So You Want to Live in Paradise
The purpose of this article is to give you a perspective of what it’s really like living the dream, being a dive instructor and living in Paradise. Like you, I to had what some would call a “real job” some 18 years ago! I had real clothes that I always spent money on to make sure that they were the most fashionable of the time. I drove nice cars that were mostly financed by the banks. My jobs over the years involved working in the publishing business, farm work, every aspect of the restaurant business and even a short time at a large retail outlet. Back then internet wasn’t around but there was no shortage of newspapers and magazine articles that gave you a glimpse of various exotic locations. I too worked hard to save my money in order to visit these wonderful places when vacation time rolled around, and [...]
Categories: Scuba Careers Tags: Diving Careers, PADI IDC, Scuba Career
The Dogfish Debate
The spiny dogfish Squalus acanthias is not the type of sexy shark that Spielberg would make a movie about. No one has ever been terrorized by a mud shark. Fishermen sometimes get jabbed by a fin spine when they are trying to remove dogfish from their nets but other than that dogfish are more or less harmless. Perhaps that was true until a few years ago when (according to fishermen) spiny dogfish became public enemy number one. If they are to be believed, dogfish are now the biggest natural threat to the survival of Western Atlantic fisheries. The problem arises from a potential miscalculation on the part of researchers. Fisheries surveys conducted along the eastern seaboard of the US some years ago, indicated that although there were quite a few dogfish still at large, almost all of them were male. This led to fears that the population was heading for [...]
Categories: Shark Diving Tags: over fishing., sharks, spiny dogfish
Tracking & Marketing All In One With Scubaocity
One of the toughest things in any business is ensuring you are tracking what a customer wants to do and when. This is even more important in the dive business when a customer calls or emails and wants to reserve a spot for a boat trip, training session, or dive travel. How do you keep track of all this information? You’d be surprised how many are still doing this the old fashion way, with pencil and paper. This method of customer tracking requires a big eraser if the customer needs to be moved or deleted. Not only is it hard to move customers around, but also this type of data tracking tends to foster mistakes by loosing customer information, miss-booking reservations, or worst yet not even getting the reservation on that piece of paper to begin with. And to make matters worse this information is the only source of that [...]
Categories: Scuba Diving products Tags: dive reservation system, dive software, scuba software, scubaocity
Sharks for open water !
Pura Vida guys and avid scuba jedi readers!!! From the green, lush beauty that is Costa Rica its time to give you an update on diving pacific style. As November draws to a close we are on our way into dry season. Here in Costa Rica we have 2 different seasons, wet and dry and for may people they are under the illusion that during “wet”season you can’t dive…WRONG!!! Visibility may drop in some areas, some more than others, but diving is all year round here! On the central pacific coast where we do get affected by the October rains I like to call it scavenger diving if needed. All you need to do is “get down and dirty” as there is still so much life to see. This year we experienced some spectacular weather for October, with hardly any rains so we were diving throughout the month including plenty of [...]
Categories: Scuba Diving in Costa Rica Tags: dive in Costa Rica, Scuba Diving in Costa Rica, Sharks in Costa Rica
Another Day in Paradise
I’m back on land for one evening and leaving again tomorrow morning I’ve had a fantastic week in the southern Egyptian Red Sea with great diving and lots of sharks. Next week we’re going up north to dive wrecks like Thistlegorm, Rosalie Müller, Ulyssis, Carnatic and many more. Here comes a little description how nice it can be to work on a liveaboard. Our first stop after the check dive at Shaab Marsa Alam was Abu el Kizan a.k.a. Daedalus. About 55 miles straight out from Marsa Alam on the way to Saudi Arabia this Reef emerges from the abyss. Shaped like an egg on a north-west, south-east axis, 450 meters across and with vertical, almost inverted walls this reef has rightly earned a reputation to be one of the best dive spots in the world. We stayed for one day and made three dives. I could have stayed there [...]
Categories: Scuba diving destinations, Scuba Diving in Egypt Tags: Scuba diving Egypt, Scuba diving Safaga, Tobia Arba
Liquid Image Camera Review
Well, this is the issue: I’m 32 and after 5 years as a full time diving instructor I decided to stop my diving career and spend more time at home…. I decided to choose a “drier” life. The reason? In many ways, you can say I was BORED of diving in the same place, in the same area, with the same people… believe me you get scuba-bored once you do 500 dives in the same location. That’s why yesterday was such a special day. Location: My same old local dive site. Dive time: 30 minutes Depth: no more than 8 meters. Special Encounters: None. Visibility: Below Average Level of Satisfaction: Extremely High. So what made my dive so exciting? Well, a new gadget that I got in the mail in the last days. Ladies and Gentlemen, divers and Scuba Jedi readers… meet the Liquid Image Scuba Series HD320. The idea [...]
So today is my Scuba B-day….
Well, in fact it is my B-day today… gosh I’m 32… that’s why I decided to write a post about my personal 5 scuba diving products I may want to add to my “Birth Day Scuba Wish list” . My list is not a list of “conventional scuba diving products” like BCD’s or Regulators… this year I wanted something different, something original, that’s why I decided to do a bit of research for the coolest scuba diving gadgets out there. So here we go: Gabriel’s top 5 scuba products to add to my Birthday Wish List 1. The first product on my list is such a simple, practical and logical object to have… that I don’t really know yet, if this is a brilliant idea, (or simply-plain silly), dear readers, please meet the “Scuba Sight ” or in another words, a Scuba Mirror, once again the idea is so simple [...]
Categories: Scuba Diving products Tags: dive gifts, scuba gadgets, scuba products, scuba watch
Status Report Egypt 6.5
Noah built his ark before it started to rain. To wait till the water was up at his knees would have been a mistake. I agree with Noah: It’s better to prepare for potentially dangerous situations and take necessary percussions to avoid the risks. Guiding divers means that you have to stay on top of everything. You have to make sure that every one is following the rules and practise the standards of safe diving because you’re supposed to get all guests back to shore in one piece and with a heartbeat. Especially important is this on dive sites like Brother Islands or Elphinstone. Sometimes guests imply that our rules are too austere or they debate that we should make exceptions in one way or another. I try to make our dives as safe as possible and therefore I don’t make exceptions. I tell the guests how important it is [...]
Categories: Scuba diving destinations, Scuba Diving in Egypt Tags: Dive Egypt, Dive Red Sea, Marsa Alam Hyperbaric Clinic, Scuba Egypt
Minimum Age for Scuba Diver Certification with NAUI
Minimum Age for Scuba Diver Certification with NAUI I am often asked (again just today) “How old does my child need to be to dive?”. NAUI has a minimum age requirement for open water scuba diver, it is 15 years. Dean with his son Drew NAUI does have a Junior certification for ages 12 – 14 years. Some courses (open water) allow a conditional Junior Certification. This Junior certification can be issued to persons age 12 – 14 years. Junior Certification carries several restrictions. * The parent or guardian and Junior diver agree that the Junior diver will dive with a certified adult (18 years of age) diver of the parent’s or guardian selection. * The parent or guardian and Junior diver agree that the Junior diver will limit diving depth to 60 feet or less. * By signing the Junior certification card, the parent or guardian agrees to be [...]
Categories: NAUI, Scuba diving courses Tags: minimum age requirement, NAUI, scubad diving
Rock Bottom- Rethinking the 500psi Gas Rule
Throughout the world, divers are told again and again to return to the boat with 300-500 psi in their tanks. Understandably, most competent divers stretch their bottom time out as long as they can. They smile as they show their pressure gauges to the dive master upon surfacing and then compare gauges with other divers in order to see who the closest one to 301psi is. Getting the most bottom time underwater is a fun game to play with buddies and I’m not saying that divers shouldn’t use as much of their tanks as possible. However the question becomes, “Is this the smartest way to plan gas?” What exactly is the goal of leaving some air in our tanks? To help a buddy in need, to keep water out of our tanks, to inflate our BCD’s at the surface? Many divers use the 1/3’s rule, but even this plan has [...]
Categories: DIR Tags: DIR, gas management, gas planning, rock bottom
