Could it get any better?

Hey Blog Followers,

Thanks again for following the blog and hope that you are all well.

Its been a while since we blogged, mainly because we have had another crazy few weeks of business which is just awesome.
Both boats have been working this week and last and we have had Certification after Certification.
You may wonder about the Title, well it's true, could it get any better? Sally and I have been out diving along with Stuart and Auree and we have seen Dolphins, Eagle Rays, Turtles, huge amounts of fish and the sea conditions have been absolutely amazing.
On Tuesday 16th March the ocean was like a swimming pool (not full of Band aids and chlorine) just dead flat and calm, so we closed up and headed out for some exploration dives. We found a shallow reef on the charts (which bottoms out at 45 feet) and headed out some 7 miles offshore to dive it.
We got kitted up and jumped in, I clocked 110feet and found nothing but flat sand and a barracuda!! You never know.... that treasure chest is out there somewhere and one day we will find it!!

So we headed back to Tintamarre for a few beers and some well deserved RnR. Stuart and Auree decided to bury little Alex on the beach which was entertaining. Then Auree saw Dolphins on the way back and Stuart says he saw Elvis..its amazing the affects of a few Presidente beers!

Anyway a great day out and alot of fun.

Congratulations to all our Students espcially, Scott, Patty, Kelly, Connor and Keith all passed Open Water and Advanced Open Water with us, we had a great time with all of you and you are awesome divers.

There is so much to tell you, so I will try to keep it short.

Sally and I moved into our beautiful new house in Grand Case, that is located on the beach that will also be the new Dive operation. The shop will stay in Grand Case on the street as a booking shop and boutique but the new place will house the compressors, Nitrox filling station, equipment, free parking and offer customers a piece of heaven in Grand Case to chill and enjoy a beer after your dive.
Good news for us - no more loading tanks on the boat, we aim to fill the tanks on the boat.

Also free 32% Nitrox for certified customers - we will be the only dive shop on
St. Martin / St. Maarten to offer this and it should be up and running by next season.

As some of you are aware I recently went to the UK to see my Family (Hi Dad - he reads the blog all the time!!) and also had the chance of using an Inspiration Vision Closed Circuit Rebreather.
This was an extremely interesting experience and not quite what I expected.

Water conditions weren't great, we were diving a quarry where ambient temperature was zero and water temp 4 degrees C or in old money thats 39 degrees F.
First dive was planned at 90 minutes (you need 6 hours to be certfied) where I lasted a gruelling 87 minutes before I got out and cried with pain...
We then decided that the quarry was too cold and went to HMS Scylla in the seas off Cornwall. The vis was like diving in soup so we hit 16 meters couldn't see eachother and came straight back up and off to the quarry again!!

The best way I can describe using a CCR is like riding a bicyle all your life and then jumping on a uni-cycle that is computer controlled - a very challenging and humbling experience as a Master Scuba Intructor!!

But in warm water this could be a great experience and soon i will be buying one with the intention of becoming a CCR Instructor and teaching CCR in St.Martin / St. Maarten. We will be the first to offer this and as usual it will be low Instructor to student ratios, one to one.

Sally will write more soon, maybe even this afternoon!

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Fantastic Afternoon!

This afternoon I went to Tintamarre with Marisa (my open water student), her husband Louis, and Michael. Michael was diving with us in May, and we are super happy to have him back.

When I was talking to Michael he was telling me that he is always reading the blog, so I thought that it was only fitting that I blog about him. I always get excited when Mike sends us an email because he works for the military, so the words "unclassified" are always contained in the top of the email. I like to imagine all the other "classified" emails that go out... but Mike assures me that he isn't really privy to classified information, but he would say that, wouldn't he?

Anyway... the diving was really great this afternoon, especially diving from Octopussy. We went to Japanese Garden and saw the biggest Green Turtle hiding under a rock. I learned the other day, from Aurelion, (our new instructor), that the turtles go to the surface, take a gulp of air, and then they wedge themselves under a rock. With the huge gulp of air they are buoyant, so if they want a nap, they need the rock to stop them from floating to the surface. This Green Turtle had two huge Remoras on her back, she let us approach slowly, but then when we were too close, she swam gracefully away. We carried on, checking out all the schools of fish and spiny lobsters. It was a really nice dive. Marisa did fantastic, considering it was her third dive ever!

Then we went diving on the tugboat, where we had close encounters with sting rays and also watched Louis do some break dancing on his head (underwater of course). Aurelion had his camera, so I will post some photos when he sends them to me. The Tug was full of fish, like normal, and it was a beautiful dive.

Other news.... we have had some more great reviews on tripadvisor (thanks everyone) so check those out... http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html

We are currently the #1 attraction in Saint Martin / Sint Maarten and #5 in the whole of the Caribbean. We want to be #1 in the Caribbean, so if you are so inclined... write good review for us!

I will soon take photos of our new instructors Swen and Aurelion for the blog and the website, so stay tuned for more information about these two characters. They are real characters... Swen speaks 8 languages.... and Aurelion lives on a boat. They both love diving, and they are great guys, so check out the blog soon!

Congratulations to Marisa on her open water certification!

Friday the 13th tomorrow, I wonder if this will affect the marine life...

Good night everyone!

(Sally wrote this blog :) )

New season

Hi Blog followers,

We are back from vacation - 2 weeks in New York and Chris had a week in Miami where he is now a Certified Mercury Technician.
Thanks to Wes and Gillian (Sally's parents) for entertaining us for 2 weeks - we had a great time.

We also had four amazing days in Saba - what an amazing Island that is - the diving was awesome. We are now running trips with Scouts Place / Saba Divers so if anyone wants to take a trip let us know, we can arrange it for you.

Now we are back and busier than ever.

Chris and Christian have just finished thier Snuba training, where Christian trained as a Snuba guide and Chris is now a Snuba guide trainer and one of 3 in the Caribbean.

Sally has been extremely busy keeping the dive operation up to its usual high standards - hence our 62 reviews on Tripadvisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
Go Sally !!

Snuba in Orient Bay is all set to go live - we are just waiting for Octopussy to get registered and we will be up and running.

Octopussy has had some teething problems that Chris has been working on and we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel now. She looks great and has a custom built tank rack, custom dive ladder, IPOD hook up on the high power Sony stereo system, all the safety features you would expect, two powerful 250HP Mercury Racing engines, and plenty of room. She is so stable that she has been certified for 20 people!! But still we just take 6.

We have our first all day Charter this season on Saturday its a birthday party for a couple so Sally and Chris will be taking them out with French Champagne, cake, lots of diving and an awesome lunch on Pinel Island - should be a great day trip out.

Sally will update soon so goodbye for now

Team Octopus.