Why not Drysuit Diving…
Why Dry Suit? Why Not!! I have spent many happy dives in a 3mm Shorty and never thought I would ever Dive in a cold country, But I started to realize what a waste it was not to dive in my own country and miss all those weeks waiting to go to sunny Climates. So December 2007 the 13th to be exact I did my PADI Dry suit Specialty and dived in a lake in a dry suit, water temperature 4 degrees Fahrenheit, the visibility was stunning and the crispness of the water could be felt on your face, chilly hands but hey I was diving and a new world of diving opened up to me. So what makes me an expert? What I can tell you is that I have done many dry suit dives for pleasure and as a Rescue diver on training courses. The first thing I [...]
Categories: Drysuit diving Tags: dive drysuit, Drysuit diving, scuba drysuit
Diving in the Caribbean
Dreams of 32 degrees water amazing visibility, Wrecks, Drift, Dives, Biggest Brain Corals, the Caribbean has it all. Its where my Scuba life started sitting by a pool in Antigua along came my first instructor Carlo Constantini he took me through a try dive in the pool and I was hooked, next day my first discover scuba dive from Nelsons Dockyard , The pillars of Hercules I was amazed the coral was so fantastic small Nurse sharks stingrays, fish everywhere and this dive site was only three minutes from the harbor. Antigua is a beautiful place and Nelsons dockyard is a great place to dive from, I only did two dives in Antigua but ill never forget them, and I can highly recommend it for weeks diving. Tobago, now were talking fantastic drift dives fast and challenging at Speyside (Atlantic side) and more sedate on the Caribbean side I stayed [...]
NAUI: The student diver is the reason
The student diver is the reason… why NAUI has dedicated 35 years to developing the finest recreational diving instructors in the world and supporting them with the most stringent recreational diving safety standards. Scuba diving is an soft-adventure sport, and has inherent risks. The only way to minimize risk is to maximize education, “Dive safetly through education”. Many scuba certification programs exist today, but only one can be called a scuba education program, NAUI. To become a NAUI instructor, candidates undergo an intensive leadership- training program that requires extensive diving knowledge and superior water skills. The combination of exceptional leadership, sound educational materials, and true concern for the individual, has resulted in the best safety record in the recreational diving community. When students enroll in a NAUI diving program, they can be assured they’re receiving the finest diving education available. NAUI instructors won’t accept anything less… and neither should they. [...]
Categories: NAUI, Scuba diving courses Tags: Dive Naui, NAUI, NAUI Dive Agency, Scuba diving courses
Diving or a Diving Career in Vietnam? Let’s set the scene!
Vietnam is a relatively new-world dive destination when compared to the big names like The Red Sea, The Great Barrier Reef, Bali & Thailand. This is however one of the attractions for tourists & divers; it’s not yet over-commercialised with hundreds of divecentres everywhere you look. For example, the busiest place in Vietnam for diving is Nha Trang, where there are currently just 12 divecentres, compared to the 120 or so in Phuket, Bali or Cairns. Around 1 million Western tourists come to Vietnam each year and over 250,000 of them visit Nha Trang. Close to 20% of these dive, learn to dive or stay on to become Divemasters & Instructors! So why consider diving or dive training in Vietnam? What’s it like? Vietnam does not boast regular 40m viz or diving with Whales, Sharks or Mantas. In fact it’s rare to see any of the big stuff and viz [...]
Spare Air Review. Well not really…
A few years ago, I was a very small fish in a very big pond, and I tried to contact Spare Air interested in reviewing their product. I was just starting a different scuba diving website and I was trying to create quality content about different products. So I though.. hey! for sure the nice people of Spare Air will allowed me to test one of their amazing-ultra-life-saving-products… ! WRONG! Wrong, wrong, wrong. Spare Air, barely paid me attention…so I tried to contact them a few more times. I never got any replied from them, that’s why I decided to purchase my own amazing-life-saving-spare-air-mini-tiny-tank… . The result? Well, check the video below… and smile, sometimes is good to have a scuba laugh. And to the guys of Spare Air: Thank god for Spare Air.
Categories: Scuba Diving products Tags: scuba joke, scuba review, spare air, spare air products, spare air review
Introduction to DIR Education
The talk of DIR diving over the last few years has led to a masquerade of conflicting ideas. A distorted view of equipment identification and community exclusivity has given rise to many misinterpretations of a simple and effective philosophical base for improving a diver’s safety and enjoyment underwater. DIR diving allows a unified team of divers to communicate and execute a dive in a precise and logical rhythm, free from distraction, disorientation or confusion. DIR education differs from that of conventional diver training, in that DIR is rooted in a holistic system that is consistent with the students’ progression. This includes the essential building blocks of education, as well as equipment, experience and community. The idea is to “Start with the end in mind.” Too many in the scuba industry deplete the necessary ingredients of quality education that DIR finds fundamental. A quick and cheap class, the bare minimum of [...]
Categories: DIR, Scuba diving courses Tags: DIR, DIR diving, diving DIR, Scuba diving Course
Meet Rick Davis: SSI diving, Scuba Jedi
I take a practical and pragmatic approach to creating and educating comfortable and competent divers and exceptional dive leaders. I learned to dive through BSAC when I was 17, really for no other reason than the opportunity presented itself. But loved it! I went diving on The Great Barrier Reef several years later, took a handful of PADI classes, saw working dive leaders in action and shortly after enrolled myself in an extended SSI DiveCon internship. Within a year I was bopping about the Fiji Islands and living the dream; working on reef-fringed islands, diving every day, swimming with the fishes, introducing people to a world about which I am passionate and training others to do the same! Six years on and I am now an SSI DiveCon Instructor and NAUI Instructor Trainer, working full-time in the industry but in a very different environment. I now manage a full-service Michigan-based [...]
Categories: Scuba diving courses, SSI Tags: Rick Davis, Scuba Jedi, SSI diving, SSI scuba diving
Jason Renoux Scuba Diving Jedi : Our Mexico Expert
I’m French living in Akumal, Mexico. I was born in Marseille, France and grew up in Guadeloupe (FWI). After many years teaching scuba diving, fifteen years in all, I really needed to do something a bit different. Don’t worry, I didn’t plan to do an 8 to 5 job in an office, no, that’s not me! Few years ago I was introduced to underwater photography with the famous Nikonos V and burned tons of rolls trying to improve the composition and quality of my shots. It really helped my transition towards digital media as I new I was good at it already. So here I am now, in the Mayan Riviera diving on the very colourful reefs and mystical Cenotes, offering my services as a private videographer and photographer. Between all the colours of the corals, sponges and other Queen Angelfish, the Caribbean waters are a paradise for image enthusiasts. [...]
Paul Mila : Scuba Jedi and Author
Paul J. Mila traded in his corporate suit for a wet suit, and now devotes his time to writing, scuba diving around the world, underwater photography, and speaking to groups about ocean conservation. He has enjoyed the opportunity to photograph and dive with Caribbean reef sharks in the Bahamas, humpback whales in the Dominican Republic and in the South Pacific Tonga Islands, diverse sea life in the Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Bonaire, Hawaii, Antigua, and in his home waters off Long Island, NY. Paul’s underwater pictures have been featured in magazines, on scuba diving web sites, and shown at the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival in Australia. Following the advice of writers who said to write about what you know and like, he has incorporated the ocean and diving as the core of his writing, which includes three novels: DANGEROUS WATERS, WHALES’ ANGELS, and FIREWORKS. Diving in the same waters as the [...]
Categories: Conservation Tags: Paul J. Milla, Paul Milla
Meet Dean Pennington II, NAUI Scuba Jedi and Trainer
My name is Dean Pennington II. I have been scuba diving since 1995 when I was certified as an open water diver with the YMCA. I am a PA (physician assistant). I work in neurosurgery and have extensive experience in orthopedic surgery as well. Prior to becoming a PA I spent 9 1/2 years (85-94) in the U.S. Army flying AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopters. I have extensive training in hyperbaric and dive medicine. I have completed Hyperbaric Medicine Team Training with Dr. Paul Sheffield in San Antonio, Advanced Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Training Program with Dick Rutkowski in Key Largo, the NOAA Diving Medical Officer Program that is done with the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society in Seattle and lastly the Medical Assessment of Fitness for Diving training for Diving Medical Examiner also put on by UHMS in New Orleans. My 14 years of dive training includes, Scuba instructor and [...]
Categories: NAUI Tags: Dean Pennington II, Naui Expert, Naui Jedi, Naui Scuba Diver
