A Letter from the Director...

My huge commitment and devotion for the people of Cozumel and Scuba Diving, coupled with my love for reality television shows, inspired the idea of "The Ultimate Diver Challenge."

Although Scuba diving is typically considered a non-competitive sport, a huge emphasis is placed on continued training and education related to our skills and knowledge. Every sport, competitive and non-competitive, has declared the best of the best. I, have seen the best poker player, ballroom dancer, car racer, football team, soccer team, survivor, singer, chef, ice skater, and on and on and on. Never in the history of Scuba Diving has a diver been acknowledged for exhibiting the basic scuba skills that emphasize the extreme importance of protecting our reefs, and upholding safe, recreational standards of Scuba Diving by identifying divers as "The Ultimate Diver".

I have been traveling to Cozumel for 20 years and truly can refer to this island as "Home away from home". I was in Cozumel to experience Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 and Hurricane Dean in 2007. Strange that Hurricane Wilma inspired the idea of the Ultimate Diver Challenge and that Hurricane Dean visited this past summer while we were shooting our preliminary pilot film. Oddly, the divers that participated witnessed first hand that the people of Cozumel do not allow their devotion to tourism and to the sport of diving to change regardless of the many storms that impact their lives.

I began diving in 1987 with the same curiosity that leads most divers to take the plunge. Unfortunately, my love for diving took a long vacation after discovering my 22 month old daughter had leukemia in 1992. My diving adventures resumed in 1995, after many years of Alicia's successful cancer treatments. Alicia, now 17 years old, has been diving with me since she was 12. I recruited my husband, Dave, to diving in 1997, and my son Nathan as a Scuba Ranger when he was only 8 (certified at 10 and now 13 years old). I have two other daughters, Aliya, 7 and Alexis, 9 eager to get started.

I have spent the last 9 years with a mission to meet others that enjoy diving and to keep new divers active with diving. I formed a local dive club, Scuba Friends, and have been arranging group travel to 3 to 4 destinations each year. Our groups started small with 7 to 10 divers but have grown to as many as 58 divers in one week to one destination.

Reality Shows for me are certainly an addiction, but so far I have never been chosen to play the games that I watch so faithfully (and yes, I have applied). Our sport is one of the most unique sports in the world. We can enter and explore a whole other REAL world filled with creatures, plants, and formations that many can only dream of ever seeing. I have often heard, “I could never do something like that”, but the reality is that there are over 150,000 divers getting certified each year (Dema, market research study 2000-2004). Many of us are doing "that"! This challenge will be your reality show, your chance to become the best of the best, your chance to test your basic skills, and your chance to become and earn the title of, “The Ultimate Diver"! And just maybe Television will get involved in our adventure!

We are inviting teams of divers to buddy up and join us in a dive event with a chance to compete against other teams by using their underwater diving skills to earn them the title of "THE ULTIMATE DIVER TEAM", and in the quest to earn the sole title of "THE ULTIMATE DIVER". Experience a vacation with over $13,000 in prizes and products along with the opportunity to become a better diver.

Underwater challenges are designed to test the diver’s ability to navigate, search, rescue, and recover using all the skills necessary to be a safe diver. Butch Hendrick and Andrea Zaferes of Team Life Guard Systems volunteered their time to create the challenges. Butch has been teaching, developing rescue procedures and performing surface and subsurface water rescues for over 30 years in 15 countries along with many other qualifying credentials to see that you are ultimately challenged. Dive Instructors have also assisted in the challenge creations.

One dive team will compete against another dive team, and the winner will go on to challenge another team. This process will continue until the top FIVE dive teams have been identified. These final ten divers will become”THE ULTIMATE DIVER TEAM". Each diver in this team will then compete in a series of individual competitions that will declare the final winner as "THE ULTIMATE DIVER". The ULTIMATE DIVER will be awarded a cash prize, a trip to WAKATOBI and a trophy designed by WYLAND. Each day will be full of diving, side activities, land challenges and nightly entertainment provided by the wonderful residents of Cozumel and Eric Stone.

The Ultimate Diver Challenge will allow our industry to emphasize the extreme importance that we place on education. Although diving is typically seen as an individual, non competitive sport, our industry and each of us are obligated to maintain basic scuba skills that will keep our reefs and marine life safe from human harm. These essential skills, fine tuned and practiced will also maintain the safety and our obligation to be the "Best" Dive Buddy.

I invite you to come join in this unique and exciting experience and become part of the “Biggest Event in the History of Diving”!

Dive Safely,

Pam Bertrand, Director