Dive Show
The London International Dive Show takes place at Excel in Docklands again this weekend, 10 and 11 March. Speakers, bargains and interesting products new to the market, plus the highlight - the Aqua-Marina stand. How can you resist? See www.diveshows.co.uk and save money on entry by getting your ticket online.
Divemaster Interns wanted
We still have opportunities for budding PADI professionals to work and train with the best! We are looking for trainees for April-May, or early July to mid August or mid August to end of September. Apply to Neil on info@aqua-marina.com if you are interested. The intern training programme takes approximately 6 weeks.
Good Luck, Andy
It is with regret that this week we bid farewell to Andy. Andy was our first employee when we took over Aqua-Marina in May 2004 and we have had many laughs and many fascinating dive adventures with him. He's now moving on but will still be local so we hope to catch him for the occasional beer or two, and who knows, maybe the odd dive too?
Happy New Year
As yet another year ends, we would like to warmly thank our customers for their continued support and very much hope to see you all again in 2007.
One step forward, two steps back
The excitement of launching our new RIB, Chucho Uno, had hardly subsided when a couple of weeks ago we found that both boats had had their tubes severely slashed whilst moored overnight in Los Cristianos harbour. It appears to be just mindless vandalism rather than something aimed at us personally as another two boats moored nearby suffered the same treatment. Happily our supplier, Herzog, was able to effect a super speedy repair to Chucho (many thanks to Marcos and the team at Herzog for pulling out all the stops just days before Christmas). A new tube is on order for the Valiant, Nostromo, and we hope to see her back in the water mid January, by which time Chucho will be exhausted and ready for her holidays.
Good as new
Shortly after the acquisition of our new RIB we sent the Valiant for an overhaul. Even though she is only 3 years old, the fuel tank was corroding and causing all sorts of nasty problems, so we replaced the tank and also took the opportunity to replace the 2 stroke Mercury motor with a 4 stroke Suzuki. So those of you who were unlucky enough to be on board when she let us down a few times last year will be relieved to hear that there is now no reason for that to recur. Anyone interested in a second-hand Mercury 200 outboard???
Fancy a change of career?
Many of our clients will have met our videographer, Jenny, and once you've met Jenny you don't forget her! We are sad to report that she is soon to embark on a career change, starting with a bit of gap-year-style travelling and diving, so her video business here in Tenerife is up for sale. Over the last 4 years she has built up a loyal customer base, including Aqua-Marina of course, and is selling this together with her equipment and computer. If you are interested, take a look at her website: marine-images.com, which includes contact details. She plans to leave mid February so, no pressure, but best to act pronto.
New Sites
Steve is currently on a mission to increase the number of dive sites on our regular itinerary. Having 2 boats means we can now more regularly offer sites at depths greater than 18m, without disappointing those qualified to Open Water or equivalent. His mission did not get off to a spectacular start though - an exploration of the tunnels in Palm Mar Cave with Paul and Gareth and as many torches and yards of rope as they could manage had a very conclusive outcome: no way will we be adding this to our itinerary. Diving in a pitch black overhead environment is just too damn scary! The girls here all knew that already, but the boys just had to check.
However there are a number of sites here that we don't currently dive because they are between 30m and 40m deep. We can easily add these to the regular timetable. The only proviso is that divers must be trained to dive beyond 30m for obvious safety reasons, plus be sure that their insurance is valid at these depths. DAN insurance for example, is only valid if the dive does not exceed the diver's training, and many holiday insurances stipulate 30m as a max depth. So anyone interested in trying some of these deeper dives will need to take these points into consideration. Aqua-Marina can of course provide Deep Diver training at these alternative sites..
Say cheese
And talking of training we are delighted to announce that Paul is certified to teach the new PADI Specialty course, Digital Underwater Photography, which you may have noticed is being quite heavily promoted by PADI currently. The course consists of a day's diving plus tuition in how to digitally enhance your pictures (cheating, surely?) Digital photography grows in popularity month by month and is particularly relevant here in Tenerife with its generally excellent viz, abundance of marine life and lack of strong currents (usually!).
Go Pro
Also Mats is now a Staff Instructor, which means that we can offer training up to PADI Assistant Instructor on demand. This is a 3-4 day course available to those already qualified as Divemaster or equivalent. The upgrade from Assistant Instructor to Instructor can be made in May or November when Instructor Development courses are run here in Tenerife, or alternatively at any IDC centre throughout the world.
Go Mikey
Talking of going pro takes me neatly on to announce that Mike Chapman, who started diving only 9 months ago, has recently achieved Divemaster, sold his share in a bar over here and leaves for Thailand in January where he plans to do his Instructor Development course. Good luck Mike!
BSAC Renewal
We have just renewed our BSAC Resort status which commits us to recognising the training undertaken and treating divers according to their training and experience. We're unable to provide BSAC training but can offer the best possible conditions for groups to further their own training. For groups of 6 to 9 which include an instructor we can discount the normal dive pack price by a further 15% on top of the already heavily discounted pack price, as long as the group does not require an Aqua-Marina dive guide. Also you can have dedicated use of one of our boats with an Aqua-Marina skipper, with the itinerary planned according to your needs and interests. Don't forget we can also arrange very reasonably priced accommodation next to the dive centre.
____________________________________________________________
Return to top of page