It began with an innocent conversation in February: “Oh yes, we used to do a sponsored dive in the aquarium when I was in university” “Really? What did you collect for?” “Galway Lifeguard station” “Hmmm, we could do something like that” Naomi and Lauren starting things off 9 months later, as I burrowed through a […]
Author: diveskihq
Save the Whales – and other marine mammals!
Each year, hundreds of whales and dolphins strand on our shores. Whilst some are sick or injured, others are healthy and just need a helping hand back out to sea. Whilst we can’t predict the exact timing and location of strandings in New Zealand, our job is to be as prepared as possible. No matter […]
Take the GoPro Challenge!
It seemed appropriate as another Diploma in Scuba Instruction Course comes to the end and our latest candidates passed their PADI Instructor Examinations today that we should ask our very own Paddy (Patrick Keenan) what life as an instructor has been like over the past year since he qualified. As soon as I became a […]
A Diving History – Lauren Kohe
As part of the Instructor Development process our Instructor candidates write a brief history of their diving to date and what they would like to get out of diving in the future. Here is Lauren’s…. I don’t remember learning how to swim, I’ve always been able to Growing up in Wellington The sea is part of […]
Dive HQ and the Poor Knights
Cousteau rated them as one of his top 5 dive sites. Who are we to argue? After a recommendation like that nobody would dare put them any lower, even if it did have zero vis, no life and cold water. Luckily for us it has 25-30m vis, lots of life and well… at least the […]
The President Coolidge
I still remember my first visit to the President Coolidge – in less time than it takes to swim to the Yung Penn the massive structure of this luxury liner cum troop carrier appears below you. At 199m in length she lies in 20-70m of water just out of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. Built in 1931 the […]
Lady Divers!
If we think of women divers in the media we think of the Bond girls or Jessica Alba from ‘Into the Blue’ but this is not the reality – especially here in Wellington. I started diving in 1997 and never saw another woman dive – it was very much an all male affair. When I […]
Coromandel Dive Trip
Dive HQ hit the Coromandel. 3 days diving in the glorious waters of the Coromandel. 1 instructor, 4 Divemasters/ instructors in training. Deep dives, night dives, navigation dives, training dives. After the long haul from Wellington we arrived in Whitianga late on Monday evening to a very welcome meal cooked by our early arriving diver, […]
Some Privacy Please
There are a few times in life when I want to be a boy! They normally involve a full bladder & a lack of toilets. As a diver in Wellington only 2 sites have facilities & while most have bushes they may not offer the most privacy. I have forgotten how often I have moved […]
Ice Diving Weekend
On my diving hit list for years I joined Dive HQ Christchurch for their annual ice diving excursion. Heading south I caught up with my family before meeting up with the dive group at 6am on Friday morning. 14 divers packing 2 vans & trailers took some time but we headed south to start our […]