June 2005
The PADI Instructor Qualification is the most sought after grade in the business and requires a serious commitment to every aspect of recreational diving. It involves hundreds of logged hours and late night study in theory, practice and teaching skills in order to make the grade.
Congratulations to all our newly qualified PADI Instructors who completed their training during May. All their hard work leading up to the evaluation has paid off with a 100% success rate for all Candidates. Alexander Afonin, Aoife Brown, Brendan Devine, Ger Dooley, Paul McDonnell, Feargal Morrisey and Jenny Shirran, well done to you all!
The latest consumer style digital cameras and underwater housings have revolutionised the business of capturing great images during a dive. We have just completed our first "Digital Photo" PADI specialty course and some of the results are brilliant! Using the Sea & Sea DX 5000G, Eimer O'Connor took this great photo of a Hermit Crab in Dalkey Sound. The visibility on the day was only about 1.5 meters yet, with the camera set on macro, and the external strobe set above the subject, Eimer's shot shows no evidence of back scatter and the focus is sharp as can be!
Part of the Photo Specialty now also includes a brief tour through the magic of Photoshop which is an extremely powerful programme for digital image enhancement. These days capturing the image is just one element of the process, using Photoshop can bring out the very best of any shot.
We are now selling the complete Sea & Sea package including camera, housing and YS25 stobe for just €1,300 which represents great value for a system of this quality. Our next Photo Course will be running in early July so contact us asap for full booking details.
Baltimore Report
The June Bank Holiday may not have had much sunshine down south but the diving and the craic was sparkling! 18 Oceandivers enjoyed a great weekend with 2 dives on the "Kowloon Bridge" plus all the local sites. The strong westerly winds made any visits to the Fastnet off limits but there was plenty of compensation for those who went on a surface snorkel and "Rapid Run" in Lough Hyne which is a local salt lake containing an extraordinary diversity of marine life.
There is growing interest in the Marine Biology specialty which has been running in the area, the course is offered through our friends in Aquaventures and all those who travelled down to attend in 2004 raved about how much they saw and learnt.Based on everybody's feedback, we intend to build another visit into the schedule before the autumn so watch this space.
