Fourth Element

30 November 2008

As we now have more retail space in our new shop we are pleased to be able to offer a limited but growing selection of items from the superb Fourth Element range. Our guys here love it so you will find several styles of T-shirt already being modelled.

Travel in Style

30 November 2008

We have just taken delivery of a new 6-seater Hyundai H1 which will primarily be used for picking up customers from their hotels in the mornings. Too many of you guys out there have legs that are way too long for our little Seat Ibiza, which is dropping to bits anyway. I know just what the girls want to know, and the answer is pale blue. Very pretty!

Birmingham Dive Show

30 November 2008

How cool to see some of our regular customers at the dive show as well as meeting many more. We were the only ones there flying the flag for Tenerife and there was plenty of interest, so we were kept busy. Along with our Oxygène partners from Croatia and Newfoundland we ran a prize draw of a week's free diving and accommodation. The lucky winner was John Thomson, and we look forward to welcoming John to Tenerife.

¡Felicidades!

30 November 2008

Congratulations to Neil and Ines who just completed their Formácion Básica, which is the Spanish equivalent of the STCW (safety training for professional skippers in case you never heard of it). We knew that Ines would sail (!) through the course and exam, but the real test was for Neil - was his Spanish up to it?? Well apparently yes it was. So now if there is a fire on board Nostromo or we have to abandon ship, we will be in safe hands as they have learnt all about dealing with emergencies on board. You might get your instructions in Spanish though!

New Partner

31 October 2008

We are very excited to announce that as from 1st October 2009, Aqua-Marina will be teaming up with Oxygène Diving. Oxygene is an international chain of dive resorts and retail stores with retail outlets in England, Sweden and Estonia, and dive centres in Sweden, Åland, England, Malta, Egypt, the Philippines, Pemba, Croatia, Estonia, Canada and, soon, Tenerife. And more on the way!

Here at Aqua-Marina we have always strived for excellence and, when approached by Oxygene, we immediately recognized a high level of affinity with their core values. We believe there will be significant benefits to us and to our customers. For example we will experience reduced costs, enhanced marketing opportunities and being part of a growing chain with a reputation for excellence.

However, more important is what’s in it for the customer. We hope that those who like the way we do things in Tenerife will feel confident of the same high standards at other Oxygene centres, and vice versa. Other customer benefits will be launched over the coming months – watch this space! For more information about the Oxygene group check out: www.oxygenediving.com

Licences and hyperbaric chamber fee

30 September 2008

We were delighted last week to take delivery of our licence to be a dive centre. A pre-requisite was the licence for our compressor which was awarded a couple of months ago, so we are finally getting there in the long long struggle to get the right paperwork. Unfortunately another pre-requisite is that we have to pay an annual fee to the hyperbaric chamber, and so we have now reluctantly introduced a charge of 2€ per diver for each visit you make to Tenerife. Sorry about this, but we hope you understand.

New Shop

30 September 2008

We are very excited to have taken on a new unit for our shop/office. It is located on the same street as we are currently situated, but is REALLY close to the beach. (Just after the slope down to Spar). It has a much bigger terrace and will be a more comfortable place for you to do your paperwork, fill out your log books and meet up with friends or relatives after the dive. But of course the real advantage is that Neil can daydream his days away, captivated by the sun shining on the glistening water. So, next time you visit, don't forget - just keep heading towards the sea and you cannot miss us, on the last right hand corner before you hit sand.

Ray and the ray

30 September 2008

Our instructor Ray recently met his match – the biggest thornback ray he has ever seen in his life. Curiously for a diver, Ray does not often get excited by the marine life, so it was quite a moment to hear him raving about this ray. And those of you who know that our Ray is not exactly small himself can imagine the thornback going back to the family and saying “I just saw the biggest Ray of my life...”

Dive Show

30 September 2008

After missing last year, Madge and Steve will again be at the Dive Show in Birmingham on 1 and 2 November, so if you plan to visit the show, do look us up. It’s always good to see familiar faces amongst the many new ones. We will be on the Oxygène stand, 1104, exhibiting with our new partners.

Club La Costa

31 August 2008

Thanks to Emma, we have a new collaboration with the time-share company Club la Costa, which has 4 lovely resorts in the South of Tenerife. Working closely with their entertainment team, we offer free try dives at their pools and are finding many new converts to our sport. Incidentally their entertainment team is called Team Marina – was that meant for us or what?

Baby Luca says thanks!

21 June 2008

A big thank you to everyone for your warm wishes and gifts and cards for baby Luca. He is feeling most welcome to the world and putting on weight so fast his mum can hardly keep up with feeding him! We're hoping to get him in a neoprene nappy and off to the local pool for some swimming lessons very soon (we hope he doesn't hate water!!). Mia is also doing a fantastic job and loving her new role although she does miss you all too (not to mention the diving).

New Team Member

21 June 2008

We are happy to introduce the latest member of the Aqua-Marina crew, Ines. Originally from Germany, Ines has been living in Tenerife for several years now and is a PADI OWSI. She can teach in German, Spanish and English and drives boats too! A most welcome addition to the team, we hope you'll meet her soon.

Disney Does Diving

31 May 2008

Thanks to all the guys and gals from the Disney On Ice show (see picture) for coming down to Aqua-Marina. Even with a gruelling schedule of shows here on Tenerife (and just about every other country on the planet) they managed to squeeze in a days diving with us. We had a blast. No sign of Ariel the Little Mermaid though!

The Aqua-Marina tardis

30 April 2008

Yes, the wet centre looks bigger than ever, but it's not because we've got Dr Who on the team, it's simply that Neil and Steve had the most enormous clear-out and removed the huge kit rail that divided the centre in two. So we now have a big open space AND we also magically seem to have more places to keep stuff. How does that work?? Anyway, this is stage I of a bit of a renovation that will take place during the winter months - we hope you will be suitably impressed when you see it. We've also managed to source some non-slip matting which we are testing for practicality at present.

Aqua-Marina welcomes back Aqua-Marine

31 March 2008

It was great to have back with us the girls and boys from the dive club Aqua-Marine recently. They all enjoyed their second visit to Tenerife to do some more dives on the Westburn wreck and in fact they like it so much they want to do it for a third time next year! Of course with a name like theirs we are the obvious choice of dive centre for them on Tenerife. It was great to have you with us again folks, thanks for coming and hope to see you all again soon.