Our newest PADI Open Water Divers

Congratulations to our eight newest PADI Open Water divers!

They had an awesome dive course with two dives out at the Muiron Islands and two dives in Lighthouse Bay - all four dives were filled with so many different sea creatures there wasn't enough room in the log books to record them all!

One of our students has fallen so in love with diving with us here on the Ningaloo Reef that she's committed to several months of diving every day and training hard to achieve her PADI Dive Master certification - way to go, Constance!!

Thanks to Andreas for sending us this great group shot of Exmouth Diving Centre's newest PADI Open Water Divers - we hope you all get to dive again very soon!

NEWS: PADI Member Update 28 March 2011

Attention all PADI Dive Masters & Instructors on the Ningaloo Reef!

The 2011 PADI Member Update is happening next Monday - 28 March at the Novotel Ningaloo!

6.30pm for drinks & chatting before the Update begins.

This year the format is slightly different as we will have a drink & canapes before the one hour update and then another drink afterwards - so now there are two great reasons to attend: getting all the gos' about the new PADI stuff you need to know and having a free drink with some great people!

David Oliver has asked if you can please let him know if you will be attending so he can organize catering. You can contact him directly or drop us a note with ATTENDING PADI MEMBER UPDATE in the memo line - EMAIL US HERE.

NEWS: The rough patch is behind us

Exmouth finally got off Red Alert at around 7 a.m. this morning - yay!!

There seems to have only been a little damage here or there around town and we are all thankful for that. Cleanups are going strong and business is back to normal.

And speaking of back to normal - we have email and our computer system up and running again!! Double YAY!

We expect to be working late tonight to try to catch up on everything, so please be patient a while longer. We foresee having all emails answered and bookings confirmed by the close of business on Friday. If you have not heard from us by 5 p.m. Friday, Western Australia time, please email us again - we don't think we lost any data, but we aren't 100% sure and don't want to miss anyone.

NEWS: Cyclone Carlos on top of Exmouth

The 9 a.m. BOM map shows Tropical Cyclone Carlos right over Exmouth.

It's pouring rain but right at the moment the wind is relatively light - the rain is finally coming straight down instead of sideways! Looks like it's going to be a long, gray, yucky day.

NEWS: Cyclone Carlos still with us

Exmouth remains on red alert this morning as Category 2 Cyclone Carlos comes over the top of us.

So far it's been windy, torrentially rainy & noisy all night, preventing any kind of real sleep! But we don't seem to have excessive damage as yet, though there are stronger winds predicted for this morning - along with more rain.

Pretty much all the roads in the area are closed thanks to this system so please make sure you check Main Roads before traveling.
Burkett Road Gascoyne ALL CLOSED
Coral Bay Road Gascoyne ALL CLOSED
Karratha Road Pilbara ALL CLOSED
Minilya-Exmouth Road Gascoyne ALL CLOSED
North West Coastal Highway Gascoyne Carnarvon to Karratha CLOSED
North West Coastal Highway Gascoyne/Pilbara Carnarvon to Great Northern Highway turn-off CLOSED
Warlu Road (Karratha-Tom Price Rd) Pilbara ALL CLOSED

NEWS: Cyclone Carlos - Exmouth on Red Alert

Tropical Cyclone Carlos has moved back up to a Category 2 and Exmouth has just gone onto red alert.


The police have just started with the sirens and announcements. Everyone should be taking shelter until the all clear is given.

Right now, we only have a moderate breeze and a few showers coming through but overnight that is expected to intensify.

Stay safe all those in the path!

NEWS: Computer hiccups

Attention Everyone Waiting for Emails:

As we started answering emails and sending out confirmations this morning, our hard drive went kablooey!

We are working hard to try to recover the data and to get a second system up and running so we can get back to giving you fantastic customer service.

Please be patient as so far today we have been unable to recover the data and will continue working on it tomorrow. So if we told you that we would have something to you today or tomorrow morning, that will be pushed back by about 24 hours at this stage.

You can contact us via phone on 08 9949 1201 between 0800 - 1700 daily if you need assistance more urgently and can't wait!

We'll keep you up-to-date with our progress - fingers crossed we can get things in order fast and with no loss of information!

NEWS: Cyclone Carlos - Exmouth on Blue Alert

Cyclone Carlos has reformed and the current BOM track has it heading directly over Exmouth. We are on Blue Alert and expect to go to Yellow by tomorrow morning and Red during Tuesday sometime.

It is currently predicted to be a category 2 when it reaches us and we are all hoping for no serious damage!

If you are thinking about traveling up this way in the next day or so, please don't! If you're out on the roads already, make sure you are checking the latest road conditions at Main Roads. There's bound to be more road closures due to heavy rainfall so please be careful.

The dive centre will be closed once we are on yellow alert and we expect to be closed at least for Wednesday, as well. You can still contact us by phone 08 9949 1201 from 0800 - 1700 daily.

NEWS: No diving for the rest of February 2011

Well, the weather here in Exmouth has been exceptionally strange for the last few weeks! We haven't ever seen a February with so much wind, so much rain, so many cyclones and storms and such dirty, dirty water.

The forecast for the next week isn't that crash hot either, so we have decided to do all the maintenance on the boats and other bits and bobs that we usually spread out over a bit of time all in one fell swoop since we can't get out diving anyway.

This means we will not be offering any dive courses or dive tours for the rest of the month of February.

We expect to be running tours and courses again - weather permitting, of course - on 1st March.

The dive centre itself is open for all of your hire gear and purchasing needs. Please see our big white board outside the shop for daily hours.

Our email and phones are business as usual and we are busily taking bookings for all of our diving & courses and the fabulous 2011 Whale Shark Season which will be starting in a short few weeks! There's still time to hop on our tours so drop us a line or give us a ring on 08 9949 1201.

We look forward to seeing you all soon!

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES - PADI DMs & INSTRUCTORS

We are currently accepting applications for more crew for our upcoming Whale Shark Season!

We are looking for fabulous PADI Dive Masters and Instructors to join our team. You will dive our great sites, swim with whale sharks, play with manta rays and work with some excellent people.

You need to email us so we can send out all the details on how to apply.

We will accept applications only until this Wednesday so don't wait too long!

NEWS: Qantas starts flights to Exmouth - from $99!!

Finally there is going to be some competition and you are no longer restricted to Skywest for your flights!

Qantas has officially opened bookings for Perth to Learmonth (the Ningaloo Reef's airport, located about 45kms south of Exmouth and just over 100kms north of Coral Bay)!

They currently have an introductory price on ONE WAY travel for these dates:
30/03 - 20/04 2011
and
10/05 - 07/07 2011
There are flights three times a week Wed, Fri & Sun.

This sale is only on from 02 - 09 February 2011 so don't miss it!!

These are perfect dates to visit to catch the mighty whale sharks this season. Email us now to organize all of your Whale Shark Adventures, snorkeling and scuba diving tours.

NEWS: No damage from Cyclone Biance

Thankfully Tropical Cyclone Bianca turned out to be a dud.

We had a couple of squalls and some moderately high winds but very little damage. We are very thankful that she didn't turn into anything nasty!

She did stir things up pretty good and the water is dirty, but hopefully a few days of calm will help settle things down and we can resume diving and enjoying our underwater time again soon.

NEWS: Cyclone Bianca - Exmouth now on RED ALERT

Exmouth is now on RED ALERT for Cyclone Bianca and everyone has been advised to take shelter immediately.

As I write this the wind is picking up a bit, but it's still relatively OK outside. We are expecting stronger winds, a big storm surge and rain as the afternoon and evening progress.


Updates are available on the BOM site.

NEWS: Cyclone Bianca - Exmouth on yellow alert

Exmouth is currently on yellow alert thanks to Cyclone Bianca skimming the coast just north of us.

We are not expecting any serious damage or threat from this storm at this stage, though as with all cyclones, that could change and we will be keeping an eye on things!

We will definitely not be diving Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Depending on what happens with Cyclone Bianca over the next 24-48 hours we may be able to head out on Sunday and we will try to keep the blog and our Facebook up-to-date.

You can check the latest weather updates and cyclone track at the BOM site.

NEWS: North West Coastal Highway is open again!

Yay! The road is open again to all traffic, but you still need to use caution and respect the road signs. Keep up to date with any changes by clicking over to the Main Roads website!

NEWS: North West Coastal Highway temporary closures again

The North West Coastal Highway will be CLOSED to ALL TRAFFIC from 6pm tonight (Wednesday 5 January 2011) from Maniliya to the Shark Bay turnoff. At this time they are predicting the road to be closed for the next 48 hours.

Please check the main roads website for more updates before you travel!

NEWS: Roads are due to be open today!

THE ROAD SHOULD OPEN THIS MORNING - Main Roads have said they expect to open the North West Coastal Highway to all traffic during daylight hours from 9am this morning. Go to mainroads.wa.gov.au or ph 138138 for confirmation after 9am.

Congratulations to our newest PADI divers!

It's a very Merry Christmas for our last PADI Open Water students of 2010 as they finished their course this beautiful Christmas Eve day with two awesome dives in Lighthouse Bay!

Some of these new divers are heading out with us on Boxing Day to the Muiron Islands and we look forward to taking them out for their first dives as certified divers!

Congratulations and we hope you all spend lots of time underwater in 2011 (and return to check out the whale sharks)!

NEWS: Email will be unattended for a few days

We just want to let you know that our email addresses will be unattended for a few days starting Saturday 28 August 2010 Western Australia time. This includes all internet enquiry forms, too. We hope to resume answering your email & online enquiries and confirming your email bookings starting up again on Thursday 02 September 2010 Western Australia time.

We do expect to answer all incoming emails before our brief break if they are received before midnight Friday.

As always, if you need service more promptly, please ring us on +61 08 9949 1201 between 0800-1700 WA time or shoot us a fax on +61 08 9949 1680 anytime and we will help you during our email downtime.

Thanks for your patience and we look forward to helping you create the perfect Ningaloo Reef holiday!

NEWS: Change of systems is complete!

Thank you for your patience this week as we swapped computer systems for dealing with our emails.

We are now completely caught up so please check your inbox!

If you have not heard from us, please resend your email as it does not appear we have received it.