Dear Diver,
If you’re new here, this is news for you.
If you’re a diver who’s been diving with us in the recent past, you may skip the next para.
DIVEIndia has changed. Changed hands at the management level, that is. Same brand. Same core. Same values. Just the engine behind it all is new. It’s a full-circle kinda meet-cute where a diver met a dive centre owner who eventually became his business ally, and you can read more on that here.
We’re here ‘coz we have updates. If you have 10-15 minutes to know ‘em, read along!
Location. Location. Location.
We’re in Havelock & Neil Islands – as SSI Diamond-rated Instructor Training Centres.
In Havelock, we operate India’s largest dive center – in terms of team & infrastructure strength. 3 boats (almost 4), 17 dive pros, 28 ground crew; and a whole lot of you, diving with us all year round.
Neil is where we operate our dive + stay facility, DIVEResort. 10 rooms, one restaurant at the heart of it all, one dive centre powered by 2 boats, 9 dive pros, 21 ground + resort crew; and 3 super-cute doggos – Kaalu, Powder & Smiley 🙂
(We recently lost our goodest, oldest boy, Max. Thanks to him, the other 3 are so well behaved!)
Oh! We missed mentioning the Havelock Doggo Gang! Led by the resident queen, Mother, there’s: Toofan, Jessie, Kalash & Leo, the (other) resident doberman goat, Siri & his newest girlfriend, Goby. Not to forget the guest appearances by the endless nameless ones.
We’re (still) the leading SSI center in India, introducing newly certified divers into the diving universe, but now we’re broadening our horizons to include different disciplines of diving.
What’s New Now?
Powered by the glorious 2 decades+ legacy that is DIVEIndia, our raison d’etre is still the same – to be a constant WIP project, that keeps evolving to introduce new things to the diving industry in India.
Whether it’s how we conduct our Open Water Diver courses, or how we go about training Divemasters; Whether it is Barren dive trips, or Sidemount diving; Freediving or diving on Closed Circuit Rebreathers; Extended Range diving or Exploration dives – every day, our constant effort is to keep up the name & legacy of DIVEIndia, while also carving out its new growth path.
In addition to the majestic Barren Island dive expeditions, we’re doing more exploration trips to continually be able to offer our oh-so-lovingly-returning fun divers something new & exciting to look forward to.
On that note, boat-based night dives (to close-by sites) have resumed – wait for it – in BOTH Havelock & Neil! Charge those torches and let’s f*&@#$^ go!
Needless to say, all this diving is now very well-equipped with dive gear from our parent company – Purple Octopus Ventures.
On the dry front, we’re doing our part too: regular revision rounds of React Right training for the boat crew & dive crew, more beach clean-ups, inter-tidal and jungle walks, and marine ecology courses for divers and curious souls alike. And wherever else marine conservation needs a hand – directly or indirectly – we try to show up.
We know a lot of you who’ve been witness to the early years miss the vibe of Island Vinnie’s. We do too. While the same setup cannot be brought back (thanks to the lesser-mortal limitations of long term leases and all that boring business stuff) we have:
We’d like you to feel a li’l bit spoilt-for-choice while deciding “Where should I dive this time? Havelock or Neil?” 😉
What Keeps Us Going?
But to get here, and keep pushing forward – it takes heartfelt hustle & running around behind the scenes. There are a whole lot of moving parts that enable this machinery to run smoothly.
While we’ve got a long way to go in becoming a Global Standard at all levels – slowly but surely, we’re taking the right steps in that direction. Taking the bumps & bruises & delays in our stride, converting them to learnings which get applied to make things even better!
For example, a dedicated, in-house Service Bench for each centre. A 5-member Reservations Team. A Retail Store at both locations for all your dive gear and dive trinkets alike! A fuel filtration system to keep those engines humming sweetly as our Captains steer our boats to your favourite dive sites. A wide range of gear to choose from – be it sizes, variety or taking things to the next level with XR, DPVs or a CCR. And these are just to list a few of the small & big changes that may or may not even be apparent. But these are the many building blocks that constantly chart our way forward.
It’s of course not all been rainbows & unicorns, and certainly nothing happened overnight. There’ve been a lot of learnings in these last 4 years, a lot of it was new for us as well. But we’ve got that Ocean spirit going for us. Being in constant flow is all we know.
Which brings us to the most important ingredient – feels a bit like breaking-the-4th-wall, but why not! – it’s the People – when enabled with the right set of tools & resources – that makes us who we are.
It’s super safe to assume and self-declare this – everyone who you will meet here at DIVEIndia is doing what they are, simply because either they love doing it, or have some innate skill that makes them great at what they do. At the end of the day, it’s about thoroughly enjoying the autonomy of choice, lifestyle, and definitely the location.
In conclusion…
We feel extremely grateful & privileged to be able to do what we do. And we’d like to continue doing this forever. One step at a time. One new thing at a time. Many improvements all the time.
Thank you for indulging us and reading our update here after we-don’t-even-wanna-mention-how-long. We promise to be more regular. And we hope to see you underwater sometime real soon! 🩵
Love & happy dives, always,
Team DIVEIndia
Dear Diver,
If you’re new here, this is news for you.
If you’re a diver who’s been diving with us in the recent past, you may skip the next para.
DIVEIndia has changed. Changed hands at the management level, that is. Same brand. Same core. Same values. Just the engine behind it all is new. It’s a full-circle kinda meet-cute where a diver met a dive centre owner who eventually became his business ally, and you can read more on that here.
We’re here ‘coz we have updates. If you have 10-15 minutes to know ‘em, read along!
Location. Location. Location.
We’re in Havelock & Neil Islands – as SSI Diamond-rated Instructor Training Centres.
In Havelock, we operate India’s largest dive center – in terms of team & infrastructure strength. 3 boats (almost 4), 17 dive pros, 28 ground crew; and a whole lot of you, diving with us all year round.
Neil is where we operate our dive + stay facility, DIVEResort. 10 rooms, one restaurant at the heart of it all, one dive centre powered by 2 boats, 9 dive pros, 21 ground + resort crew; and 3 super-cute doggos – Kaalu, Powder & Smiley 🙂
(We recently lost our goodest, oldest boy, Max. Thanks to him, the other 3 are so well behaved!)
Oh! We missed mentioning the Havelock Doggo Gang! Led by the resident queen, Mother, there’s: Toofan, Jessie, Kalash & Leo, the (other) resident doberman goat, Siri & his newest girlfriend, Goby. Not to forget the guest appearances by the endless nameless ones.
We’re (still) the leading SSI center in India, introducing newly certified divers into the diving universe, but now we’re broadening our horizons to include different disciplines of diving.
What’s New Now?
Powered by the glorious 2 decades+ legacy that is DIVEIndia, our raison d’etre is still the same – to be a constant WIP project, that keeps evolving to introduce new things to the diving industry in India.
Whether it’s how we conduct our Open Water Diver courses, or how we go about training Divemasters; Whether it is Barren dive trips, or Sidemount diving; Freediving or diving on Closed Circuit Rebreathers; Extended Range diving or Exploration dives – every day, our constant effort is to keep up the name & legacy of DIVEIndia, while also carving out its new growth path.
In addition to the majestic Barren Island dive expeditions, we’re doing more exploration trips to continually be able to offer our oh-so-lovingly-returning fun divers something new & exciting to look forward to.
On that note, boat-based night dives (to close-by sites) have resumed – wait for it – in BOTH Havelock & Neil! Charge those torches and let’s f*&@#$^ go!
Needless to say, all this diving is now very well-equipped with dive gear from our parent company – Purple Octopus Ventures.
On the dry front, we’re doing our part too: regular revision rounds of React Right training for the boat crew & dive crew, more beach clean-ups, inter-tidal and jungle walks, and marine ecology courses for divers and curious souls alike. And wherever else marine conservation needs a hand – directly or indirectly – we try to show up.
We know a lot of you who’ve been witness to the early years miss the vibe of Island Vinnie’s. We do too. While the same setup cannot be brought back (thanks to the lesser-mortal limitations of long term leases and all that boring business stuff) we have:
We’d like you to feel a li’l bit spoilt-for-choice while deciding “Where should I dive this time? Havelock or Neil?” 😉
What Keeps Us Going?
But to get here, and keep pushing forward – it takes heartfelt hustle & running around behind the scenes. There are a whole lot of moving parts that enable this machinery to run smoothly.
While we’ve got a long way to go in becoming a Global Standard at all levels – slowly but surely, we’re taking the right steps in that direction. Taking the bumps & bruises & delays in our stride, converting them to learnings which get applied to make things even better!
For example, a dedicated, in-house Service Bench for each centre. A 5-member Reservations Team. A Retail Store at both locations for all your dive gear and dive trinkets alike! A fuel filtration system to keep those engines humming sweetly as our Captains steer our boats to your favourite dive sites. A wide range of gear to choose from – be it sizes, variety or taking things to the next level with XR, DPVs or a CCR. And these are just to list a few of the small & big changes that may or may not even be apparent. But these are the many building blocks that constantly chart our way forward.
It’s of course not all been rainbows & unicorns, and certainly nothing happened overnight. There’ve been a lot of learnings in these last 4 years, a lot of it was new for us as well. But we’ve got that Ocean spirit going for us. Being in constant flow is all we know.
Which brings us to the most important ingredient – feels a bit like breaking-the-4th-wall, but why not! – it’s the People – when enabled with the right set of tools & resources – that makes us who we are.
It’s super safe to assume and self-declare this – everyone who you will meet here at DIVEIndia is doing what they are, simply because either they love doing it, or have some innate skill that makes them great at what they do. At the end of the day, it’s about thoroughly enjoying the autonomy of choice, lifestyle, and definitely the location.
In conclusion…
We feel extremely grateful & privileged to be able to do what we do. And we’d like to continue doing this forever. One step at a time. One new thing at a time. Many improvements all the time.
Thank you for indulging us and reading our update here after we-don’t-even-wanna-mention-how-long. We promise to be more regular. And we hope to see you underwater sometime real soon! 🩵
Love & happy dives, always,
Team DIVEIndia
