posted by Lars Kirchhoff on 05/29/2007
Curacao Dive Festival 2007 Live Webcast
Diving
We've been hooked on the wracks at Curacao on wednesday. The numerous wracks caught our
attention, which meant that we needed to dive more and were willing to sacrifice another
day for that.
So we started with the Superior Producer in the morning. This wreck is just round the corner from Ortrobanda and can easily be reached from the beach. It lies at approx. 30m depth on sandy bottom just near a sloppy drop off full with corals and fish. We had a bit bad luck with the weather. Actually we indented to make some filter shots of the wreck, although its almost too deep. But as it was almost all the time cloudy and a bit rough sea we had not enough light down at the wrack. The rough sea also made it a bit difficult to get into the water. The wreck itself is in a good condition and sponges and corals grow all over the place making it a good it photogenic
. We only had the chance to dive the wreck from the outside. I barely got
around it and taking photographs before my air pressure gauge told me to go up. So that leaves
a another dive within the wreck for the next visit of Curacao.
We just got out of the water, but immediately jumped into the car to get new tanks, because
another wreck was waiting on us this day. To dive this plane wreck we needed to
drive to the very west end of the island again to Westpunt. There we dived with Ocean Encounters.
With a small boat from them and a funny and entertaining "Rastaman", who always had a
joke on his ####, as our captain we went even further west, where the wreck was lying.
The plane is lying at approx. 15m within a beautiful reef. It's almost a pity that the
plane crashed in this gourgoues reef and destroyed some of it. It's only the body
of the plane that is lying on the sandy bottom as the wings have been already unmounted,
but nevertheless it's a must do on a Curacao dive vacation I would say. Not only the wrack,
but also the reef scenery. As it is a shallow dive it is easy to dive for beginners and
for sure a highlight for them. The regular dive starts with the plane and then goes
over to a drift dive, but we spend most of the time at the wreck and the close by area.
On the boat again the captain took us on a little round trip along the west coast of Curacao around Westpunt. After that we've been in a hurry, because we needed to get to the final ceremony of the Dive Festival, which was about to be held in the Habitat Dive Resort, in time and we were already a bit late.
Ceremony
For the evening a cocktail reception, the award ceremony for the speakers and a small program
was planned. After a somewhat racy drive from Westpunt to the Habitat Dive Resort we arrived
the Habitat Dive Resort a little late. But it wasn't that bad as we noticed that the ceremony
hasn't started yet, because there was a little confusion about the starting time as different
times were printed in the programs. Nevertheless the atmosphere was relaxed at the cocktailbar
and chatted about the last week.
The official part was then opened by Mr. Stacie-Mambi, who summarized the last week and who thanked both the speakers as well as the organisation team for a successfull dive festival. Followed was the program with a group of typcial Curacao dancers, who fascinated the audience with some caribbean dances in the sunset.
All speakers of the Curacao Dive Festival as well as the "Sharkwater" team were awarded for their
presentations. The team from the "Sharkwater" received a special award from a local school,
as they presented the film there, too. After all these awards and speaks it was time to get some
snacks and to get into lively discussions about underwater photography.
The organisation team of course hopes to welcome back all participants next year. There is already a new date for the next Curacao Dive Festival. It will be held next year between 25th of may and the 1st of june. I think we will be there next year as well, because Curacao has a lot of dive and photographic opportunities we didn't get to see this time and of course it is always fun to meet other underwater photographers, which you don't get to see a lot of times. The next years Curacao Dive Festival will ferature a dedicated underwater photo contest.
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