About Us
We are a PADI affiliated diving organization. Our Canadian diving guide, Curtis Nadj, is not only a PADI SCUBA instructor, but also an Emergency First Response First Aid Instructor (including Care for Children and Infants). In addition to being able to speak fluent Mandarin, English and some rusty Japanese, he has undertaken several diving specialties, he is a Nitrox instructor and he was one of the first students and instructors in the world to complete PADI’s newly developed Oxygen Administration Distinctive Specialty course. Because of his interest in technical diving, he is very interested in keeping his diving skills current, cutting edge, and in constant evolution. Curtis is a vegetarian who actively advocates and supports responsible ocean tourism, and is currently doing everything possible to ensure that our operation is environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible. Most recently, Curtis is getting involved in Oceanic Turtle and Shark Awareness, and Project AWARE’s Coral Monitoring projects. Put simply, Curtis loves to dive!!!

PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is the world’s largest and most popular recreational diving organization, with offices, branches, and dive centers located around the globe. As a PADI SCUBA and Emergency First Response First Aid instructor, Curtis is certified to teach all levels of recreational diving courses, and to certify Divemaster candidates (the first level of professional diving certification), as well as Primary and Secondary Care First Aid skills for infants, children, and adults (both for divers and non-divers alike).
In the near future, we will be offering a full range of PADI SCUBA courses on Green Island. For those interested, watch this space, or please feel free to contact us for details.

In addition we also sell scuba gear . Please visit : www.scubaeverything.com

How’s the diving in Green Island ?
(By Curtis Nadj)

In a word? FANTASTIC!!

For starters, the visibility starts at 20m. Add to that the incredible marine topography of this volcanic island, which gives you pits, valleys, walls, canyons, and mountains undersea. Into this beautiful mix place an incredible array of diver-friendly fish schools, snakes, eels, turtles, crabs, lobsters, shrimps and others and paint it all onto a backdrop that includes all the colors of the soft and hard coral rainbow. Let’s not forget that Green Island, due mainly to its unique conditions, is also a major spot on the annual hammerhead shark migration route between Japan and the Philippines. You will be challenged to find better diving.

As a destination, Green Island provides a beautiful escape from mainland Taiwan, and offers especially unique tourist attractions, like one of three saltwater hot springs in the entire world.

Due to the increase of tourism on the island, walkways have been constructed to improve access for many beach-entry dives, and in several sites there is ample space for pre-dive setup and post-dive takedown of gear. There is access to gear, equipment, and air fills for most recreational diving needs, and there is enriched air available as well. There are also boat-diving facilities and equipment available. The unique formation of Green Island means that divers have access to shallower (5m) dives, and right up to the edges of the recreational diving limits in the upper 30 m range.

But… there are a few other things people should know about diving in Green Island:

With regard to conveniences and amenities… On Green Island, Taiwanese and Mandarin are the languages of choice. English is rarely understood, and even more rarely spoken. Lucky for you, Green Island Diving has a bilingual Canadian guide to deal with issues of safety and any other concerns. There is a single gas station on Green Island, and though it is daily on of the busiest in the country, it closes around 5:30 in the afternoon, meaning you need to make sure you have enough fuel to last until morning. There are two major convenience stores on Green Island, and they are open late, but the casual traveler should not expect to find “evolved” tourist conveniences they may be accustomed to from other diving locations, like massage, entertainment, or specialty American coffee shops. In addition, the local Taiwanese business people are well aware of their stranglehold on tourism, and they are not easily bargained or haggled with. Sadly, some of them are also seemingly reluctant to accept ideas of ecotourism or other business practices that support environmental sustainability.

This beautiful location lies 33 km off the southeast coast of mainland Taiwan. That means that no matter how you reach TaiDong, there are only two ways to get to Green Island: a privatized ferry company, or a privatized aircraft company. In bad weather (such as a typhoon), which can happen regularly and unexpectedly between May and October, the ferries may be shut down without advanced notice. Flights may also be cancelled unexpectedly. If you are on the island already, it may mean rough entry conditions, or even the possibility that dives must be cancelled due to concerns for the safety of divers. If ferries or flights are cancelled, and if the weather is sufficiently predictable, you may be faced with the choice of early evacuation, or an extension of your stay. Sometimes… the choice is made for you. As well, seasickness is a relatively common experience on the ferries, not because the ride is especially rough, but because many people neglect to prepare for the possibility with medication (Fix this problem simply by taking it ahead of time: it won’t hurt you to have it in your system, though it might not to…).

As far as diving conditions go, in Green Island the beauty of undersea is balanced with the realities of nature: because of its position in the ocean, Green Island can experience strong and/or unpredictable currents throughout the day. Sometimes, the perfectly calm dive site you visited last time has a roaring current the next, or sometimes, you met with a current at the first corner of a wall dive yesterday, and today it’s shifted to corner 3. When the surf is up, shore entry can be challenging, though not impossible. When dealt with properly, and with a calm head, surf is easily negotiable, but dives have been aborted at Green Island sites because people have not asked pre-dive questions about preparation or have not felt confident in their ability to get through the surf zone.

Finally, a word or two about the hammerheads. These amazing, beautiful animals are a unique attraction on Green Island. They are also at the centre of several kinds of controversy. On one hand, there is the continued consumption of their fins by the Taiwanese in restaurants around the country. Even though it is technically illegal for Taiwanese to fish for and harvest shark fins, it is yet to be fully illegal to possess, market, sell, prepare, or consume shark fins within Taiwanese boundaries. Somehow, find are still available, and consumed here. On another front, they are increasingly important to the growth of the tourist industry here. People will come from far and wide to experience diving with these incredible predators. On yet another front, diving with predatory animals of this length, girth, strength, and obviously evolved advantage in the water presents challenges both to diving client and staff.

Let us first say that our hammerhead dives are not open to divers who have not got sufficient dive training or experience. Conditions at the site may include rough seas, significant depth, and a variety of undersea topography, flora, and fauna. Site conditions, combined with human factors (like air consumption at surface and depth, and the element of awe and surprise), and the presence of the sharks all add up to a need for greater practice, knowledge, skill, buoyancy control, awareness, and vigilance. Inexperienced or under-trained people simply don’t have those qualities in the required amounts, and aside from not gaining as much enjoyment from the experience, they may present a danger to themselves, the environment, the sharks, or other divers.

How do we define “sufficient dive training or experience?”

In addition to a recommendation that you hold basic Nitrox certification (or higher), divers coming from outside of Taiwan must be trained to the PADI Rescue Diver level (or equivalent) or higher, have current first aid training/certification, and have a minimum of 50 logged dives. While the certification is non-negotiable, we will waive the 50 dives requirement for those of sufficient training who have been on a diving excursion with us at least 3 times, without significant incident, and/or who have received Open Water, Advanced Open Water, or Rescue Diver training (or any combination of those) with us. All qualifications, dives, and in water behavior will be verified by our staff. We reserve the right to refuse anyone who does not meet our profile for responsibility, training/qualification, and behavior.

Next, despite sufficient experience and/or knowledge, due to safety concerns related to diving with large oceanic predators, and in a group of divers who may not know each other, protocols for interaction with the animals and environment will be in place and all participants will be briefed on these before entering the water. In truth, these protocols are as much about protection of the animals and environment from humans as it is about protecting humans from themselves. Let’s not forget that narcosis can become an issue at these depths, and that conditions are already special where the hammerheads are. We also reserve the right to cancel the remainder of your dives, at no refund, should you break with our protocols in any way. They are in place not only for your protection, but also for others and for the sharks themselves. As “evolved” beings, humans have a duty to take responsibility for themselves where instinct is expected to control the animals.

Finally, all of our potential hammerhead divers should know that a portion of your dive costs will be used to support hammerhead education and conservancy, and promotion of responsible, sustainable tourism in the Green Island area.NEW: Orchid Island packages and diving !!!!!

ail:
Click here: SCUBA Tours & prices (1 weekend of every month; 5 dives!)

Sun Moon Tours(New!)

Taichung City Tour ( new!).Day-trips to Sun Moon Lake, Puli, Lukang(historical old streets and shopping alleys), Sanyi(woodcarving village), Pakua Mountain, Bamboo forests in mountains, 3 day, 5 day and 7 day tours ;and much more....

Come and experience Taiwan with an English speaking foreign guide.Sun Moon Lake Tours depart from Taichung every Saturday; pick up at train station/bus station and High Speed Rail can be arranged(refreshments,drinks and discount dinner vouchers included).OR Make your own tour to suit your needs!

Click on picture below for more details and prices:

'Sun Moon Lake'.........

Click here for Taiwan High Speed Railway ( Bullet Train)info

Also check out our packages to Hualien and Teroko Gorge as well as Kinmen island.