Xavier’s Editorial – January 2014

Welcome to 2014! We trust that you all made it through the festive season unscathed and that Father Christmas was kind and generous to you.

As we head into the new year, SCUBA CULTURE is preparing itself for a year of amazing diving and travel opportunities for our divers.

We kick off the year with a full crew heading across the border to dive the network of natural, crystal clear fresh water sites of Ewen’s Ponds over the Australia Day long week end, straight on the back end of that, we have a full compliment of divers off to spend a few days aboard the Princess II with Rodney Fox Dive Expeditions diving with the great whites of Port Lincoln (S.A)

A little later on in the year, from the 9 to the 19 June, I’m taking a crew of divers back to Uepi Island Resort, the gem in the crown of diving the Solomon Islands (where we have 1 x Beachfront Bungalow and 1 twin share place left).

The absolute diving bargain of a lifetime, diving some of the best sites of our very own Great Barrier Reef is on from the 7 to the 11 September.  The Cod hole and the Ribbon Reefs are world renowned dive sites and are offered to you for 5 days & 4 nights, ex-Cairns aboard Australia’s best live-aboard vessel the Spirit of Freedom from only $1618 fully inclusive.  The crew from Spirit Of Freedom is set to visit us to host our January 2014 month ending club night giving divers a comprehensive presentation on what it is to dive the Great Barrier Reef (to attend, please shoot us and RSVP). This trip will be lead by our newest instructor, the fabulous Mick Meer, we would love to see a huge turn-out on our first club event of 2014!

From the 10 to the 21 November 2014, we will be diving the shipwrecks of Micronesia’s Truk Lagoon from the luxury of the newly constructed and launched Truk Siren, this is a great opportunity to experience with the single biggest and diveable WWII site on earth.  Truk lagoon harboured a large portion of the Japanese Imperial fleet back in WWII, all sorts of warships, supply ships, submarines and  other vessels were at anchor when the US air force struck in retaliation for the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

Operation Hailstorm devastated Japan’s naval capabilities but created the ultimate ship’s graveyard for divers to now explore and marvel at Mother Nature’s capability to turn rusty metal into a living coral reef structure.

Sunken warships remind us of the devastating power of the thousands of bombs and torpedoes set lose on unsuspecting targets.  Many ships sunk at anchor with their full cargo intact.  This cargo is a window to our past history, it provides us with an insight of what life was like as a Japanese sailor on board these vessels.

If wreck diving is on the bucket list, you must dive Truk lagoon. Your dive trip leaders are Brad and Angela, we have only 3 shared cabin berths left.