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Unforgettable aquatic adventures for kids – Go underwater and discover the wonder of Snorkel, Scuba, Mermaid, and Freediving Explorer programs
The SSI Classified Diving program has been created to enable persons with disabilities who might not be able to earn full certifications the ability to dive and get certified with different safety parameters. Learn to work with disabled divers.
Scuba diving is one of the best activities that a person with a disability can take part in, with a number of boundaries are immediately broken down. There are very few disabilities that actually prevent you from taking part in diving and in the past our PADI Course Director Mark Slingo has taken paraplegics, quadraplegics, people with muscular dystrophy, amputees, Downs syndrome and other disabilities scuba diving.
Mark is himself a wheelchair user following an accident in 2005 when he was a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor having just graduated from Newcastle University. He didn’t let being a paraplegic stop him and rose through the PADI teaching levels, teaching hundreds of students and eventually becoming a PADI Course Director meaning that he can train other divers to become PADI dive instructors. Mark has now made it one of his missions in life to help as many people in his position get into scuba diving and see the wonders that it can offer people. He points out that in the water he is the same if not better than able-bodied people and wants to train as many instructors as possible to work with disabled divers so that they have more options and places to dive around the world.
It is not just Mark saying this now. Scuba diving has been recognised as a valid rehabilitation sport for people following an injury and has been adopted for recovering US military veterans through the Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba (SUDS) and other diving for the disabled programs such as Deptharapy in the UK.
Contact Buccaneer Diving for your diving for the disabled experience or if you are a diving instructor wanting to learn to work with disabled divers then check out our Disabled Divers International Instructor course training program which is run with Mark.
The MV Dania is a ship wreck located off the coast of Kenya which was sunk deliberately by Buccaneer Diving in 2002 to form an artificial reef and wreck dive site. 10 years on and it is still the best wreck dive site in the area.
The vessel MV Dania, started its career as the MV Rodriguez and was built and launched in Hatlow, Norway in 1965 and registered to the Honduran port of San Lorenzo in Central America. She was used in Central America until the mid-1980s when she was moved to ply the Gulf and East African trade routes. She was renamed in 1993 and converted into a carrier for livestock to move cattle between the Southern African countries of Mozambique and South Africa and the island of Mauritius.
The MV Dania was decommissioned in 2001 and due to be taken to India. Buccaneer Diving proposed that the vessel be sunk as an artificial reef. The ship was then put into a private berth in Mombasa, Kenya in June 2002, where it was subjected to stripping, cutting sealing and cleaning to prepare it for sinking, free of contaminants and diver friendly. Once preparations were completed they were inspected and approved by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) biologists so that the sinking could go ahead.
On Sunday 25th October 2002 the ship was towed to the designated site, which was located 1.5 km off Bamburi Beach, positioned outside the natural reef. Once in position the Dania was scuppered and slipped beneath the waves at 13:05. The ship landed in a straight-up position and was fitted with marker bouys and moorings for boats to attach to rather than anchoring. In addition an “isolate danger buoy” was positioned over the centre of the vessel and cautionary buoys mark the fore and aft of the reef.
Watch the video of the sinking below and contact us to arrange your dive on the Dania when you come to Kenya.
So you have graduated from school or university and are looking to take a year out before moving on to the next stage of your life. Well then why not come and experience the wonders that East Africa has to offer and get a worthwhile qualification and experience out of it.Think about a GAP year in Kenya.
Gap years have changed over the past few years with regard to the prospects that they can offer people in terms of life experiences. To benefit your future prospects, it is no longer acceptable to just go and have fun travelling around. Colleges and employers like to see that you have used your time in another country and culture effectively. Well we looked at this and decided that there is no reason that you cannot do something worthwhile and have an awesome experience at the same time.
Dive Pro Africa @ Buccaneer Diving offer a variety of internship packages and adventure experiences with our partners at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy area near Nanyuki and 3 Degrees South sailing school in Kilifi. All of these projects involve interaction the local community and involvement in marine conservation, assisting with tourism program’s or wildlife management conservation in Kenya.
All of our program’s are based around a core scuba diving program, many of which allow you to go to the professional levels of PADI Divemaster or diving instructor. Many PADI courses can be counted towards college credit in certain countries and professional qualifications such as minor teaching qualifications.
The courses are based out of the Buccaneer Diving dive bases in Kenya and Zanzibar, Tanzania unless you are involved in the wildlife management program, in which case a period of your internship will be spent on Ol Pejeta Consevancy working with the African wildlife there including rhinos and chimpanzees.
The diving in East Africa is superb with a number of national marine park sanctuaries. There is a massive array of marine life which includes the giant whale sharks at certain times of the year. Buccaneer Doving also sank a former cargo ship the MV Dania to create Kenya’s first wreck dive in 2003, Wah now after 10 years underwater is a rolling wreck dive and artificial reef.
The other wonders in Kenya and Tanzania are also a great reason to base yourself here for your GAP year. To name a couple there are the numerous wildlife havens such as the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Masai Mara and Aberdare national parks, adventure sports activities such as white water rafting, mountain biking, and mountaineering to the walkable peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, and of course interaction with the local people. There really is too much to do to list it all here.
So what are you waiting for? Do something awesome and worthwhile with your year out and check it our internship packages for the adventure of a lifetime in Africa.
Ocean Tribe Dive Team
I will be back soon
