Congratulations!

This is just a quick one, I realize that I didn’t blog for a couple of days, but we have been a little busy.

I just wanted to say congratulations to Youseff and Andrew who recently certified as Open Water Divers. They did a great job, and in some tough conditions too. We had a big swell come through that made the visibility about 15 feet for a couple of days, but they were troopers and passed with flying colors.





So, great jobs guys! Keep checking the blog, I’m going to get Chris to post about England soon, before he forgets everything.

Oh… Kevin kept wanting to blog on my blog, so we started his own, it is kevinstmartin.blogspot.com.

Alright, I’m off now, it was a great day. I was diving with Carol for her Advanced Open Water and she did a great job. Tomorrow we are diving Deep and Wreck, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

Also, apparently my writing warrants the grammar police, so I apologize about that. The words just come out of my fingers, and I find that if I think too much about it all, it doesn’t sound as good.

So, as my Uncle Clay would say “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.”

(Sally wrote this blog, as usual :) )

PS Stuart’s quote of the day: “I’m just running home for a quick evacuation.”

Beer and Pizza and Nitrox?

Well, we had a really lovely Octopus Diving night last night. Brad and Paula, who had been diving with us all week, kindly invited us over for some Beer and Pizza.

Brad and Paula are both from Minnesota and they are such a lovely couple, we really had a blast hanging out with them. They had some great dives while they were here with us as well, Circus, Basse Espagnole, amazing vis, amazing diving!

So, thank you so much for the invite and the wonderful evening! We won't forget it!

In other news: Tonight is Harmony Night, also known as Mardi Gras Grand Case. For those of you that don't know what this is about, it is basically a street fair with live music, great food and lot's to do. It is a must if you are coming to Saint Martin, whether you are staying on the French side or on the Dutch side. They close down the whole of Boulevard de Grand Case to cars and at about 7 PM the action really starts. There is a live band outside of the Lolos and also lots of vendors selling everything from lingerie to wooden carvings to hot peanuts. Lots of local food is available, there are stalls where you can sign up for activities, and also at 8 PM the dancers and the band come through, really building up a beat.

Harmony night is every Tuesday for 19 weeks, last week was the first one of 2010! So if you are coming to Saint Martin, make sure that it includes a Tuesday!!

In other news, we met with Mike Hill from PADI today. He is our PADI representative and just stopped by in Saint Martin to say hi. He said he was really happy with us because we are the only diving center in Saint Martin who increased the number of certifications from 2008 to 2009! So... Go OCTOPUS! That doesn't mean that we have done the most certifications, (because as you know we only ever take 6 people at a time and we believe in quality not quantity), but rather that all the other centers had fewer students in '09 than in '08... Except for us!!!

He also congratulated us for the number of E-Learners that have chosen to go through our diving center. E-Learning is a way of completing the entire knowledge component on line before coming to Saint Martin on vacation. A really great option if you aren't interested in doing any classroom work in the Caribbean. Cuz, who want that?

We spoke about Rebreather Courses that Chris is interested in developing and also the idea of Nitrox. PADI has now developed an E-Learning option for Nitrox, so that you don't have to do a single quiz, exam, or knowledge review while here in Saint Martin for the Nitrox Specialty. Just diving...

We hope to offer Nitrox soon; we just need to figure out the best option for us. Then the Nitrox specialty would be great here, especially as you can do it almost all on line.

The Advanced Open Water can be done on line as well, just the diving portion with us! How cool is that?

Alright, I'm off now, mosquitoes are killing me at this time of the day! Not to Harmony Night though, too much beer and pizza last night, tonight I’m thinking vegetables and juice!

(Sally wrote this blog :) )

Kevin's Blog

Some of you may know Kevin, as he is around the dive shop quite a lot. He wanted to blog something... so here it goes.

The following is Kevin talking, he has written it down, now he is reading to me, but the words are from him, he wants you to know this.

"About Chris and Sally and Mark and his wife, they are very good friends of mine and Aure and Stuart too. I really like them. Every Saturday I go snorkeling, Chris gave me a book. Now I'm learning everything about diving. I'm doing a new discovery. I see fish when I'm snorkeling.

These guys are the best of the best."

-KEVIN from Octopus Diving

Kevin also brought in a photo of himself, had me scan it, and then in photoshop asked me to give him an afro and an earring... not sure why? It is an old photo of him as well. SO here are some newer one's when he went out on one his Saturday Snorkeling excursions.

10 Dolphins!

Yup, you read it correctly... 10 Dolphins.

So there I was, I had just finished a productive afternoon in the office, (cleaning and organizing the shop, some accounts, some work on the website, I also taught two local kids how to use the Recreational Dive Planner) when in walks Stuart. First of all he just walks right in the shop... tracking mud and dripping water from his wetsuit on my nicely polished floor.

"Well, Sally, I think you are going to want to give me notice when you here what I have to say."

I immediately imagine something is wrong; a lost diver, a sunken boat, a sexual harassment suit... my mind is racing.

"We were just diving with 10 dolphins!" Then I think he actually thrust his fist in the air and whooped, or something of the sort.

So, I replied with what any normal person would say; "That's right, Stuart, you're fired!"

I mean, there I was, being a really great employee to myself (when you are the owner, it doesn't necessarily mean you are the boss, it just means you are an employee that makes the hardest decisions, gets the most boring jobs, and gets paid the least amount of money) and they were diving with 10 Dolphins, definitely a dismissible offence.

So, as Stuart tells the story, they were just finishing their dive at the Tug Boat, swimming back to the wreck from the reef, when all of a sudden there were all these undulating bodies. In a moment of disbelief, Stuart forgot the sign for dolphin (which is your hand, palm down, undulating like a dolphin does... as if you were showing someone "you go up the hill, then down the hill, then up the hill, then down the hill.") so he just kind of pointed and went "mwaahhhh."

Then there was about 5 - 10 minutes of diving bliss.

They were Bottlenose dolphins, a pod of 10, including adults and young. Stuart said that the youngest dolphin was showing off the most, putting on a display for them with flips and all sorts under the water.

All the divers were so excited they were all talking at once. It was fabulous. They have gone back to Tintamarre today, so I will let you know if they see any more. Also, Jen took some video of them, so I will see if I can ask her to post it. Mark had his camera, but unfortunately with e 35 mm macro lens attached... gutted!

Although I expressed joy at their good fortune, those of you that know me best, know that I was secretly squinting my eyes and shaking my fist in jealousy!

Ah well, the season of the dolphins has started. This normally lasts until April, when the water starts to warm up again, so book your diving now... don't wait too long!

Oh... in other not as exciting news, Chris is back, safe and sound. His bag didn't make it... but he did! I will get him to blog soon!

Have a great day everyone!

(Sally wrote this blog :) )

7 Eagle Rays!!!

Well, I know I missed yesterday, but I was on the boat all day, so I didn't get a chance to blog. Yesterday was absolutely awesome though, both the morning and the afternoon trips.

First of all, both groups were great. Everyone seemed to get along really well, lots of joking, laughing and talking on the boat. We had Brad and Paula (from Minnesota); they just arrived yesterday for 5 days of diving. Then there was Erin, Stefano and Nick (from Canada and Milwaukee… I believe); they were just finishing up their last day of three days of diving. Then there was Skip (I can’t remember where Skip was from, but I do remember he was super nice and great diver). He hadn’t dived for 2 years and just decided to come in and see us one day as he walked by, we talked him into diving :) and he sure was grateful we did.

We headed out to Tintamarre, moored up at Japanese Garden and did a drift dive there. The Vis was great, we were greeted by a Caribbean Reef Shark after about 10 minutes, and apparently while we were looking at this shark there was another baby shark in the other direction. I didn't see it, I think that we need to give our divers tank bangers as well as the other equipment so that they can get my attention when they see something cool. There was also a visit from a Turtle, an Octopus spotting, and loads of beautiful coral and interesting geological features.

Then we headed over to Basse Espagnole. This has to be my favorite dive site in Saint Martin. The reef is the healthiest that I have ever seen in the Caribbean and it just never surprises me. Basse Espagnole is in such good condition because it is rare that anyone is able to dive it. If the waves are too big here, then they break over the reef making it impossible to dive. I would say that we get to dive this site about 15 - 20 times a year, so not a lot really. Oh... but when we can… it is amazing!

The Nature Reserve recently put a new mooring in, so it took me a minute or two to get my bearings as I wasn't sure where exactly on the reef we were going to drop into. I used my handy compass though and found the exact spot that I was looking for; a large canyon with amazing red and orange sponge coral covering almost everything and lots (I mean lots) of lobsters. What was also really beautiful was this ball of silver fingerlings that would all move as one, forming this ever changing cloud of shimmering, shiny baby fish. There is also a large portion of the reef that has endangered Elkhorn Coral on it, so that is always heartening to see.

The divers were super happy as we came up, as you can imagine, and for Erin, Stefano and Nick they said that we had saved the best for last! Skip was also really excited, as he hadn't dived for 2 years, so it great to get wet again!

So, that was the morning! In the afternoon we had 4 snorkelers and one diver, Ron. We went out to Creole Rock and Turtle Reef, both were really good, but today Creole Rock took the prize. The Vis was great, the water calm, clear and full of life. I snorkeled all the way around the rock with my four snorkelers and we were rewarded by seeing 4 eagle rays, all majestically swimming together about 15 feet below us. We followed them for about 5 minutes as they circled around, and then all of a sudden another group of 3 eagle rays showed up. So there were seven, count them... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven Eagle Rays all together! It was amazing!

The divers saw them as well, and apparently they stayed with the divers for quite a long time. Normally Eagle Rays hang around a lot longer when you are just snorkeling, as the divers with all our bubbles scare them away. We also saw an Octopus in about 3 feet of water. It always amazes me to see Octopods while snorkeling as the light is so fantastic between 0 -5 ft, so you get a real sense of their changing colors.

All in all it was a great day. I didn't get out of the office until 6:30 PM though. I had so much fun on the boat, that I didn't get a chance to answer any emails during the day, so apologies to those who didn't get a speedy reply.

Chris is back tonight though, so with two of us back on the job, one of us will always be answering right away. Our goal is to get back to you all within 24 hours or less!

I will ask Chris to blog about his Rebreather experience in England and what his future plans are. I know one thing he is going to mention, and that is the cold!! BRRRRRRR! Luckily we don’t have to deal with that in the sunny Caribbean! He is flight right now and gets home tonight.

OK, over 800 words in this blog I think that this is enough, thanks for reading!

Over and out!!

(Sally wrote this blog :) )

2 posts in row!!!

I can't believe I am blogging two days in a row... but to tell you what, I think I am over my blogger's block.

Well, today is great weather and the morning divers should be back any minute. We seem to be having a week of certified diver this week. Sometimes we have weeks were it seems all our divers are newbies getting certified, or other weeks lots of people who are snorkeling and doing try dives, but this week is the week of the experienced divers.

That is always really nice as when people do multiple days diving we get to know them better, so we can have their equipment prepared on the boat, we know how much weight they need, how they like to enter and exit the water, etc. Plus you find out more and more about people as well.

This week most of the divers brought their own equipment. It is always nice to dive with your own equipment, but in these days of reduced baggage allowances and increased cost for extra baggage, you may want to think about leaving it behind. We have new, reliable equipment here. Sometimes, people decide to use our equipment instead of their own because they prefer it... especially our masks.

Things that I would bring if I was restricted with luggage and going on a diving vacation would be... my mask, my diving computer, my Deployable Surface Marker Bouy and my wetsuit. The rest, well... it isn't worth it for me. Some people don't like to use regulators that other people have put in their mouths, so a good trick is just to bring your own mouthpiece. I have a SeaCure mouthpiece that I love, because it is molded to my teeth so I don't ever get jaw ache, or have to deal with a mouthpiece that someone else has bitten through!

For me having my own mask is important because it really increases the enjoyment of your dive if you have a well fitted mask. My dive computer I need because I would never trust someone else to calculate my no deco time. My Deployable Surface Marker Bouy, because it has saved my life on numerous occasions, and my wetsuit because, well... I like to be warm. So without the BCD, the regs and the fins, I am really saving a lot of space and weight.

Of course, it may make sense financially to bring everything if rental is expensive, but otherwise, I would leave it at home!

Hold on, divers are back, will finish up in a sec!

Sorry about that. Well, I can report that the divers had a great time, the vis was great, they saw lots of Turtles, and Octopus and loads or Moray eels. So they seemed happy. The weather is great today, although there are some clouds up above, hopefully they will clear out for this afternoon.

Chris is back on Friday... yeah! Only two more days.

Alright, I'm going to try and keep this stint going and blog again tomorrow!

Have a great day everyone! I know I am!!!

(Sally wrote this blog :) )

January Rolls On!

I can't believe how long it has been since my last blog, so please let me sincerely apologise. I think that I had writer's block, or blogger's block I should say. Not that there haven't been really great things to Blog about...

Over Christmas and New Years we were really busy, taking out loads of people diving and snorkeling. We had lots of students, private charters, new divers, old diver, and divers in the middle as well. Some moments that really stick out for us are going to dinner with Jay and Bob at Pineapple Pete's. Jay and Bob are firefighters from the states, and the kindly took Chris, Aurelion, Stuart and I to dinner. It was great!

Also, we went diving with John and G, some of our favorite repeat customers. We also spent a lovely New Year's Eve dinner with them, so I must thank them for the invite!

Also we went to dinner with Lisa and Tim (also repeat divers with us) to Jimbo's and then drink at Soggy Dollar; they are also, really great people.

What I love best about having a diving center in Saint Martin, is when your diving customers become your friends, and then they come back, and they come back again, and then after awhile they become like family! Diving is so great in the way that it really does bring people together. We really cherish the friends that we have made by having our center here.

Something else that sticks out for me is all the certifications we have been doing. We must have certified over 20 people as new divers since my last blog, plus 5 Advanced and two Recue divers! Congratulations everyone...

Chris is in England right now... freezing his butt off! He called me yesterday and was telling me how cold the water is. It is 3 degrees Celsius. He is crazy! Chris is taking a rebreather course with Rich Stevenson from Deep Blue Tech http://www.deepbluediving.org in Plymouth, England. This is something that Chris has always wanted to do. We are hoping that in a year or two, when he gets enough training and hours using the rebreather, that we will be able to offer rebreather try dives. Sure beats diving in the cold UK. For those of you that aren't familiar with rebreathers, they are units that are used for breathing underwater, but they are closed circuit. This means that there are no bubbles as the air that you breath out is then re-used, cleaned of carbon dioxide, has a little bit of oxygen added to it, and the you re-breath that air in. It is pretty cool, but because it is a closed circuit you can't control your buoyancy using your lungs, so it is really strange (according to Chris) as you can't go over stuff, you go around it. Weird. He is enjoying his course, but not the cold.

We spent Christmas day at our house with the Octopus Family... this would be Stuart, Aurelion and also Jen and Mark who are doing a Divemaster internship with us. Roger was there as well (he is our great friend who hails from the same place as Chris in Plymouth, he lives on the island.) It was a great day!

On a sadder note, our hearts go out to all the victims of the recent Earthquake in Haiti. Saint Martin has quite a large Haitian community here, and many Haitians come here for a better way of life. They find it easier to get work here (as just like in Haiti the main language on the French side is French). Many of them live here illegally, don't get paid very well and often don't have very good accommodation to speak of, but this is still an easier way of life than in Haiti. So, there are lots of people here thinking about there family and loved ones at home. The local phone company has reduced the cost to calls to Haiti and many of the local businesses here are taking donations of clothes, supplies and food to send over. It is a tragedy beyond understanding the devastation there....

Well, I must talk about something positive, as I can't leave the blog on that note. So, I will tell you about Kevin. Do you all remember Kevin? I've blogged about him in the past, but not so much recently. He is a local kid, 10 years old, and he is always hanging out in the dive shop, usually making trouble. Well, the other day he came in and said to Chris "Chris, will you teach me how to swim? But don't tell Sally that I don't know how to swim, I don't want her to know." Chris said it was the cutest thing ever. So Chris started taking him out every Saturday. The first session went great, and Chris said that he was doggie paddling like crazy. The second Saturday session Mark took over as Chris was in the UK, and this time they snorkeled. By this time Kevin had told me himself what was going on. All throughout the week he was coming in and trying on fins, wetsuits, etc. Then he would say, "Sally, this is the pair that I am going to use. Where can I hide them so that I know where they are?" And I would say "But Kevin, I may need to lend those fins out to someone else during the week, so let's just try and remember." Finally, once the snorkeling day arrived, Kevin and Mark snorkeled all the way to the Grand Case Beach Club and back! Too cool. Apparently next week Kevin has recruited a friend to go along as well... We love it though. We would love to take Kevin diving, but his mom thinks it is dangerous and won't let us, so obviously we can't. Perhaps we can change her mind one day.

Anyway... I promise not to take so long before my next blog. Speak soon and take care.

(this blog was written by Sally :) )