I spent some of Winter 2011 on the beautiful Caribbean island of Utila, off the coast of mainland Honduras, gaining my IDC Staff Instructor certification and various specialty instructor certifications with the incredible folks at Utila Dive Centre (UDC).

Utila lies at the far southern end of the 1,000 kilometer MesoAmerican Reef, the Western Hemisphere's longest barrier reef that hosts a diverse array of fishes and reef formations linked together by complex oceanographic currents. Incredible underwater experiences were an everyday occurrence while training and diving with UDC (can you say "Whale Shark"??!!).

The training staff is unparalleled, both in their professionalism and sense of fun! I felt like I learned more at UDC in 3 months, than I have in 11 years of SCUBA diving!

If you’re going to Go Pro, go to UDC! You’ll have the time of your life and receive a top-notch diving education!!!

Lynn Richardson

PADI IDC Staff Instructor #234330

Hi Andy and the UDC team,

Now, a few days after leaving one of the most impressive places I have been so far, I realize what a great time I had on Utila , especially at the dive shop “Utila Dive Center”.

When I started to look for a place to do my divemaster beginning of the year, I was already surprised how serious and promptly Andy was responding to my emails and questions. That was one of the first impressions of how organised and thoughtful the dive shop is.

After I experienced a great time of 3 month at UDC, being well trained by professional instructors and sophisticated divers, I have to say this was a perfect choice!!! The dive shop is all around equipped, extremely organised and is dealing with custumers and staff people. And besides the dive business they create a great atmosphere, where you run into awesome people from all over the world and it feels like a big family.

And when such a magnificent time is turning to be over and your day of departure is getting closer, it is really hard to leave all those friends, the thrilling moments and experience behind you. For me one of the best things in the end was that UDC nominates me to the divemaster of the month!!! Which gives me the feeling I was more than welcome and I have done a good job, which I really appreciate.

Besides the life around the dive shop, the island of Utila has a lot of things to offer except sunshine, corals and tequila shots on a Tuesday night. One of the best things what happened to me was running into the local football player. Beginning with a few games at the practice field, I ended up playing within the island league in a stadium for one of the 6 teams. After a couple of month we were fighting for the play offs in front of an audience of 300 local people, who are enjoying this spectacular sport event. The players, the couch and the fans gave me big support and a feeling, that I am part of this island. As people say, “music and sport makes the world goes round”

For this fantastic time of my life, the impressions and lifetime lasting memories I want to say THANK YOU to UDC and all the people I met and giving me a fabulous time.
Well done!!! I hope to come back soon to enjoy life as much as I can again.

All the best, let the good times rule
Thomas

Hi Andy,

I didnt want to let too much time elapse before I got a note off to you regarding my experience at UDC as well as some extraneous rumblings I have heard regarding comments made about the methods or bedside manner of one or more of the instructors / course directors in relation to my experience on Utila as well as the experience of others in the group of Divemasters in Training I found myself part of during my time on Utila.

Obviously, with a limited time to complete the certifications; I may have had a bit different perspective on the experience, but overall I wanted to mention a few points of focus (the critical attributes of the course in fact) that I found to be helpful not only in making it a positive experience for myself but also for the other students as well as students or fun divers I may lead in the future.

First, it should be noted that I was fairly clear when I arrived on Utila as well as having an idea of the nature and volume of the course materials that I would need to cover. It helped to have a long dive history and lots of in water experience. But its important to stress that when I decided to do this; I was not buying a vacation.

The experience was intensive, fast, and furious. There was simply a very finite amount of time to cover a great deal of material and so it became clear that there wasnt going to be the opportunity to slough off a bit as if I had, say, until May on the island to complete the certifications. From the moment it started with Maya in the EFR and Rescue modules, on up until I was certified, I found the quality of the instruction and the instructors to be second to none. This is not a Ritz Carlton package with lots of bells and whistles; and if approached with the level of attention and seriousness it requires, its simply absurd to expect to be individually coddled. Rather, when there were things I did not understand; it was simply explained to me until it made sense. Whether somebody interrupted me or not, whether their bedside manner was gentle or abrupt; has absolutely no bearing on the necessity of the task at hand and I was never bothered by it, nor have I ever uttered a word of complaint about any perceived service issues during my stay on site. Rather, I found a very tight ship run by the instructors and Frank. As a whole, the atmosphere around UDC is very much geared towards the education, the fun diving, and beyond; in such a way as to encourage the most consistent and safest and most ecologically sound diving practices known in the industry. A shining example of this is the involvement in the Coral Watch program which I found particularly interesting and informative; another is the higher standard that UDC demands of its students. Every single instructor with no exception; even those who had no involvement in my personal instruction, were extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and above all; consistent. Not one ever told me to ask Frank or my own instructors; not one provided information contradictory to what I was being taught, and not one hesitated in the least to encourage me even when it was clear that I am not perfect and dont know everything. I was never snapped at, well maybe once or twice; but I can be pretty mouthy myself; I was never treated poorly, and never complained of being treated poorly. Frank in particular made himself available at the most ridiculous hours for clarification of stuff I was in immediate need of grasping regarding the aforementioned dreaded subjects of Physics and Math.
And you know what? The most amazing thing happened; at the age of almost 47, I managed to do ok in that group of young lunatics. They included me in independent study; we ate out together, we went diving together, they invited me to their parties and I am quite sure a few will remain lifelong friends and our paths will cross again. Additionally; its shocking how much of the information crammed into my feeble brain is still up there and how I see how very precisely it is practically applied in my knowledge of diving; its equipment and theory and its physics and physiology. My experience at UDC made me an infinitely safer, better qualified, and fun diver no doubt.

Robert Becker 11th Feb 2010
ProDive Travel New York
USA
Divemaster course