The traditional Christmas Treasure Hunt took place on Komandoo house reef yesterday.  Santa came to Komandoo early in the morning and left hidden some presents on the coral reef. Fifteen divers and eight snorkelers were lucky enough to  find them. Thank you Santa for all the presents and we all promise to be good guys next year so that we will get some more!!

We’re very flattered every time a familiar face enters the front door. Who wouldn’t be please to have up to 800 repeater guests per year returning to dive? The elaborate repeater discount programme than Prodivers launched along with the establishment in 1988 is one of its kind in the world and, given that almost 25 per cent of our divers are repeaters, seems to be working well.

We’re happy to give our divers a 10 per cent discount on their dives for their second visit, 15 per cent for their third, 20 per cent for their fourth and 25 per cent for all subsequent visits until their 10^th visit when they dive free of charge. Apart from the generous discount that we reckon is encouraging enough for them to return, along with several PD freebies, what it comes down to is the flexibility that we’re more than willing to show, especially with regard to dive sites requests and instructor preferences. What is more, a lot of repeater guests have become real friends by now, it’s just great to see them bringing up memories from previous visits and feel the great atmosphere that is in itself a good reason to come back to dive with us.

There have been many repeater divers at Prodivers in the last couple of weeks, so we organized a special dive at Kuredu Express for them. The below pictures show quite nicely the great vibe that was present. We’re looking forward to having all the repeater guests back again, some of the guests will be here already on their 30^th visit next year.

Despite its wide array of techniques used to avoid or thwart attackers, even an octopus can find itself beyond the line of defense. Willi took a photo of a rare sighting – an octopus’ failed attempt to escape a moray eel’s grasp.

Besides its unusual appearance by far the most striking characteristic of the octopus is their ability to hide in plain sight. Using a network of pigment cells and specialized muscles, it can almost instantaneously match the colours, patterns and even textures of its surroundings. If discovered by predators such as sharks, eels and dolphins, it will release a cloud of black ink to obscure its attacker’s view and dull its sense of smell. Their soft bodies can squeeze into impossibly small cracks, and if even that fails, an octopus can lose an arm and regrow it later.

Nevertheless, it’s not all fun and games even for the ocean’s toughest survivors.

On the 20th of April, when Frank, Hanna, Markus, Jonas, Tessa, Wolfgang, Sonia and our videographer Julia headed out to the ‘Untouched East’, there was 1 diver  in the group not fully aware of the plans for the day…

Wolfgang, who has visited us here on Kuredu 10 times, wanted to propose to his long term girlfriend Sonia.  Wolfgang had planned to propose to Sonia during their first dive on MuDa Thila.  With the element of surprise being critical to the event,  Frank had to convince Sonia to swim away from her buddy so that he could get ready prepared banner set up for the big question.

When Sonia returned together with Frank to the group, she was suddenly  faced with a huge banner with THE question on it: “Will you marry me?” Without hesitation she immediately ticked “Yes”!

After the dive the group enjoyed lunch and prepared for the second dive on Aliha Giri. Coming back the divers finally could raise glasses of sparkling wine to Sonia and Wolfgang and celebrate with them on the way back to Kuredu!

Wolfgang has been coming to Kuredu since 2003 and was now enjoying free diving for his 10th visit.

Prodivers wishes Sonia and Wolfgang many happy years together, both on land and under water!

At the beginning of April, Prodivers was very pleased to welcome Dagmar and Klaus-Jürgen for their 10^th diving holiday on Kuredu!

They first came to Kuredu in 2006, and have been coming twice every year since!

One of Dagmar and Klaus-Jürgens favourite dive sites is Anemone Thila, where a big fat pink frog fish is the main attraction at the moment – getting bigger and bigger every day!

As a special thank you from us for this years 10^th visit, they are diving for free and we wish them a great time underwater as well as relaxing moments in between their dives!

Prodivers is already looking forward to their next visit!

Two of our repeater guests, Hermann from Austria (17 times) and Carsten from Germany (4 times), went out for a morning dive to Maagiri South and came back with a great picture of a ribbon eel!

Ribbon Eels are very often seen at Nakolhu Giri,  but the one at Maagiri was very unexpected but therefore even more appreciated!

It was already close to the end of the dive when Hermann suddenly stopped and took a closer look at a very active blue creature at about 15 meters. It didn’t take long for him to immediately call the other divers around him to show them the ribbon eel he just spotted!

Luckily, Carsten had his underwater camera with him to capture this unusual encounter!

A ribbon eel is a very small moray that don’t grow longer than 120 cm in length. They typically remain hidden in small holes, with just the head sticking out. The female ribbon eels are blue with yellow around their mouth while the males are black.  Ribbon eels are all born male, and over the course of their life they change both their sex and their colour.

Thank you to Hermann for spotting this beauty for us and Carsten for taking the picture!

We were very pleased to welcome John, Edel and Georg again to Kuredu, who were visiting us this year for the 10^th time and therefore enjoying their diving for free!

John was already diving with us in the mid 90’s and is proud at having logged more than  1500 dives, with over 200 of those being with us here in the Lhaviyani Atoll! John also completed his Nitrox Course with us here in the Maldives.

Edeltraut and George dived with us here on Kuredu for the first time in 2003.

Edeltraut completed her Open Water Referral Course, followed by the AOWD course in 2004 together with her husband George. Now she can count more than 150 dives for her logbook and George has passed the 300 mark!

Prodivers wishes John, Edeltraut and George many more unforgettable dives and we are looking forward to their next visit!

Peter and Kathy have now been happily married for 40 years, and what better way to celebrate than with a dive!

Kathy’s bridal veil, pictured here on the left, is the original veil that she wore on the big day 40 years ago.  In addition to having being worn for the ceremony, the veil made it’s second appearance for their 35th anniversary, as part of an underwater ceremony, also while diving with us here in the Maldives.

For Kathy and Peter it is the 12^th time that they have visited Kuredu,  and Peter has now notched up his 10th time diving with us (diving for free has been even more enjoyable !)

Kathy started diving here on Kuredu 8 years ago at the young age of 56 and first discovered the underwater world during a Discover Scuba Diving Course, unsure as to whether she would like it or not… The more often she went for a dive the more she fell in love. After getting hooked on diving, she signed up for an Open Water Course with instructor Lisa, allowing her to now be able to dive together with Peter!

After gaining some experience, she continued with the Advanced Open Water Course and is now rightly proud at having logged more than 200 dives – enjoying them more and more with each visit!

The picture is taken by their friend Terry, who, together with his wife Jan, are also one of our many time repeater guests. Terry, Peter and Kathy have been diving together ever since they first met here on Kuredu.

We would like to wish Kathy and Peter a wonderful time and many more unforgettable dives until the next step – the Sapphire Wedding Anniversary for another underwater celebration!

After 6 days of intensive training with Prodivers instructor Armin, our repeater guest Wolfgang successfully completed the Evolution Rebreather Course and is now qualified to indulge in the fascinating world of silent and bubble-free diving.

During Daniela and Wolfgang´s last holiday on Kuredu, he was so awestuck by the Rebreather Introduction Dive that he set his mind on enrolling in the full course.

Having gained thorough knowledge on theoretical aspects of diving with a close-circuit rebreather and having mastered basic skills required for safe diving, both Wolfgang and Armin, a devoted rebreather diver himself, were ready for some real action!

Kuredu Express, a well-renowned dive site just off the island, offers divers close encounters with grey reef sharks, and taking advantage of not blowing any bubbles in the water, rebreather divers have the chance to dive both quieter and closer to the marine life.

As such, the rebreather can be underwater photographers´and videographers´best tool. Just imagine approaching sharks more closely in silence rather than accompanied by the sound of a scuba exhaust, and having extra bottom time to capture mantas and other elusive subjects!

We wish Wolfgang enjoyable and safe diving with a rebreather!

We would like to personally introduce you one of our candidates who is participating in this second IDC in 2010.

Ivo Kerver from Holland actually started diving with us in January 2008 attending our Discover Scuba Diving program with instructor Steve that time. He and his family came back as Rescue Diver in January 2009 and Ivo joined the Specialty Course Sea Turtle Diver with our instructor Katrin.

We are very happy to have him and his wife Elke back on our island for the third time and wish him all the best of success for his goal: PADI Instructor!