Total Sub 08 was a Total Success. 90 divers enjoyed perfect weather conditions, excellent diving and all the fun and games associated with the annual event, that’s become synonymous with Sunset House. The PADI Diving Society know how to organize an event. With Theresa & Karin at the helm it's guaranteed that a good time is had by all. This year was no exception. With a 40% return guest rate there were a lot of familiar faces. The Sunset dive staff stepped up to the challenge with the usual eager professionalism that one can expect from Cayman's oldest dive resort. It's no coincidence that this level of customer care and service has been finely tuned over the last 50 years! Yes- fifty years.


Olympus bought an array of cameras and housing which gave everybody the opportunity to test-dive the units.
The survey says that the cameras were very well received. Next year will be the 10th Anniversary of Total Sub and the rumor is that it will exceed all.

Bob Wholers and the DSAT team were here to film the event and they got exactly what they came for. Ty Sawyer was in attendance for the whole event which we consider a remarkable feat in itself. Normally Ty is jetting around the world to some incredible locations reporting for Islands magazine and Sport Diver- he’s Editor of both and has one of the most enviable jobs in the world. Lastly Keith Sahm was here to make sure we all behaved and did as we were told!


Make sure you book early for next year as its going to be a week to remember. Last week in April- keep it free!
While the rest of the island slows down a pace or two Sunset are experiencing busy times indeed. Group business continues to exceed expectations with many new dive stores selecting us as their key destination. The fact that we are so conveniently located with all the amenities so close to hand has proved to be the Right Choice for many. Returning group business is as ever very popular which shows us we have a great recipe that people adore.


The diving has been fantastic this this winter. With only 2 true storms the staff had an easier than expected season. Plenty of action on the reefs with sharks, rays and resident squid! 2 sightings of hammerheads and the occasional Manta. Our good friend Jerome from Cayman Helicopters (a must do-sightseeing tour) reported seeing 2 whale sharks this year and we generally jump on boats and try and locate these amazing creatures. Were pretty fortunate to have this ‘eye in the sky.”

The dive school has been busy with new Dive masters and Petes special Advanced classes. New Dive masters include Dan, Patricia and Aina. With luck we’ll see these 3 new PADI members on our October IDC.
This year the IDC is being conducted by Gary Mawston. Gary is Europe’s most successful Course Director with an unrivalled reputation and success rate. We worked together back in 88 in the Channel Islands and it’s a great privilege to have Gary back in the Cayman Islands. If you have ever considered taking your diving to the next level there will be no better time to enroll on your Instructor Development Course.


One of the most appealing points about “Going Pro” at Sunset House is the location. Candidates will receive unlimited shore diving, unlimited pool time, free workshops and skill development sessions and free boat diving. Include 3 Staff instructors to guide you along the way and all the convenience that we offer will ensure you have a stress free and enjoyable IDC. We are currently offering reduced rate Divemaster programs for all candidates who wish to go on and complete the IDC. Once all your hard work is completed you will be rewarded with a complimentary Graduation Ceremony! For all Garys previous candidates you know what this involves!! If you any questions please contact me directly.
Staff wise a wind of change. Pete and Sam leave us this week. Sam, as many of you know, helps us out every year during the busy times. Our resident Texan isn’t leaving the island however. No doubt many of you will see Sam at My bar in the future having a cold one with the gang. Pete our Assistant Manager is leaving to return to sunnier climes- Blackpool, England! He and Lissy are planning on working in the UK for a while but I’m betting he’ll call when the days get colder. Pete has been invaluable over the last few years in our teaching program here at Sunset. We wish them well and know that old friends will return.
Replacing those 2 losers!! are Adam Harris from England and Jeff Shaw from Canada. Bios to follow but needless to say you all get an opportunity to dive with these great guys.
Look out for Keith at the Long Beach dive show in June and all of us at DEMA in the Fall in Las Vegas.
We’ll be celebrating our 50th Anniversary with some amazing deals and promotions so be sure to come and visit these great shows.
Todays water temp is 26c/82f, light winds out of the south east and the easiest most convenient diving you’ll find anywhere in the Cayman Islands. Log onto www.sunsethouse.com and book your vacation now. We’d love to spoil you!
Safe Diving,
Mike
Mike can be contacted on
mikep@sunsethouse.com

The Sunset crew were fortunate to to be invited aboard the M.Y Lone Ranger for an all areas tour. Mike P's old privately owned expedition yacht hasn't lost any of its awesome presence and dominated Georgetown Harbour for nearly a month. The good news is that Jax was offered a position on board in the Fall which she eagerly accepted. Reports that Mel Gibson and Martha Stewart were on board were somewhat exaggerated Mike said.

Dee and Mike at the helm at Beneath the Sea in Secaucus, NY last weekend!

Our World Underwater 2008 is history. This year’s event will long be remembered by everyone involved for being one of the most successful weekends in the history of the 38-year old event. Show organizers can not be more pleased as an estimated audience of well over 15,000 participated in the three day event.

And Sunset House was right in the middle of it with Pete and Keith. Sunset House was also one of the major sponsors of this year event!

The winter migration is on, with many familiar faces arriving throughout the winter months. With continuing icy temperatures throughout the US and Europe a trip to Sunset House is a welcome respite.

Fred & Judy Catella are back, it’s their 31st visit to the resort so proof indeed that were doing something right.


Rik from the Scuba Network on the East Coast was back and happily reports that he plans to bring 2 trips a year to us. His last dive was memorable simply because of the large Scalloped Hammerhead on the Nicholson wreck! We just love it when there are sharks in our back yard!

Teaching has been extremely busy with folk coming from around the world. Resident course have proved to be very busy with not only Open Water courses but some high numbers in Pete’s special advanced classes. Jax and Mike B had a large Rescue class last weekend culminating in some very tired but satisfied divers. Congratulations then to Richard Knight, Elliot Harvey, Hayley Ormrod, Mike Ormrod, Matt Breeze, Melissa Ebanks and Pete Sugden- very well done indeed. Your Divemaster class awaits…talking of which Joe and Emma Grover from New Zealand just completed their Divemaster class. Both agreeing it was worth the 38hrs of travel to get to us!

Junior divers this month include Michael Bewlay, Polly Serpell and Loren Hill- all great students who will, we are sure, progress through the diving ranks.
The winter storms have so far been kind to the Caribbean with very little action. We have only had one cold front since Christmas which makes for warmer sea temperatures and calmer seas. With the majority of diving generally done on the West in the winter months it’s been a joy to explore south and on occasion north. With any luck, we’ll quietly slip into spring without too much fuss which will bring an influx of new life to the walls and reefs. We suspect the warmer winter has encouraged the Hammerheads to arrive a little early with numerous sighting around the island this last 2 weeks.

Pete just got back from a sub zero Chicago and met a lot of our old friends at the dive show there. Keith was there also and reports tell us that it was a most successful show. Dee and I will be at Beneath the Sea in New York at the end of March so we’ll see many of you there.

The SSI Dealer Conference was a huge success in Colorado recently. I got the chance to meet with all the dealers from the States and some further a field including Australia and Germany. It’s a pleasure to be a part of a tight knit group who are focused on improving the sport, training new divers and providing excellent professional support in the retail stores. Incidentally don’t forget the SSI Dive in Paradise week in July- 6 days of great diving, competitions, prizes, giveaways and special promotions. It’s going be a fun packed week with plenty of excitement for all concerned.

We’ve got the PADI Diving Society Total Sub event in May, which will see the resort full to capacity for yet another diving crazy week. This event proves to be a consistent winner with a great organizational team behind it. If it were not for Theresa and Karin and the rest of the gang, this event would not be as popular or as fun as it normally is. It’s a great opportunity to meet up with old Society friends and meet many new ones. This event is not to be missed if you’re thinking of diving anywhere in May!

Although spring is just around the corner in US, we still know how cold it is and the fact that’s its still getting dark at 4pm- here we have an average 80+ degrees air temp and the water about the same. If you have had any thoughts of diving in the tropics, now is the time to book and escape the winter albeit for a few days. You’ll always receive a warm welcome at Sunset Divers so pick those dates today, we‘ll see you at the dive shop soon.

Safe diving and keep warm,

Mike and the team.

Mike can be contacted at
mikep@sunsethouse.com

My apologies for the delay in writing the Log. We have had such a busy Fall with full boats, large groups and outstanding diving encounters. Coupled with the customary boat haul outs, staff vacations and other important issues has left little time to write.

The traditional slow times of September and October didn’t materialize this year. Instead we saw steady numbers all the way through to this week! September has always my favorite month to dive in the Cayman Islands. The water is a balmy 84 plus and there just seems to be a more frequent large animal encounter. Sharks are seen on a regular basis on the North side, Eagle Rays tend to patrol the walls in battalion like fashion and there just seems to be an overall big show of creatures. No whale sharks this summer but the usual Hammerheads, Caribbean Reef and a suspected Bull shark were all reported on our dives.

The house reef is the jewel in the Sunset crown. Night or day the reef delivers positive results with incredible regularity. Octopus, nesting Yellow Headed Jawfish, schools of Squid and of course a seemingly endless supply of Hawksbill turtle make Sunset Reef the best ‘back yard’ I know.

07 will go down as a memorable year for our Media partners. We had the []DEMA "Be a Diver" film shoot which you will see on National TV through out 2008 - 09,quickly followed by the SSI Training Dept who had 10 days of solid filming for their updated training DVD’s. Thousands of divers around the world will see Sunset Divers and Grand Cayman at its very best and with luck will enthuse many to come visit our home.

Ikelite Underwater were here on 3 occasions. Twice to test new products and lastly to promote their incredible range of underwater housings, lights and strobes at Total Sub. Jean is now considered one of the family and is always freely available to answer your housing questions.

Theresa and the gang from PADI put on another superb event and we were glad to be part of their success. Sunset attracts hundreds of photographers a year pro and amateur alike so it’s worth considering that if were good enough for the big boys we might just be able to help you learn, improve and or compete with them!

An excellent year for training with Pete just about to surpass his 100 student annual quota. His goal is to train 100 students a year which he seems to do with ease. He also recently became a IDC Staff Instructor so congratulations to him.

Young Tom Banfield just passed his IE with flying colors. No longer the lonely Divemaster Tom now finds he can walk with us rather than behind us! Well done Tom and welcome to the big house! New arrivals include Andy Barnes from Reading England. Watch out for his bio next month. Texas Sam just finished helping us out through some busy times and has left for Christmas. In between diving and driving boats Sam could be found kite boarding in the North Sound. We only had to rescue him once- from a tree!

Good news is that our beloved Jax has had successful surgery and will be back to sort the boys out. We sure have missed her around the place this last 3 months. She will be leaner and meaner and after a quick dose of snowmobiling she’ll be back on track taking care of the team here at Sunset.

Freddy moved onto to pastures new though we still see him on a regular basis and he’ll be found at My Bar every Friday night to catch up with his old pals.

Boat wise it’s been a hectic year for Rob who has been frantically busy at the Marina. He is just about to complete his second project this year. A totally rebuilt, refitted and repainted Michael Fitz v-hull should be launched in the next 2 weeks. That would bring our fast fleet up to 3. He is the unsung hero who methodically keeps the fleet going. His next project will be refitting Leopard Ray completely. When he’s good we let him dive with the guests so some of you know him. A big thank you to Rob because we wouldn’t have a 100% boat departure record if it were not for his skills. Thanks Rob.
Group business continues to increase with some excellent business coming in over the next month. Late December and Jan will stretch us to the limit but the team can be assured to step up and provide the usual great service.

If we didn’t do so returning groups wouldn’t come back so often. Pan Aqua, Underwater Safaris, The Dive Shop Memphis, Lake Norman Scuba and our great friends Mildred & Dan from Down Under Divers , to name a few are all regulars and we thank them for the continued support.

Special mention this month to our latest Divemaster candidates. Local lad Dan Neville and not so local Ned Vansise have just completed a rigorous 14 day program. Mike B was the Lead Instructor and he reports a superb effort by both candidates. In particular Dan deserve extra praise. We see a lot of students but very few who go that extra mile, study for hours on end and find time to contribute to the overall running of a busy resort. Dan has been a huge asset to the organization and I would like to thank him on behalf of the crew and all the guests he has helped over the last few months. A job well done Dan and we hope you carry on- you are the Instructor of Tomorrow. Ned Vansise should be congratulated also. His unending support and mentoring have helped both himself and Dan become excellent DM’s. You earned it guys. See you at the bar!
So what does 08 hold besides the obligatory great service, superb diving and unrivaled instruction?

It’s our Anniversary year so watch out for great deals and special events. In July we’ll see the first SSI scuba week which is all set to become a wonderful Sunset/SSI tradition. We’ll also have some SSI Instructor Training Programs. We’ll have new boats, new staff and a new baby in June- but one thing that will be assured. Sunset Divers will continue to provide the great service you have come to expect. The recipe is simple and we intend to keep cooking!
WE look forward to seeing you all in the coming year.

To old friends and new, Mike, Pete, Rob, MikeB, Jax, Tom, Sam and Andy would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Safe and Prosperous New Year.

By the way-We’ve seen your weather-
here its 88 degrees and the water’s perfect- come on down!

Safe Diving
Mike
Mike can be contacted on [email]mikep@sunsethouse.com[/email

2008
May (2)
April (1)
March (1)
February (1)

2007
December (2)
October (2)
August (1)
July (1)
May (2)
April (1)
March (6)
February (1)

2006
December (1)
November (1)
October (1)
September (2)
August (1)
July (1)
June (1)