News
Want to get married underwater with Christ as your witness? Amoray Dive Resort can make it happen
An essay contest is under way to award an underwater wedding to mark the 50th anniversary of the iconic Christ of the Deep statue’s installation in Atlantic waters off Key Largo.
The 9-foot bronze Christ of the Deep has become a symbol for John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, America’s first underwater preserve created in 1960.
It is a replica of the Italian original Il Christo Degli Abissi, or Christ of the Abyss. Visitors from around the world come to snorkel, dive or ride glass-bottom boats to view and photograph the statue that rests in less than 25 feet of water about 5 miles off Key Largo.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the statue placement, Key Largo’s Amoray Dive Resort has organized the contest to win a subsea wedding. The couple that best describes in 100 words or less why they want to be married at the statue will be selected as the winner.
The grand prize is valued at $1,500 and includes four nights at the dive resort, valid from the 23rd – 26th August, 2015, with the officiate fee and morning undersea wedding ceremony taking place on August 25th; and a wedding dinner at Sundowners Restaurant, bayside along Blackwater Sound at mile marker 104.
Entries must be submitted to manager@amoray.com by tomorrow (July 31st). Contestants must obtain a Florida state wedding application for a license and must already be certified scuba divers.
Created by artist Guido Galletti, the original was placed in the shallow San Fruttuoso Bay near Portofino, Italy, in 1954. Galletti also crafted the mold for a Christ statue that was cast for Egidi Cressi, who donated it to the Underwater Society of America in 1961.
Christ of the Deep traveled 6,000 miles from Italy to Chicago, where it was placed in storage.
Although state dive councils in Illinois, Michigan and the Northeast petitioned for the statue, it was decided the clear waters of Pennekamp were to be the statue’s resting place.
In late 1963, the statue was transported to Orlando, placed on display, and later exhibited at St. Petersburg and Palm Beach before arriving at Key Largo where it was stored outdoors at Pennekamp.
Finally, executed with the aid of local dive operators and park officials, a small budget and donations of concrete for the statue’s 20-ton base, the statue was lowered beneath the surface and secured to the seabed Aug. 25, 1965.
Source: www.keysnet.com
Over the next 12 months, specialist scuba holiday company Dive Worldwide will be supporting Bite-Back Shark & Marine Conservation with donations collected from client bookings to any one of its stunning dive destinations around the world. The independently-owned operator expects to raise £3000 for the UK charity.
Manager at Dive Worldwide, Phil North, said: “We’re especially excited to work with Bite-Back and support its intelligent, creative and results-driven campaigns to end the UK trade in shark products and prompt a change in attitudes to the ocean’s most maligned inhabitant.”
Bite-Back is running campaigns to hold the media to account on the way it reports shark news along with a brand new nationwide education programme. Last year the charity was credited for spearheading a UK ban on the import and export of shark fins.
Campaign director at Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: “We’re enormously grateful to Dive Worldwide for choosing to support Bite-Back. The company’s commitment to conservation helps set it apart from other tour operators and we’re certain its clients admire and respect that policy. For us, the affiliation is huge and helps us look to the future with confidence we can deliver against key conservation programmes.”
To launch the fundraising initiative, Phil North presented Graham Buckingham with a cheque for £1,000.
Visit Dive Worldwide to discover its diverse range of international scuba adventures and visit Bite-Back to learn more about the charity’s campaigns.
MORE INFORMATION
Call Graham Buckingham on 07810 454 266 or email graham@bite-back.com
Free Octopus with every purchase of a SCUBAPRO regulator system
Just in time for the spring season, divers can save money with the FREE OCTOPUS SPRING PROMOTION! Until July 31st SCUBAPRO offers an Octopus for free
with every purchase of a regulator system!
Get a free S270 OCTOPUS with purchase of these combinations:
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with A700
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with S620Ti
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with D420
MK25 EVO Din mit S620Ti-X
Get a free R105 OCTOPUS with purchase of the following combinations:
MK25 EVO or MK19 EVO with G260
MK25 EVO or MK17 EVO with S600
SCUBAPRO offers a 30-year first owner warranty on all regulators, with a revision period of two years or 100 dives. All SCUBAPRO regulators are of course certified according to the new European test standard EN250-2014.
Available at participating SCUBAPRO dealers. Promotion may not be available in all regions. Find an authorized SCUBAPRO Dealer at scubapro.com.
More information available on www.scubapro.com.
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