I left the warm summer weather of Sweden midday and arrived to the cool summer night of Malta (about 30 degrees) around midnight. The shock was quite substantial.

I’m in Malta to visit Divewise/Techwise a Padi Career Development Center as well as a technical dive center. The waters around Malta are clear and filled with wrecks which makes for some very scenic dives that attracts a lot of people. At this time of the year the surface layer is about 28 degrees and gradually drops down to about 18 degrees at 40 meters. When I arrived at the dive center I did not have to be asked twice to go in the water to do a checkdive, something they do with everybody that arrives regardless of experience level. Seeing that Divewise is located right by the sea with access to a piece of shore that’s closed off for boat traffic which makes it ideal for training, DSDs etc. The house reef is literally just a minute’s walk away. The RIB used for accessing other dive sites in the area is also parked right outside and is steered by a charismatic captain who might act a bit tough in the beginning but really is a nice guy.To reach even further around the island and up to Gozo the center has several trucks to take customers and their gear.

Divewise have strained to reach the pinnacle in dive training both on the recreational and technical side. Being a CDC center goes towards this and they regularly train people all the way from open water course up to instructor level. In fact almost all of the staff has also been trained by Alan or Neville, the two owners and course directors.

I was warmly welcomed to this island by the staff and spent a week working side by side with them. I tried to participate in the daily routines as much as possible to see how they do things. Divewise is one of the busier divecenters on the island and can have over sixty divers turning up in the morning for all sorts of different things, from discover scuba dives to full trimix courses and the staff has to be there to sort out who´s doing what and see that everyone gets the right equipment. I can admit I was a bit confused at first but the staff seemed to have things under control. Being able to go behind the scenes like this is a great opportunity to see how and if a center really works. At Divewise like at every other dive center there will be unforeseen events and last minute stuff that turn up, but the difference is in how you handle them and give the customers a good and safe experience. From what I saw Divewise handled all this very efficiently and everyone jumped in to help if needed. I was pleased to see a platinum course director like Alan still getting in the water teaching intro courses.

During this first week I also had the chance to go with Neville on a special mission to find the elusive seahorses around the island. Neville has a talent for finding these beautiful little fishes and has created his own distinctive specialty, PADI Seahorse Active Diver, which he agreed to take me on. We where three people who spent two long dives scanning the bottom for the seahorses but unfortunately without luck. In all fairness the conditions this day was quite choppy so they might have moved from their usual territories. Anyway this was a great way to stop and look for the small things, a dive can be great even if its spent in a few square meters exploring the small things even in a place like Malta that is more famous for the big wrecks.

I still have more things to do in Malta but I wanted to give you a first update on what I am doing so stay tuned!