Scuba Duba Dive Does Careers Fairs in the North East of Scotland

Whilst at a networking event in Aberdeen, Scotland in late October and I happened to get speaking to a women who ran a company called Aberdeen Entrepreneurs.  She was interested to hear all about Scuba Duba Dive and what I had to offer.  For some reason the subject changed onto school career fairs. They were very keen for me to attend their first event in less than a week’s time.  I said I would have a think about it and be in touch.   My main worry was I didn't really have much to build a good stand.  Nevertheless I agreed to attend and have a Scuba Duba Dive stand at the school show in the North East of Scotland.

What would make a good, interesting stand for the children coming to visit? I put together all my dive gear and had some good diving movies which I’d play.  People always like to take away something from a show so leaflets were the answer.  Recently getting the grips of Adobe Photoshop I designed some last minute leaflets detailing all the courses offered in the different locations.  The problem was printing them but with help from my local printers I managed to get 200 copies run off at 5pm when I was due to leave the next morning at 6am.

During the day I had a lot of pupils and teachers interested in scuba diving.  The fact that I had a very inviting stand with some movies from Koh Tao in Thailand playing when it was near freezing outside interested people also! I had a quick look around the room at other people’s stands as I wanted to get some ideas as how to improve my own.  The thought of a roller banner displaying all my basic information seemed good but also instead of my dive gear just sitting there, a mannequin wearing the gear would be a lot better.

After that show the next one is January - plenty of time to go about improving my stand.  So the hunt for a decent mannequin began.  Asking around department stores and various friends who I knew worked in or had contacts in department stores proved fruitless.  Every time I asked the member of staff they just looked at me very oddly and said sorry no.  It was then I turned to that great website GumTree.  Posting an advert ‘wanted full sized mannequin with arms, legs and a head’ and within two hours I’d received two phone calls, one saying she had two in her shed and another saying they had four.  After receiving pictures of these mannequins the women who had four had the better mannequin.  I traveled up to “meet” the new member of the team and it was exactly what I was after and fits my dive gear perfectly.  He even has a great story behind his past. Scuba Steve: used to be a guardsman on a ship to deter pirates!

All I had to do now was design my roller banner to have the perfect stand.  I set about making a basic design to get reviews from other people.  Keeping the pictures and information short and to the point would catch people’s attention.  Designing a two meter tall banner on a 24 inch monitor really didn't give you much feel as to how it was going to look in the print.  I finally sent it off to the printers and when it arrived it was perfect. My stand looks more professional for the four shows I've got coming up this spring.  It really goes to show what networking can do.  

Who would have thought a random conversation in Aberdeen would have resulted in all these shows.  My advice never be shy to speak to someone or ask the question, as you never know who they know or what they do!

Olly's time on Koh Tao learning how to dive

Olly has recently returned from a trip learning how to dive with us on Koh Tao.  Below is a review of what he had to say about his time on the island.

"I contacted Mungo at Scuba Duba Dive about 2 months prior to the planned holiday, our tailor made package was quickly organised and confirmed. It is comforting to know that all of the money I invested into a holiday is protected through both the TTA and ATOL.

On arrival at Koh Samui Airport the transfers were waiting and were prepared to take us to the Lomprayah Ferry. The transfer to Koh Tao was quick, pleasant and easy using the Lomrayah Fast Cats.

On arrival at the pier staff from the hotel were ready to pick us up. Koh Tao Regal Hotel is an odd place, long dark corridors, and questionable interior design in the lobby but looking out to a fantastic looking pool and bar area. The concerns were quickly alleviated when we got to our rooms which were quite frankly fantastic. Okay they weren’t spotlessly clean and a few maintenance issues but the room was huge, with an ensuite that included a Jacuzzi. But overall the view was special, looking out over the beach and across the bay. The balcony was a lovely place both to refresh yourself in the cool morning air and a perfect vantage point to watch the sunset over Thailand in the evening.

On arrival at the Dive Resort the company were expecting us and were ready with the paper work so we could enlist upon the course. All the instructors were extremely friendly and knowledgeable, they would happily assign different instructors to different abilities so that no one was leftwaiting. I did my PADI Open Water, PADI Advanced Open Water and PADI Wreck Speciality. Throughout the courses I never had more than 6 in the group with 3 instructors but I mostly had 2 instructors to myself throughout the week.

Another bonus of the resort was that they could find instructors that speak various assortments of languages. We had a Russian trio in our group, who were given a Russian speaking Dive Master for translation.

During my time in Koh Tao I dived at Mango Bay, Twins, White Rock, Sail Rock and HMTS Sattakut, the latter using that for my wreck spec. The coral and sea life is abundantly colourful and diverse at all sites. Diving on and inside HMTS Sattakut was an experience I’ll never forget. With visibility varying between 5 meters and 30 meters on different dives, I truly got a sense that the same boat was an entirely different wreck.

Koh Tao is a place that I will miss, and I wish to go back sometime. Although it is an isolated little island the society is not at all closed and tight knit. The varying array of restaurants from all corners of the world were fantastic. I do not think I had a bad meal the whole time I was there. Everyone is friendly and helpful and the internet provisions are fantastic. The climate was exceptionally comfortable, around 30-35 with a constant sea breeze ridding the island of the expected humidity. Also if there are any problems Koh Tao has a good medical centre and everyone was more than happy to go out of their way to help you.

One of the more unexpected highlights was Koh Samui airport. The departure lounge is basically an outdoor shopping street, with various brands and restaurants. The architecture was quaint and well thought out. Spending a few hours at Koh Samui Airport was a pleasant way of ending our holiday."

Interested in learning how to dive?  Get in touch with us here

View from Koh Tao Regal Swimming Pool

Speaking with Hannah about her experience learning to dive in Egypt

Another series in the Scuba Duba Dive Blog posts of peoples first diving experiences.  This time we're speaking with Hannah who learnt to dive in Egypt.

"The first time I donned scuba kit and descended into the ocean was off the east coast of Australia at the Great Barrier Reef.  This was a novice dive during which I swam around happily looking wide eyed at a magical under water world.  I loved the underwater world and was instantly at ease with the scuba equipment.  As such, a year and half later in Cairo, Egypt, I had the opportunity and signed up to do the PADI Open Water course.  After the theory and pool sessions, friends and I traveled to Safaga on Egypt's Red Sea coast to board Legends - it is a legendary dive boat on which I spent many subsequent weekends bobbing about in the Red Sea going from one spectacular dive site to another.  At 0900, on this inaugural morning, the sky was blue and the sun radiating heating, I kitted up and stepped off the back to the boat into a clear blue sea.  El Shehr was the location of the first dive during which I swam around looking wide eyed at the magical under water world.  In fact, on every dive I swim around wide eyed looking at the colours, shapes & sizes of the majestic under water world.  Dolphins, corals, moray eels, octopus, turtles, my favourite blue spotted rays and so much more - it is breathtaking every time. "

Did this post inspire you in wanting to learn to scuba dive?  Check out the range of courses Scuba Duba Dive offers at our website

Hannah in Egypt

The Website is Live

Well if you are reading this blog you're probably aware that the official Scuba Duba Dive website has finally come off the a test server and gone to the live domain, scubadubadive.com. We've launched with just a range of dive training holidays which will be expanded over the coming weeks.  We'll also be launching some exciting dive holidays for those of you who are lucky enough to already be qualified divers.  We'll be running holidays in Australia, Turkey, Egypt, Thailand with the views to expanding to other countires as the Scuba Duba Dive network grows.

The next stages in the growth of Scuba Duba Dive will be launching various press release articles around the dive community and implementing a marketing and social media strategy with the main objectives being to get you the customers to interact with us over Facebook and Twitter.  We are launching an exciting competition to win a weeks diving somewhere and will be putting the Scuba Duba Dive clothing designs to social media for a public vote.  The equipment packages will also be finalised as we're currently researching what is the best equipment around at the moment which is most suited for our programs.  So lots of exciting things happening and we will keep you updated with the progress but for now;

Remember..... Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and Join us in the sea!

Why Young People Should Use Travel Agents?

Always wondering what the benefits of booking all your own travel arrangements versus booking via a travel operator.  We all think that doing it ourselves will save money but in this day and age we need to think about what fiancial protection you have while booking all the holiday elements by yourself.  The benefits of booking with a travel operator is that they have the in-country support 24hours and UK support 24 hours.  All Scuba Duba Dive's holidays are 100% financially protected and we have in-country and UK based reps who are available to help in case of an emergency 24 hours a day.  For further information I recommend reading this interesting article in the Huffington Post about why you should use a travel agent.  Click here to view the article

If you'd like to know more about what Scuba Duba Dive can offer you in terms of diving holidays and training give us a call or email and we'd be more than happy talk to you about are mission and ethos when it comes to providing you with that perfect diving holiday and training experience.  As in the end all the team have been there and done it themselves.

Web: www.scubadubadive.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ScubaDubaDive
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScubaDubaDive
Telephone: +441224-900640