During my Autumn half term, I jumped on a plane and headed off to Malta for some sun and good vis on the dives.
I landed in torrential rain, following an hours delay in the air, but eventually I was down. In Malta my dad use’s Maltaqua for support and logistics as you cant beat the experience and helpfulness of the team led by Mike & Agnes Upton. Agnes met us at the airport and we had a lovely trip to our hotel, lots of chatting and catching up. Continue reading
Today was day 1 of my Advanced Open Water, in Malta. Great support from #Maltaqua and their instructor Cheri and my Dad #DiveServices. We’ve two others with us so its going very well. Three dives completed in 22 degrees – lovely. Dive 1 was a shake down, dive 2 was Buoyancy including my first swim through which was awesome and Dive 3 was my deep dive and the one where my mask crushed my face, thankfully back at 5mtr and I didn’t panic at all. New mask bought ready for tomorrow – Great stuff.
I told my dad that i wanted to go and swim with Sharks. I can imagine that every parent would have a momentary panic as I’m only 10yrs old! As such,dad decided to find a safe solution to answer my request. If I’m honest, I’m not a huge fan of sticking wild animals into aquariums, however am a huge fan of conservation. So dad got in touch with his mate Mike at Blackpool Sealife center.
Mike is an avid diver and head Aquarist (as Sealife call them) and in charge of the dive team there. They run Snorkel experiences with the Sharks and other fish in their huge indoor aquarium where they breed endangered species. As such, we headed up to Blackpool and spent a fantastic 90minutes with the Sharks, Rays, Groupers and other fishes admiring them and finding out all about them. I got into a net enclosure inside the huge aquarium with 20 sharks, ranging from black tip reef sharks, Bowmouth Sharks, Shovelnose Sharks, Guitar Sharks and a Bamboo shark.
Because I enjoyed this so much, next year we plan to head out to somewhere warmer and meet these amazing creatures in the wild where they live.I found it so amazing, that I’ve made this Vlog about it !!
Maybe one day I’ll end up a champion for sharks, who knows.
Joshua Lewis 