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Diving with…Jamie Gladwin, Magic Island Dive Resort, Moalboal, Philippines
In this ongoing series, we speak to 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?
Jamie
What is the name of your business?
Magic Island Dive Resort
What is your role within the business?
Dive center manager
How long has the business operated for?
Magic Island opened its doors in January 2005.
How long have you dived for, and what qualification are you?
I started diving in 2002 and I am a PADI Course Director.
What is your favorite type of diving?
Drift diving along beautiful coral walls.
If you could tell people one thing about your business (or maybe more!) to make them want to visit you what would it be?
The staff are the best thing about Magic Island, always ready to take care of you with a big smile on their faces. Of course, we happen to be very well located next to some of the best diving in the world, especially if you like critters, turtles and coral walls.
What is your favorite dive in your location and why?
I have two favourite dives; Pescador Island and the Sardine bait ball. Pescador is an islet just a 10-minute boat ride, straight out from the resort. It’s surrounded with coral walls reaching down to 200ft/60m, which in turn are surrounded by all kinds of reef fish. On its west side it has a huge cavern making for some awesome wide-angle shots with great lighting in the afternoon dives.
The Sardine ball is just memorizing and unique. Unlike the famous sardine runs off the coast of the Africa, the Sardines of Moalboal are here year-round and always in the same spot. You don’t get all the big action stuff but, to watch them make their swirls of different patterns as Jacks and Tunas dart in for a tasty mouthful, really is quite a spectacle.
What types of diving are available in your location?
Lots of healthy reef walls filled with critters, colourful fish and a very healthy population of turtles. Sandy bottom muck diving in Moalboal bay.
What do you find most rewarding about your current role?
I love to teach, that’s why I became a dive instructor. Unfortunately, being a diving instructor doesn’t guarantee you will be teaching all the time, there are many other aspects to the job. However, being a manager is very much, being a teacher, guiding the team to make sure we are all successful. Listening to the comments of our guest or reading the reviews online, gives the feeling of success and that reward is well worth the hard work we all put in. On top of this I still get to teach many of the dive students which pass through Magic Island.
What is your favorite underwater creature?
Frog Fish! All of them!
Are there any exciting changes / developments coming up in the near future?
We are planning to start a coral reef watch program that will allow our guests to get involved in monitoring the coral reefs, giving them a better understanding of how it all works, while at the same time helping collect data that will help better protection measures in the future. We also plan to make our own Frog Fish Specialty program. Both of these can earn you a PADI specialty and count towards your Master Diver Certification.
As a center what is the biggest problem you face at the moment?
Governmental issues.
Is your center involved in any environmental work?
Yes, we do regular Dive Against Debris, which is also a PADI specialty you can take at Magic Island. As stated above we will start a coral watch program and we also do regular mooring placements and upgrades. Our next project is to get all the moorings to be a double buoyed mooring; this helps keep the lose line off the reef when its low tide further reducing any negative impact.
How do you see the SCUBA / Freediving / snorkeling industry overall? What changes would you make?
Overall, I think the industry is filled with people who are both passionate about their sport and the environment it is involved in. I would like to see the passion adopted by the newcomers to the industry from other regions of the world that seem to have a lesser education on the environmental problems our world faces.
What would you say to our visitors to promote the diving you have to offer?
World class diving with the world renowned Filipino hospitality.
Where can our visitors find out more about your business?
Magic Island Dive Resort
Basdiot, Moalboal
6032, Cebu, Philippines
Website: www.magicisland.online
E-mail: reservations@magicresorts.online
info@magicresorts.online
jamie@magicisland.online
Social Media:
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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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