Utila Dive Fest off to a rocking start!

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We're mid way through the inaugural Utila Dive Festival and none of us involved in planning this event could have imagined such a great response - thank you to everyone participating in this celebration of diving, and topside fun, and the local community.

A brief round up of the events so far, activities and prizes given out.

The festival kicked off with the opening ceremony on Chepes Beach, with Pup Morse AKA Scuba Cowboy (some of you may have seen him playing at the DEMA shows) warming up the crowd at sunset. Pup had a full day traveling and pulled off a great performance in delighting the crowd, whilst registration was taking place, and participants enjoying a island style BBQ and local beers.

Photos courtesy of Sue Beerman and Tony on Utila.
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Registration gave each participant a program guide for the week with t-shirt, and 5 raffle tickets for a draw that night, with prizes including a GoPro Hero II sports camera, an Aqualung regulator and a DiveRite SMB/reel. After opening remarks for the festival a DJ entertained the crowd (several hundred strong) till 8.30pm and then there were several other prizes including courses drawn and anticipation and excitement as Scuba Cowboy and PADI Regional Manager (Central America) Robert Sievens announced the winners. After the prize draws were announced, the music and party continued till around 10pm, as the first diving event was the buoyancy dive on Sunday AM.

On Sunday afternoon Underwater Vision hosted the inter-dive shop volley ball competition with 6 teams entering, and after several hours of play, the host claimed the title and the cash. Although the sun may have gone down, the pub quiz hosted at the Utila Lodge kept things heated up with fun and banter between over 40 participants/10 teams, and this went to a tie-breaker of several questions, before Utila Dive Centre team 'Mammoth Cow' took the title and prizes sponsored by DiveRite, reels, slates, wet notes, pouches and an SMB.

Photos from Tina Sotis and Robert Sievens
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Sunday afternoon and Monday also has Ecomarine and Apnea Utila host freediving clinics for people who might like to forgo the tank and enjoy the simplicity and beauty of free diving.

Monday morning was the dive shops time to host the Deep dive activity, with many of the dive centers visiting the deeper walls of Utilas Northside, and several of the boats got to swim with Dolphins, not a bad Monday AM! Deep Blue divers in town also conducted a specialized Reef Survey dive as well, with data being uploaded to the Reef groups website. On Monday afternoon Coral View and Utila Dive Centre ran the side mount and rebreather try dives, also to be repeated on Wednesday PM and Friday PM. At the closing ceremony all participants in the try dives will be entered into a draw with 2 winners receiving a DiveRite Nomad sidemount system! There was also a tour of the Utila Hyperbaric chamber at the Bay Islands college of diving, where talks were given about diving physiology and DCS.

The fun continued Monday evening with a Fish ID talk by local Instructor Adam Lafferty conducted at the Utila cinema, and 50 people listened to Adam entertain and educate about the local aquatic life and behavior, and prizes drawn out to attendees included an Intova light, and also an Intova underwater camera/housing. After the Fish talk Parrots Dive Center and Tranquila bar hosted 'Casino Night', this was where all Passport holders received chips to the value of 200 in denominations of 50, 25 and 5. There were 2 tables, one of BlackJack hosted by Brooks and another for Texas Hold em hosted by Dani. The games continued play until players were bust, or the clock was called at 11.30pm, and chips tallied. There were 3 prize winners, #1 received a dive package and adventure dive from Parrots, #2 a $100 voucher at local boutique 'Beach Bazaar', and the 3rd prize (and some say preferred) was a $25 positive tab behind Tranquila bar! Thank you to Adam Lafferty, Parrots and Tranquila for a very educational and also entertaining night!

Today (Tuesday) saw the dive centres conduct a Fish ID dive in the morning, and this afternoon Laguna Beach resort hosted a pool party at their resort on the south side, arranging transportation from the town. Tonight sees the much awaited 'Taste of Utila' food fair in the center of town with Scuba Cowboy showing up again to entertain the crowds.

Throughout the week there is also an ongoing treasure/scavenger hunt with over 31 clues to collect, and the final underwater clue to be collected Thursday AM, and also the photography competition winners will be announced Thursday night, fun fun fun!

To be continued!

 

[UtilaDiveFestival]

Utila Dive Festival kept rolling along successfully throughout the week. The Laguna Beach pool party was an awesome escape to see how the other half on Utila lives!


Tuesday evening saw everyone turn up for a very engaging presentation on Utila's most famous gentle giant, the whale shark. The talk was followed by a food bazaar down in the town center called A Taste of Utila. Participating restaurants included La Piccola, Big Mama's, Munchie's, Buccaneer's Cafe, and Skid Row Bar and Grill, as well as some good old Dunkin Donuts from the mainland! Everyone ate their fill, including all the local street dogs.

Wednesday saw more Tec Sidemount/Rebreather trials at Utila Dive Centre and Coral View Resort, with full participation! Participants experienced a whole new level of diving without bubbles, and superior streamlining on sidemount.

Wednesday also brought a beach BBQ at one of Utila's exclusive resorts, Utopia, complete with ping-pong, volleyball, as well as shore diving direct from the resort.

At around 6 pm five of Utila's dive centers conducted Night Dives, seeing such cool stuff as Caribbean Spiny Lobsters, King Crabs, Caribbean Octopus, and a free-swimming Spotted Moral. After the boats pulled in, everyone rinsed their gear and headed straight down to the Utila Lodge at Bay Islands College of Diving for Karaoke Night! Everyone got their turn on the microphone with such classics as Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," all the way down the spectrum to Metallica's "Enter Sandman." It was a crazy night, but that's how we do things here on Utila!



Thursday brought the underwater portion of the week-long Treasure Hunt. Participants went to specific dive sites in the morning to uncover clues of photos that will then have to recreate on land, to go along with topside clues of Utila's most prominent landmarks.

In the afternoon everyone went down to Pirate's Bay for Captain Morgan's Dive Centre's Scuba Olympics. Events included Underwater Tug-of-War, Underwater Shotput, and Paddleboarding race. Winners of the individuals were Larson from BICD and Jimmi the Dane from UDC! Prizes were a brand new BCD and Sealife Camera.

That evening all the shops brought out their finest decor for the first annual Utila Dive Fest Boat Parade of Lights. The boats were decked to the nines complete with Christmas tree lights, strobes, lazers, projectors, and potted trees, as well as many joyful participants rocking out to onboard music. We on Utila have all decided that this should not just be an annual occasion, but try and do it as much as possible!

Once everyone docked in we all scooted up to Treetanic, one of Utila's most unique bars, for the judging of the week-long Photography Competition. Participants contributed photos in five different categories, including Best Topside Shot, Best Macro, Best Portrait, Best Underwater-scape, and Best Reef Creature. The photos were beautiful and were displayed on two projectors around the bar and voted on by all Dive Fest Passport holders. The votes have been tallied and the winners will be announced at tonight's final Closing Ceremony, wrapping up an amazing week.

More on the ceremony to come!