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Tags: Water Sports / Active Travel / Snorkeling / Scuba / Diving / → All Tags
Find Freedom Under The Sea With A Freediving Class
Scuba diving is definitely a great way to get in touch with your inner Flipper, but all that equipment is a drag on your freedom and anyone who has ever gone snorkeling wishes that there were a way to just have a few more seconds underwater. Well, if you decide to take a class with Performance Freediving, the dream can come true.
Instead of just seconds under the sea, you’ll now be breaking personal records of both time and depth. Some people easily hold their breath for over five minutes and can dive to over 100 feet below the surface. There’s even classes that focus on spear fishing, in case you get bored during your dive and want to hunt for some dinner.
Tags: Indonesia Travel / Cruises / Luxury Travel / Diving / Scuba Dives / Komodo Dragons / → All Tags
A Whole New Type of Safari: Komodo Dragons In Indonesia
Chilling in an Aman Resort in some exotic location is already pretty enticing, but we've just heard that this hotel group has got a luxury cruiser happening too, based out of their Amanwana resort on Moyo Island, Indonesia. And we want to get on it.
The 105-foot cruiser, called Amanikan, looks a bit like a romantic old trading vessel, but is full of all the necessary luxury inside in its three cabins. They are running a trip called the Komodo Expedition which includes five nights of cruising (with days full of diving) and two final nights at the island resort. While you're on the boat you get to visit Komodo dragons and stop by the Komodo and Rinca Islands to see wild horses, deer and monkeys as well, not to mention all the sea life you'll discover while diving and snorkeling.
Exotic luxury doesn't come cheap, of course. It'll cost you upwards of $22,000 for you and a mate for the week, including everything except alcoholic drinks. But getting up close and personal with a dragon and then retreating to exotic luxury might just be worth it.
Related Stories:
· All the Pretty Seahorses [Jaunted]
· Where to Find Komodo Dragons in Their Natural Habitat [Jaunted]
· Indonesia Travel Guide [Jaunted]
[Photo: Amre Ghiba]
Tags: Scuba Dives / SCUBA / Diving / Bonaire / → All Tags
Summer Coral Spawning Means Full Undersea Friskiness
If you’re into watching coral getting frisky, a resort in Bonaire should be on your short list for a summer diving trip. The Divi Flamingo Beach Resort has set up diving trips based on the prime periods for watching the coral do the nasty. The best chance of witnessing the coral spawning takes place four to eight nights following a full moon, and the resort is more than ready.
Scheduling these special dives for August, September, and October, the resort hopes that these will be the lucky days for both divers and the coral. Boulder Star, Brain, and Branching coral are just some of the varieties that will be getting busy under the waves. There’s Sea Rod coral too, but we’ll be mature and skip the obvious jokes about that species.
Packages for this trip start at $950 per person, and you’ll get seven nights at the resort, breakfast buffet daily, unlimited shore diving, and one free night dive during the spawning. If you’re more of a prude and would rather give the coral some privacy, the resort also allows you to create your own dive package. You’ll be able to avoid all the provocative behavior and just keep your eyes focused on the fish.
Related Stories: [Photo: Wikimedia]
·Divi Flamingo Beach Resort [Official Site]
·Explore A Modern-Day Shipwreck In Nevis [Jaunted]
·Diving coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: SCUBA / Diving / Shipwrecks / Scuba Dives / It's Summer Somewhere / → All Tags
Explore A Modern-Day Shipwreck In Nevis
On August 1, 1970, the ferry boat Christena foundered and sank off the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, victim to two open hatches and a passenger roster which packed the ship to nearly twice its official capacity. Nothing can erase the memory of the 233 Nevisians killed in the accident, but SCUBA divers will soon get the opportunity to explore the site of the Christena.
Scuba Safaris, operating on Nevis, already offers trips to explore another local wreck, the River Taw (a coastal freighter sunk in 1985 now covered in tube sponges) with single-tank dives starting at $65. Official packages for the Christena memorial dive haven't been posted yet, but the trips are expected to focus on the wealth of wildlife which has sprung up in the wake of the disaster -- the sea renewing itself and healing the ecosystem.
Related Stories:
· A Haunting Story (Remembering the Christena Disaster) [The Anguillian]
· Dive Into Nevis History [DiveNews.com]
· Scuba Courses [ScubaNevis.com]
[Photo: Harvey S. Cohen]
Tags: Caribbean Travel / Diving / Carnival 2009 / Tourism Boards / → All Tags
Three Reasons To Visit The US Virgin Islands (Besides The Obvious)
A tropical vacation ain't exactly a hard sell this time of year. (You think it will really hit 20 degrees in New York today? Break out the sunscreen!) But the U.S. Virgin Islands' new website, VisitUSVI.com, gave us three more reasons to go Caribbean:
We've never gone diving and they'll take us as we are. A new diving promotion USVI operators are rolling out takes aim at newbies like us, from the middle-school-aged to the novice spouse. We don't have any prices yet, but we hear the new daylong packages include training in the morning to get you in the water, seeing the sights, by the afternoon.
Carnival in St. Thomas is the new Carnival anywhere else. It's later (kicks off April 29 with a local food festival) and guaranteed to be less crowded. St. John and St. Croix have their own carnivals (held around the 4th of July and just after Christmas, respectively); when we cornered USVI Commissioner of Tourism Beverly Nicholson-Doty, she shrewdly refused to say which was her favorite. Guess we'll have to figure it out ourselves.
If we can only get 20 of our friends to go, we can get a sweet deal. The Department of Tourism just launched a group rewards promotion where large groups get a $50 credit per person that can be used on the islands. And the only thing better than getting out of the rest of winter would be taking all our nearest and dearest with us.
Related Stories:
· In Case Anyone Has Any Money Left, The US Virgin Islands Are On Sale [Jaunted]
· Obamacation in the Virgin Islands [Jaunted]
[Photo: *Hiro]
Tags: Silver Foxes / Sharks / Animals / Diving / Videos / → All Tags
Anderson Cooper, Shark Tourist
Emoting anchor Anderson Cooper will host a "Planet in Peril" special on CNN tonight spanning 11 countries on four continents that, among other things, will focus on shark tourism and cage diving off the coast of South Africa. To report the story, A-Coop went swimming with sharks himself--and dove in at least once without a cage.
After getting an OK for the stunt from CNN's president, Cooper's local shark experts gave him some advice:
They say to project confidence. I'm not sure how one does that through SCUBA gear.
They actually tell you to hold your breath when a shark comes toward you. But my heart was beating so fast I couldn't actually hold my breath.
He managed the dive without any incidents, which isn't to say going without a cage is completely safe: We didn't have any trouble swimming with sharks off Andros Island recently, but early this year a man was killed off the coast of Florida diving without protection in shark-infested--and chummed--waters.
Related Stories:
· Anderson Cooper Dives in for Shark Story [Hollywood Reporter]
· Cage-Free Swimming with Sharks [Jaunted]
Tags: Andros Field Trip / Islands / Diving / Sharks / → All Tags
Cage-Free Swimming With Sharks
Lost Girl Jennifer Baggett continues her Andros Field Trip...
I was standing on the edge of a pontoon boat as a dozen Caribbean reef sharks circled below, watching, waiting, ready to feast. I popped my regulator into my mouth, adjusted my mask and lept fin first into the killer fish-infested waters.
Tags: Andros Field Trip / Diving / Island / → All Tags
The Great Wall (Dive) Of Andros
Lost Girl Jennifer Baggett continues her Andros Field Trip...
I’ve hurled myself out of a plane in Switzerland, repelled down rock walls in Ecuador and conquered three bungee jumps in a row in New Zealand. But those were mere child’s play compared to my most adrenaline-inducing endeavor: Diving to a staggering 185 feet below sea level in the Bahamas!
Tags: Andros Field Trip / Islands / Diving / → All Tags
Journey Into The Great Blue Hole
Lost Girl Jennifer Baggett just got back from diving in The Bahamas, and this week, she'll have a full report on the shark-seeing, rum and mythical creatures that make the islands worth visiting.
Tags: Sharks / Tourism Board Travel / Diving / Islands / → All Tags
Oman's Daymaniyat Islands, Where The Sharks Are Friendly
Marketers at the tourism board of Oman keep talking up the country in a way that makes us want to go there, and the latest attraction is the Daymaniyat Islands, a bit more than an hour by boat from Muscat.
We already knew that sea turtles are a big deal in Oman, but apparently near the Daymaniyats you can also find hawksbill turtles, clown fish, stingray, moray eels and barracuda. With dive tourism just starting up the locals are advocating "hands-off" interaction with the local wildlife:
Most notably with moray eels, sea snakes and sharks that inhabit the waters (though the sharks do not attack humans).
No wonder Oman has such great tourism potential--they've even trained their sharks not to eat us. We're on our way with our tanks and flippers.
Related Stories:
· Oman Ministry of Tourism [Official Site]
· Oman's Beautiful Daymaniyat Islands [eTravel]
· We Love Oman, Because You Can See Sea Turtles [Jaunted]
[Photo: boens]
Tags: Andros Field Trip / Islands / Diving / → All Tags
Masters Of The Andros Island Dive Universe
Lost Girl Jennifer Baggett just got back from diving in The Bahamas, and this week, she'll have a full report on the shark-seeing, rum and mythical creatures that make the islands worth visiting.
Before you (scuba) dive headfirst into the third longest reef system in the world (and second largest in the Atlantic Ocean), you’re gonna want to call in the professionals. So that’s exactly what I did on my recent getaway to the Small Hope Bay Lodge on Andros.
Check out my video interview with my two favorite dive masters, Amanda Lee and Loren Kearney, for an insider's take on diving the 142-mile long Andros Barrier Reef and all the bad-ass sites that make Small Hope a scuba diver’s paradise!
Related Stories:
· Bahamas Travel coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Andros Field Trip / Islands / Diving / → All Tags
Big Love For Small Hope
Lost Girl Jennifer Baggett just got back from diving in The Bahamas, and this week, she'll have a full report on the shark-seeing, rum and mythical creatures that make the islands worth visiting.
Every time I see one of those Corona commercials with the bare feet and beer bottles chillin’ out on a stretch of palm-fringed, powdery white sand, I always think "If I could be anywhere in the whole world right now, it’d be there." Sitting by the ocean, a frosty cocktail in hand, completely sans shoes... Ahh! As luck would have it, I discovered just such a place during an impromptu vacation to Andros Island.
Desperate to escape the chill and gloom that had settled over Manhattan, I accepted a spontaneous invite from my friend Mark for a week of beach bumming, bungalow-side boozing and world-class scuba diving in the Bahamas. In less than a New York minute, I’d stuffed my passport, PADI card and a few bikinis in a bag and was ready to head south in pursuit of the much hotter sun. Although it's the largest island in the Bahamas, Andros is far less inhabited and touristy than its Nassau neighbor yet just 15 minutes by plane from the US, making it an ideal destination for a quick trip.
