News
Diving With…. Pro Dive International – Mexico & Dominican Republic
In this ongoing series, we speak with the people who run dive centres, resorts and liveaboards from around the world about their businesses and the diving they have to offer…
What is your name?
Susann Seifert
What is the name of your business?
Pro Dive International – Mexico & Dominican Republic
What is your role within the business?
Marketing Manager
How long has the business operated for?
15 years
How long have you dived for, and what qualification are you?
For 8 years in several locations around the world. I’m a certified Rescue and Nitrox Diver.
Photo: Stefan Heer
What is your favorite type of diving?
I love shark cleaning stations and being surrounded by big fish! Besides sharks, mantas, seals, dolphins & co., I also like lively colorful coral reefs with a current to simply drift along and enjoy.
If you could tell people one thing about your business (or maybe more!) to make them want to visit you what would it be?
With Pro Dive, you can satisfy all the fancies of your diver heart within one vacation – the breath-taking highlights of Mexico and Dom Rep from one hand, hassle-free arrangements of your dive & relax package, a great choice of beach resorts with our dive centres located onsite, big fish, macro life, shallow dives and beautiful walls, free Nitrox, the magic of cenotes/ cavern dives, cultural trips to world-heritage sites, high safety standards, a multilingual team of instructors at all of our locations, airport pickup and shuttles. Pro Dive caters for everyone from beginner to pro (CDC), divers with disabilities, kids, groups, non-diving family. Everyone is welcome!
Photo: Gerald Nowak
What is your favorite dive in your location and why?
Santa Rosa Wall in Cozumel/ Mexico clearly is my favourite dive here in the Mexican Caribbean – a spectacular vertical drop off with breath-taking formations of colourful corals, small caverns, overhangs, plenty of swim-throughs, sponges, and a diversity of marine life like huge lobsters, barracudas, Cozumel splendid toad fish (entirely endemic to Cozumel), black groupers, horse-eyed jacks, spotted eagle rays and turtles in about 18-25m depth. The corals seem to grow taller and the drop off gets steeper the further north you go. The current can be unpredictable and rapidly changing from medium to strong. A magical drift dive in all regards!
Photo: Stefan Heer
What types of diving are available in your location?
Deep, drift, wreck, cave and cavern, bull shark, reef diving… From newbie to pro and technical diver, anyone will find their favorite spot here.
What do you find most rewarding about your current role?
I can share my passion for diving, the ocean, marine life and the location itself by tickling our readers’ imagination about the unique highlights of our destinations, make them dream and want to join us for their next dive vacation. Furthermore, I get to meet many inspiring people and industry partners along the way who share the same passion, enjoy their fascinating stories, great achievements and visions.
Photo: Luis Javier Sandoval
What is your favorite underwater creature?
Among my small friends underwater, the Manti shrimp is my personal favorite – a fascinating creature. Among the larger ones, manta rays and sharks will need to fight for the top position.
Are there any exciting changes / developments coming up in the near future?
Absolutely, as Pro Dive International keeps growing! We have just opened a new dive centre in Bayahibe/ Dominican Republic – the country’s hot spot for diving. Stay tuned for more exciting news! 😉
As a center what is the biggest problem you face at the moment?
The moody weather! With the start of the hurricane season, we experienced rough seas, causing the harbor to be closed for safety reasons, which meant we couldn’t go out for local and wreck dives. However, here on the Riviera Maya/ Mexico, we are very fortunate to have the Cenotes on our doorstep – the largest freshwater cave system in the world and a truly unique experience! Hence, we switched local dives and scuba training from the ocean to the cenotes to ensure that all our divers and students had a great time, despite the weather conditions!
Photo: Duxy
Is your center involved in any environmental work?
All of our centres are actively involved! Pro Dive International is hands on when it comes to marine life conservation. In particular shark conservation has been one of Pro Dive’s major concerns. Not only do we support renowned organizations internationally, but actively the local project SAVING OUR SHARKS who focus specifically on research and protection of bull sharks on the Mexican Riviera Maya. Pro Dive has even adopted one of the females that come to visit us every year in winter to give birth! And our SharkSchool will be held for the third time from December 18-24, this year, to continue spreading education and awareness. Anyone is welcome to join!
We use biodegradable cleaning products and cups and participate in ocean cleaning days.
Furthermore, Pro Dive has achieved the PADI Green Star award (the first Mexican company), as well as several certificates of excellence recognizing their continued efforts and contribution toward the marine environment.
How do you see the SCUBA / Freediving / snorkeling industry overall? What changes would you make?
Much more needs to be done in regards to the protection of the marine environment, in particular involving local communities, to educate and inspire, refuse plastic, make safe, sustainable seafood choices, take care of the beach. This responsibility lies in each one of us, however, with joined forces we can achieve more.
Photo: Luis Javier Sandoval
What would you say to our visitors to promote the diving you have to offer?
Mexico is a bucket list destination holding many magical moments to tag off your list, like diving into the mystical Mayan cenotes to get mesmerized by stunning lightshows and beautifully decorated caverns, swimming with the largest fish on the planet – the whale shark, the encounter of majestic bull sharks, the high speed sardine hunt of the world’s fastest fish – the sailfish, the drift along Cozumel’s vibrant colourful reefs, named one of the Top10 in the world by Jacques Cousteau, the countless diving adventures to expect within one trip when combining the highlights of both Mexico’s Caribbean and Pacific-side with Socorro and Great Whites in Guadalupe, a visit of Mayan world heritage sites and one of the seven world wonders, and last but not least, the refreshing facilities of our beach resorts to get yourself pampered.
The Dominican Republic has it all, as its slogan suggests: Beautiful beaches and reefs in Bayahibe, Saona, Catalina Island, Cayo Levantado, many wrecks and macro life, but also big fish – the humpback whales. You can either observe or swim with them during the winter months, when the entire North Atlantic humpback whale population migrates south to the Silver Bank – the Sanctuary for the Marine Mammals of the Dominican Republic, for mating and calving.
No matter your choice, adventure & fun await you with our team!
__________________________________________________________________________________
Where can our visitors find out more about your business?
reservations@prodiveinternational.com, or info@prodiveinternational.com
Mobile: +52 1 984 745 0763
Facebook:
@prodiveinternational
@prodivemexico
@prodivedominicanrepublic
@prodivemexicoacademy
Twitter:
Fire on Monroe Bravo is the latest book in the Jack Collier series by Fred Lockwood. Our story begins with our lead characters, Jack and Sandro, owners of Marine Salvage & Investigation Company, arriving on the Monroe Bravo Oil & Gas Platform in the North Sea. Having secured a contract for their vessel the MV Stavanger to act as support ship to the platform for TransGlobal Oil, our protagonists are on a celebratory visit.
However almost as soon as they arrive a series of explosions rock the platform, causing huge damage, loss of life and the very real danger of a massive human, ecological and financial disaster.
As the danger mounts for both our heroes and the surviving workers, Jack and Sandro will have to escape the inferno, all while trying to save the platform and the men still trapped unable to help themselves.
The disaster sets the scene for the unfolding story lines following the fate of the platform and our main characters, the police investigation into a suspected terrorist act and the actions of TransGlobal Oil as they attempt to navigate the pubic outcry and financial repercussions.
In his eighth book, Fire on Monroe Bravo, Fred Lockwood delivers an explosive thriller, with plenty of above and in-water drama, and our heroes fighting for survival, what more can you ask for?
We thoroughly recommend this read and look forward to the next in the series. For more information about his book series, you can check out the reviews of his previous books here on Scubaverse.
- Title: Fire On Monroe Bravo
- Author: Fred Lockwood
- ISBN: 979-8325324536
Available in a paperback version and for Kindle from Amazon and book stores.
In June we were incredibly fortunate to be invited to dive in Alonissos, a small Greek Island in the Sporades island chain located in the North Aegean Sea. While I have long been a big fan of the Greek Islands as a great holiday destination, I had not had the opportunity to do any diving on previous visits and Mike and I were extremely excited to see what Alonissos had to offer both above and below the surface!
The Sporades are easily accessible via the airport in Skiathos (the first island in the chain), which is served by Jet2 flights from all major UK airports from May through October. Numerous ferries and charter boats make island hopping from Skiathos Town a breeze. After an hour boat ride, the picturesque port of Patitiri was a wonderful introduction to Alonissos, where we were met by our gracious hosts Kostas of Albedo Travel and Dias of Alonissos Triton Dive Center. Mike and I were delighted to be staying at the Paradise Hotel, aptly named for its stunning views over the sea and great location for walking to the waterfront.
Alonissos is beautifully situated in the National Marine Park of Alonissos and the Northern Sporades, the largest marine protected area in Europe. The surrounding seas offer fabulous marine life, including incredibly rare species such as the Mediterranean monk seal. They boast deep walls covered in gorgonians and sponges, stunning topography with caverns, swimthroughs and pinnacles, and the first accessible ancient shipwreck from 500BC!
In locations where historical sites have been reported, the waters are largely restricted, but with collaboration between government, underwater archeologists and dive centres, incredible underwater museums are being created for a truly unique diving experience. Alonissos is home to the first of these, the Ancient Shipwreck of Peristera Accessible Underwater Archeological Site. The chance to dive into history (along with reports of healthy reef life and amazing underwater topography) meant Mike and I were keen to get in the water.
Our introduction to the diving around Alonissos was at the Agios Georgios Pinnacles, in the channel between Alonissos and Skopelos. This fantastic site was named “The Chimney,’ and proved to have a huge amount to see. We got to a decent depth here (over 25m), and marvelled at a colourful reef wall with a wonderful swim through whose rocky walls were absolutely covered with life. As well as brilliant topography there was no shortage of macro life here. We saw numerous nudibranchs, five different species in total. The second dive at Mourtias reef nearby was a shallower dive along a nice wall with lots of crevices. Several moray eels and grouper called this site home. We enjoyed looking in the crevices for lobster and smaller benthic life, such as cup corals and tunicates.
Our itinerary allowed us two dives a day with afternoons left to explore the island with our hire car and evenings to enjoy the famous Greek hospitality. This proved to be a lovely mix of in-water and land based diversions.
The next days diving to the Gorgonian Gardens and Triton’s Cave was to be even better! These two stunning sites are nothing short of fabulous. The Gorgonian Gardens was a deep wall near to the Agios Georgios islands. The ever-present currents in this deep channel meant that the sea life was amazing … the namesake Gorgonian sea fans dotted the wall at a depth of 30 to 50 meters, getting ever larger the deeper we went. Above 30m was by no means less beautiful, with sponges, corals, scorpionfish, moray eels and some rare and colourful nudibranchs.
The second shallower dive of the day was to Triton’s Cave or the Cavern of Skopelos, on the east side of that island. The spectacular rock formations had wild striations both above and below the water making a truly epic topography. The cavern entrance was at 14m, and big enough for a buddy pair, winding up to 6m and passing two beautiful windows out into the blue. Emerging from the cavern, the light at the shallower depths and the incredible rock formations made for a fantastic gentle swimming safety stop and we all surfaced by the boat with massive grins.
Check out our next blog :Alonissos: The complete diving destination (Part 2)” to hear about our amazing dive on the 2500 year old Peristera Wreck!
Thanks to:
Alonissos Triton Dive Center https://bestdivingingreece.com/
Albedo Travel https://alonissosholidays.com/activities/
Paradise Hotel https://paradise-hotel.gr/
Alonissos Municipality https://alonissos.gr/en/
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