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 :) )