10th Birthday Party

As every year, April 20th saw the return of "The Birthday Party" (4/20).  This year, as always, was a huge success.  It was especially special as it was the 10th anniversary...one whole decade of Coconut Tree Divers.

Our boats have been quite full  with many divers and courses for the last two weeks.  With all the visitors being enthusiastic divers, we had both boats going out most mornings, and some afternoons as well.  After the party we hit a spell of bad weather, which forced us to the South Side for a few days (a rarity in April), but we are now back on our usual schedule - two boats again this afternoon!

We would like to thank everyone who came to the party and made it the occasion that it was, especially to those of you that came from various far-flung corners of the world.  The combination of a bright sunny day, calm seas, a mountain of floaty toys, 20 gallons of punch, 700 cans of beer, 70 pounds of shrimp, steak and chicken cooking all afternoon, two pinatas, beer frisbee really made for quite some party!

Particular thanks to Ron and Alex from Baltimore for bringing the CTD 10th Anniversary custom t-shirts and sunglasses, Daniel and Gina from Chicago for the wristbands, Keith Woods and Gay for preparing all the delicious food (steak and shrimp!), Lou and Tina for setting up the sound system, and Marco and the beer kitty for the addition of the birthday banner.  Last and most of all, thank you from all of us to PJ, Gay (and Mr Vincent Bush of the Coconut Tree complex) for making all this possible.

For those of you that were not able to make it (this year) - here are some highlights!

Time Flies When You're Having Rum

4/20 Merchandise on display!

Can you find your floaty?

Happy Birthday

The people who made it all happen

How many times can YOU count to 10?

Sunset

We're Back!

After a hiatus on the blog (vacation!)…The Coconut Tree Telegraph is back up and running.

Rainy season has been fairly kind to us this year, with a steady stream of divers and students in the shop.  Weather disruptions have come and gone, and we have now moved into "Semana Santa Weather" (read: hot, no wind).''

Over the last few years we have had a number of improvements and expansions to the dive shop.  Some of you will already be familiar with some of these, others have been quite recent.

In 2009, we expanded the deck, and moved the equipment rinse tanks and outside storage area.  The compressor also came out of the back room (Tree's office), and moved into its own shed, which has space available for a second compressor.  The tanks and the fill station are next to the compressor shed, in their own little cage.

We have recently acquired some new Cressi BCDs to add to our equipment selection.  There is a comprehensive review of those BCDs and other equipment we use at Dive Gear Review.  If you're looking to buy some equipment, definitely watch that space for more reviews to come.

Some time ago, we replaced the white "beer cooler" with a proper Salva Vida sponsored refrigerator.  We're still keeping them cold for you…

In that same area, we also added a flatscreen TV, where we're displaying photo slideshows, video clips and feedback videos from training courses (check out Monty's helmet cam when you see him!)  We also bought a Canon Powershot camera and housing, which is available for rent for USD20 per dive or USD35 for the day.  Whether you have your own camera or if you rent one of ours, consider taking the Digital Underwater Photography Specialty to get the most out of your vacation photos!

And on a closing note, as it is April after all….

T-11 days (and counting) until the corporate event of the year, the Coconut Tree 10th Anniversary Extravaganza (4/20).

Half Moon Bay Weather report:  feelin' hot hot hot, light breeze, clear skies

Recent Sightings:

Spotted Eagle Ray @ Lighthouse

Spotted Sea Hare @ Half Moon Bay (confined water)

Seahorse @ Blue Channel

DMTs, Eagle Rays and Sidemount

As we have wrapped up the first month of 2012, we welcome three more new DMTs: Bill from Texas, Len from New York, and Dave from Maine.  More coming soon...

Bill from Texas, as the tattoo indeed confirms

Dave and Len

All three have dived with us on previous occasions here at Coconut Tree.  If you're looking for an excuse to quit your job, "go on sabbatical" or even just "losing your passport", the Divemaster Internship might just be the thing for you...

In the "more coming soon" category, we also welcome Toby and Victoria from Alabama, starting their Advanced Open Water course, and going on through to Divemaster

Victoria and Toby: Happy Superbowl Sunday - we sold all the squares, mostly to Marco

It seems that of late we have been spotting (!) a fair number of Spotted Eagle rays, both out on the reef, and jumping out of the water in Half Moon Bay.  As with all marine life, there is some level of seasonal variation in "what we can expect to see".  I enlisted the help of our friend Google to try to find out if there was any particular information on breeding seasons for the eagle ray, but according to Beautiful Oceans: "Unfortunately, little is known about the seasonal timing of reproduction in this species".  Check out some eagle ray photos on our Facebook page.  

In other news, Monty has just finished a Sidemount course with Constantin and Margarita, and will shortly be starting the Tec courses with Darryl.

SideMonty!

Sidemount diving, a very versatile style of diving, could very well become more mainstream in open water diving (if you dive with us, you will definitely get the chance to see someone diving sidemount).  Monty has spent the last few years diving sidemount in a variety of different situations, always fine tuning and tweaking things along the way, in order to know as much about it as possible and perfect all the techniques.  If you are interested in trying Sidemount diving or completing the Sidemount course, contact us!

Recent Sightings

More Spotted Eagle Rays @ various different dive sites, almost daily

7 Southern Stingrays @ Tabyana

School of Atlantic Spadefish @ SeaQuest

Half Moon Bay Weather Report

Sunny and hot with ephemeral rain showers, humid, with some mud drainage required outside the shop.  Flat Calm seas.

In Other News Around The Shop…

We now have the new Roatan Marine Park bracelets for 2012 (red), and also the new Marine Park calendar.

Beer O'Clock (after the last boat comes in):  for the past few months we have been buying cans of Salva Vida from the supermarkets, as they were undercutting the bottle delivery service by quite a substantial amount.  Now that the offer has expired, we are back on bottles (hurray for the Port Royal drinkers out there!)

The extensive West End road works are, for the most part, no longer directly in front of the shop.  I did say, for the most part…

Also, the hand-painted island map (art by Brett Kroos) is being retouched and revarnished….Watch this space…

The tank path is clear...

The DMT board is also looking quite full again - Katy is leading dives and becoming a highly competent Divemaster, Ty and Bob are on their fourth day of training.  If Marco's wishes come true, this board should soon be an interactive touch screen!

Think "Minority Report"...

The deconstruction of the double-decker dock. (didn't there used to be something between us and Sundowners?)

Open Water swim test: swim to the freestanding posts and back, twice.

PJ, Sammy and Matt Howell are back on the rock from their trans-Central American road trip!

Recent Sightings:

Green Moray Eel feeding on a Lionfish @ Blue Channel

Ocean Triggerfish (doing their flappy dance) @ Lighthouse (in the blue, off the wall)

Spotted Eagle Rays @ Hole In The Wall

Half Moon Bay Weather Report:

Very calm, partly cloudy....It could rain.  Maybe aye, maybe no.

Familiar Faces

Almost every week, and certainly every month, a familiar face reappears at Coconut Tree.  People come and go, but there are certainly many who return year after year (you know who you are!) - and they often seem surprised to see many of the same faces behind the desk or giving the dive briefings.  And then all the way from Oz, Jules appeared…

Ever elusive to the camera, we were not able to find a photo of Jules underwater...

After nine months of travelling in Central Asia, Scandinavia and Latin America, Jules arrived in Roatan ready for two weeks of sun, sea and a half-hearted desire to do a bit of diving. Her original plan was to refresh her dive skills, and maybe do a couple of fun dives . But, Jules didn’t count on falling in love with Roatan or falling in love with diving… 

Those few days turned into eleven weeks and Jules went from (in her own words) ‘a flailing air thief’ to diving five or six days a week, doing the morning two-tank dives and the odd night dive.  At Coconut Tree, Jules did a refresher course with Monty, and then completed her Advanced Open Water with Marco within her first week at the shop. She now has more than 70 dives in her Coconut Tree log book.

Jules said, “When I came here in November, I didn’t ever think that I would do my Advanced Open Water, let alone gain the confidence to do night dives, to enjoy deep dives or even complete a 74 minute dive. But, I did!  And, I definitely didn’t expect to spend eleven weeks diving, to talk diving or even buy some dive gear!"

So, what’s next for Jules? More diving of course…And maybe, just maybe, we’ll see her back at Coconut Tree to complete the much discussed Rescue Diver and Divemaster courses.

Recent Sightings:

5 Turtles (one dive) @ Half Moon Bay Wall

Criss-Cross Tritonia @ Shallow Aquario (night - it's very very small...)

African Pompano!!! @ Shallow SeaQuest (a first for Marco!)

Half Moon Bay Weather Report:

A beautiful day for diving, Potlicker is out at West End Wall

Hot in the sun, with the flag on the glass bottom boat only flapping half heartedly.

Island Diving

Welcome to our new location!  All your Coconut Tree information transmitted through the Coconut (Tree) Telegraph...

At the dive shop, every week is a different set of faces.  Divers come and go from all over the world - USA, Canada, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Netherlands, just to name a few places from this past week alone!  But what about the very people that actually come from this island?  Well, we're also here to get them into diving.  This past week we had Ander Miller (Cindy's son - if you've been here before, you have without a doubt experienced Cindy's cooking at the blue shack) and Dillow Brooks complete their Open Water courses.  They absolutely loved it, big smiles all around.

from left to right, Dillow Brooks, 15, Ander Miller, 17, and Rags getting ready for confined water

Getting interested in diving and eventually rising through the ranks to the level of Divemaster or Instructor can be a great way to increase their skill set and their employability on the island - many of the larger dive resorts have a large number of staff.  One of our success stories along this line was Gerald Mann, from West End.  He did his Open Water through to Divemaster at Coconut Tree, and now works full-time as a Divemaster at Anthony's Key Resort.

Gerald, during his Divemaster Internship

Recent Sightings: 

Common Octopus @ Dixies Place (they really aren't that common at all)

Black spotted Nudibranch @ Bikini Bottom

Nurse Shark @ Three Brothers (a newer mooring, between Turtle Crossing and SeaQuest)

 Half Moon Bay Weather Report: 

Calm seas, pretty hot in the sun, but with a nice cool breeze. (very precise and scientific, I know)