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 All the holiday news...
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Only a month into its first whale shark expedition, researchers from the Kairos Company and the Shark Research Institute were reporting significant discoveries, identifying many individual sharks of 8m or more in a previously unknown feeding area off Tanzania. Kairos aims to set up four two- or three-month liveaboard expeditions a year, each one divided into 10-day periods so that holidaying divers can team up with scientists and professional divers. Its trips depart from Dar es Salaam and cost 2400 euros (about £1600), excluding flights.
• www.thekairoscompany.com
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Aqua-Firma is a new company specialising in tailor-made exploration trips of "wilderness, wildlife and water". Partnered with the Marine Conservation Society of Seychelles, it is running a one-week whale shark conservation and research programme from 15-20 October. The price is £990 per person, excluding flights, with two-tank dives each morning before going out in search of whale sharks. On the final day you get to visit the society's turtle conservation programme.
• 0870 7660864
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If you want to dive the Red Sea from Dahab but friends or family prefer to do other things, take a look at Neilson's latest offering. Its Coralia Club offers dives from sections of shore accessible by 4x4 or camel alongside other activities including sailing, kite-surfing and mountain-biking. A price of £535 from May includes flights from Gatwick or Manchester, transfers, seven nights' accommodation on a flexible board basis (breakfast plus lunch or dinner) and all activities. A 10-dive dive package costs £185 and a single dive £22.
• 0870 9099099
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Want to become a registered freediving instructor? The Apnea Academy in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt is run by former no-limits record-holder Umberto Pelizzari, and the course covers such topics as physiology of respiratory and ear systems, teaching methods and psychology. Practical exercises include breathing and relaxation techniques and constant- and variable-weight training in both pool and sea. If you can perform perfectly all the exercises included in Idelson & Gnocchi's Manual of Freediving, and can do a four-minute static breath-hold, 75m dynamic apnea and a constant-weight freedive of 30m, you're in! The next course costs £536 and runs from 14-20 May.
• www.apnea-academy.com
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West Wales Diving Centre between Little Haven and Dale in Pembrokeshire is a well-known destination for divers, who may like to know that it is now owned and operated by Karen Flannery. Karen is a skipper, veteran of 4000 dives and has worked in dive centres in Australia, Fiji and Port Talbot in Wales. She has transformed the centre, which offers accommodation, heated pool, classroom, cafe, retail area, equipment rental and servicing as well as boat storage.
• 07813 174707
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You get an extra night thrown in for free if you book a week’s Caribbean diving holiday in Tobago (above) with Dive Worldwide. You stay at the Blue Waters Inn, overlooking the hotel’s private bay on the Speyside part of the island, known for the quality of its diving. The holiday costs £1014 per person and includes charter flights from Gatwick, transfers, seven nights’ accommodation at the resort (the seventh night for free), and a 10-dive package.
• 0845 1306980
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Diamond Diving specialises in organising long-weekend diving breaks for small groups in the South of France. It will arrange one or two-star accommodation, transfers and diving but leaves you to organise your own flights. Its three Cote D'Azur destinations are Nice, Antibes and St Raphael and its itineraries run from Thursday evenings to Monday lunchtimes, typically enabling five dives.
The trips are said to provide a good option for divers wanting to finish their Open Water or undertake Advanced Open Water courses overseas. Prices start from £258.
• 020 2352 0000
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Euro-divers has opened its sixth resort and dive centre in Muscat, Oman. The Oman-Barr al Jissah resort is at the Shangri-la, 15 minutes' drive from the historic city and with its own beach. The diving packages and courses include Bubblemaker sessions for children, and there is also whale-watching and snorkelling for non-divers.
• www.euro-divers.com
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PADI Gold Palm dive centre Poseidon Divers Dahab has been made a PADI Career Development Centre, the only one in town. Pictured is the outcome a few days later of the first Instructor Development Course to be held under its new status, with Course Director Ed Poore and his successful students all having something to celebrate. Poseidon's sister company Poseidon Technical has meanwhile become the first Professional Scuba Association (PSA) facility in the Middle East, and is offering courses up to and including Trimix Instructor Trainer.
• www.poseidondivers.com
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Layang Layang, a nine-mile-long atoll in the South China Sea, was originally adopted by the Malaysian Navy as an airstrip but has now been put to better use as a holiday resort, with its surrounding waters being used for diving (above). Underwater visibility ranges as high as 50m and a wide variety of marine life can be seen on its coral reefs. Dive Worldwide says it has cut its prices to this destination, offering 10-day trips for £1640 per person for a saving of £350. This includes scheduled flights from London with an overnight hotel stop in Kota Kinabalu, and seven nights at the Layang Layang Island Resort with all meals and unlimited dives.
• 0845 1306980
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The Sand Dollar Condo Resort on the southern Caribbean island of Bonaire has its accommodation at the water's edge. There are plenty of dive sites within easy reach and the small island of Klein Bonaire is in front of the resort. Travel before 1 March 2006 and book
a week at the resort to receive a special rate of $729 (about £430) for seven nights' B&B accommodation and unlimited diving.
• www.divesanddollar.com
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- Sinai Divers has opened its new diving centre at the Holiday Inn Resort, Taba in northern Egypt, offering diving on its own house reef and by 4x4 along the coast. www.sinaidivers.com
- Laguna and Baros, Universal Resorts islands in the Maldives, have both been refurbished and are reopen for guests. www.universalresorts.com
- Diveskye is offering student discounts on five- and seven-day dive trips to Skye, and is introducing dedicated parent and child trips. Visit its revamped website www.dive-and-sea-the-hebrides.co.uk
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