Giant birdcage...

That's it! It is the second time me and Steve, (from www.freelancecoursedirector.com) are going for couple of dives at Nohoch Nah Chich which means in Mayan, Giant birdcage.
I haven't got so many cave dives but I must admit this place is magic. So many formations and so many different ones as well!
Once tied off, the downstream main line is easy to find, so is the upstream!
Then it is a long swim in the meanders of what is one of the longest, if not The longest, underwater cave system in the whole world!!! Can you imagine??
Before I start talking (showing off) about the dives let me explain the site of Nohoch Nah Chich.
It is located south of Dos Ojos entrance, it is not indicated as Nohoch but hey...you've got to have a guide if you want to go there, it's worth it!
So, lets admit you found it, after a rough ride in the jungle, parc the car and pay your 'entry fee'.
Few steps from your car, towards a tree where the rope is readied for yout o lower your gear here comes the sinkhole of Nohoch Nah Chich. It is huge and very nicely kept.
After lowering all the equipment, it's time to walk around the hole and take the stairs all the way down to a sundeck and tables, surrounded by a crystal clear water pool. It is brest taking...(oops)
Most of the days are filled with the snorkeling tours from the largest adventure/off road company.
The 2 dives we did, day before yesterday were 70' for the first one and 80' for the second one.

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This last few days have been going around preparing Steve's arrival and also our holidays.
It doesn't go without having to clean the house to frequently with cat poohs and other 'oops' that are located all around.
It's becoming very out of proportion! Well, we started new rules and hopefully it'll work.
Enough said!
Our holidays could take us from the west coast to the east coast of the US...
There is the DEMA show in Vegas, where I could find some good deal for a Gates or L&M housing and maybe get some other new stuff out on the market. Only dive pro can get in after paying a hefty fee, so Fiona is probably gonna have to wait in a spa....Poor her!
Hotels on the strip are not so expensive. Of course if we go at the Bellagio or Luxor it's going to cost us, but Fi found some for $50 or so and they don't look to 'smelly'!
It I can't get my hands on a housing there, the plan would be to go to California to the H2O shop next to Huntingdon Beach.
So far, even if there would not be a race to get my toys, it would be a nice trip.
We are still looking to find the cheappest flight deal to do all this...
Looking forward to it and I will keep u posted.

Well, well, not much today!

No, I'm not telling the truth. In fact I did a lot. It was webdesign oriented and MySQL tutorial education. Very borring...

The most exciting was to create the first 'menu' pages for Fiona's website. Its still a pending work but by the end of the year, it should be online.

It's the pic on the upper left corner!!! Didn't know where to put it!

After all she is the editor and she knows about layouts and all that stuff. I think, it looks good, fresh and atractive. And, and...all the links work.....;-)

A bit more about webdesign, I've seen some site offering the kind of stuff/products I'd like to offer and I must say, they're HOT!! With HD media player and Flash gallery, all the flashy stuff a 'modern' site has.
Although and this is according to our editor in chief, they are not 'reader' friendly. So it's something to take into account when designing a site, realy!

A little video to add a bit of life to this page! Not that it's a sad page but, I have to show off a bit now that I find the time to upload stuff here and also to show my work as an underwater videographer...
On the other hand, I went to take alook at the GUE/DIR training curriculum and specialy the Cave 1 & 2 and Tech 1 & 2. It is now, with a bit of experience/knowledge about this training agency, I can say that it is probably a good choice...if you've got the $$$$$$$ Well, I have to prepare, we are going to eat at Babes probably and the misses is hungry!!

Back in business!!

Hi all, sorry I've been away from the keyboard for a while hence the lack of news!
I just spent the season doing U/W videos for a small dive shop in PdC and I must say, I really enjoyed the experience.

When I started I was telling my girlfriend, Fiona, that I was not sure wich of the shooting or editing I liked the most! Now I know, it's the shooting part of it, for sure. So here we go, a new dent in my carreer as a diver.
In the same time I also met a guy form the UK, James, who is also instructor and we've been doing some cave diving together. It was nice, we went to Grand Cenote and Las Palmas. Very nice dives!
In Las Palmas we met , passing by a buddy team that was doing the same route but from Dos Ojos. It is actually what we call a 'traverse' kind of dive. Starting form one sinkhole and passing one antoher during the dive. Only downside of this type of cave diving ( if there is any!) is that you have to arrange a car to get you back to start point.
All in all, things are doing well and I look forward to the coming months for more action and $$.

Thats a video taken on the only wreck in the Playa del Carmen area. It belonged to the owner of Xcaret and was wreckaged on the shore after a hurricane. To damaged to refit, he decided to sink it as 'artificial' reef.

It's a nice dive where we can see turtles, big Jacks and some barracudas as well. On that dive I saw what I thought was a shark but after asking the crew on the boat they told me it was a 'cobia', never seen one before! Looked like a shark though!

Ok, that's it for now, I have Pilates lesson in 15', down town, have to go.

Bye

Web design

Another interest is webdesigning. I started to design one for me and one for my girlfriend. It's not an easy thing to do, but it is super interesting. Working with photo editing as well, make it more realistic.

As a dive professional, I recognize the fact that to stand out of the crowd you have to have other qualities than a good educator. That's one of the reasons I decided to learn web design and photo editing.

I've got some training videos that make the process easier and faster than if I was learning on my own, without educational support I mean.

Lets talk about me...us and the cats

Hello visitors, I'm in the process of becoming one of the zillion bloggers sharing a part of their life on the web.
Me, Fi and Scuba is all about me, my girlfriend and my second girlfriend: scubadiving!!
It sounds weird, but, hey, I'm French so this might explain a bit.
I've been teaching scuba for almost 15 years now and I'm still enjoying what I do. We moved to Playa del Carmen 3 month ago and I just became a Full Cave diver. What an experience it was!
I took the course with http://www.aztecdiving.com/ and Steve Bogaerts being the owner/instructor. He is a very experienced Tec/Cave Instructor. His field is cave exploration, in Sidemount rig!
The course was intense and very interesting. We dived many different caves and learned a lot. I say 'we' because it was 2 of us.
Fiona my gf is not a diver. Yes I know, after 7 years with a dive instructor, how come??
Well, she tried once, not with me, and it was a bad experience... What can I say?
I've tried many times, but I just don't think it's her thing.
we also have 2 cats, no, in fact we have 3...wait, 4 cats. Two of them are granted acces to the living room, the others are in the garden. Georges, is Fiona's and Dorry is mine...As far as we can own a cat!