ProDivers Maldives

04. 05. 2008
Successful Instructor Development Course on Kuredu
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Twice a year we are offering the Instructor Development Course (IDC) on Kuredu. It is an intensive 2 week course. PADI Course Director Ute Welker always does a fantastic job in preparing the candidates. For the last 2 days, PADI Examiner Tommy Sobota takes over with the final Instructor Examination (IE). All our candidates passed the IE successfully today and we want to congratulate them! Not on the picture is Staff Instructor Candidate Mike Cristiani. He passed his Staff Instructor 2 days earlier, and was a great help during the whole course. On the picture from left to right you see our new Diving Instructors: Ingo Prettenhofer from Austria, Julia Koehn from Germany, Fiona Widnall from Scotland, Paul Brazier and Eddie Widnall from England. On the far right is Examiner Tommy Sobota. In front you see Course Director Ute Welker and Kuredu Staff Instructor Liam Klenk. Ingo will enjoy 3 more days as a guest on Kuredu and then go home to Austria. Fiona, Paul and Eddie have worked as Snorkel Guides for Kuredu ProDivers so far. Over the next few months they will all move over to our diving section. Julia will start working with us as a Snorkel Guide this month, and will at a later stage also move on to become part of the Kuredu ProDivers diving team. We wish Mike, Ingo, Julia, Fiona, Paul and Eddie all the very best and lots of great experiences and fun in their diving career!!!
20. 04. 2008
Guitar ray at divesite Aquarium
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Family Hafner, Kuredu Repeater guests from Switzerland are lucky every year. Berti, Gaby and Mauro always spot something special underwater. This time one of their dives led them to the divesite Aquarium. At 25 m depth they spotted a big Guitar ray. It is a beautiful creature that looks almost a little bit like it might be from another planet. Berti was lucky and managed to take this great close-up photograph of the Guitar ray.
14. 04. 2008
Nudibranch Invasion in Kuredu Lagoon
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From one day to the next they were there, and they were literally everywhere on the seagrass in the Kuredu lagoon. We usually don't find this type of Nudibranch here. It is called the Long-tailed Sea Hare (Stylocheilus longicauda). They appeared and then a few days later disappeared again. Apparently they can be found all over the Indopacific region. For us it was a very surprising event and we had never had a species show up out of the blue in such numbers before.
08. 04. 2008
French instructor Audrey is leaving Kuredu
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Audrey Spertini has been with the Kuredu ProDivers team since June 2007. Now she is ready for new adventures, and has left Kuredu today. At first she'll head home to France and catch up with friends and family. Then Audrey is thinking of working in the Seychelles for a while, and at some point in the near future wants to go travelling to New Zealand. We wish you lots of good times Audrey. Thanks for your help during the last 11 months and all the very best for your future!
07. 04. 2008
Wedding on Vakarufalhi Beach
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This is every womans dream a wedding on the beach! On 7.4.08 Evelyne and Christian had the most romantic wedding ceremony. Maldivian Bodu Beru Drummers accompanied them on the walk along the beach into the sunset. Under a palm leaf roof they renewed their vowels in Dhivehi and English!
07. 04. 2008
Every Easter holiday on Vakarufalhi
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Since 1999 Doris and Peter Greve have been coming to Vakarufalhi for the Easter holidays. On Easter Sunday our breakfast table was always beautifully decorated with Easter eggs, bunnies, chocolates and marzipan which made us happy like little children! This year the two Easter Bunnies are here for their 10th visit and all their diving will be free of charge. On 7.4.08 the two times grandparents celebrate their 36 year wedding anniversary. We congratulate them and wish them fun with their children and grandchildren and many more dives.
04. 04. 2008
Sensation at the outreef of the South Ari Atoll
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Tommy and his divers were watching 3 whalesharks how they were again and again diving down and then vertically swimming up to stop just short of the surface where they were hovering in a vertical position. Tommy and his divers only came back to Vakarufalhi because they got hungry and the sun was going down. Still every excursion to the outreef is a success with many whaleshark encounters with one time up to 10 animals. Tomorrow is the next excursion.
31. 03. 2008
Kuredu Instructor Andy meets Tiger Shark
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4 days ago, on that same Fullday excursion the Humpback Whale was spotted, we had another very lucky and rare encounter. One of the dive sites the Noonu Atoll Fullday went to was Orivaru Giri. Andy was diving with his Closed Circuit Rebreather that day. During his safety stop at 5 m, Andy was lucky to have a Tiger Shark pass by very close to him on the top reef. Probably the shark was quite unconcerned because of the absence of bubbles and resulting quiet. The animal was 2 1/2 m in size and passed slowly in about 3 m distance from Andy. His camera battery was close to empty but luckily Andy managed one last shot!
28. 03. 2008
Humpback Whale sighting near Kuredu
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Today, 14 divers, guide Andy and videographer Darren went on a full day dive trip to Noonu Atoll on our new speed dhoni Marta. About 30 minutes away from Kuredu, just between Noonu and Lhaviyani Atoll, Ismail, the captain of Marta suddenly became very animated. "Something big, something big" he called and pointed ahead of the dhoni. And big it was. The Humpback Whale graced us with 3 gulps for air before bringing its tail out of the water as it dove down into the depths.
26. 03. 2008
The Warmduschers - off to new horizons!
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Again in 2008 the Warmduschers populated Kuredu. This time we had many new impressions.
(written by Dirk Spoerl)

Underwater Scooters:
The Search on the Channel Edge
A great experience, as we tried to do a 3 Channel Crossing: Fushivaru Kandu (with Thila), Kuda Kandu and Zafari Kandu (we made that only half way). This was a 2.5 kilometer adventure ride with 14 Eagle Rays and 20 Grey Reef Sharks on Fushivaru, Silvertip Reef Shark on Kuda Kandu and huge schools of Batfish in the Zafari channel. When the Tuna here became as big as the diving instructor, we knew we were on the right path. It was a widening of our horizons as divers.

Mantas in March
We were lucky in the years before and had Manta encounters in March. But this year we had Mantas 3x at Fushivaru Thila (once for over 30 min), Manta sightings at the sandbank on the way to the divesite, Manta at Christmas Rock and also at Thaburudoo Corner. This seems to be a trend, since last year we also had quite a few sightings.

Sharks, sharks, sharks
Additionally to the sharks at Express, Fushivaru, Kuda, KFFC and the countless Nurse Sharks we saw this time, here the ultimate dive site: Shark Point. It is a new dive site that was discovered in Noonu Atoll. Every now and then ProDivers goes there for special occasions. If you want to see sharks then this is the right place. On our first visit we had over 50, and during the next visits it wasn't less interesting. Less sharks (only about 20-30), but still Eagle Rays, Stingrays, big Jackfish and a 1.5 m long Barracuda. To round it all up the dive site also offers many Lionfish, Scorpionfish, etc. Not many wishes are left open...

O-Villas
Beautiful villas right on the big white sandy beach on the northern side of the island. King size bed, with a direct view of the ocean through the big panorama windows, a big comfortable bathroom, and the new restaurant with a view of the Kuredu Express channel. Anne and I were 11x in the old bungalows on this same beach and we always felt comfortable. This time was an amazing step-up.

Divecenter
Many new staff, new management, but great performance as usual.
We were a bit worried after noticing on the website that there were hardly any familiar faces left.
We shouldn't have worried. Jutta manages the place with a firm and competent hand (she has quite a few years of Kuredu experience already). Our Master Instructor Frank (we had Dolphins at Express underwater!!!) as always at his best, and Liam with his experience on the second boat. A big thank you to the entire team, with special thanks to the trolley crew.
24. 03. 2008
10x Repeaters Rita and Markus on Kuredu
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Rita Lottenbach and Markus Huber from Switzerland have just spent their 10th visit with us on Kuredu. We had some excellent dives together with Ribbon eels, Nudibranchs, and fish encounters of all sizes! It won't be long and they will be back for their 11th time with us in November this year. Thank you very much for all the good times spent together! See you soon Rita and Markus, and enjoy your summer in Switzerland!
22. 03. 2008
2 Seagrass Ghost Pipefish found in Kuredu Lagoon
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9 year old Tessa Deeken did her Bubblemaker with Diving Instructor Liam in the Kuredu Lagoon. They were searching for fishes and other small creatures in the sea grass, when all of a sudden they spotted 2 rare Seagrass Ghost Pipefish hiding underneath some old ropes that were covered with algae. The couple has stayed on over the last few days. We hope they will stay a bit longer so more divers can enjoy them.

Successful Instructor Development Course on Kuredu

Guitar ray at divesite Aquarium

Nudibranch Invasion in Kuredu Lagoon

French instructor Audrey is leaving Kuredu

Wedding on Vakarufalhi Beach

Every Easter holiday on Vakarufalhi

Sensation at the outreef of the South Ari Atoll

Kuredu Instructor Andy meets Tiger Shark

Humpback Whale sighting near Kuredu

The Warmduschers - off to new horizons!

10x Repeaters Rita and Markus on Kuredu

2 Seagrass Ghost Pipefish found in Kuredu Lagoon