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Newsletter 10 - March 2002
HD News Huatulco Miscellaneous Guest Comments & Photos Previous Editions
The Eye of the Hurricane
As most of you will know by now: we moved to the beach of Santa Cruz last September. Boy, is that nice, having our shop on the beach, looking straight at the ocean from behind my desk and we are only 50 meters from the marina. No more loading and unloading equipment in the pick-up every time we go diving! The place is also a lot bigger, we now have a proper space for equipment and a classroom upstairs with ocean view!
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Relaxing after diving
On the right you see our front porch which is a really nice place to sit and relax, have a chat about the dives you just did or have a drink or even a meal from the restaurant next door. The owner, Miguel gives our divers a 10% discount on whatever you order.
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Equipment
Last December we finally made the decision to invest in a new compressor. After all the problems with the used one we bought when we started and having to get our tanks filled somewhere else, it is turning out to be a blessing! With the new compressor and the amount of tanks we now have (26) we can serve you even better and with impeccable air. To keep our rental equipment in good order and up to date we replaced all the mask, snorkels and fins after 2 years of use and we replaced several wetsuits. The used equipment we replaced we now have for sale, a good chance to get some good equipment for even better prices! We extended our range of rental suits by adding full suits and kid's suits in various sizes.
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Staff Upgrade
Roberto, our PADI Course Director went to the PADI Office in California to do his two-yearly update for the new IDC Curriculum and coming back he did a PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) in the beginning of March. In the picture you see our Instructor Natanael (left) who completed his IDC-Staff Instructor Course. Jony (right) who did his Divemaster Internship with us in 2001, came back from Argentina to work with us and he did the IDC. The others in the picture also did their IDC, Ezequiel, a friend of Jony and Paola who also did her Divemaster Internship with us, in 2000. Paola came back to Huatulco as well and is working in one of the hotels and as a free-lance Divemaster. All 3 of them will be doing their Instructor Exam soon and I'm certain they will pass with flying colors and become professional PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors. Natanael is now working towards his Master Instructor rating. We also had another Divemaster Intern, Nele from Germany, who did her Rescue and Divemaster Courses with us over the last 3 months. She is now working in Cancun as a Divemaster. Since Dive Safety is an important issue for us, we did the DAN Oxygen Provider Course with all the above mentioned PADI Professionals as well as the Medic First Aid Retraining Program. Below you see a few pictures from the IDC Candidates in action.
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Dive Center Upgrade
We are now a PADI Gold Palm (a PADI 5 Star) Resort! What does this mean? Following is the description from PADI: "The Gold Palm Resort membership classification is awarded to progressive members that excel in providing quality services to traveling divers. A Gold Palm Resort presents a professional image and actively promotes the benefits of recreational scuba diving and snorkeling, dive travel and environmental awareness. Their appearance and performance compares favorably with quality resort dive operators in the local area and exceeds the local norm for dive resort standards."
And it goes on:
"A Gold Palm Resort not only adheres to PADI educational standards, but conducts PADI programs as outlined in the PADI Instructor Manual using all appropriate materials for each course. PADI continuing education programs are offered regularly ensuring traveling divers the opportunity to advance their skills and knowledge. A Gold Palm Resort considers customer satisfaction, dive experience, education, safety and environmental awareness as important aspects of diver training programs." And last but not least: "A Gold Palm Resort must maintain or improve its service level to renew its Gold Palm status on an annual basis".
Simply put it means that with Hurricane Divers you're in good hands. We are proud of this recognition by PADI and we will strive to improve that service even more, not only for the traveling divers and PADI programs, but also for the local divers and any other service we offer. For more info on PADI Dive Centers, the different levels, requisites, standards, etc. go to: www.padi.com . You can also find a list there of PADI Dive and Resort Centers.
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"A Day like Today": March 2001
A year ago we completed the first 300 PADI Programs and Courses since the opening of Hurricane Divers in September 1999. In the first year and a half we certified over 100 new divers (PADI Scuba Divers and Open Water Divers) and almost 40 Specialty, Advanced and Rescue Divers. We completed half a dozen Divemaster and Assistant Instructor Courses and introduced around 150 people to diving with programs like Discover Scuba and Discover Scuba Diving. Other programs and courses we did include Medic First Aid, Oxygen Provider and Skin Diver Courses and Discover Snorkeling. Apart from that Roberto completed a hand full of PADI and DAN Instructor Level Courses.
Jony finished his Internship with us a year ago and went back to Argentina as a very proud PADI Divemaster.
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Diving Huatulco
So far we have been lucky this winter. In general we had pretty good visibility and, except for a few days, the water hasn't been as cold as normal. Most of the time the water was more then 25°C and sometimes up to 28°C, while the normal temperature is around 22°C in January and February. We saw a lot of interesting stuff again, only this week we saw sea horses, Manta Rays, Eagle Rays, various turtles and as usual in the winter months, lot's and lot's of Sting Rays, Butterfly Rays, Electric Rays and Guitar Rays.
Another positive bit of news is that Fonatur (the government organization that is responsible for the development of tourist destinations in Mexico) had dive buoys placed in 40 different locations along the 9 main Bays if Huatulco. Obviously we are very pleased with the fact that the corals at those dive sites will be protected from anchoring and besides the environmental issues, it is a lot easier for us divers to find the sites and tie up to a buoy.
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Free Diving
In February we had a visit from the women World Champion Free Diving in the discipline "No Limits", Mandy Cruickshank from Canada. She currently holds the World Record with a depth of 136 meters! She was visiting Huatulco for the shooting of a television program for ESPN, one of the 6 programs from a series about athletes and adventure sports. Unfortunately the water conditions were not favorable for any record attempts but they did do some shooting of Mandy training. While she was here, Mandy and her trainer Kirk decided to have a go at another World Record, static breath holding on the water surface.
(Picture left: Kirk, Roberto & Mandy)
The current record for women is in the hands of a Brazilian free diver and stands at 6:13 minutes! Mandy did a "training attempt" and the next day she tried to break that record. She wasn't able to do that but she broke her personal record twice and managed to hold her breath almost 6 minutes (5:51 min.). During her stay Hurricane Divers assisted with logistical and safety matters. That was an interesting experience and we wish Mandy a lot of success in her quest to break the different world records. For more about Mandy and free diving go to: www.performancefreediving.com
The ESPN show will be on air around the 7th of April, 2002.
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HD News Huatulco Miscellaneous Guest Comments & Photos Previous Editions
What's happening in Huatulco?
In the area of infrastructure there are several projects on the go that have been in the planning for some time. They have actually started with the construction of the pier for the visiting Cruise Ships, in the Bay of Santa Cruz. As always, this brings up a lot of controversy because of the possible effects to the environment, whether it is going to be good or bad for Huatulco only time will tell. They have also started the construction of a second marina in the Bay of Maguey, which I guess is a good idea, seeing how crowded the marina in Santa Cruz has become. Another very good idea is finally in the construction phase, the "highway" from Oaxaca to Huatulco. It will still take a couple of years but once it's finished you can get here from Oaxaca in a lot less then the 5 to 6 hours or more it takes now and a lot more comfortable This will really open up Huatulco and hopefully force the airlines to be more competitive with their fares! Talking about airlines, one good bit of news is that we now have a direct flight Guadalajara - Huatulco. That gives the people in the western United States more options to get here.
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Events
Besides other events we had the Half Iron Man again in October 2001 and it was a demanding one again because of the sunshine and heat we enjoy here at least 335 days a year. We just had the International Festival del Mar, which is a cultural festival with music, dance, opera, theater, seminars, work shops, events for kids, etc, etc. It's a festival that is been organized for the second year now and with great success. As usual we had our friends from the Mexican Turtle Center over to release baby turtles, always great (educational) fun for the kids and everybody else, for that matter.
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HD News Huatulco Miscellaneous Guest Comments & Photos Previous Editions
Miscellaneous
PADI and DSAT (Diving Science and Technology) have developed a TecRec program. PADI already has the Enriched Air and Re-Breather Specialty Courses to offer and now they have gone a step further with Technical Diving Courses for the Recreational Diver. We are talking about the Tec Deep Diver Course and the Apprentice Tec Sub Course. The Tec Deep Diver Course trains the diver to do gas switches, decompression dives and air and enriched air dives to a maximum depth of 50 meters (as opposed to the 40 meters max. for recreational diving. For the people who don't meet the prerequisites yet for this course they came up with the Apprentice Tec Sub Course which trains the diver to do gas switch extended no-decompression dives and air and enriched air (60% max.) dives to 40 meters maximum. Obviously there are extensive prerequisites for these courses and even more extensive prerequisites for the Instructor Level Courses.
TecRec diving is typically not for everybody, you need a lot of experience, training, equipment, etc., but for those who are interested: now you can get into Technical Diving by getting your training through the same proven educational system that made PADI the world wide leader in Recreational Diver Training. Go to the PADI Website for more info: www.padi.com
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Cyber Diving
There are still people out there that don't know about the most extensive and informative website about Huatulco, Oaxaca and other parts of the Pacific Coast in Mexico. If you haven't done so, have a look at it, especially the Visitor Comments are very interesting: www.tomzap.com
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HD News Huatulco Miscellaneous Guest Comments & Photos Previous Editions
Guest Comments & Photos
The picture on the left is from Mike who decided to get certified again after taking his first course 37 years ago! Kent also in the picture did his Open Water Diver Course with us last year. Below you see pictures of (left to right) Antonio, who should now be an Advanced Open Water Diver, Domenico who is coming back for the 5th time to take yet another course with us and Roberto in front of our dive shop.
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Below on the left a picture from "La Bufadora" that Oscar sent me. he has been here a few times already and managed to get (almost) his whole family diving by now. In the middle Roberto again, this time with Paola (who just completed her IDC) and Nele (the Divemaster Intern from Germany) who proudly present their DAN Oxygen Provider diploma's. On the right a picture of the Staff taken last December by Yoram who was here with Cristina to do their Open Water Diver Courses.
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Following is a small selecting of comments our divers wrote in our "Guest Comment Book" we have in our Dive Center. If you went diving with us and you didn't get a chance to write something in our book, please feel free to send us your comments by e-mail!
e-mail us
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Bruce, USA, September 2001 (by e-mail)
Dave, UK, October 2001
Patrick and Jan, USA, November 2001
Erin and Jim, Canada, December 2001
Sergio, Mexico, January 2002
"Delightful to be in Huatulco and dive with Hurricane Divers again. Robert doing a fine job training Mike and now we were able to dive here together for our 3rd return trip. Also delightful to see Jonatan and Nata again and Nele for the first time. Pauline just a delight as well. For those searching, this is more then just another dive shop. It is a great meeting of great people. Diving was fine, the highlight was a wonderous star fish and sea horse! Diving with Hurricane Divers can't be beat!"
Kent, USA, February 2002
David and Ben, USA, March 2002
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HD News Huatulco Miscellaneous Guest Comments & Photos Previous Editions
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