Year one Review of RfA Instructor Development

Rumble fish Adventure officially recognized as a PADI 5* IDC on 17th August 2010. As our first full year anniversary is approaching, we looked back at the successes of our interns and candidates who came to train with RfA at our new facility, and with the help of our partners at Scuba Junkie, Malaysia and Barefoot Scuba, India.

Recognizing our Candidates Success

We measure our successes on what our candidates do after their course, not on a passing percentage. Similar to the previous 5 years, many of Course Director Thien's former candidates can still be found working in the dive industry throughout Asia and the Americas. RfA graduates are found in the Maldives, Cambodia, the Philippines, California, Florida, the Red Sea, and beyond. Some are now PADI Course Directors. Many others are now owners of their dive businesses, and managers of dive centers and liveaboards.

Where are our 2010-2011 graduates today? We succeed when our candidates succeed. So today, you can find almost all of our past year graduates teaching throughout Asia Pacific. Our recent graduated instructors and divemasters can be found at:

• Mermaids Liveaboard in Komodo and Bali, Indonesia (Jose, October 2010)
• Sipadan/Mabul, Scuba Junkie, Malaysia (Kay, Paul, Rowan, Ella & Kat, November 2010)
• Barefoot Scuba, Andaman Islands, India (Gaurav, November 2010)
• Gil Meno, Indonesia (Sandra, November 2010)
• Sunny Cove, Singapore (Gary and David, December 2010)
• Phukest.com, Talinn, Estonia (Martin, December 2010)
• Blue Coral Diving, Hoi An, Viet Nam (Patrick, February 2011)
• Rumble fish Adventure, Phuket, Thailand (Chris, February 2011)
• Weekend instructor, Melbourne, Australia (Travis, February 2011)
• Sipadan/Mabul, Scuba Junkie, Malaysia (Sven, Jo, Monica & Richie, February 2011)
• Khao Lak Scuba Adventure, Khao Lak, Thailand (Dave, March 2011)
• Scuba Jam, Bangkok, Thailand (Asa, April 2011)
• Orca Dive Club, Mumbai, India (Denzil, May 2011)
• World Wide Dive & Sail, Manado, Indonesia (Kassandra, July 2011)

'Stand out in the Crowded' Businesses of Diving

Why divers chose RfA for their PADI Pro training? It's probably because of our fair and honest business philosophy. They can count on us to do the right things for the clients and the environment, and to live by these policies:

• We practice and support 'fair pricing practices.' We highly encourage all of our guests to shop our competitors.
• We expect individual effort and creativeness during training under challenging real world conditions.
• We are lovers of the sea, an 'ECO company' and encouraged our candidates to be as 'green a diver' as they can be.
• Our Course Directors and Instructors are divers, not classroom lecturers! So our candidates actually learn to teach and supervise in the ocean, under real life dive conditions, not from power point presentation!
• We don't work for free, so therefore our candidates are expected to be the same. There's no FREE education. So, don't expect to work for free in exchange for experience from us. If you teach for us, you get compensated!
• Our divers safety and fun are our main priorities!
• We have a "Price Match Guarantee," do let us know if you receive the same written offer at a lower price, we'll match it.
• And finally, we educate our candidates 'the business of diving' in 'a real business', ours! Because we started where they were, as active dive instructors.

Final words

Hearty Congratulations to RfA 2010 and 2011 graduates. Thank you for the opportunities to meet and learn from you as much as you might have learned from us. We look forward to support all of our past candidates in anyway we can with their passion, and goals. Remember to keep diving green!

From Similans to Malapascua to Mabul

What a great first 6 months of 2011 for us here at Rumble fish Adventure!

RfA celebrated the start of our 10th year in diving with 3 weeks of diving, covering 3 countries. Aboard our chartered yatch, MV Scuba Explorer, we welcome back our friends and colleagues from around the globe to help us 'dive' into our next decade in style.

Our second leg brought us to Malapascua, the Philippines, diving with our friends at Evolution. as this was my first dive trip into this great reef corner, we achieved our objective in seeing the graceful Thresher shark at Monad Shoal. The house Reef just outside of the dive shop proved to be great 'shooting ground' for our photographers, capturing fantastic macro species from seahorses, lobsters, shrimps and rarest of nudibranches.

Finally, we stopped into Semporna for a few last dives with our friends at Scuba Junkie. Mabul didn't fail to impress with wonderful dives at the Mabul's Artificial Reef, Kapalai House Reef, and Lobsters Wall.

Click here for some photos of the dives.

Thank you to our colleagues at Gillmanoids Kuala Lumpur, our friends from the Marriott USA Kristina, Clae, Andrea, Kody, Wes, our RfA Club members Dan, Renee, Dave and our former IDC candidates Ron, Johnathan and Patrick for coming and making the celebration a memorable experience.

Most Dive Sites Remain Open in Phuket & Similans

Khao Lak Dive Operators Forum Official Statement to the confusion surrounding aspects of the sudden closure of a number of Andaman dive sites. The Forum represents 26 Dive Operators in the Khao Lak Area.

Due to higher than normal sea water temperatures in 2010, some of the hard corals around the Similan and Surin Islands have been damaged by coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is a well-known phenomenon and has occurred several times in various parts of the world over the past century. The term covers an event where the symbiotic colored algae living inside the coral are released due to stress (high temperature, for example). When the algae have been released, the coral appears white, hence the term ''coral bleaching.''

If you would like to have more information about coral bleaching please click on the following link to see a presentation from Dr Mark Eakin, the Coordinator of NOAA's Coral ReefWatch program. www.climatewatch.noaa.gov

In the Similan and Surin Islands, the highest impact has been on hard corals in shallow water, where the sea temperature is generally higher than in deeper water. Members of the KLDOF have been very happy to observe a speedy recovery of certain types of coral, especially soft corals, which appeared to have suffered from the bleaching effect as well. Corals located deeper than 12 meters have suffered no or very little damage.

We as dive operators are passionate about the environment in which we live and work. Therefore we are very concerned about the condition of the reef. It is proven that there is absolutely no connection between diving and coral bleaching, but we feel the need to be even more careful around the reef to prevent further stress.

With more than 25 named dive sites, the region offers ample opportunity to dive and snorkel. Our recommendation would be to temporarily close the dive sites most affected in the Similan Islands, namely East of Eden, Beacon Reef and Breakfast Bend.

These dive sites are located on the east side of the islands. Dive sites on the west side have only been minimally affected and have many colorful corals and a wide range of marine life.

Famous dive sites such as Elephant Head Rock, Koh Tachai Pinnacle, and Richelieu Rock still offer great diving. The stag horn coral at Koh Bon has been affected; however there have been a record number of Manta Ray sightings this season.

In addition, we think it would be worth considering re-opening some of the dive sites around the southern Similan Islands, such as Fantasy Reef, which has had a number of years to recover.

Simultaneously, the KLDOF has contacted several scientists, organisations and universities specializing in monitoring and improving coral health. In previous coral bleaching events there has been successful recovery of damaged reefs, as the temperature drops.

Projects are being started to monitor the development of the corals and other individual projects are ongoing.

We will continue to observe all rules and regulations implemented for this region and offer our assistance to the National Park Head Offices involved. Additionally, we will re-enforce our strict rules for visiting divers on the boats operated by us, in terms of the policy ''absolutely no touching, feeding or harassing marine life and no rubbish thrown overboard''.

We, the dive operators and dive community in Khao Lak, are eager to do everything within our possibilities to protect and conserve the wonderful underwater world.

Khao Lak, Thailand, January 22nd, 2011

My opinion:

Similarly to any of the past events across the planet, major medias are always taking simple announcement and blow it out of proportion. Here is the list of a few mis-leading articles currently published across the Web, without much facts or actual researches in regards to the closing of reef in Thailand. It is highly recommended that you contact local dive centers and operators for 'REAL NEWS':

http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/asia-pacific/21415-Thailand-closes-dive-spots-due-reef-damage.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1349235/Thailand-bans-scuba-divers-damaged-coral-reefs.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70J1R120110120

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/thailand-closes-popular-dive-spots/story-fn3dxity-1225992513448

http://ww.bangkokpost.com/news/local/217417/18-dive-sites-closed-to-save-coral-reefs