard .

Special thanks go to those who have given up their days off to be in at work :

Sabrina gave up Thursday and Friday to complete her Jr Openwater Diver course with Tristan

Skipper Mervin has given up  his Wednesday and Thursday off to keep driving the dive boats 

Divemaster Yannick  has given up Wednesday and Thursday as the first 2 days of his annual leave to help with intro courses and dives 

Tony has stayed behind to fill bottles ................no bottles no dives!!!!

Lastly is Andrew who has been asked to give up his up an coming rest days .....thank you Andrew !

This is what we call  TEAM WORK  and I am delighted to say that Underwater Centre has the best TEAM ever!!!

1st May Bank Holiday

 It was a very busy day today with  our new Divemaster trainees working very hard.

James went to Grouper Point and Bay Ternay Marine Park  with divers wishing not so deep diving.
Victoria assisted Tony on the  deeper long distance dive site of Shark Bank followed by Aquarium.

I am very pleased to tell  you  that today  I recieved great reports of their  guiding abilities  and attention to safety and comfort which makes  the whole team  very happy . Indeed when divers ask specifically for the same Divemaster  on the next days diving I know things are going well. !!!

So congratulations guys ..................keep up the good work!!!

Bay Ternay Marine Park 

The  Dive boat when here twice today ..........the morning dive with James and then all DMT's in  the afternoon dive with students and snorkellers . It is such a great site with depths from 2  to 18 meters