1. Marine Conservation and Build a Biorock
Take between 3 to 10 weeks out building an artificial reef on Gili Trawangan. Out here we also include training from Open Water to Divemaster so that you can develop your diving skills at the same time.

2. Become a Divemaster or Dive Instructor
Acquire professional skills that you can you use for the rest of your life and around the world. Trips range from 3 weeks to nearly 7 months and we have a 100% success rate to date. Trips operate throughout the year in the Red Sea. Our flagship Divemaster Traineeship remains very popular and our Instructor traineeships continues to exceed expectations.

3. A remote experience
Join our UNESCO conservation project in Fiji for 6 or 10 weeks. Live in grass bures on the beach, experience an authentic Fijian welcome ceremony, escape to an idyllic island and experience some incredible diving.

4. Whale Sharks in Utila
Dive with whale sharks between April and June. Learn to dive or become a Divemaster in Utila and experience diving with whale sharks during this period.

5. Learn to dive in the Red Sea
Experience something new and get diving on your gap year. A short 5 hour flight and you can be diving in the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea. Trips can be tailored to suit your time frame and budget.

6. Explore and Dive in South America
Spend 11 weeks learning Spanish, exploring and diving in Mochima National Park in Venezuela. Excellent fun with loads of adventures!

From November 2012, all customers travelling with us to Dahab will be staying at a new location. It's farewell to the 'gappie house' and welcome to the 'Seahorse Hotel'.

The resort is ideal for our customers. It's in a more central location with 24 hour security. The hotel has a really nice courtyard for socialising and the rooms are serviced daily. We are also hoping to take a year-round commitment on the rooms with catering facilities, thus allowing customers to eat-in as well as eat-out.

Call 0845 257 3292 for more information.

1. A shift to tailor-made trips: Most trips can now be tailored to your dive level and requirements. This provides greater choice and flexibility in terms of start date, trip duration and cost.

2. Social Media: We have integrated more social media into the site. It is now much easier to share pages with friends and we have also integrated a forum /discussion board so that customers can post questions and interact with other customers / GYD alumni.

3. Course categories: Afterr much discussion with customers we have moved back to categorising trips by 'diving type'. This filtering system should enable customers to find trips more easily. 

4. Pricing: We now offer guideline prices for all trips. All you need to do is request a quotation and we will e-mail you a full quote based on your requirements.

5. Suborbis Travel integration: Gap Year Diver is now part of Suborbis Travel Limited. Moving forward this will enable the gap year brand to develop further and allow us to offer a wider range of trips with multiple add-ons and benefits to our customers.

6. TTA member: We are now members of the TTA to ensure that your holiday / gap year is fully protected.

7. RSS Feeds: stay up to date with the latest  news, offers and trip developments through our rss feeds. These can be accessed throughout the site and from your web browser. 

8. Layout and design: a new website wouldn't be the same without a few changes. We hope that you like the design and layout.

9. Mobile website: realising the need to access content on the go, we have updated and modified our mobile website to be even more user-friendly. Enjoy and feedback welcome.

10. Flights: You will see reference to flights throughout the website. We are applying for an ATOL licence and expect to be able to offer flight-inclusive holidays by November 2012.

So that's 10 pointers for you...all you now need to do is visit the website, find a trip, request a quote and get diving!!!

From November / December 2012 we will be changing the way we offer the Indonesia Biorock project.

Sian, a previous GYD customer, is scheduled to return to the Gili Islands to complete her Biorock Instructor course. Once she is fully qualified we hope to be able to run Biorock courses much more regularly. This will mean more flexibility in terms of when you can start as well as the duration of your trip.

What we are hoping to achieve is a more regular through flow of customers. Customers can then do the Biorock training and spend time maintaining the Biorocks.

Maybe two or three times a year we will also offer a Biorock construction project. What this will hopefully mean is that we can build much larger Biorocks (but only a few times a year) and get customers to maintain the Biorocks during other periods.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about this project as divers are urgently required to maintain the Biorocks.

For full information about the TTA please visit our holiday protection page or visit the TTA website at www.traveltrust.co.uk .

The forum requires you to have a Facebook account to post and join the discussions. All questions will be reviewed by a member of staff and we will be contributing to the discussion to answer questions and invite other members to comment.

This is a useful feature of our new website and we hope that you make full use of the facility.

Join the forum and discussion...

Top 10 new features of the site include:

1. Ability to search by diving category from the homepage
2. New galleries for each destination
3. New and improved content for each trip split into tabbed sections
4. Clear guideline prices and dates to the right on each programme page
5. Ability to request a quotation
6. New members' site with increased functionality
7. New mega menu making it easier to navigate the site
8. New RSS feeds for trips, news and offers
9. New mobile website so that you can view content on the move.
10. PADI course information for each programme.

Please don't hesitate to drop us an e-mail or call us on 0845 257 3292 if you would like to make a suggestion about the site functionality / look / feel / usage etc.

The mobile site is updated daily with fresh content and should enable you to read about our trips when you're  not in-front of your computer.

Enjoy!

When will it happen?
The change will happen sometime in October when we launch the new website.

What does this mean for you?
The changes will bring you choice! There will be plenty of choice in terms of trip duration, dive courses, start dates and most importantly price. We want to create a trip which is right for you!

Quotations in...online booking out...
As trips will be tailored to your exact requirements, our online booking facility has been removed. We want to talk to you about your diving needs and prepare a trip that is exactly right for you. You will have to submit an online quotation request and we will prepare an itinerary based on your exact requirements. If you like it and you wish to book, then you will have from 14 days to decide if it's right for you.

Get in touch...
We are now in a position to offer more flexibility and we would love to speak to prospective customers about their diving needs. Simply call the office on 0845 257 3292 and we'll happily discuss your options with you and prepare some quotes.

Do you love diving? Do you love it so much you want to teach others how to dive too? Are you fed-up at work and do you dream of quitting your job and starting a new life in some exotic location by the sea? Do you want to get paid to go diving and do something you love? Do you want lifetime skills you can use all over the world for employment?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above then a career as a scuba instructor could be for you and Gap Year Diver can provide the right training to make your dream a reality!

How do you become an Instructor?

You need to work your way through the PADI hierarchy of diving courses. From beginner, Open Water Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver, or whatever your current diving ability may be, you need to work your way towards Divemaster.

Divemaster is the pre-requisite professional qualification for Instructor training. From here you have to complete the PADIEFR and EFR Care for Children Instructor (EFRI) courses, PADI Assistant Instructor (AI) course, PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) course, the PADI Instructor Development (IDC) course and then the Instructor Exam (IE).

Other pre-requisites for qualifying as an Instructor include:

•Being over 18
•Having over 100 dives logged in your logbook
•Signed and completed PADI medical form by doctor
•All PADI materials and PIC cards from previous courses
•Having completed all courses from Open Water up to Instructor

Remember, if you need advice just call us on 0845 257 3292 and we’ll happily talk through the options with you.

What can you teach as scuba Instructor?

As a professional scuba Instructor you will be qualified to teach PADI dive courses. What courses you teach is determined by your Instructor rating but as a bare minimum you will be able to teach courses from ‘Discover Scuba’ up to ‘Divemaster’. If you wish to teach speciality or Instructor courses then you will need to complete further diver education programmes after you certify as an Open Water Scuba Instructor. The more you learn the more you can teach!

What opportunities will you have?

As a scuba Instructor you can create a career path that is as flexible or structured as you like. Some of the possibilities include:

•Travelling the world working as a Scuba Instructor on an exotic liveaboard boat, cruise ship or at a resort destination
•Becoming a full time employee or Manager of a dive centre
•The ability to take on part-time work
•The skills and knowledge to open your own dive shop or school
•Ability to continue and develop your diver education to the highest level – PADI Course Director
•Create your own line of work – choose what fits in with your lifestyle!

What can we offer you then?

Whatever your current dive level; we have Dive Management and Instructor Traineeships (DMIT’s) which operate in Dahab, Egypt. The DMIT’s are designed to train individuals to a very high professional standard (MSDT prep). We also include a range of custom-built modules to ensure you are fully prepared for professional responsibilities and get all the necessary training around a very busy dive centre. A core team teaching module ends the traineeship so you actually get real life experience teaching courses before setting out to teach on your own.
Our DMIT’s are very popular and we have a 100% success rate to date! Many previous customers have gone on to work out in Egypt and some are still there now doing what they love best!

*For more information about becoming an Instructor and changing your life forever, please visit the Dive Management and Instructor Traineeship page.*

There are thousands of dive sites in the Red Sea! Sites range from shallow reefs to stunning wall reefs and vertical drop-offs where you can sight big pelagics, barracuda and large fish. There are also lots of shipwrecks for underwater explorers including the infamous SS Thistlegorm – a WWII cargo ship carrying tanks, train locomotives and ammunition. Each dive area is guaranteed to impress and generate opportunities for divers to grasp their skills.

If you’re new to diving then a PADI Open Water course is where you start. This is a 4 day course that teaches you the fundamentals of scuba diving. There are five confined diving sessions which are then followed-up with 4 open water dives. After you have this qualification you can progress your diving knowledge further and start working your way towards specialist level coaching.

Our Red Sea Diver Essentials trip is a fast-track 14 day course. Included in the package are the PADI Open Water course and the PADI Advanced Open Water Course. Recreational fun dives are also included providing plenty of underwater explorations! But if that’s not enough to wet your taste buds, you can also add-on more dives and PADI courses to make your holiday to the Red Sea even more memorable and fulfilling.

If you’ve got the time our Ultimate – Red Sea Master Scuba Diver is a comprehensive learn to dive program spanning 6 weeks. Not everyone who is taking a quick break will have this amount of time to spare, but gap year students could certainly benefit from this programme. Education comprises everything from PADI Open Water to Master Scuba Diver and the focus is heavily on PADI speciality training and leisure diving. Expect over 50 dives in this package!

For those who are new to the sport and are terrified about the idea of diving, a 1 week Red Sea Experience package might be for you?! Over 1 week you get to complete the PADI Open Water course, experience what it’s like to breathe underwater and explore some of the Red Sea’s breath-taking reefs through 4 fun dives. It’s a great programme which introduces you to scuba diving and you’ll be qualified to dive to 18m worldwide!

All these learn-to-dive trips are designed for newbies as well as for those of you who want to advance their diving skills. The Red Sea delivers warm-water diving throughout the year and it also has excellent underwater visibility, impressive coral formations and stunning marine life. On top of that, the Red Sea is very close to Europe and other tourist destinations which makes it an affordable destination to travel to on your gap year.

Most divers pursue scuba diving for fun and leisure. There are many great places to explore around the world but deteriorating conditions in many areas are starting to destroy and harm these fragile ecosystems. Take into account waste disposal, sewage, el Nino, coral bleaching, illegal fishing, oil spills and even the dumping chemicals and you can begin to understand why reefs are getting damaged around the world.

We have a number of marine conservation projects that allow divers to make a difference. Our projects are fully comprehensive and ensure that volunteers learn how to protect marine life as well as record the reefs and ecosystems. We have projects in Belize, Fiji, The Bahamas, Mozambique, Indonesia and also in the Red Sea. Projects focus on reef studies, fish identification, Biorock structures, manta ray studies, whale shark tagging and much more. The trips can last for anything between 1 and 10 weeks.

Volunteers are always required on these conservation trips and you should check out our projects if you’d like to start making a difference.

We always advise our customers about vaccinations before travel but some of the time there are no vaccines to protect you. Dengue Fever is one such illness.

Dengue is an infectious disease caused by a virus. The virus is transmitted by a type of mosquito that bites during daylight hours. Dengue is the most common infection caused by viruses transmitted by mosquitoes and can cause severe flu-like symptoms, such as:

> a high temperature (fever) of 40C (104F) or over
> severe headache
> muscle and joint pain
> facial flushing and skin rash

Our second customer in less than two years has just spent five days in a hospital whilst being treated for Dengue Fever in Indonesia. It’s not nice and anybody travelling to warm climates where mosquitos are prevalent should take Deet and other prevantative measures to reduce the risk of being bitten my mosquitos.

We strongly recommend that any backpackers travelling to areas where Dengue is present read-up on the risks, symptoms etc before travelling. A good starting place is the NHS website – NHS.

The Dahab Bedouin Festival will be taking place this year from the 14th to 20th April 2012. The aim of this event is to put the local inhabitants (Bedouins) in the spotlight. The festival promotes activities offered by Bedouins such as desert excursions, rock climbing, Bedouin dinners, accommodation, transfers, jeep rides, camel riding and much more.

It’s a fun event and lasts for an entire week. Around the diving you can enjoy live Bedouin music, a camel race, shopping at the Bedouin market(selling Bedouin clothes, handicrafts, food and drinks etc), presentations about Bedouin history and culture, camel rides (available daily) and excursions in the desert and surrounding areas of Dahab.

If you would like to be out in Dahab during this festival, please have a look at our Dahab programmes and come on out for some diving and a unique cultural experience. More info about the event can be found on the Dahab Festival website (http://www.dahabfestival.info/). 

The Gili Island’s were the only South East Asian destination to feature in the ‘Top 10 Regions’ list, which was compiled by Lonely Planet’s staff, authors, and community of dedicated travellers and bloggers. The Gili’s, which came in at tenth place for 2011’s must-see regions were noted for their “irresistible…laid-back vibe overlaid with an anything-goes hedonistic energy”.

If you’d like to visit the Gili Islands, Gap Year Diver offers a fantastic conservation programme which incorporates PADI training with Biorock conservation. Full details about the programme can be found here or you can read more about Gili Trawangan at this page. 

We have changed our logo! A big step but one which we have been considering for some time.

The new logo represents the services we offer. The diver because we offer scuba diving trips. The wave, because we explore under the water. The fish and coral, because you get to see plenty of marine life on our programmes.

The old logo will not be present on any of our literature or promotional material from 2012 as we phase out the old and bring in the new!

Nothing else has changed regarding GYD. We are still the same company…we have just decided to give ourselves a ‘fresher’ look as the business continues to grow. 

The Biorock process was developed by Thomas Goreau and Wolf Hilbertz in the 1970’s. Electricity is used to promote the deposition of calcium carbonate, and to a lesser extent magnesium hydroxide, which build up on the surface of the cathode.

Hard corals quickly bond to this material and the process is thought to accelerate coral growth by up to four times. The resulting “reef” of hard coral soon attracts other inhabitants.

See full article (Epoch Times) or visit our Indonesia Biorock page to find out more and to join the programme. 

Congratulations to everyone on the April IDC! Our 100% success rate continues out in Dahab, Egypt. MSDT prep next followed by the team teach module.

If you would like to become a dive instructor, please check out or Dive Management and Instructor Traineeship in the Red Sea. 

If you are interested in this trip please visit the Indonesia Biorock Project page for more information (location under marine conservation in the diving section).

Gap Year Diver has partnered with a company called ‘Wesser’. Wesser offer the perfect job if you are about to embark on a trip of a lifetime. They offer you a way to make money, gain valuable skills, grow your confidence and pay for your trip with us in just a few weeks!

Working as a charity fundraiser promoting the St John Ambulance service (the UK’s leading first aid charity), you have the chance to do something worthwhile whilst earning money to fund your gap year! Accommodation is provided at the low cost of just £25 per week and you have the potential to earn in excess of £1,500 per month!! On top of these excellent earnings, for every £10 you raise for the charity, Wesser will contribute £1 towards the cost of your travel experience with us!!

Wesser are looking for outgoing, enthusiastic individuals who are passionate about the cause and the job would suit anyone who loves to chat to new people and tackle new challenges on a day to day basis.

Wesser ask for a minimum commitment of just 6 weeks. During this time it is realistic to earn over £2,000 and gain a further subsidy of £500+ through our ‘£1 for £10 raised’ incentive scheme.

This is a unique and fantastic opportunity if you’re looking for a way to raise finance for your trip. To find out more about the experience please call us on 0845 257 3292 or visit the dedicated Wesser website at www.thegapyearjob.co.uk.(http://www.thegapyearjob.co.uk) 

It was only last month that we ran a diving trip to Hurghada. Some of us stopped off in Cairo along the way and had the most amazing time visiting Tahrir Square, The Citadel, The Egyptian Museum, The Presidential Palace as well as The Sphinx and Pyramids at Giza. Aside from the traffic (which is always bad) and the weather (which was unusually cold), we had such an amazing time in Cairo and could not really understand what all the fuss is about. Sure there have been problems, but there were tourists around enjoying themselves and we really couldn’t see any signs of violence or troubles.

The reality is that Egypt has had its fair share of problems over the years even before the revolution started in January 2011. But the country is large and many of the troubles you see reported on TV take place in isolated areas of large cities. For example, Tahrir Square is just one area within downtown Cairo. It would probably take you about 1 hour by car to get there from the airport and from Red Sea resorts like Sharm el Sheikh or Dahab it’s over 600km away! So it's not exactly on your doorstep when customers dive with us!

We have been sending customers to Dahab and other Red Sea resorts since 2006 and we continue to send customers there to dive and enjoy the Red Sea. We have customers there now enjoying themselves, but we want to assure potential customers that their safety is our number one priority and we would not send customers to Dahab unless we knew it was safe.

The situation in Egypt is closely monitored and our partners within Egypt want nothing more than to make you happy and to ensure that you remain safe as well. We receive updates from the FCO about travel advice to Egypt and we are satisfied that Dahab and Sharm el Sheikh remain suitable for our customers to visit.

Should anyone have any questions about life and safety in Dahab we encourage them to either contact us or post a message on our Facebook page. We have customers in Dahab now who are on our Facebook page and would be in a position to provide impartial answers regarding safety in Dahab.

If you’re keen to go and are looking for a good value diving trip to the Red Sea then you should check out our trips. We have tailor-made learn to dive trips (1 to 6 weeks), a fantastic Divemaster Traineeship (6 to 10 weeks) as well as an Instructor Management Traineeship (7 to 15 weeks). Our professional courses include unlimited diving, work experience and bags of fun and we're also offering free PADI materials with all PADI speciality courses to Egypt this year.

Notes / Old News
Our resident Course Director posted a similar message regarding safety and re-assurance back in July 2011 if you're  looking for similar posts http://gapyeardiver.com/news/articles/egypt---no-problems-in-dahab-and-sinai/