Please post this link about what DAN SEAP has been trying to do. Thanks.

http://www.danseap.org/Tsunami.html

The following dive shops are putting out collection bins:

• SDS WATERSPORTS - SHEFFIELD
• SUB AQUA DIVERS - ROTHERHAM
• SOUTH YORKSHIRE DIVE ACADEMY - ROTHERHAM

The following Dive Clubs are putting out request's for donations, dive gear and cloths/household items in news letters that will be sent out early:

• CLUB AQUA SPORT - SUB AQUA DIVERS
• TIGER DIVER - SHEFFIELD
• SOUTH YORKSHIRE DIVE ACADEMY - ROTHERHAM

I will keep you posted as to our progress.
Craig McCulloch

Dear all,

I am writing to you with details of a free service we are offering to you all in Thailand.

We are keen to offer some practical help to dive centres in areas directly or indirectly affected by the tsunamis and would like to start by giving you a free status report listing and link to your website from www.divernet.com.

Divernet is very well established and probably the largest website for divers outside the US. Last month it attracted 167,897 unique visitors and almost 7 million hits. Your free link will be valid until the end of July 2005. It can be used to promote your diving facilities and courses, liveaboards and resort accommodation, but not mail-order or on-line equipment sales.

If you wish to take up this free offer, please complete the form at www.divernet.com/xtra/dcstatusform.shtml and then hit the "send the details" button. With this form you will also find a link to a separate form which can be used to update your entry at a later date. The field marked "Other information" is an opportunity for you to send us a message if you wish.

The form is very short and completing it should take only a few minutes. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Our best wishes to you all after the recent events and looking forward to your reply.

With best wishes for a successful season,
Alex

ALEX KHACHADOURIAN
Senior Advertising Executive
DIVER Magazine - DIVER Travel Guide - www.divernet.com - U.C.I - DYK (Scandinavia) - Dive Shows (London & Birmingham)

Col arrived in Bangkok yesterday and has had his first meeting with our operators and support groups. I know that the dive equipment manufacturers had a meeting in Bangkok yesterday to see what practical assistance can be made to the businesses that have been affected. Col will also be meeting with government officials and business operators to see where our assistance can be most effective. Our aim is to assist the region to get back on its feet and encourage visitors back to get the economy up and running again.

We have sent an email out to our operators advising them that their staff and facility renewal fees will be wavered for 2005. We are also looking at replacing the training materials for victims of the Tsunami. Please pass my email address onto the members you have contact with and they can contact me direct for information on what we can do for them.

Keep in touch and take care.

Happy Diving
Margie McKenzie
General Manager
SSI Australia

I have been overloaded with the queries and communications associated with the events since about 1 hour after the first wave hit. We have been trying to coordinate and suggest to those requesting where they can send aid. Your email hits home to a project I have been working on, which is direct aid to dive professionals, people who work very hard to make a living, and on whom the training agencies depend.

TDI, technical diving international, did not have a single casualty and the instructors have lost no bookings, just due to the nature of technical divers' sense of adventure. All of our instructors had already renewed, and are actually thinking there may be a business up tick. ERDI, emergency response diving international, has trained a team of instructors based in Pattaya, and the head is upcountry at the moment. When he comes back, I will discuss with him getting further involved in efforts. This team of instructors has been specifically trained by our US-based experts in diving in polluted waters, body recovery, advanced search, rescue and recovery techniques, etc. This is the only team of this size we have in Asia and they must get connected to the rights agencies, in order to assist. This is one of my many projects.

SDI is very small in the SE Asia area, and almost non-existent in Thailand's West Coast, the PADI stronghold. I am working on a response from SDI now, with the intent of lowering material and certification costs for training to the bare minimum. We already were the lowest cost for diver certification, but the manuals are high quality, and are required for training (as with every agency, although many violate their insurance requirements and do not require that the students have a copy). We cannot waive use of materials, especially now that the insurance companies are watching us very closely, but I am in the final stages of negotiating with the retailers in Thailand to allow us to lower the prices to B300 for all SDI manuals, coupled with our B500 certification costs. To have access, I intend to provide free crossovers (including free 2005 membership and free CDs of the 2005 SDI Instructor Manual) to any diving instructor when he/she orders up his first diver manual and PIC. I the SDI family, the instructors/retailers like this approach, as it would mean that dive professionals can avoid the 2005 renewal fees, and also keep most profits from whatever courses they can teach. So do you think this is a good response?

I would like to go lower than that and offer more, and I am still negotiating with SDI/TDI HQ in the USA. I have sent your letter on to SDI HQ. If you want, you can make a personal appeal to our President, Brian Carney.

(By the way, SDI is ranked in the top 4 sport diving training agencies, with PADI, NAUI and SSI. And we are a now a member of the RSTC. So SDI is not an unknown entity in global sport diving.)

What do you think?
Best regards, Joe