Category — Boletin Informativo

ProTec Newsletter – What is going on with ProTec in Mexico

ProTec Tulum Dive Center & Advanced Training Facility
We are proud to anounce that the paint is dry, the compressor is almost here, the lights are on, the water is running, the air conditioners are working, the doors are open and we are coming close to be open for business. After 4 month of remodelation we are scheduled to finally open our doors officially to the public on July 1st of 2011. Please come by for a chat or some diving if you like.

Our grand opening party will be October 15th of 2011 when we have two weeks filled with special offers, music and a real house warming party. Please have a look at our www.protectulum.com web page to see latest images and to hear what is going on.

Our ProTec Dive Center and Advanced Training Facility in Tulum is featuring items and areas we are happy to have and use … and share with our friends, students and customers.

- Fill Station – Our fill station is open and operational by July 1st of 2011. We offer air fills and nitrox fills through our L & W 16 cft compressor. For our Ean32 production we use the continous blending method via a nitrox stick and then stored in a bank to provide Ean32 on tap. Higher oxygen percentage blending such an Ean50 is done utilizing the partial pressure blending method. Pure oxygen fills are available up to 200 bar / 3000 psi via our booster pump. A dedicated analyzing and gas log area is in place as well as a large tank storage area for our friends and customers who like to leave their tanks with us while diving or away.

- Classrooms – We have two classrooms with plenty of space to provide a positive and conductive learning environment with online computers and a/c.

- Retail area – In our dedicated retail area we have enough space to show all the dive gear we are selling. We offer the full line of Dive Rite dive gear as well as selected Golem Gear dive gear amongst other quality recognized dive gear manufacturers. Our stocked retail dive gear will focus on cave, rebreather, wreck and technical diving including adapters, fittings and hardware mostly needed for rebreather diving.

- Rebreather assembly area and workshop – As we are active Rebreather divers ourselfs it became important to us from the outset to provide a dedicated area for Rebreather divers to assemble, dry, disinfect and store their Rebreathers in a safe grease and oil free environment. This assembly and storage area is next to, but seperated from, the wet storage units and rinse area where the rest of the dive gear is stored with minimum walking distance to your vehicle.

- Wet storage and rinse area – Where to leave our dive gear during the time when we are not diving was an importand factor as well. We created a wet storage and rinse area where our Instructors and students / customers alike can leave their dive gear in a ventilated and safe area. Each of the mini storage units has a lockable door, a power outlet with 110 & 220 Volt and enough space to store three large plastic crates in them. It is literally only a few steps from the storage and rinse area to your vehicle.

Apart to have storage space for our students in training we offer mini storage bodegas that can be rented on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. This might be interesting for divers who come to Mexico frequently but don’t want to carry all their dive gear with them all the time.

- Reception – The central reception area is the nerve center and hub of our facility where our staff can be found in order to assist you with your diving and non-diving needs. The reception is located next to the retail area as well as offices, classrooms and both bathrooms. Our reserved and secured five parking spots are just outside the reception area.

- Office – And yes, we do have an office where the administration is handled as well as most of the emails being answered from. The office is right next door to the reception area.

For any questions please do not hesitate to send us an email to info@protectulum.com.

ProTec Tulum Staff and Employees
We are happy to have our new staff members Rosso and Lena Ericson with us at the ProTec Tulum Facility.

- Rosalino Rivera Hernandez a.k.a. Rosso, born in Mexico who speaks fluent English besides his native Spanish is a intro to cave diver currently who will be in charge of the day to day running of our ProTec Tulum Facility. Rosso has been working for the Cenote Dive Center previously.

- Lena Ericson, born is Sweden who speaks fluent English and Spanish besides her native Swedish is a Full cave Instructor taking care of our cave students or guests who like to enjoy our guided cave diving services. Lena has been working for Aquatech previously. For Lena’s C.V. please click here.

- Kim Davidsson, born in Sweden who speaks fluent English and Spanish besides his native Swedish. Kim is one of the owners of ProTec Tulum as well as a Technical cave Instructor. Kim will be largely responsible for the storage and rinse area including the mini storage units. Kim has been self employed previously. For Kim’s C.V. click here.

- Patrick Widmann, born in Austria who speaks fluent English, Spanish and French besides his native Austrian German. Patrick is one of the owners of ProTec Tulum as well as a Technical cave, Adv. cave, CCR cave and Trimix Instructor as well as a Adv. Eanx & Cavern Instructor Trainer. Patrick is largely responsable for the retail section. Patrick has been working out of ProTec Playa and will continue to do so. For Patrick’s C.V. click here.

- Andreas W. Matthes a.k.a. Matt, born in Germany who speaks fluent English and Spanish besides his native German. Matt is one of the owners of ProTec Tulum as well as a Technical cave, Adv. cave, CCR cave, Rebreather and Trimix Instructor as well as a Trimix, Technical cave, Adv. cave, CCR cave, Rebreather and Trimix Instructor Trainer. Matt is largely responsable for the administrational part of ProTec. Matt has been working out of ProTec Playa and will continue to do so. For Matt’s C.V. please click here.

For more information about our Staff at ProTec Tulum please visit our web page. For any questions please do not hesitate to send us an email to info@protectulum.com.

ProTec Playa 10 year aniversary
At times we wonder where the time went and what we have done with it but in this case the calender is telling us the truth. We are happy to have achived our 10 year official open to the public aniversary with ProTec Playa in Playa del Carmen.

From our humble beginning to our current state of operation and expansion we had always one clear goal in mind: The satisfaction of of our friends, students and customers, to not treat them any different on how we would like to be treated being in a similar location, environment or situation as well as quality proffesional diving instruction and support following the highest and up to date techniques, technolocy, philosophy and standards in a proffesional, conductive and positive learning environment.

We would like to thank all of our friends, students and customers to trust us with your choice of diving and training with us. We certainly had a great time having you with us.

ProTec STEALTH Sidemount gear
We are happy to anounce that we are finally ready with our own ProTec Sidemount gear, the STEALTH Sidemount gear. Patrick was designing the STEALTH Sidemount gear for six month in cooperation with the EQUES dive gear manufacturer, followed by a 18 month testing and redesigning period. The STEALTH Sidemount gear is produced by the EQUES dive gear manufacturer located in Poland. EQUES is known for quality and durable dive gear products.

The STEALTH Sidemount gear is a modular system with our STEALTH Sidemount harness featuring integrated weight pockets on the back that are secured with zipper and our STEALTH Sidemount lower back power inflated buoyancy device with a lift capacity of 44 lbs / 18 kg. A seperate hardware kit includes all the nececary hardware and butt plate to get the STEALTH Sidemount gear into the water where it belongs.

The STEALTH Sidemount lower back buoyancy device can as well be used by CCR Rebreather divers as a seperate and additional buoyancy device who need more lift on the lower end of their Rebreather.

We offer our students and customers who take a Sidemount course with us or buy the STEALTH Sidemount kit in our ProTec Dive Centers in Playa del Carmen or Tulum a free assembly workshop. Check out our web page www.protecsidemount.com for more information our ProTec Sidemount configuration or Sidemount videos using our ProTec STEALTH Sidemount gear kit.

To order the STEALTH Sidemount harness with zipper closing weight integrated pockets on the back for $ 299.00 usd.

To order the STEALTH Sidemount power inflator lower back buoyancy device for $ 299.00 usd.

To order the STEALTH Sidemount hardware kit including all d-rings, weight sliders, power inflator, crotch strap and butt plate for $ 159.00 usd.

To order the complete STEALTH Sidemount gear package for $ 729.00 usd and safe $ 30 usd.

All STEALTH Sidemount components can be purchased directly from us in our ProTec Facilities in either Playa del Carmen or Tulum or via the online shopping option on our Sidemount web page using the PayPal buy now buttons, or via email and international shipping and money wire transfer. Please inquire prior ordering for availability and shipping time as well as the exact FedEx or DHL shipping rates to your location before ordering the STEALTH Sidemount components. As an alternative you can pick up your STEALTH Sidemount gear at our ProTec locations in Playa del Carmen or Tulum and receive a free assembly workshop.

For any questions please do not hesitate to send us an email to info@protecsidemount.com.

The GoPro video cameras
We are using the GoPro HD video cameras for over 6 month and they are working like a charm. The recent upgrade that we did to them was a new operating system software and the very cool LCD screen that attaches to the back of the camera.

The GoPro video camera is very usefull to us as a teaching aid as we can take video clips of student during training without the need to hold on to the camera as it comes with a head strap and camera mounting system thus allowing us to focus entirely on our student and operate the camera hands free.

Patrick has started using a video editing software before the clips are launched on our YouTube channels and the result is quite nice. Please visit our ProTec Playa YouTube channel and our ProTec Tulum YouTube channel. For any questions please do not hesitate to send us an email to info@protecplaya.com.

Visitors, Friends, Bits & Pieces
– The Highway 307 overpass construction is finally done and the overpass is open to the public since May 1st of 2011. It makes the transit and through traffic through Playa del Carmen a breeze when heading from Cancun to Tulum of vice versa. Super nice, super easy and not a single speed bump all the way. The speed limit on the overpass is set at 80 km/h.

- Chris from Poland was here with his team to push “the Pit” and “Blue Abyss” into uncharted terretory on his dual HammerHead Rebreather.
- Christoph from Austria did a bunch of ccr cave diving on his HammerHead Rebreather.
- Arthur from Poland was here with a group of friends.
- Anja from Russia did a bunch of cave diving and filming with her friends from Russia.

Continuing Education for ProTec Staff
As we conitnue to strife to perfect our own technique and skill, to expand our own personal horizons. We ourselfs take continuing education programs to further our own knowledge.

Patrick became a Survey Instructor to better pass on his knowledge of how cave survey date can be entered into electronic cave survey programs and then imported into the Google Earth software in order to display the cave survey data on Google Earth Satelite images.

Scheduled Training Programs
These training programs below are scheduled and confirmed training programs with spaces still available. We do have the capacity to organize a large variety of diver and Instructor courses besides these scheduled training programs in either Playa or Tulum.

ProTec Playa more info or bookings please email us to info@protecplaya.com

July 2011
- CCR rebreather course July 1st – 6th
- Normoxic trimix course July 8th – 11th
- Cave II course July 16th – 20th
- CCR cave cross over course July 19th – 22nd

August 2011
- Full cave course August 3rd – 10th

October 2011
- Normoxic trimix course in sidemount October 2nd – 5th
- Basic sidemount course October 13th – 15th
- Advanced sidemount course October 16th – 18th

December 2011
- Sidemount cave Instructor course December 14th – 15th
- DPV cave Instructor course December 16th – 17th
- Intro to cave Instructor Trainer course December 18th – 20th

ProTec Tulum more info or bookings please email us to info@protectulum.com

July 2011
- Full cave course July 23rd – 30th

August 2011
- Intro to cave course August 6th – 10th

October
- CCR rebreather cave cross over course October 3rd – 6th

IANTD Instructor & IT Training
ProTec Advanced Training Facilities located in Playa del Carmen and Tulum continue to schedule, provide and conduct quality diving proffesional leadership and Instructor training programs in the form of IANTD Instructor Developement Courses IDC’s, Instructor Evaluation Courses IEC’s and Instructor Trainer Courses ITC’s to the levels of Essential, Openwater, Advanced Nitrox, Normoxic & Hypoxic Trimix, Intro to cave & Technical cave, Rebreather cave, Rebreather MOD I & MOD II for a variety of CCR units, Advanced & Technical wreck, Advanced cave DPV, Sidemount and Stage / Multi stage Instructor amongst others.

The IDC’s and IEC’s are conducted by IT’s Nando, Patrick and Matt while the ITC’s are conducted by ITT Matt.

ProTec Dive Center – Playa
Calle 4 between Avenida 25 y 30
Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Q. Roo – 77710
Tel. & Fax +52-984-8031168
Email info@protecplaya.com
www.protecplaya.com

ProTec Dive Center – Tulum
Avenida Satelite corner Calle Tun-Kul
Tulum, Mexico, Q. Roo. – 77780
Tel. ++52-984.8712368
Email info@protectulum.com
www.protectulum.com

ProTec Dive Center & Advanced Training Facility in Tulum

We are happy to announce that in late Spring of 2011 we will open our new ProTec Dive Center & Advanced Training Facility in Tulum, Mexico. Tulum is located 60 kilometers south of Playa del Carmen and 120 kilometers south of Cancun. The ProTec Tulum Facility will be located on Av. Satelite and the corner of calle Tun-Kul in the downtown area of Tulum.

Features of our new ProTec Tulum Dive Center are a full dive gear retail section, dual classrooms, short and long term gear storage, dive gear repair service and workshop access to our guests, compressor and booster fill station providing air, Nitrox 32, Oxygen and mixed gas Trimix fills.

We will offer full Rebreather support and high pressure oxygen fills, Co2 absorbent Sofnolime 8-12 mesh and Micropore Extend Air Cartridges with a dedicated Rebreather assemble and storage area for the ever more popular activity of Rebreather cave diving. A number of selected spare parts for Rebreathers are available as well.

Our tank rental program ranges from 80 cft alm DIN isolator manifold doubles, 30, 40 & 80 cft DIN valve stages & DIN valve bailout tanks and 2 / 3 ltr as well as 13 / 19 cft alm DIN valve Rebreather inboard tanks.

Training programs will range from Essential diver programs up to Technical cave diver, Sidemount & Adv. Sidemount cave diver programs, Stage & Multi stage cave diver programs including DPV diver and CCR cave diver programs.

Instructor programs are available from Advanced Eanx Instructor to Technical Cave Instructor, Sidemount Instructor, Rebreather Instructor, CCR cave Instructor and Trimix Instructors programs.

We would like to welcome Kim Davidsson, Technical Cave Instructor and Tulum resident, who will join the ProTec Tulum Dive Center & Advanced Training Facility as full time staff and partner. Kim was born in Sweden and will support our Skandinavian friends with full Swedish language service. You can email Kim directly to kim@protectulum.com.

Stay tuned and visit our Facebook or Twitter page for updates. Please visit our new www.protectulum.com web site or email us for more information to our new email address info@protectulum.com.

Remodeling the ProTec Playa Store

After years of good use we have decided to remodel the front of our ProTec Playa Store. The move came due to an increased need for retail space and the feel that some items in the front store we did not really use anymore.

We have removed the old book shelve plus the table and chairs in the entrance area to gain more space. Unreal how large the store is looking now.

To make Rosalba’s work easier we have created a work station with reception area where all of her working tools and work area are combined.

To create more retail space we have installed two more tower glass cabinets in the center of the store. We moved all Rebreathers located in their own glass cabinet in the front of the store to gain more space in the classroom. Lastly we did change the wall retail presentation to wooden panels which give the store a cleaner look. Have a look for yourself and click here to see the new store front images on our web page.

ISC Megalodon CCR Rebreather World Traveler Program

The manufacturer ISC of the Megalodon series of CCR Rebreathers has introduced the World Traveler program where Megalodon Rebreather owners can rent a Can and Radial Scrubber free of charge at selected World Traveler locations in order to ease the load when traveling to dive destinations.

We are happy to announce that ProTec Playa and ProTec Tulum are both members of the ISC Megalodon World Traveler program and traveling Megalodon owners diving our area can rent a Can and Radial Scrubber free of charge, courtesy of ISC, for the duration of their dive vacation. For more information about the ISC World Traveler program as well as more information about the new soon to come ISC Megalodon Predator and Pathfinder CCR Rebreathers please visit our www.ccrmegalodon.com web page.

ProTec Web Pages update

After years in good use and with our upcoming 10 year aniversary we have changed our web appearance into a new web page format where we can place larger images onto the individual pages and work offline during web page changes. At the same time we are able to update the pages more easily as well as track their web performance better.

ProTec Playa – Our Dive Center web page for Playa del Carmen www.protecplaya.com

ProTec Tulum – Our Dive Center web page for Tulum www.protectulum.com

ProTec Cozumel – Our dive destination web page for Cozumel www.proteccozumel.com

ProTec Diving – Covering all ProTec locations & destinations www.protecdiving.com

Visitors, Friends, Bits & Pieces

- We started to use the little Hero HD video cameras you can mount with a strap around your head or onto your Sidemount helmet. The little housing is good to 200 feet / 60 meters. We are using the SarTec flat dome version which is less distorting. Amazing what these little cameras can do. You can see the outcome on our You Tube channel. Check our You Tube link on top of this Sporadic Newsletter.

- The Highway 307 overpass construction is not finished yet but we are coming to an end soon. All beams are in and work is being done on the pavement. Apparently there are three companies who did the construction. Two of them are done and one is dragging some feet. The overpass is scheduled to be opened in end of March 2011.

- Welmoed from the Netherlands came by for a bunch of Sidemount & Adv. Sidemount, Stage & Multi Stage, DPV & Adv. DPV, Survey and Cartography training.

- Dirk from Germany came by to dive his Megalodon CCR and scooter in our caves.

- Phillip from Dominican Republic came by for his Sidemount $ Adv. Sidemount training.

- Mia, Sami and friends came by from Finnland to dive the caves in oc as well as their JJ Rebreathers.

- Igor with friends came by from Kazakhstan to dive our Cenotes.

- Sergej from Russia came by with friends to dive our caves and take a CCR cave cross over course.

- Trendy and Iain came by to take a ccr cave cross over training program and then dive our caves with their KISS and Inspiration Rebreathers.

- Micheal from Washington was here to dive his Megalodon CCR in our caves.

- Ron and Ashley from Portland are here to dive their Megalodon Rebreathers in our caves.

- Christoph from Germany is here to enjoy the caves on his HammerHead CCR Rebreather.

- Tanja from Germany is here to enjoy the caves in opencircuit.

- Chris from Poland is back to push ” the Pit ” once more with his double HammerHead CCR Rebreather.

Continuing Education for ProTec Staff

Our staff went ahead once more with continuing education programs in order to provide better service and keeping us up to date and tuned with new developements.

Patrick went on to do a Rebreather cross over course on a JJ CCR Rebreather. Patrick became as well a IANTD Instructor Trainer for the Advanced Nitrox and Cavern Instructor levels in order to serve our European market better. Patrick will be cave diving in France with Welmoed from the Netherlands, Sami from Finnland and Dirk from Germany in the month of June. If you want to join please send Patrick a direct email to patrick@protecplaya.com.

Matt went to the factory of ISC Custom Rebreathers where the Megalodon Rebreathers are produced. ISC is located south of Seattle in Centralia, Washington State. Matt went to complete his Instructor Trainer rating with ISC owner Leon Scamahorn for the Megalodon range Rebreathers including COPIS and APECS Megalodon, Predator and Pathfinder Megalodon Rebreathers.

Scheduled Training Programs

March 2011

-CCR KISS cross over March 15 – 16
-CCR KISS Instructor course March 17 – 18
-CCR cave cross over March 18 – 21
-CCR cave tec course over March 22 – 23

April 2011
-Cave Survey & Cartography course April 5 – 7

May 2011
-Essential diver course May 20 – 21
-Cave course May 22 – 29

IANTD Instructor & IT Training

ProTec continues to conduct IANTD Instructor Developement Courses IDC’s, Instructor Evaluation Courses IEC’s and Instructor Trainer Courses ITC’s. The IDC’s and IEC’s are conducted by IT’s Nando, Patrick and Matt while the ITC’s are conducted by ITT Matt.

We would like to congratulate Santiago living here in Playa for his successfull passing of the Technical Cave Instructor evaluation, Trendy and Iain from the Philippines to successfully pass the Essential Instructor, Adv. Recreational Trimix Instructor and CCR Classic KISS Instructor training programs. Artur from Poland who passed his Adv. Eanx Instructor Program. Sami from Finnland for passing his Intro to Cave Instructor evaluations.

Our Instructor candidate Jason we wish all the best for his quest to become a Intro to Cave Instructor. Mauro and Jesus we wish all the best in their quest to become Technical Cave Instructors. Tanja Maier we wish all the best in her quest to become a Cavern Instructor.

ProTec Dive Center locations & contact info

ProTec Dive Center – Playa ProTec Dive Center – Tulum
Calle 4 between Avenida 25 y 30 Avenida Satelite corner Calle Tun-Kul
Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Q. Roo – 77710 Tulum, Mexico, Q. Roo. – 77780
Tel. & Fax +52-984-8031168 Tel. ++52-984.8762506
Email info@protecplaya.com Email info@protectulum.com

More information and links

We have published new articles on our ProTec blog www.protecblog.com covering a variety of issues and experiences. Have a look and let us know what you think.

For more information regarding Rebreather diving on the CCR Megalodon Rebreathers please visit www.ccrmegalodon.com , the CCR KISS www.ccrkiss.com , the CCR O2ptima www.ccroptima.com , the CCR Inspiration / Evolution www.ccrinspiration.com , the cave diving in Mexico www.mexicocavediving.info , Rebreather diving www.rebreather-diving.info , cave diving information in Spanish www.buceoencuevamexico.com , cave diving information in German www.mexikohoehlentauchen.com or CCR cave diving www.ccrcavediving.com please check out our web pages.