Malapascua Diving

Project AWARE kids day

February 18th, 2010

Yesterday, TSD was proud to receive word that we have been awarded the 2009 PADI Project Aware Environmental Achievement Award for “exemplary efforts to conserve aquatic environments through education, advocacy and action.”

This is hot on the heels of our recent visit last week to the local school to hold a Project Aware Kids event. As part of our ongoing effort to protect the local environment, we have an outreach program for the local kids. Our island is very small with only one junior school and one high school. Many of the kids that attend are the children of our employees, but many are also the children of local fishermen. No matter what their parents do for the living, most of them depend on the health of the local reefs to survive.

We believe in change through education and also in providing alternatives to fishing. By employing almost exclusively members of the local population we hope to help alleviate the burden of local parents to feed their families by fishing. Through education we hope to change behavior to protect the local environment, both above and underwater and we need to work with the next generation of Malapascuans as well as the current.

Project AWARE were kind enough to send us a huge box full of goodies for our event. Their fab kids materials include stickers, activity books, and teacher’s guides. The books are chock-a-block with fun facts, information and ideas to promote environmental awareness.

Armed with these materials, our intrepid team headed off to the ‘barrio’ (village). Head of the charge was Mike – our soon to be resident Course Director – along with TSD’s Filipino DM JN, interns Sanna and Liz and general helper-outers Jason and Carley.

We chose the age group of 12 and 13 years olds for our first classroom presentation, as the school teachers thought they would be the most receptive.

We handed the books out and talked though each section, told them about Project AWARE. The colorful books were a big hit.

JN led the classroom session as he was born and bred on Malapsacua and of course speaks the local language. Although naturally shy, he soon warmed to the role and the kids obviously loved him – he is a well known face on the island and it is seemingly every Malapascua child’s dream to grow up to be a Divemaster! They discusses many aspects of conservation and underwater life, including various local marine life and of course our thresher sharks – their importance to the local economy and their place as apex predators in the food chain. Sustainable fishing methods were also discussed, as well as the trash problem faced on the island and our regular cleanup events.

Next off we handed out Project Aware stickers and gave each child an activity postcard. They were instructed to take them home, complete the conservation-related word puzzle on the back, and return it to their teachers the next day so we could post them to Project AWARE for their recognition certificates. Amazingly, out of the 57 distributed, all 57 were returned the very next day!!!

As trash is a big problem on the island, and things tend to get thrown away wherever and whenever they are no longer needed, Sanna had devised an inventive game. She distributed wrapped candies to all the children, then they had to throw the wrappers into a trash can from a distance. Whoever, got the wrappers in the trash can got another candy. Pavlov, check out Malapascua

It was a very successful day. The kids loved it and were all very interested in what we had to say, and they hopefully took some of it in. Of course we do not expect miracles overnight, but we hope with a continued effort we can make a difference.

Thank so much to Project Aware for all the materials, the kids and the teachers loved them!

And for anyone who is thinking about doing any PADI course or wants to replace their cert card with a shiny new Project AWARE version - be sure and give a donation to Project AWARE to receive a special certification card, the money really does go to a cause.

Tags: awards, Project AWARE
Posted in Environment | No Comments »

TSD’s 5 Year Anniversary

January 20th, 2010

It’s hard to believe, but December 22^nd was the 5^th anniversary of Thresher Shark Divers. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has visited us, dived with us and supported us over the years. We hope you have enjoyed your time on Malapascua Island as much as we have enjoyed having you.

We can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. The dive shop has changed a lot since we first opened – back at Christmas 2004, Trevor and I were working 20 hours a day to keep the dive shop running with only 4 members of staff in a tiny little space.

Although we have grown up a little, Malapascua has changed surprisingly little during out time here. It has become a little busier and a few more businesses and resorts have sprung up, but we are thankful that we have so far escaped mass commercialization.

Staff from 2005

Today we have a new, much bigger space (though somehow still too small) and we employ nearly 40 full time staff. A big change, and thankfully we get a little more sleep these days.

We are very lucky in that we have been blessed with amazing staff. Particularly our dive staff, most of whom have been with us for most of if not all of these 5 years. Our divers always comment on the excellent boat crew and DMs and we are proud to have worked side by side with them for so long.

Old Dive Shop

New Dive Shop

And last but not least, Oscar’s, our new restaurant and bar upstairs has been a welcome addition and has quickly become one of the more popular places to chill for happy hour and get some great food afterwards.

Old bar

New bar

And last but definitely not least, the reason we are all here - the diving remains amazing. Thresher sharks are still around in significant numbers and sightings of mantas and hammerheads have improved dramatically. (It’s still a secret, so shhh don’t tell anyone, but there is even talk of whale sharks migrating nearby, but that is something for further investigation.) Its great news these days to hear of INCREASING shark numbers, rather than the worldwide dwindling populations of which we hear so much.

So our fifth anniversary was a big celebration. We had our traditional staff party, with wives, husbands and children along. Also attending were customers, interns and of course our instructors. Lots of silly games were played, secret santa was a big hit – its amazing what we managed to buy for P100 (USD $2). I got a lovely snowdome with a tiger and gold snowflakes, thank you Secret Santa.

And then after the tables were cleared away it was time for our local Bayut troupe of firebreathing ladyboys. Always a big hit!

The Mid-Air Splits

Here’s to the next five years!

More photos on facebook.

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First Female Advanced Nitrox Diver at TSD TEC

January 12th, 2010

We would like to warmly congratulate Natasha Green who today became the first female to certify as an IANTD Advanced Nitrox Diver at TSD TEC!

I first chatted with Natasha on New Year’s Eve in Oscar’s Pub, at which time although she was the antithesis of a technical diver adorned in pink feather boas and a tiara, she was getting very excited about the course which she had planned for a long time.

Natasha in her feather boa. OK, you've got me, it's not Natasha, it's Rich

Natasha, Sian and Clare, the terrible trio from England, have been a delight to have around the diveshop ever since and certainly gave Mike a run for his money when they took the PADI Thresher Shark Diver Specialty Course with him last week.

But due credit to her, when it was time to knuckle down and take things a little more seriously, Natasha came through with flying colors.

She sailed through the academics in one day. “Circle T?” she asked, “Is it that easy?”

The second day brought the first confined session, after which Trevor decided it was about time he retired.

But that afternoon, they both got straight back on their respective horses– or should I say straight back into their twin sets – and the dive was a complete turnaround.

Nat and Trev at the Tapilon WWII Wreck

Her first two deeper dives were on the Tapilon WWII Wreck and another on Monad. Her skills improved with each dive and after an eternity of practicing SMB deployment, valve drills, gas switches and gas shares more times than either of them cares to remember, she was finally ready for her last dive, which she performed perfectly.

As if that wasn’t enough, it was a great dive at Monad that afternoon with 2 whitetips, 3 breaching thresher sharks, a school of massive tuna and dolphins!

Big BIG smiles when she got back.

Technical diving

Congratulations Nat!

Next up for Nat – Hammerheads on Thursday!

Tags: IANTD, tec diving, Thresher Sharks, wreck diving
Posted in Cool Creatures, Technical Diving | No Comments »

Palau Trip Report

December 28th, 2009

Palau has been the dream of a lifetime for me, and so when I was offered the chance to do a liveaboard on Big Blue Explorer I jumped at the chance.

Palau is very close to the Philippines and is a perfect destination to combine with your next Malapascua or Philippines visit.

This trip was particularly exciting for me as I had been invited aboard a never-before-run trip, encompassing the ‘Best of the North and South of Palau.” This is the blurb I received about the trip:

Palau

‘A year ago, the Big Blue was chartered by the Nature Conservancy for scientific research in the northern portion of Palau. Our dive professionals found dive sites that blew their minds. ” Think Blue Corner with Silver Tips…”   This area is still largely un-explored but we have come up with an itinerary that combines the best of the most popular and well loved dive sites such as Blue Corner, Blue Holes, Ulong Channel, German Channel with the upcoming stars of Kayangel. We are working closely with the Governor of Kayangel to develop this attraction in hopes that income from the dive fees will make a significant impact on their efforts to preserve their marine resources.’

A few months ago, I met the Divemasters who were onboard the scientific expedition when they were diving with TSD and they attested to the amazing diving. The excitement was unbearable, I had to go…

Palau is just a short hop from the Philippines, I didn’t realize it was only a 2.5 hour flight from Manila. The flights are reasonably priced at US$550 round trip, all inclusive, with an almost unheard of 46 kilo luggage allowance.

Big Blue Explorer

Soon after reaching Manila airport, I met up with some friends, some of whom were pleasant surprises. So it promised to be a fun trip.

We arrived in Palau at 2am, but yet were still met by bright eyed Boat Manager, Terry and Divemaster, Dave. This is Terry’s SEVENTH season on Big Blue in Palau and so he was our ideal host for the week long excursion.

I was in an elite dive group that included famous photographers and underwater journalists. I had left my D200 at home as I did not know about the enormous luggage allowance, and felt rather embarrassed to bring out my tiny Olympus point-and-shoot in front of them. I am not worthy, I am not worthy…

In my dive group, unusually, 7 out of the 8 of us were of the female persuasion, and poor Carlos was mercilessly teased all week. But he took it on the chin as did Terry who had to manage our rowdy bunch.

My dive buddies in Palau (by Yvette Lee)

We had an easy first day’s diving on the Iro WWII wreck and the Lighthouse Channel wreck. These are located in the bays near Koror – a whole fleet was sunk during WWII and for you wreck aficionados there are endless wrecks to explore. I was amazed at the coral coverage on both wrecks.

Lighthouse Wreck

Later in the day was the famous Chandelier Cave which is a very unusual series of 4 caverns containing stalactites, and open air spaces. You can pop up inside each one to breathe fresh air.

Palau also had a mandarin fish dive, but as I have seen a million mandarin fish in Malapascua (at least a million…), I skipped the dive in favor of a cocktail and relaxing first evening lounging on the deck.

Day 2 was the day we had all been looking forward to as we headed up through the North Passage into (‘DUH-DU-DUUH!) undived territory.

We had two full days of – as I call them – CAPTAIN KIRK DIVES – to boldly dive where no man has dived before!!!

How exciting to dive this way in one of the world premier dive destinations.

The first dive was incredible. We dropped down and within a few minutes saw whitetips, grey reef sharks, and SILVERTIPS!!! All at once! The reefs were just stunning, incredible coral growth and amazing fish life.

Grey Reef Shark

For the next two days, we explored different parts of Kayangel and Velasco Reef. There was not another boat in sight, and why would there be? No one else ever comes here. Yet…

The dives were variable. Some were amazing, others were not so great. But as this was an exploratory trip that was to be expected. All the dives were all enjoyable as this was all new stuff and there is no such thing as a bad dive.

For our fourth day we headed south. Finally it was time to dive the site I have been hearing so much about ever since I first became a diver. Possibly the most famous dive site in the world. Can you think of one more famous? Answers on a postcard please.

BLUE CORNER HERE WE COME!

School of Barracuda

Blue Corner was everything it was promised to be and more.

For those of you unfamiliar with Blue Corner, it boasts ripping currents which bring with them incredible numbers of pelagics includes sharks, sharks, and more sharks. It is also the dive site that reef hooks were invented for.

The Hookers on the Corner

We were carefully briefed in advanced of reef hook use and I assured by Paul that I would be an Expert Hooker by the end of the week (ba-boom). I had never used a hook before and it was a novel experience, but once I had go the hang of it… what a great idea! You hook onto a piece of rock (not coral!) which is attached to a rope which is attached to you. Pump a little air into your BCD and BINGO! You are floating motionless over the reef, facing into the current – at the forefront of the shark action. Prior to coming here I could not imagine how there was any reef left at Blue Corner with the daily onslaught of divers hooking on, but that is not the case.

Once the hooks had been sorted and I was sure I would not be swept away in the current, it was time to take my bearings. Goodness me.

Me and a whitetip at Blue Corner (by Yvette Lee)

Just me and the whitetip sharks at Blue Corner (by Yvette Lee)

Whiteip sharks, grey reef sharks, Napolean wrasse, bumphead parrotfish, turtles, barracuda, tuna, spanish mackerel… the marine life just kept on coming at me. I put aside my camera for the most part and just enjoyed the show.

All too soon our no-deco time was coming to an end. We let loose our hooks and drifted towards the point of Blue Corner. Barracudas and schools of jacks were waiting for us as we made our way up to the surface. Great dive, and all the better from a liveaboard as our early morning start meant we were the only group there.

The rest of the day brought on more of Palaus most famous sites. German Channel (aptly named for the Germans who blasted through the reef in the Second World War) is a manta cleaning station. After waiting patiently and getting a manicure from a cleaner shrimp myself, the manta came in for his own turn and swooped right over my head. Always awed by the sight of a manta, I forgot to take any photos.

Blue Holes was a beautiful series of openings into a giant cavern.

Blue Holes

Inside was my absolute favorite marine creature of the trip. DISCO CLAMS!!!

DISCO Clam!!!

I had never heard of such a thing. This is not the best picture in the world but you can get the idea, and kind of see the electric running though the Venus Flytrap type opening.

After a little research I have found that it is actually more commonly known as an Electric Flame Scallop but was unable to find out much more solid information.

The first chance I get in Malapascua I am going straight to Gato Cave to see if I can find any. They were SO COOL!

There are a load of other sites and there were not enough hours in the day to fit them all in. Ulong Channel is another famous site with a hook on area for sharks and the largest terrace of lettuce coral in the world. Pelileu Express was one of my favorites due in part to the fighting turtles that materialized mere inches from my nose. And there are many more…

Turtles fighting

Last day, flying that night and sadly the diving was done. But there was still some snorkeling trips to do and we headed of first to the famous Jellyfish Lake. The thinking is that this slightly salty body of water was somehow isolated from the sea and the population of almost only jellyfish grew and grew, and without any predators they gradually lost their sting. They now feed from the xoothantehellae algae that live inside them and photosynthesize in a very similar manner to those in corals.

During our briefing Paul tried to explain what they are like and eventually reverted to base “It’s like swimming through a huge vat of silicon breast implants…” Nice. But a perfect description.

Spitfish

We jumped in at the pier, that is home to one of the handful of other species that inhabit the lake – cardinalfish, known locally as ‘spitfish’ – you literally spit in the water and they dart over to devour your saliva!

After I had finished with the juvenile amusement of the spitfish, it was time to find me some jellies. I started the snorkel and could see one or two here and there, and in a few minutes I could see literally thousands. I simply could not believe how many were there.

PA300330

Jellyfish lake (by Yvette Lee)

Our final stop was in Clam City, an area which has a colony of cultured Giant Clams.

And after a beautiful speedboat ride around the amazing formations of “Rock Island” including a stop of at the famous arch of Palau, it was time to head back to the boat for a last meal and head home.

Arch of Palau

As well as the diving, everything about the trips was excellent, I can’t think of one bad point. The diving was well organized and the guides were all superb. The food was incredible and just kept on coming. It was a variety of mostly Western, Filipino and Chinese food. As this is a Filipino owned boat, the crew were all Filipino and everyone was amazing. My personal favorite touch was the dude who made sure he wrapped a warm towel around me immediately after each dive. Even at the end of the trip when I went to wash my kit, I found it had already been done, even my SMB taken out of my pocket, unrolled, rinsed and dried.

It was a wonderful trip. I did some incredible diving, met some great people, ate (too much) yummy food and took some pretty poor photographs. But I have Carlos’ photos to remember it by as well. Can you believe we were seeing the same things??? I guess that’s why he gets the big bucks.

I plan to return as soon as I can.

If Palau has always been YOUR dream of a lifetime too, Big Blue Explorer is great way to fulfill that dream.

If you are interested in a trip like this, just let us know. We can book the whole thing for you including the flights from Manila. More details here.

Tags: diving, liveaboard, palau, scuba
Posted in Diving trips | No Comments »

Tsunami Aid

December 21st, 2009

Trevor and I have been lucky enough to meet and work with some wonderful people in the diving industry over the years. We have made many lifelong friends and have many wonderful memories.

Sadly, the 2004 tsunami in Thailand affected many of them and had catastrophic effects on their health, businesses and livelihoods.

Recently a second tsunami has hit in the South Pacific.

Luckily our friends at Dive Savaii escaped unharmed. But not so for Liquid Motion. Ian and Vanessa are a couple we worked with in Thailand many years ago. Like us, they followed their dream and now own (or owned) Liquid Motion, a dive shop on Samoa.

Liquid Motion was completely destroyed in the recent Tsunami. Their dive shop ended up on the roof of the adjacent resort. I cannot begin to comprehend their loss.

You can hear a media interview with Ian here

http://www.thetakeaway.org/stories/2009/sep/30/samoas-swamped-typhoon/

Like the people I know who were involved in the Thailand tsunami, Ian and Vanessa spent the time immediately post-tsunami trying to help the injured and save lives. As they have basic PADI EFR Emergency Medical training they would have been relied upon for help and would have been of great value to the local community.

Despite this terrible turn of events, they are going to rebuild their lives and their dive shop.

As such, we are appealing for help in their behalf. If you feel that you are able to help or donate, however little, please see their website http://www.liquidmotion.ws/.

Donations can easily be made through their paypal account, just go to https://www.paypal.com/, click on “Send money” and enter their email address liquidmotion@ipasifika.net

We sincerely thank you.

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Problems with the blog

December 20th, 2009

Apologies for any recent problems you may have had with the blog, we had some trouble when changing servers We are trying to get everything sorted out but you may have some issues such as receiving old posts again in your RSS feed.

If you see anything wrong on any of the pages please let us know, it would be much appreciated – dive@thresherdivers.com.

And now that we have wi-fi (finally!!!) expect more frequent postings.

Cheers

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November IDC

November 29th, 2009

The November IDC came around very quickly and this time it was an all girl crew. The three ladies passed with flying colors, and as usual scored very well in the Instructor Exams, doing themselves and TSD proud.

l-r: John, Yvette, Sylvia, George, Louise, Mike

Yvette, Sylvia and Louise came to us from varying backgrounds.

Yvette has been with us for three months completing a full internship including Rescue and Divemaster. She is en route to being an English teacher in Korea but loves diving and wants to be able to teach diving as well as English. Koreans certainly like to dive so it sounds like a great idea to me.

Kitted up for IE Open Water

Sylvia is the owner of Tepanee Resort, one of our partner resorts on Malapascua. So I am sure she will become a (more) familiar face at TSD. Sylvia will be able to teach for us every now and then when she has time, particularly with our Italian guests.

PADI IDC

Louise has been working as a DM in the Philippines for a year and we are happy to welcome her as our newest member of staff. She will be staying on with TSD for a while to DM and teach courses.

Diving is Fun!

Thanks as always to our FAB Course Director, John Taylor who did his usual magnificent job and to Mike and Rich who prepped the candidates so well and staffed the IDC. Also to Tony, Dustin, Karlis and Fred who helped out as suffering students.

Posted in Instructor Development | No Comments »

October’s Newest PADI Instructors

October 17th, 2009

October saw another very successful IDC at TSD. Our three instructor candidates passed with flying colours, scoring very highly on their Instructor Exams. They were all pleased to note that they scored way above other candidates and only then realized how well prepared they had been made. All presentations were ones they had seen during training which made for a relatively easy and relaxed two day exam.

Brand new PADI OWSIs L-R: Antoine, Nir, Ayelet, and PADI Instructor Examiner George Wegmann

When they first came to us, Nir and Ayelet had recently finished their Divemaster course and so had the skills fresh in their mind. But Antoine was crossing over from CMAS 3* and so the prep course was a lot more involved for him and especially challenging. But by the start of the IDC proper, everyone was in fine form and Course Director John Taylor did his usual magic and got them through with no problem.

Not such a bad place to do an exam, is it?

Fernando from the One for the Road Pirates, joined in at the end to complete his instructor update. Armed with his newly renewed PADI OWSI Instructor rating and 9 Specialty Instructor ratings, he is now going back to China with the One for the Road Pirates and will be the dive club’s official instructor.

All kitted up and ready for Open Water

Antoine is already off to bigger and better things in Palawan. We are pleased that Nir and Ayalet will be with us for a while longer to do MSDT Prep.

Thanks go to Mike and Rich for prepping so well and staffing the IDC and of course to CD John Taylor.

We would also say a huge thank you to PADI for putting on the Instructor Exam in Cebu especially for us, it was a great help.

The IE party had to wait until after Nir and Ayelet had finished their Specialty Instructor ratings, but it was a great night and a good time was had by all.

Instructors, interns and NEWLY CERTIFIED INSTRUCTORS!

Tags: IDC, Internship, PADI
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One for the Road Pirates Historic Visit

October 11th, 2009

One for the Road Pirates Dive Club

After the amazing fortnight we have just had, we feel we owe an entire blog entry to the One for the Road Pirates Dive Club.

After a full-on two week visit by the 35-strong contingent of the Chinese ex-pat Pub and affiliated Dive Club, they sadly left us yesterday, exhausted and recovering, but with a lot of great memories. They became part of the TSD family and we are missing them terribly.

After a shaky arrival and a slightly rough crossing during the typhoon that devastated Manila, we met in the Pub to get reacquainted with old friends, meet new friends, and sort through the stash of goodies brought from China courtesy of Jason (two suitcases full, I kid you not!).

Stuart and Marie were here for the second time; Jason, Hannah and John we here on their third visit, Fernando on his FIFTH! Many of them were not yet certified and the Pirates took a whole range of courses all the way from intro dives for those who just wanted a taste (way to go Marie!) up to instructor level courses for Fernando.

Poor 9 year old Siv was desperate to do her Open Water course, but as she is still too young, did PADI’s Bubblemaker and Seal Team programs for kids. She has already told her parents they are coming back in May so she can do Open Water with Mike when she will be 10.

While our instructors worked flat out for two weeks teaching assorted courses, the others did lots of diving on our boats that were hijacked and kitted out with PIRATES flags.

Pirate boats

Congratulations go to all of those who passed courses and made for our biggest certification celebration evening ever:

Bubblemaker and Seal Team: Siv

DSD: Marie

Open Water: Max, Stephen, Nicolas, Nat, Bryan, Ruby, Jamie, Gobby

AOW: Max, Amber, Jake, Stuart, Eric

Nitrox: Max, Amber, Jake, Stuart, Eric, Lee, Soo, Jason K

EFR & Rescue: John and Jason

PPB: Jason

Thresher Shark Specialty: Jason and Jake

Wreck Diver: Ian, Minney, Eric

Instructor Update: Fernando

Certification celebration shots

And a nod to all the various people who did non-certification courses, with special mention to Steen and Johanna

The pirates know how to dive hard and play hard and so there was a lot of merrymaking in the evenings including three (or was it four?) ‘fining’ sessions. After a few days, people learned to be careful with their mistakes, as very few went unnoticed and all were subject to public humiliation and a kamikaze shot in the bar during these official fining sessions. Fines were given out for anything from the traditional instructor fines for calling fins ‘flippers’ and leaving your mask on the top of your head, to not showering often enough. Late arrival Lee was fined first for bringing the good weather, then for bringing the typhoon (no I couldn’t work that one out either), Stuart for asking what WE means on his Suunto computer (it means Wednesday, not that you need a toilet break). Soo was quite justly fines for booking Jason K’s flight ticket Cebu-China return rather than China-Cebu return, which meant that he arrived a day late.

And Erich was fined so many times, that at the second session we just gave him a snorkel test and got them all over in one go. He was fined for a huge array for things, mostly, well just being Erich really, but also for his unhealthy obsession with finding a harpoon gun (we eventually had a miniature one built especially for him. )

Fine for Erich. Again.

Biggest smile went to John who won the free “Discover Tec” experience from our Project Aware fundraiser and absolutely loved it.

Finally, congratulations to Jason and Hannah who got engaged while they were here. (Hannah perhaps wins joint biggest smile after she was asked.)

Champagne

Many thanks to Jason and John for organizing such a wonderful trip. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously and all of us at Thresher Shark Divers enjoyed having them. The place is not the same now they have decamped….

But we are hoping to see Fernando back in November to do more Instructor courses, John over Christmas to do his Advanced Nitrox, and maybe later on for DM. And the whole group plus more (they are threatening 50 people!) back in May.

Cheers!

Posted in Diving trips, PADI Courses | No Comments »

Project Aware Cleanup and Fundraiser

October 2nd, 2009

Thresher Shark Divers put on a very special event for International Cleanup Day this year, with a truly international group of volunteers from the UK, China, USA, South Africa, Italy, Portugal, France, Canada and Israel and others.

Clean up briefing with Mike

The afternoon’s festivities started with free cleanup dives. About 40 volunteers went out to various dive sites around the island. We even managed to stop the IDC for half a day and our eager Instructor Candidates and Course Director John Taylor joined the cleanup.

Some of the volunteers leaving for the cleanup

For those people who were not diving (or too young to dive), there was plenty of trash to clean up on the beach.

Beach cleanup

After a triumphant return with many sacks of trash, we distributed our usual free ‘Cleanup Punch,’ a lethal concoction of Andrea’s mixing, and Project Aware certificates and stickers were awarded.

Project Aware certificates all round

Our youngest volunteers were Matt (aged 4) and Siv (aged 9) from Denmark. Siv was gutted that she was too young to become an Open Water Diver on this trip, but still became a Bubblemaker and a PADI Seal Team member.

After a six month shark course in school she is already signed up as a ‘Lifetime shark protector’, she is a budding conservationist and dive instructor, and was particularly proud of her Aware Kids prizes.

Next up on the agenda was a fundraising beach BBQ with pork, chicken and (sustainably fished) seafood. All proceeds went to Project Aware.

The highlight of the evening was our raffle draw for an assortment of prizes. After 5 days of frenzied ticket buying, everyone had their favorite gifts in mind. Prizes ranged from free meals at Oscar’s Restaurant and drinks at the Pub, to PADI courses, to souvenirs, to just plain silly (‘Free midnight swim for two!’).

The grand prize was a free PADI Thresher Shark Diver specialty course and this was definitely the favorite prize for ticket buyers. As the Thresher Shark course emphasizes shark conservation and Project Aware’s “Protect the Sharks” campaign, it was a fitting prize.

There were about 20 prizes awarded in all, so a lot of people won something. Max seemed to do the best, winning seemingly every other prize, but then he did buy a lot of tickets. Some people were happy just to win the shot of Single Malt Whiskey from Trevor’s private collection, others longed for the private island tour with Cecile (our most sought after waitress). But the most enthusiastically wished for prize was by John Reed who desperately wanted the Discover Tec experience. Unfortunately, John didn’t win the award, but Jason did. Jason could see how much he wanted it and so he kindly donated the prize to John. What a great friend. So John did go to the ball after all and is now hooked on tec…

Despite huge numbers of tickets he bought, Jason did not win the Thresher Shark Diver Specialty course (that honor went to Steve). But as he made our biggest cash donation of USD200 in cash, we decided to give him an additional free Thresher Shark Diver course anyway, for being such a sport. Thank you Jason, you’re a star.

Everyone had a really good day, it was a lot of fun, and certainly something we will repeat in the future.

In total we had over 50 volunteers and raised a lot more money than we every expected. As the final amount raised was so close to four figures, Trevor and I decided to make up the rest to a grand total sum of money raised of AU$ 1,000!!!

Project Aware will be receiving their check imminently.

All diving, freebies, drinks and prizes for the event were donated by Andrea, Trevor and Mike at Thresher Shark Divers.

Posted in Environment | No Comments »