New Year is always a time to look back on the last year and to look forward to the new one. So first of all, we wanted to say thanks to all our customers in 2011. You were awesome and we loved being part of your diving adventures. If you were here to take your first breaths underwater…thank you for letting us share that with you. We will never get tired of the look of wonder on peoples´ faces as they see the underwater world we love. If you were here for Advanced classes or Specialties, then hopefully we have expanded your talents and skills. If you were here for Rescue…thank you for saving us! For those who did Tech, somehow one tank will never be enough again, will it? And for all our GoPros thank you for all your hard work, the fun we had and please keep in touch and tell us as you spread the UDC professionalism worldwide.

Highlights of the year…well almost too many to mention. Here are a few:

• Winning the Instructor Development Centre of the year from PADI for the 2nd year running
• Being awarded the Green Star in recognition of the environmental awareness we have and the work we do every day to promote that
• All the fun we have had here, both diving and also the “surface intervals” outside of diving
• Spectacular sunsets at the UDC dock with an ice cold beer
• Clive building a hand glider that was SUPPOSED to fly off the dock
• Setting up the new PADI Closed Circuit Rebreather program at UDC and with 3 Poseidon MKVI rebreathers!

Looking forward to 2012…what do we hope for. Well more of the same please! To every one of you that have visited previously, please hurry back to see us. To everyone who has not yet made it to Utila ….well what´s keeping you?

Here´s wishing you everything that you dream of for 2012 and hoping this is the best year EVER. Remember, it is up to you to grab the opportunities that come your way. Just think of the quote “because my worst nightmare is to wake up one day, old and grey, thinking about all the things I didn’t do…” Make this the year you DO!!!

Since it has been lying in the ocean for 13 years now, it has become a rich ecosystem for coral and marine life. For example, there are huge clams on it and they have been there so long that coral is now growing on them, so as they open and close the coral moves with them, which is a great sight to see. Typically the wheel house section of the wreck is home to 100s of tiny fry and one large dog snapper. There is also one of the most enormous Green Moray that I have ever seen that makes occasional appearances…I have no idea where he hides the rest of the time and as he is so large I am not sure I want to know either! It is also the place I had one of my most memorable diving moments on Utila. I was teaching a lovely couple the PADI Advanced Open Water and on our safety stop dolphins started circling us. At the time I was showing them how much a bottle that we had filled with air at depth had expanded on the way up, but soon stopped that and frantically began waving at them to turn around and look behind them. Then not only could I hear the clicks of the dolphins but also the high pitched squeals of the students!

The wreck is perfect for fun divers with their Advanced certification but it is also a great place to take students for their deep dive for the Advanced course. Everyone falls in love with the wreck and I have often had students come to the surface afterwards and say it was the best moment of their life. That kind of excitement just brings chills to me and is absolutely why I am a PADI scuba diving instructor. It is also fabulous for the Wreck Specialty classes we regularly teach at Utila Dive Centre and our new Instructor candidates, enjoy training on this site after their PADI IDC is completed. There are plenty of places to penetrate the wreck and they are challenging enough to test the students’ new found skills with a reel and torch and modified kick techniques. However they are not so deep or complicated that they overwhelm the student, just enough to give them a sense of achievement and to know they can do it. We also have wreck specialty divers who are also Sidemount divers (more about that in future updates) and that allows them even more freedom to explore the inside spaces of the wreck.

My favourite parts of the dive can actually be the descents and ascents, you leap into crystal clear water and are immediately surrounded by blue water. All you can see at first as you drift down is the bubbles of other divers and it is like you are flying through space, so beautiful and so tranquil. Then Rainbow Runner and Yellow Tailed Snapper fish start circling you and suddenly the ship appears from the water below. On the way up, you drift gently up in a cloud of bubbles and then, glancing down you notice the ship has vanished again. Just imagine the amount of treasures in the ocean that we must swim past and never see….

If you come diving to Utila with us, it is one site definitely recommend you do not miss

Beautiful dolphins seen last week in Utila

Hello everyone from beautiful Utila!

So how many of you saw the massive storm that was over Honduras in this part of the world and threatening that it would rain solidly for 14 days? Luckily it changed paths and all we had was one day of rain. As that was the first rain in 4 months, it was actually very welcome. Then the next day we had beautiful clear blue Caribbean sunny skies again and it has stayed like that ever since which is great news for all of us on Utila, our divers, and those on our scuba diving internships! Just shows you get the best weather forecast by putting your head out of the window as seeing what it looks like!

Last week we also had an amazing day when we saw dolphins on the surface intervals. There were at least 80 of them and a mixture of both spinner dolphins doing tricks and the big bottle nose dolphins. The PADI Advanced students I were teaching got to jump in and snorkel with them for 15 minutes. What a perfect day and hopefully the Whale Sharks may be back again soon….watch this space for news.  Our June PADI Instructor course has just got off to a great start and all the candidates are very excited about making this a memorable Summer, and if anyone is interested we still have space on our July and August PADI Instructor courses (PADI IDC), though we recommend an early reservation as it’s looking to be an action packed and popular Summer.

The 15th annual infamous SunJam event is scheduled for this August 6th, see more www.sunjam.com and we’re expecting a record attendance and amazing event with this spectacular DJ line up.

This week saw ‘World Oceans Day’ celebrate Mother Natures gift to us and this coincided with the launch of the new Project Aware website, which we’re proud to be a featured member of, and you can read more about Project Aware and Utila Dive Centre environmental initiatives here, www.projectaware.org, and even set up your own member profile and link back to UDC so you can receive regular environmental updates from your favourite dive center in Honduras!

We’ll be sure you keep you updated as all the excitement and great diving starts happening this Summer and hope you get to be a part of it, both offline, online and underwater!

Life has been great here and we’ve been very busy with lots of new things!

We had a long weekend of Green Events for Dive for Earth Day. These included Lion Fish and Whale Shark talks, beach and underwater cleanups, coral watch and lionfish containment dives and a BBQ. On the beach clean up alone we collected 309kg’s of rubbish collected, 250kgs (81%) of which was plastic and has gone to the recycling plant.

Thanks for all the support from our willing volunteers

Whilst we are on the subject of Lion Fish, we have two things to update you on about that. Firstly our very own Josiah (a.k.a. Juicy!) has published his own distinctive specialty unique to Utila and Utila Dive Centre that has been approved by PADI. It is called Caribbean Lion Fish Containment Diver and teaches people the techniques needed to capture Lion Fish in support of our efforts to control the population of these fish. For those of you who do not know, they are not native to this region and so have no natural predators and as they are rampant feeders and reproducers, they can ruin a reef.

In addition, the Utila College of Marine Ecology organized the first Utila Lion Fish Derby. Teams from all the dive centres spent a day capturing and killing Lion Fish and the total for the day was almost 500, which makes a signifcant impact.

The first Utila Lion Fish Derby was a huge success

April and May have also been really big Tech months here. We have certified several new tech and Trimix divers and also some new Tech instructors. If you are interested in taking tech classes, just drop us a line and we can let you have more information.

Congratulations to all our new Tech and Trmix divers and instructors

If you fancy trying something new, don’t forget we also are the only place in the region that can teach you Sidemount diving. This traditionally has been used by Cave Divers and involves wearing 2 tanks on a harness. This removes a lot of the cumbersome and heavy equipment you usually wear and gives you much more flexibility to move and fit through tighter spaces. Those who have done it say it is like flying!

Finally, one reminder of the big event that is fast apprioaching….yes it is nearly time for Sunjam 2011. For more information check out http://sunjamutila.com. The confirmed date for this year is 6th August and it will be taking place on Water Cay. Remember the island gets crazy busy during this period, so be sure to reserve accommodation now!

That is it for now. Check our the website for regular posts and if you have pictures or comments from a trip to see us, please post them!

Take care and hope to see you here soon

All the staff at UDC

UDC kicks off 2011 with brand new PADI Divemaster program

In October of 2010 Utila Dive Centre and are team of Instructors who work on our Divemaster program, worked closely with PADI to beta test the new

PADI Divemaster boat handling workshop

revised Divemaster course curriculum. Following our feedback and support, the new 2011 PADI Divemaster program is now officially offered at UDC, 6 months ahead of the required implementation date. The new Divemaster course, has more focus on in-water practical workshops, and programs/activities that todays Divemaster finds themselves working in. The theory has been streamlined to only include Divemaster relevant topics and the number of dives required to enter the program has been raised to 40 from 20, though 60 is still the same exit requirement. At UDC we also integrate the Project Aware Coral Watch program into our Divemaster course so candidates get to learn more about Coral Reef surveying, and also log extra dives prior to starting the course. Our Divemaster training sets some of the highest standards int he region, and has to, as many of our Divemaster candidates continue on to train to become PADI Scuba Instructors with our monthly Instructor courses, so you can be assured our training gives you the strongest foundation possible. We offer Divemaster training all year round, and start the course every Monday (prerequisite training available any time) and have PADI Instructor courses scheduled each month.

New for 2011 Global Dive Network!

Save money diving worldwide with our preferred partner scheme!

We’ve expanded our former ‘Preferred Partner’ scheme to add more quality dive operators worldwide, and there are now 7 quality PADI dive centers;

• Utila Dive Centre, Honduras
• Emperor Divers, Red Sea Egypt
• Poseidon Divers, Red Sea Egypt
• Buddha View, Thailand
• Blue Season Bali, Indonesia
• Eco Divers Manado, Indonesia
• Pro Dive, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

When you dive with any of these operators just show your card or proof of diving with UDC and you’ll be entitled to preferential treatment and savings on direct bookings.

 

Adios Dick, Hola Declan!

Dick cheering the crowds at the weekly UDC BBQ

 

We’d like to wish one of our longer serving Instructors, Mr Dick Walker, all the best in his future direction as he moves

on to new adventures.  Dick has worked for us for the last 4 years and has mentored many Divemasters during his tenure with us, and was well know for his Thursday night BBQ words of wisdom.  Whilst irreplaceable, we would like to welcome another great Instructor to join our team Declan Dowdall.  Declan is already to familiar to many of our divers as he worked as an Instructor and Guide aboard our resort boat, the Old Tom, and is already proving to be an outstanding addition to the team.

 

 

Congratulations to our January 2011 Instructor course

The best start to 2011 with our PADI Instructor course!

Congratulations to our first PADI IDC of 2011 in January, and our candidates who came from afar as the UK, the USA,  Canada, Mexico,  Colombia, Ireland and locally Honduras. Our candidates from our January PADI 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. If you’d like to learn more about a professional dive career please contact PADI Course Director Andy Phillips on info@goproutila.com for more information.

Great Diving Conditions so far!

The weather has been amazing so far this year, aside from a few days of rain it looks like the rainy season is behind us, which is not surprising as it seemed to start very early in 2010 as well, around September with rain most of the month which was actually a welcome as 3 storms in September helped to lower our water temperatures and prevent permanent damage from coral bleaching as Summer of 2010 had elevated water temperatures.  We’ve had several Nurse shark sightings on the Northside so far this year, and also encounters with Dolphins, and we’re sending our boats daily to the Northside and looking forward to when the Whale sharks start to show up.

UDC Lion fish containment specialty approved!

Lion Fish - Invasive species to Caribbean

Congratulations to UDC Instructor Josiah Mackin, on having his own distinctive specialty the ‘Lion Fish Containment Program’ approved by PADI and he will soon be offering this specialty course to our divers who are interested in responsible environmental management of this invasive species.  The specialty takes 2 days and educates divers how to safely remove Lion Fish from the reef, without causing any environmental impact, or harm to them selves from the venomous spines, and also covers safe handling and disposal, including leaving on the reef for decomposition.  In the last 2 years the amount of Lion Fish sighted on Caribbean reefs have grown to concerning numbers, as they have no natural predators, and have voracious appetites.  There have been unconfirmed reports of Moray Eels predating on Lion Fish around Utila and further research is being conducted to see if this behavior is actually happening.  If your interested in this specialty class that is unique to Utila Dive Centre, please contact us for more information.

We hope you enjoyed this latest round of updates from the Utila Dive Centre team, and please feel free to touch base with us at any time, or if you would like to return for further training or diving, we’re more than happy to answer any questions.

Tropical Storm Matthew passed about 20 miles South of Utila on the mainland of Honduras with winds around 30 miles per hour on the weekend of 25th/26th September, with no damage to the island, though rumors abound of a few sore heads on Sunday am after a few ‘storm parties’!  Utila and the other Bay Islands are rarely affected by Hurricanes as they lay so far South of the typical trajectory path in the Caribbean, though they do get the occasional fall out from winds and rain clouds.

In this update of our blog we also have news on;

• Latest Divemaster training updates
• UDC offering sidemount courses
• Congratulations to our September Instructor candidates on another 100% pass rate

Click on more for the latest………..

New Divemaster course at UDC

There have been some exciting changes to the PADI Divemaster course for 2011 and our staff and candidates at Utila Dive Centre have been having a lot of fun with the new cutting edge PADI Divemaster program.  Whilst our program always covers additional workshops and skill sessions it’s nice to now have these as a formal part of the curriuclum, and our group of Divemasters in training for September, Maria, Lisa, Tomas and Andy, have been having a lot of fun in addition to quality instruction.

Divemasters in training on boat handling workshop

Another tough day in Paradise on the PADI DM course at Utila Dive Centre

For 2011 there is more focus on the practical aspects of the Divemaster course, and the activities that Divemasters can conduct and there are now included workshops on boat preparation and line handling, Scuba reviews, Discover local diving, and dive management set up sessions.  At Utila Dive Centre we’ve also advanced our program and in addition to offering Beautiful Oceans coral reef programs, we now have included Project Awares Coral Watch in our 4 week internship.

Congratulations September PADI Instructor candidates

Congratulations PADI Instructors - GoPro and live the dream!

Congratulations to all the September Instructor candidates and IDC staff from Utila, at the completion of the PADI Instructor Exams celebrating their success and continuing our 100% success rate in 2010. Once again our candidates excelled from our dedicated personalised Instruction, and showed there is a difference with the preparation work and training by PADI Platinum Course Directors Andy Phillips and Jules Page, and IDC Staff Instructor Suzy Phipps.

Our candidates are now going on to complete the PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer program with scuba internship and qualify with our facility as ‘Beautiful Oceans Science Instructors’, and to work in the dive industry throughout the Bay Islands, Mexico, Caribbean and Central America with assistance from our job placement service.  Our candidates came afar as the UK, the USA, Norway, Germany, Galapagos, Canada, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and locally Honduras.

To date in 2010 more Instructor candidates had chosen UDC as the PADI Career Development Center to take their PADI Scuba Instructor course, more than any other facility in Central America, based on our great reputation (we’ve been called the Harvard of professional scuba Instruction!), our  Platinum Course Directors experience, word of mouth, our training programs, comprehensive curriculum, broadest range of con-ed options and all with guaranteed success at the exams and more importantly in the the dive industry.

If you’d like to learn more about a professional dive career as either a PADI Divemaster or Instructor on Utila, please contact PADI Course Director Andy Phillips on gopro@utiladivecenter.com for more information, so make your life mean something and join one of our next IDC’s!!!!!!

New Sidemount courses at UDC

Streamline and cutting edge in dive technique

Our staff have recently had a specialty course that they wrote, approved by PADI, and are now offering the PADI Sidemount diver course, and for PADI Instructors (at MSDT level) we can also train you as Sidemount Instructors.  Sidemount diving is a way to assemble scuba equipment so that the tank(s) are worn on the diver’s sides instead of their back.  It typically involves two cylinders, although sidemounting a single cylinder or a rebreather is also possible and becoming popular.   This reduces the diver’s vertical profile significantly, but it increases the diver’s horizontal profile slightly.  Some of the advantages to diving sidemount are added safety with a second tank, streamlined position in the water leads to improved air consumption, lightweight as the tanks are slung on the side and not back mounted with a manifold, and also more versatile.  Our courses are available to both recreational and technical divers and take 3 days for the diver level and 2 days for the Instructor level.

Utila Dive Centre – Often Imitated Never Surpassed

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!

UDC crew supporting Honduras

5.30am kick off!

It’s also a great month to be having the World Cup as our June PADI Instructor course is represented by 8 candidates of 7 different nationalities.  We have candidates from Germany, Holland, Honduras, England, Denmark, Argentina, USA and a Staff Instructor from South Africa, so the course is a lot of fun, and with such a small personalized group, we can be very flexible with our scheduling to get the games in.   The IDC is going well, and next week we have the exams, and we’re looking for success for all countries and nationalities in this game!

Our June Instructor candidates briefing for Open Water

After the World Cup the festivities will continue this Summer on Utila with the Utila Carnival in July and the annual SunJam festival in August.

Happy World Cup to everyone for now!

Warm regards from the sunny Caribbean,

Andy

Whale Shark week…. sightings every day!!!!

Whale shark sighted at Blackhills with sonar tag

Another outstanding performance from our April Instructor candidates!!!!!

Now we're Instructors!!!!

As our regular writer and Instructor Sam Wilson has been busy teaching and preparing for an upcoming trip to the UK I have been presented with the opportunity to add some news to the blog, so whilst I don’t have Sam’s professional writing ability, I figured I’d supplement this entry with some cool pics!

There’s been quite a bit of actionrecently at Utila Dive Centre and off the island. March was one of our busiest months of the year due to the Latin America holiday of Semana Santa (Easter week).  The island was very busy, and at UDC we hired a few more Instructors for the week to keep our class sizes small and to everyone’s satisfaction.  We also finished our March IDC/IE which ended in success and you can see many happy faces below.

March Instructor course 2010 ends in success

As we entered April we started our April IDC and Guillermo started another Tec Deep course, which has proven to be very popular this year since PADI made revisions to the program, and allowed it to be more modular, and introduce decompression diving at an earlier stage.  The end of the course was followed by an infamous G house party, for which the photos have been censored!

Myself and our Manager Frank Gutierrez took a well deserved (I know, modesty modesty!) vacation to Mexico with the goal of getting trained in side mount cave diving and enjoying some exploring of remoter cave systems few had seen before.  We had both already been trained in back mount cave diving so this was an Advanced level course to train us to enter more restrictive cave systems with a more stream lines equipment configuration.  We both had an amazing time, and trained with friends at Protec training facility in Playa Del Carmen, and a big thanks to our Instructor Nando, and Matt, Patrick and Mauro for their support, encouragement and sharing cave systems with us that few had seen before and were off the beaten track.  In addition to the training course we spent several days with our rental truck visiting  remoter cave systems, and pushing the boundaries of our experience, whilst recognizing our new limitations.  I’ve not yet figured out how to imbed the videos here but you can visit the link for an example of what we were doing .

Frank entering Dos Pisos

Stalactite decorations from ceiling

Our plan now is to take the training we received, and integrate side mount configurations into our technical dive courses on Utila, and add more options for our technical dive students, though you won’t have to carry the tanks the way we had to at times.

Never complain about carrying tanks again!

Looking ahead to next month our thoughts and best wishes are with two of our senior Instructors, Fernando and Maya as they travel to Denmark and Spain to get married on May 15th and we look forward to seeing them back here.

Thanks for your time and best wishes for now.

Warm regards,

Andy