Happy holidays

2011 is almost over and we are diving like crazy, so it was difficult to update our blog, but is part of our New Year´s resolution!

Although Christmas is over, we send our best wishes. We hope you had a fantastic christmas celebration and we wish  you a year full of moments that you can remember for the rest of your life and plenty of free time to come or go diving somewhere else. 

For us, 2011 could not been better, so we want to thank everyone who came diving at Aquantis, to everyone who read about us, to the ones that continued to enjoy diving  by following the stories and pictures on facebook and twitter, infinite thanks to all who recommended us to friends, neighbors and family. 

Thanks to all the great staff at Aquantis who worked non-stop to turn strangers into divers and divers into friends.

A big hug from Taganga.

We have a new compressor

The compressor was too small for the amount of working we have, and some days the compressor turned off at 2a.m and woke us up at six in the morning, fortunately those days are over.

Finally the new compressor arrived, a Bauer compressor, it has reduced the tank filling time considerably, and in addition we requested a change of the filtration system to improve air quality.

The high season started in Taganga and the tanks are full at 3 pm, that’s happiness, our quality of life has improved dramatically. It’s a brilliant gift we have given to ourselves for Christmas.

Extreme makeover

Aquantis looks better! We had put some pictures on facebook, and some of you have already seen the new face of Aquantis ... But here's the full story.

In mid 2011, our PADI regional manager, told us about a gift that PADI had for diving centers who work following the standards  and offering high quality education. PADI would pay for any project in order to improve our diving center, and we did not think twice and decided it was time for Aquantis to look better.

And that's how we got into the "wrapping project", we sent pictures of every corner of the diving center and specially the entrance of Aquantis, a PADI designer reviewed the pictures, we chose the images from thousands and thousands of photos and they sent the new designs, finally, last month everything was ready.

We are happy!!

You can be the diver No. 20.000.000

The PADI organization will soon issue the 20 millionth diver certification. In recognition of this milestone, PADI Regional Headquarters around the world are giving a dive trip to  the diver who earns the 20 millionth certification AND the instructor who issues the winning certification a trip to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Here's what the prize includes: 

Round-trip coach airfare to Cairns, Queensland, Australia including all taxes and fees*;
  
Four nights stay of two-person shared accommodation at a hotel resort in Cairns or Port Douglas, Queensland Australia (location to be determined by Tourism Queensland), including taxes and fees. Incidental expenses such as phone, internet, minibar, room service, movie rental, meals, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, tips and gratuities, etc are winner’s responsibility  

Three day / three  night live aboard dive adventure on the Spirit of Freedom  to Cod Hole and Ribbon Reefs (approximate value of   $1895 AUD per person), including:      

• opportunity for up to 11 dives 
• full equipment hire, including dive computers 
• double or twin share cabin with private bathroom 
• chef-prepared meals 
• one hour, low level reef flight from Lizard Island to Cairns 
• levies and taxes 

Exclusions: incidental expenses such as alcoholic beverages, tips and  gratuities are winner’s responsibility 

So, book your dive course now, maybe you and one of our instructors can win the prize!

More info about the prize in padi. 

Celebrating San Valentine´s Day Underwater

Since early February, we started thinking how to do something different to celebrate Valentine´s Day and surprise our divers.

Many ideas began to emerge until finally we decided on chocolates under water, we did some testing of leaving chocolates in ziploc bags for 2 days and 1 day without very good aesthetic results. So we couldn’t do this in advance.

Then we thought about how to make the divers see them??? and we got it!! tie the bag to large red hearts marked with the name of each diver, in our imagination all was beautiful and perfect.

Liset, Marjorie and Cesar were devoted for several days to cut and make hearts and fill bags with chocolates; A couple of days before we tried to sink a bag in our pool for washing equipment .. and of course, it floated. So we open the bags again to put stones and get negative buoyancy!

A week before we did not know how many divers we were going to have that day, but for 13 February, our boat was full in the morning and afternoon, so we ran to make the final hearts and plan how to do it.

During the surface interval, Cesar and Chopper would place the hearts in a sandy area, also some hearts tied to stones to make it look like a garden of hearts!! of course in our imagination, again, everything was red and perfect.

The black bag was ready with everything inside for diving on February 14th.

During the interval , Cesar went with Chopper as planned, but the cords were entangled, the hearts were bent and they are not so red underwater .. .. did not looked like we imagined it! despite the small stones, the bags were floating, so Chopper looked and looked for stones in the sand to hold the bags.

Well finally we were ready, they arrived at the dive site, all the divers went to the same place, all together, something very rare in Aquantis, so after the briefing we took them to the garden of hearts and everything was a surprise, because it was in a sandy patch and there were so many of us, the visibility gradually decreased, but it significantly increased the happiness.

In the afternoon we repeated, and more happy faces came out of the water and happy stomachs with all the chocolates

Thank you all for making this Valentine's Day, a day hard to forget for everyone in Aquantis.

Having fun doing PADI Rescue Diver Courses

We are always looking for someone to do the rescue course because every time we have a Dive Master student, who needs to assist and instructor during this course, there is nobody looking for doing it. But lately we've been very lucky, the last days of 2010 we had the Miller sisters and we already certified five new rescue divers in 2011.

We started the year with Elizabeth (Colombian living in Japan) and Martijn (Dutch). They took the first course EFR (Emergency First Response) and then their rescue course with Cesar. Many exercises, lots of sun, lots of laughs and many many hours of study to obtain your certificate, both obtained 96% in their exam ... well done.

Here doing a safety practice (EFR course)

Ken arrived at the same time (half american, half Japanese, half “mutano”) to brighten our days. Alejo was his instructor and dragging the tired diver was one of his best moments. Ken was the lucky winner of the surprise gift to get 100% on their exam.

A few days after we received Loren (Half American, half Canadian), very good diver! This time the chosen instructor was Chopper. We did a refresh of his EFR course as he did it 14 months ago and some things have changed since then. In the video we see perfectly the case for an unconscious diver underwater.

And then was Lennart´s turn (Swiss). After completing his advanced course and peak performance buoyancy specialty.  He decided to become a rescue diver. Now is Desi who is teaching to help other divers in emergency situations.

So it was a very good training for Phillipe, our Dive Master student, very good experience for instructors who applied the last updated changes to the EFR training and of course a good lesson for those divers who will have from now on safer dives .

Thanks for diving with us, we hope to see you again for your Dive Master course.

Elizabeth has already begun :) 

10 facts about reef squids

The caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea, is common in the waters of south florida, Bahamas, Caribbean  and of course Tayrona Park.

10 facts about reef squids



1. They are members of the 10 arm cephalopods (decabrachia) with torpedo-shaped bodies. All 10 appendages of the squid are "fixed to its head", and are arranged in a circle around the mouth.
2. Reef squids are often encountered in small schools (4-30) and are usually unafraid of divers, if not curious about them.
3. The habitat of reef squid changes according to the squid's stage of life and size. New hatchlings tend to reside close to the shore in areas from 0.2-1 m below the surface on or under vegetation. Young small squid typically congregate in shallow turtle grass near islands and remain several centimeters to two meters from the surface to avoid bird predators. Adult reef squid venture out into open water and can be found in depths up to 100 m. When mating, adults are found near coral reefs in depths of 1.5-8 m.
4. They communicate through a variety of complex signals controlling the pigment in their skin. Messages such as readiness to mate, sexual identification, and alarm are flashed through various colorful spots, blotches, and background color. To signal slight alarm, their brow ridges turn bright gold and the central arms turn white, the entire body will pale if the squid retreats from its potential predator and in open water when faced with an extremely aggressive predator, reef squid will obstruct themselves and confuse the predator by ejecting a cloud of black ink
5. Reef squid can also move using jet propulsion by pressing water from the pallial cavity (in the mantle) through their funnel to move through the water. Reef squid can also fly out of the water using jet propulsion.
6. Reef squid is a voracious eater and can consume 30-60% of its body weight daily. They consume small fish, other mollusks and crustaceans.
7. They use very tricky hunting tactics to catch their prey. When hunting, they often mimic weeds in the water to blend in. Most of there hunting is done at night.
8. Caribbean reef squid, are semelparous; that means, they die after reproducing. Females lay their eggs then die immediately after. The males, however, can fertilize many females in a short period of time before they die
9. The squid can hear a range of sound from 400Hz to 1500Hz
10. They have three hearts and blue blood due to it binds oxygen using a blue, copper-containing protein called hemocyanin. Human blood is red because the oxygen-binding protein hemoglobin contains iron.