Joyeux Noël
Hello Everyone, well what a year that was. It’s hard to know where to begin but firstly and foremost I hope you are all well and keeping safe. It has been tough on everyone and we all have been affected in one way or another.
We started the year with a huge amount of optimism following the announcement of Gozo Diving Academy which was created to allow a special focus on training of our future diving professionals. We had our core senior team coming back with David, Chris and Dino leading the diving activities and with Donna and Liv looking after our customers through the booking process and their stay with us. We also had Gary coming back to take over the management of the Chill Bar giving our customers the very best holiday experience above and below the water. Then COVID-19 came along and everything changed.
It would be wrong to say it wasn’t hard for us because it was but we are fully aware that so many people have been worse affected than us so we have tried to be positive and I must say looking back on the season it could have been a lot worse.
We know many customers have had to cancel their holidays with us this year and we are so sorry you have had to do that but we know there is hope on the horizon and things will not remain like this forever. We have had so many lovely messages from customers apologising for no being able to come out to see us this year and we are so grateful for all your messages of support. We know you will come and dive with us when you can and we are so looking forward to seeing you all.
Those of you who have dived with us before will know we have lots of interns that come out to train with us throughout the season. While many dive centres cancelled their internships this year we made the decision from the outset to continue to support our internship programme and while 1 or 2 couldn’t make it the majority did and I would like to say a special thank you to them all because they really did make a huge contribution this year and while things were tough at times they never complained once. The diving industry now have some very good PADI professionals and we wish them all the very best in their future endeavours.
I’d also like to give a special mention our instructors because everyone of them knew it was going to be hard this season but they all came out and worked extremely hard in very difficult times with lockdowns, quarantine etc and they just got on with the job. Each and every one of them are a credit to the diving industry and we wish them all the best for the future.
Looking forward to this season, we remain positive and hopeful of a fantastic season, we also are pleased to announce that this seasons instructor staff will all be instructors that have been interns with us and who have been trained professionally by us. So returning customers will see many familiar faces. The core team from previous seasons will also be with us. So Donna, Liv, Chris, Dino and myself will all be with us in 2021 as will Gary in The Chill Bar.
We also have some very exciting things happening in 2021. Our brand new boat will be offering even more services for our customers, our focus on protecting the marine environment will continue and increase. Our superior service will be further improved, our 4 to 1 maximum ratio will continue to make sure you get the quality service and safety you have come to expect from us. The Chill Bar exterior has been completely transformed as part of the Marsalforn master plan and looks amazing and Gary will be offering some brilliant food and drinks for you to relax between and after your dives. Our training levels and quality will remain the best there is, the feedback we get every year is how good our training is and how much better it is than other places customers have dived, we will continue to develop that where we can to make sure we remain the best.
So all in all we are very excited for 2021 and while we know you may not be having a ‘normal’ Christmas we sincerely hope it is a good one, most importantly stay safe and let’s all remain positive and look forward to much better times in 2021. We hope to see you all soon, thank you.
David & the Bubbles Team