Congrats to Della

Della has just won the Rolex Our World Underwater Scholarship. This prestigious award will mean that for a whole year Della will roam the world diving, doing courses, meeting people and generally making us all green with envy. She is also likely to come back far more qualified than all of us put together! A big well done from all of us.

Thanks for your support

If you emailed us with messages of support, thanks a lot, we really appreciate it. It also makes us really sad that we won't be seeing you at the dive centre this year, gonna miss it... Here are a few extracts from emails we received (mostly from Irish divers in case you take offence at some of the comments)

"I cant believe this. Contact the local TD and put this to them about the non profit project. This is just f typical Irish crap!!This is more than sad news.The media must hear of this!"

"go to your local td and tell him what those ***holes are doing you are doing them a service educating people about scubadiving and bringing in money and they wanna put you out of business its typical irish "

"As for you guys leaving..devastated, Can't imagine what I'll do if there is no diving this summer in Dingle."

"It's a shame.......I think the Dingle Marina Committee should be strung up."

"That is sad and annoying news, not just for you both but for all Irish and international divers who have enjoyed diving with you. Frankly, the often short-sighted nature of small-town Ireland makes me feel shamed for your shabby treatment."

"We are so sorry to hear the news that you are not in Dingle again this year. It seems you have had a raw deal there with the Harbour board. We wanted to let you know that you will be missed in Dingle and the surrounding area "

"Christ what a terrible outcome. Not surprising considering the greed that exists in Kerry. "

"Jacquie & Neal I am soooooooooo disappointed with this news ( I know its very selfish of me) I was looking forward to a few trips to dingle this year and taking in a few dives, some of the best diving I did last year was with you in dingle. "

Moving on...

Sadly it's time for us to move on from Dingle. When we first came to Ireland we were told that dive centres seem to change hands frequently, but it certainly wasn't our plan to leave so soon. After three successful years, we have been the victims of some rather dubious business practices and our landlords, the committee of Dingle Marina have reneged on the verbal rent agreement we had for the next three years and are insisting on another substantial increase. Given that the centre is a community, non-profit operation, we see this as a lack of vision and lot of short-term greed. We hope that someone else will take over the centre as the diving is so good it would be a tragedy for the diving community and the town not to have this facility. Thanks to everyone who visited us for your support and friendship and please keep in touch via email or on this blog, we hope to see you again, maybe in Dingle or somewhere further afield. Jacquie & Neal