Announcing... By MichaelMomi Bay, Fiji

Mr. Kesteven was patient, attentive, and
competent--I highly recommend him

for your kids in Savusavu.

…a couple of the world’s newest PADI Open Water scuba divers.

While in Savusavu, we wandered into the Namena dive shop and saw their prices were reasonable. That night on Trip Advisor, we read all the reviews for the place, including glowing reviews for their instructor, Daniel Kesteven. The next day we returned and signed the girls up. Frances happens to be the minimum age for certification (10).

Now, dive shops in vacation destinations worldwide are used to spitting out scuba certifications after two very full days of multiple dives and lots of study. We told Daniel we weren’t in a hurry and that we wanted to stretch the instruction and the diving out so that the girls could more thoroughly process the information. He was cool with that. Eleanor and Frances never did more than one dive a day, took a couple days off in the middle, and got a break from normal school so they could study, study, study.

They both took it very seriously and also enjoyed the experience. About a week after getting certified, they went on their first recreational dive off Taveuni with a dive master and the 12-year-old daughter of the owner of the Paradise Resort. They had a blast.

We are likely pointing our bow north next and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) are up there somewhere, with world class dive sites (Truk, Palau, and others) featuring WWII wrecks and clear, clear water. My girls will be ready.

--MR

The girls at the start.

Beginning first pool dive.

Doing a safety stop during their second open water dive.

Windy and I dove on one of their final open water dives.
It was fun to hang out in the periphery and watch them learn.

Daniel snapped this photo for us.

Me, Eleanor, Frances, Windy, left to right.