HORIZON NEWS

March 2008 - The newsletter of FIVE STAR IDC CENTRE New Horizons Dive Centre
Printable Version

Welcome new staff - (sort of new!!)
At the beginning of this month we were pleased to welcome back Greg. A good number of you will remember Greg from his time spent working here between 2006 and 2007. At the end of March last year Greg left to go instructing in the Carribean, Dominica to be precise. He was there for about 6 months and had a great time by the sounds of it. After that Greg moved on to Zanzibar. However having been there for a while Greg finally saw sense and realised that Macclesfield is the bright centre of the universe. So he came rushing back when he heard that there was a vacancy after Steve K finished at the end of January.
I’m sure that those of you who know Greg from his previous time here will be pleased to see him back. Those of you that don’t know him yet will get to know him quickly through the shop and out diving.

UK TRIPS
Scapa Flow
We have had a cancellation on this trip. We are heading up to dive the legendary Scapa flow 14th-21st June. This will be a fantastic trip with the opportunity to dive these historic wrecks. Some of these are in the 30 – 40 metre range so you must have Rescue diver level. If you would like the one place now available give us a call.

Menai Day Trips
Saturday 12th April or Friday 30th May. Hard boat diving – leaving from the Menai Straights to explore the reefs and wrecks around Anglesey. Comfortable boat with a lift to get you back on board.

 
St Abbs - 11th-13th July 
Fantastic scenic diving, suitable for divers of all levels, set in this beautiful unspoilt coastline. Always a popular trip with divers returning year after year. Non diving partners/family also enjoy this weekend.

Farne Islands – 27th-29th July
Enjoy great diving in this beautiful location with a good mixture of wall, scenic and wreck dives. You also have a great chance of underwater encounters with seals. They will actually come and join you on some of the dives, swimming around you as well as sneaking up on you and nibbling on your fins!!!

FOREIGN TRIPS
April Red Sea
We Have had 2 cancellations on the Red Sea trip to El Gouna 25th April – 2nd May. El Gouna is a lovely resort with shops and Restaurants and we are staying in the Movenpick resort and spa which is a top class hotel. One of the best things about El Gouna is that it has all the things that you would want to find in a resort, but without the crowds of some of the busier resorts. If you would like more details of this trip please give us a call at the shop or look on the website www.new-horizon.co.uk.

South Africa & Mozambique 01st- 15th November 2008
This trip offers you the ultimate shark diving adventure along with the opportunity to have great encounters with manta rays. You will also have the opportunity to see the East coast of South Africa by land and visit Kruger Park. Although the diving can be a little more challenging this will truly be a trip of a lifetime. Diving places limited to nine – book early to avoid disappointment.


Marsa Alam, Red Sea 03rd-10th December 2008
Marsa Alam is the gateway to the exciting Southern Red Sea and its myriad pristine reefs. This hotel based trip with daily boat diving is ideal for both novice divers and more experienced ones who want to explore famous reefs such as Elphinstone.


Sharm el Sheik trip report by Shelley Hesford
An excellent time was had by the 14 people who went to Sharm on 23 February. The weather was great, the water was warm and the beer and Mohito’s were cold. Despite being teetotal, Andy, our leader, did manage to consume the odd beer which resulted in him developing a wholly new language the last night of the holiday at the Emperor BBQ. There were many highlights of the trip, including Dave’s hair, which while not streaked, was certainly very unusual, resembling a beavers tail. Many hours were spent in Pirates Bar and the Camel club planning patterns for the back. Many hours were incidentally spent diving and the conditions were superb. Lots of good fish spotted including a number of Spanish dancers, bikini fish at Tiran, a plague of finger fish and the very rare Bulimic Barracuda. When milk fish were spotted at Near Garden reef Stuarts SMB responded immediately by rising to the occasion. Food wise there was also great choice. We spent 5 of the diving days on the Empress Theresa, a large boat with a great crew. The other day was spent at Dahab, doing Ell Bells and the Blue Hole and Canyon. We even managed a night dive at Ras Katy. All in all a very enjoyable week and a trip to be recommended! Thanks to Andy for being a fine host.


SOME NEW GEAR IN THE SHOP
Aqualung have introduce a new regulator into their range the Mikron. This, according to AquaLung, is the smallest and lightest weight regulator on the market. The mikron has the EN250 rating, this rates the regulator for use down to 10 degrees Centigrade. If you only dive in the UK in the summer months and abroad the rest of the time this could be the regulator for you. It is an incredibly neat regulator and weighing in at just 26oz for the din version, the ideal travel regulator.

SPECIAL OFFER
Buy any Aqualung regulator and receive the octopus free!!!!
Seaquests new Pro QD i3 and Pearl i3 have all the usual features that you would expect on a Seaquest BCD. Excellent padding for comfort, the surelock integrated weight system, stainless steel D-rings and decent pockets. The new thing here is the inflate/deflate mechanism, it is situated at the bottom of the left side of the jacket so that it is situated just above your hip. This means that you do not have corrugated hose coming over your left shoulder reducing drag and having one less hose dangling. come in to the shop to see for yourselves.

Intova backup torch
This is an Aluminium LED torch. It has a super bright 3 watt luxeon lifetime bulb and its metal construction makes it incredibly durable and hard wearing, good news for divers!! It is also suitable for use out of the water for any number of other activities. It is powered by two lithium batteries that give you 4-5 hours burn time before it begins to dim. The replacement batteries are £4.50. Priced at £39.95 it is very good value for money.

Fourth Element Sub Zero undersuits
This suit uses all the latest fabric technologies to produce what is possibly the warmest undersuit on the market today. It has been developed with both diving and the surface interval in mind, consisting of a jacket and salopette style design. 
As with all the other Fourth Element thermal wear it is a wicking fabric to take moisture away from your body as well as the outer fabric being waterproof and windproof. We should have these suits in stock by 14th March, they will be well worth coming in to see, especially as there will be an introductory offer of 10% discount.

COURSES
The National Geographic speciality is on Saturday 15th March at Capernwray. This course will help you Increase your knowledge of the underwater world including the marine life, wrecks and geology by using the highly acclaimed National Geographic Diver Almanac and DVD. Then you will explore the underwater world during a days diving where you will fine tune your buoyancy skills, practice your underwater navigation then complete an exploration project with an underwater digital camera to record your dive.

Wednesday 26th March 19:30 DPV Pool Session
This session will introduce you to the excitement and fun of using DPVs. It covers the basic operation and safety aspects of their use. This is an introduction only and does not result in certification. For the speciality certification come to Capernwray Friday 18th April and use them on a couple of dives putting into practice all aspects of their use.

Advanced Open Water at Stoney Cove 5th and 6th April
This is a great course to develop your diving and open up more diving opportunities to you. It helps you to develop your diving skills with the guidance of Instructors and Divemasters. You will do dives such as, deep, navigation, multilevel, peak performance buoyancy, wreck. Having completed this course you will be qualified to dive to 30 metres, which will increase the number of sites you can dive and also the number of trips open to you.

Instructor Course
The Assistant Instructor course is conveniently being run over the May Bank Holiday weekend (evening Friday 02nd May-Monday 05th May). The full Instructor course then continues for the rest of the week completing on Sunday 11th May.

Divemaster course
The first Divemaster course starts on Sunday 13th April. This is your first rung on the professional ladder of diving. It is a fantastic course that gets you involved in assisting on courses of all levels as well as guiding pleasure divers. Anyone who does this course says that it is the most rewarding course they have done. Its not surprising really when you consider that you are helping people learn to do something that you love doing. The Divemaster qualification can also open up new opoptunities for you from a working and/or travelling point of view.

IMPORTANT DATES 2008
15th March Capernwray – Open water course, National Geographic Spec, SMB spec and Pleasure dives
16th March Capernwray – Open water course; Rescue course; Drysuit speciality and Pleasure dives
26th March Sea Scooter (DPV) pool session 19:30 at Sandbach
30th March Advanced NITROX course starts
05th/06th April Stoney Cove – First Advanced Open Water course 2008
5th/6th April Pleasure Diving Stoney Cove
12th April Menai day trip – hard boat diving
13th April Divemaster course starts
17th April Capernwray – Open Water and Pleasure Divers
18th April Capernwray – Open Water D.P.V Spec and pleasure divers
20th April E.F.R Emergency First Response – New Horizons 10:00
22nd April Nitrox Theory 19:00 at NHDC
3rd May Assistant Instructor Course starts
4th /5th May Advanced Nitrox – Stoney Cove
4th /5th May Pleasure Divers – Stoney Cove
10th May Navigation Speciality
11th-13th July St Abbs weekend
27th-29th July Farne Island trip
01st-15th Nov South Africa/Mozambique trip
03rd-10th Dec Marsa Alam, Red Sea trip

CONGRATULATIONS : the following people have qualified as follows:
Open Water referral
Magdi Hanafy
Laura Hanafy
Lena Hanafy
Sue Hanafy
Paul Thrower
Jack Thrower

Open Water
Jonathan Bradshaw

Advanced Open water
Shelly Hesford

Specialties
Shelly Hesford x 2
David Hall
Ady Brown

EFR
Rob Barker
Darren Jones
Mark Turner
Robert Laing
Ady Brown
Aimee Procter
Hazel Dockney
David Hall
Stephen Quayle