8m dive, I mean 80!

Today's date will be a noted date in the log books of four daring tech divers. Today was the first time that our very own instructor Howard and our long time tech student, Luidmila had ever been as deep as the dive today- planned depth of 80m! Planned turn time was 18minutes down the wall at Wras il Hobes off Gozo then another 40minutes decompressing on the ascent. Alan was there watching, proudly watching over his students while there were two safety divers at 40m as a back up. They were in the shop from an early time each diver taking three stages with them doing two switches to enriched air, first to 32% then 72%. One dive, 5 twin sets and 12 stages between the lot of them. High maintenance divers, absolutely! The buzz of excitement before the dive was electric between all of them and us rec divers were left at the centre jealous of their plan.We're eagerly awaiting their return to hear the ins and outs of the dive, but i'm sure they'll be as elusive as tech divers always are!

Earlier this week aswell we had three DTD (Discover Tech Dives) out on the house reef with Steve, our summer instructor. Francesca, Jay and Stephen all managed to survive, everyone was suprised as Fran who was carrying more than her body weight on her back. Debrief from Steve sounded like they all did extremely well practicing some back finning and helicopter turns on their first time. Pretty impressive for the Italien, Maltese and German. Think techwise is going to be busy this winter with all these keen techies!!

We're also anticipating a few groups to be paying us a visit this October when the water's still comfortable and the vis is great to hit those deep sites like the Stubborn and the Poly. And i heard Luidmila talking about the HMS Southwold which is aournd 70-80m so the next finger slates will be written up shortly!

Tech Delicatessen

1 Danish Pastry

1 Luxembourger with chips

1 Lithuanian Litvak

No this isn't a very diverse menu this is the collection of tech divers doing their advanced Nitrox course at the moment with Alan. After a cruisy dive to Um El Faroud yesterday they left this morning to the inland sea after a quick morning classroom session with numbers and calculators flying around the room. Two days ago the gang were joined by Matt, one of our uni boys here doing a dozen recreational dives and wanted to give the twin set a bash so they all headed out to the house reef to do some skills and have a bimble around and all came back successfully and he's already looking forward to doing his Tech 40 on his next trip.

The other day I was being enlightened about Tech diving by a very inspiring tech instructor and he was telling me how it has more of a purpose, compared to recreational diving where is can be more relaxed in its planning, a more "we'll see what we see" kind of attitude. I enjoyed hearing this focused kind of diving with a plan an objective and a time limit. Hhmm I think I see my new certification card... I'll let you know when I do my twin set taster, feel free to let me know if anyone wants to join??

My Version of Tech History

Technical diving- as a non technical diver, and um a girl, this sounds awfully complicated and also very heavy. I have attempted to lift one of those twin sets and its probably easier to lift a set of identical twins! But i have been assured that it is manageable and can't be too difficult...

If in doubt find solace that two of our instructors, the two Alexs or Dude and JNR as their known around the dive shop have recently become our newest tech instructors- so if they can teach it then we can surely learn it!! No no, they have worked really hard and are more than capable, ask our newly certified tech 40 diver Paul who finished his course at the Faroud yesterday! A very happy divers whos now taking some time away from the diving to finish his holiday with the family, a very big well done to him and looking forward to his return!!

We've got a trip to the Polynesian planned for tomorrow so the boys will be heading down 60m to check out the biggest wreck in Malta spanning over 100m in length. Now i've been doing my research on the wreck and its got quite a history and has now turned into a phenomenal dive. After being bombed in 1918 the thirty year old boat went down in just over half an hour to head to its new home taking ten lives with it. Its been nick-named the "plate" ship due to all the crockery and artifacts still aboard, since its been there for nearly a century its become a popular artificial reef where you see big schools of barracuda, you'll also see two deck guns at the bow and stern and play pretend wars! Boys with their toys and all!

Back in the deep for more lovely Trouble

Dita is back (aka Trouble) sadly sans Chaos, but one is plenty for us - a wonderful woman ful of mischief and an excellent diver! Today Alan is taking Dita for a nice deep one off Gozo, getting back into the swing of things ready for the Stubborn and Le Polynesien over the next week or so!

As the recreational season starts to run at a slightly easier pace, its the perfect time for Teccies to drop in and enjoy some quiet and beautiful dives on the deeper sites of the island.

We'll fill you in on how Dita enjoys her diving this week as she goes.
For now, we're filling a whole bunch of twins and stage for the Guinness World Record attempt training taking place on the Divewise side of things.

Extending the Maltese Technical Community - Instructors Become Students Again

Its never too late to stop learning, as our latest set of students prove - they're already instructors and well experienced in the dives of Malta - but they've taken on the new challenge of learning to go deeper, longer and safer.

Sadly, its well known on the island that many divers visit depths past 40m without proper training and equipment. Its something that we don't tolerate here, and our instructor friends from around the island don't do it, of course, but with growing numbers of enquiries into these deeper sites, centres everywhere want to start showing people how to do it properly, which means enabling their staff to do it!

Techwise steps in, offering especially tailored courses to fit round the hectic schedule of those working in the diving industry - which translates to night classes and spreading the course dives over time to allow instructors to use their days off to learn more. We're flexible and just happy to get as many people diving safely as possible. We love that these instructors want to set a good example to their students and clients - everybody wins!

Wild Weekends with the Lock/Fearn Franchise

More returning friends are lighting up the Techwise shop once more. Gareth and Howard slipped over for a sneaky weekend of awesome technical diving on the best wrecks of Malta. The Polynsien, The Southwald and the Stubborn graced the menu - proving that even on a long weekend you can really get some depth and see some sights!

Poor guys, they go home and only today our two Italian technical friends spotted TWO Mola Mola Sunfish off the side of the Polynesien. Jammy!

Its unbelievable how fast the season is passing - blink and you're already into next week and a new set of tecchie divers! Soon it will be Autumn already and time for a return visit from Mr Collard, one of our favourite rebreather boys!

Can't wait guys, come on back any time!

103m Trimix Course Dive - Now We're talking!

Congratulations to James Le and Hayden Schembri, who just completed their Exploratory Trimix Course with Paul Toomer at Techwise Malta. The grande finale of the course took them to 103m (and yes there was much fighting between the Black Sheep lads to register just a few centimetres deeper than their counterparts!).

Its been months in planning as Hayden and James are long term dive partners but their international jobs have kept them apart until now! We've heard nothing but hilarious stories about skill-drill time, underwater sign-language (keep it clean boys!) and of course the dive itself.

Hayden reported feeling like being in a dream when he surfaced, and having no words to describe the experience. We know that it's something both of these divers have been yearning for for a long time - so we're really chuffed for them.

The group went to the Cargo ship, through the glassy blue waves of Malta. The photos are really something else! (Check out our Facebook group to see these!). Thanks to Alan and Robin for support diving!