Season's greetings from Jorge A. Mahauad

To all the readers of this blog I would like to wish the very best in this holiday season. 

I also wish that 2011 comes loaded with safe diving, challenging training objectives and active environmental awareness to all of us. 

Thank you very much for reading this blog and my best wishes for you all.

Happy Holidays!

Jorge A. Mahauad

EFR Instructor Courses available though Jorge A. Mahauad

In DEMA 2010 I had the chance to attend the EFR Instructor Trainer Course. I made a report on this blog at that time. I am now authorized to teach the EFR Instructor Course as sanctioned by Emergency First Response Corp.  

EFR Instructor Courses are now available

 

To enroll in an Emergency First Response Instructor Course you must have completed the Emergency First Response Primary Care (CPR) Secondary Care (First Aid) and Care for Children course within the past 24 months. Internships for participant and instructor level course are available.

 

Required Materials

 

Emergency First Response Primary and Secondary Care Instructor Guide

Emergency First Response Care for Children Instructor Guide

Emergency First Response Course Knowledge Reviews

Emergency First Response Participant Manual

Emergency First Response Care for Children Participant Manual

Emergency First Response Video

Emergency First Response Care for Children Video

Special Offer and Conditions

A limited time special offer for participant and instructor level is available for USD 299,99 (plus required materials). For certified EFR responders, a limited time offer is available for the instructor rating at USD 199,99 (plus required materials). Offer ends on January 30,2010. Special conditions apply.

For more details and additional information please contact

First Costal and Marine Biodiversity symposium for Latin America and the Caribbean

The First Costal and Marine Biodiversity symposium for Latin America and the Caribbean starts today.

A Costal and Marine Biodiversity symposium for Latin America and the Caribbean is being organized in Manta - Ecuador by Conservation International, LEAM, Manabí Technical University, Guayaquil University, the National Institute for Fisheries, Foundation Futuro Latinoamericano, FEMM and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment; this symposium is the first dedicated to Latin America as a region and is the second in Ecuador and comes to life on December 9-12 as one of the activities of the International Year for Biodiversity (2010).

Several courses will be delivered in a variety of subjects; from identification of seabirds to management of marine reserves. A group of lectures will include talks on climate phenomena, marine species, pollution, conservation, research among others. A couple of presentations on Research and Biodiversity in the Galapagos Islands will be presented by speakers of the National Park and The Charles Darwin Research Station. 

Biologist, Technical Diver and PADI Divemaster Ronald Zambrano will report for this blog from the symposium. Stay tuned for more in the next few days.

Will you "Shiver" too?

My friend Mark Harding from eyemocean recommended this shark conservation film by Dave Charley and Chris Scarffe. According to Mark, this film is what he "have always wanted to see in a shark conservation film, and leaves the disappointment of Sharkwater a long way behind."

So I went and watch it. I have to say I agree with Mark. This is a great production that embraces the problem from a local community perspective, which is the small scale of the shark fining problem and the place where we need to address it at first. I recommend you watch it and reach a personal conclussion.

Shiver: shark finning in Mozambique from aaron gekoski on Vimeo.

Jill Heinerth and Wes Skiles Ice Caves documentary

I'm posting from my mobile phone. Not my favourite input method, that is for sure. I do this because tomorrow I will forget and I think is worth to post a note for this.

I'm watching The History Channel and just found out that Jill and Wes's documentary on Ice Caves will be broadcasted by THC on Sunday Dec 6 at 11pm (Bogota, Lima, Quito time).

I went to Jill's conference on Godzila at EuroTek 2010 and will "make an appointment" to watch it. If you are interested in cave diving, underwater exploration, amazing expeditions and adventure I recommend you watch it too.

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Tech Diving Mag

A new magazine dedicated to Technical Diving has been launched. According to Asser Salama, Editor, it will be available free and "covering a whole raft of subjects for technical divers, but will not try to please everyone and satisfy nobody." The motto is “Research - Development - Exploration. Tech Diving Mag will be published every three months. Contributions, inquiries and feedback accepted by the editor.

You can download the first issue for free at: www.techdivingmag.com. I did download the first issue, it is about 18MB. I have not read it yet so I cannot comment on the quality of contents. Titles and contents seem interesting and a lot of graphic development is needed. In any case, I'm posting this here because I think we technical divers need more media and exposure.  

DEMA 2010.- Rebreatherwise

I have been following the rebreather presence in DEMA in the last three or four years. Rebreatherwise the show was interesting: 

As I reported before, VR technologies had a new hybrid “Rebreather X” that has innovated from the design up. According to Kevin Gurr the new unit will be ready for the time when PADI launched their rebreather courses. 

Actually PADI gave some information on their upcoming CCR courses. Another good thing is that the discussion on “Rec-CCRs” is already heating up among the hardcore rebreather divers of the world. According to Mark Carney, Director of Rebreather Technologies in PADI, there are three main components needed for this market to take off. One is training (and they are working on that). Probably the biggest piece of news in rebreather training is just that: PADI CCR courses. The other component is technology, which is getting there and developing almost “on demand According to Carnety, usually the component that develops last is travel availability; in which we are working on ;)

Drager had a booth with their “classic” units and AquaLung showed military PSCR's and O2 rebreathers. The interesting thing here is that (rebreatherwise) they were not selling anything in particular. My personal impression was that this major “opinion leading group” in the recreational equipment and rebreather entrepreneurship arena was just saying: Hi, I’m here!!. 

Most of the usual manufacturers were there. Poseidon's only product on display seemed to be the MKVI. The Nautilus eCCR was present and APD had their new CO2 sensor on display. Inner Space Systems booth was always packed with people and KISS had their KISS line and the new GEM on display.

In my opinion all this would look way cooler if all of them were in one tech – ccr pavilion along with other manufacturers making dive computers, scooters, technical diving equipment, etc. Maybe a booth for the new RESA could also be a nice thing to have. 

Next year will be big rebreatherwise. I’ll do my best to be around.