Scuba Diving, PADI Divemaster and Instructor news from the Caribbean.

Utila Summer Update September 2, 2010

SunJam 14th Edition Outstanding Success

DJ Luis Maier rocking the dance floor at Watercaye!

SunJam'ers showing Pure Party Pleasure!!!

This year on August 7th and 8th over 1000 revelers danced the weekend away to one of the most successful, attended and greatest SunJam parties ever hosted on the beautiful island of Watercaye.  A line up of international DJ’s from Central America, the USA and Europe attracted party goers from all over the world for this famous and established party event in the Central America calender, and in good party season, there were several pre and post party evens on the island of Utila to support the SunJam.  Here’s to the 15th edition of the SunJam in 2011, see you there and for more information visit www.sunjamutila.com!

Click on ‘more’ below to see other updates from this Summer……………….

Congratulations to August Instructor Success

August IE 100% success

This photo taken with our candidates and staff  from the Utila August PADI Instructor Exams celebrating 100% success at the completion of the exams with our dedicated personalised scuba instruction. Our GoPro staff, PADI Course Director Jules Page and IDC Staff Instructors Suzy Phipps and Madeline Thiebauld, excelled in preparing and training our candidates who came from afar as the UK, the USA, Chile, Canada, and locally Honduras, and seeing them through one of the best chapters in their dive careers.Our candidates from our August IDC are now preparing to work in the local dive industry throughout Utila, Roatan, Mexico, Costa Rica and elsewhere in Central America and the Caribbean this month with a job placement service and many will be going on to complete their ‘Master Scuba Diver Trainer’  scuba Internships and ‘Beautiful Oceans’ Science Instructor ratings before embarking on jobs within the region. To date in 2010 and also in 2009 more Instructor candidates have chosen UDC as the Premier PADI Career Development Center in Central America to take their Instructor training, more than any other facility in Central America from Mexico to Colombia, based on our great reputation, word of mouth, our training programs, comprehensive curriculum with guaranteed success at the exams and in the dive industry. If you’d like to learn more about a professional dive career please contact us on gopro@utiladivecenter.com  for more information. We don’t just certify you as an Instructor at Utila Dive Centre, but we give you real world training, lifetime support, the broadest range of con-ed options and make it a lot of fun.

UDC Course Director returns from Galapagos rebreather trip

Utila Dive Centre’s resident Course Director/Instructor Trainer Andy Phillips recently become one of the first divers in recent times to conduct a closed circuit rebreather trip to the Galapagos islands of Darwin and Wolf.  The trip was supported by local rebreather Instructor Jorge Mahauad and involved several check out/warm up land based diving in the Southern Islands, before a live aboard trip to Darwin and Wolf in the last week of August.  Andy’s objective was to collect video footage of clsoe encounters with Hammerhead sharks and that object was met, as you can see here on this video .  Andy also encountered Whale sharks, Manta Rays, Galapagos sharks, Orca whales and hundreds of schooling fish on the trip.

This type of encounter is not possible on traditional Open Circuit scuba, due to the noise and bubbles, and is just one of the many benefits of closed circuit rebreather diving.  The dive training agency PADI recently announced that in 2011 they would be introducing courses in closed circuit rebreathers at both the recreational and technical level, and Utila Dive Centre, with the only rebreather qualified staff in Honduras, will be introducing these programs next year.

All the Best Johan and Marta

We’d like to wish all the best to our UDC staff members, Johan and Marta, who have left us after several years to travel and work in another dive destination worldwide.  Johan was a full time member of the UDC team for the last 3 years and contributed to the success of our dive operation and training, with his intimate knowledge of the reef systems, local island culture, and instructional abilities.

Adios Joan and Marta!