SPLASH DIVE CENTER LTD

Splash Dive Center Ltd (Splash) was founded as a sole proprietorship in the year 2000 by Patty Ramirez.  Patty’s goal was to be the best and to achieve that, she invested in herself becoming one of only two Belizean Course Directors (the highest PADI level) and by re-investing as much as the revenue as possible in the business.  Patty continues to invest in herself through continuing education and continues to re-invest to grow Splash.  Ralph Capeling joined Patty as an investor in the year 2009 and strongly supports Patty’s original goal which is now the Mission Statement for Splash:  Splash intends to be the premier dive center and adventure tour operator of choice in Belize.

Splash is focused on quality of service, from our attractive and welcoming dive center, our pickup service, our five custom dive boats, our crews’ attention to customers, and our well maintained equipment to the little extras after returning from a dive trip like serving cookies and juice while the crews rinse guest’s dive gear.

MARKETING

Marketing is a vital and multi-faceted part of Splash’s business and includes attendance at trade shows, working closely with BTB, BTIA and BHA by personally taking care of approximately 150 journalists, camera crews, and bloggers.  Splash took every opportunity to reach out to travel agents, travel writers and travel professionals and to invest in magazine and website advertisements, electronic media, professional signage and the good old fashioned method of meeting everyone with a welcoming smile. 

In 2012, Splash attended nine trade shows (The Ultimate Travel Show in Toronto, Our World Underwater in Chicago, The Outdoor Adventure Show in Toronto, Beneath the Sea in New Jersey, BETEX in Belize City, the BTIA San Pedro City Mall marketing weekend, CATM in San Pedro Sula, Scuba Swap in Toronto and DEMA in Las Vegas). In all of these, Splash markets Belize, then Placencia and then finally we market Splash Dive Center Ltd and our sister company Quest For Adventure In Belize With Splash Ltd.  We established Quest due to the clear and positive response from non-divers to marketing Belize first and our properties second.  Splash is also a participant in the BHA Global Initiative. 

Splash cooperates with BTB and also independently seeks out opportunities to work with travel writers and bloggers.  Splash has put a great deal of effort into working with bloggers to advertise Belize and Placencia. This keeps Splash in the news in a very effective non-advertising way.  Appendix I lists 45 blogs and articles resulting from this proactive approach.

Establishing effective Working relationships with travel agents and travel professionals is another important aspect of Splash’s active approach to marketing.  In addition to establishing relationships based on trust through meeting at trade shows and from visits to our facilities, Splash has always volunteered to participate in post CATM and BETEX trade show tours.  This has resulted in dozens of Placencia exclusive (and often Belize exclusive) listings on travel agents websites.  Appendix II does not include travel agent website that list Splash along with other Placencia area diving tour operators.  

Splash also advertises in magazines, newspapers and websites.  We advertise continuously in Sport Diver, Scuba Diver, Undersea Journal, The Canadian Travel Magazine, Destination Belize, Tropic Air magazine and the Placencia Breeze.  We also advertise from time to time in magazines such as City Central Magazine in Mississauga, Ontario.  Important components of our electronic advertising include banners on ScubaBoard and PADI’s website and Google and Bing Ad campaigns. 

Social media is another very important component of Splash’s international marketing efforts.  We spend at least two hours every day to update and correspond on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Patty Ramirez has two Facebook pages, Patricia Ramirez where she has over 3000 followers where she can create meaningful and personal relationships with clients and potential clients.  She invites divers to join her Splash Dive Shop Facebook page where she has over 1000 followers and posts Splash news, photos and blogs.  On Twitter Splash Belize posts every day Patty participates in the Live Chats about Belize, usually donating a giveaway. She promotes daily tours in Placencia What’s Happening and on TrekCATS (posting about diving in Belize). In addition to posting on the PADI Facebook, BTB, Scuba Diving Girl and Book Your Dive, Splash posts on Bookbag Santa (a NGO from Virginia that Splash supports as they bring groups to Belize every year to distribute at least a ton of school suppliers to schools in Stann Creek District). Splash monitors and is active on ScubaBoard (where we also advertise) and Trip Advisor on the Belize Pages.

In addition to our website, www.splashbelize.com, our Splash blogs and newsletters are also an important part of our marketing program.

Splash has recently begun to post on YouTube with the intent to do more of this in future. With encouragement from Splash, some of our guests have begun to post videos on the internet that feature diving and snorkeling with Splash (often using cameras rented from Splash).

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

For any business to survive and thrive over the long term, it must contribute to the wellbeing of the community in which it operates. This contribution needs to be social and environmental as well as economic. Splash has adhered to this principle since the early days of a simple dive shop on the beach. 

One of the first and very important programs that Patty Ramirez initiated was the Splash Junior Diving Club where Belizean kids can learn to dive for free.  She uses the opportunity to teach them the importance of protecting our environment and introduce them to the marvels of the Belizean barrier reef that our guests are privileged to scuba dive on, but that local families and children cannot afford. Splash has issued 150 certifications from PADI junior open water to junior master scuba diver and dive master since 2006. In 2012, three “children” have reached the first professional level, Dive Master, and two of them are now working for Splash. The third "graduate" of the Splash Junior Dive Club used his qualification to move to the USA and join the United States Navy. Splash intends to continue the program to develop more young Belizeans into ambassadors for the sea and to become PADI professionals. As dive masters and scuba diving Instructors, Belizean kids can have the opportunity to develop careers in the dive industry and create more of a commitment within the local community to protecting our reef and environment. The biggest difference we can make as scuba divers, to the future health of our corals reefs, is to educate the next generation.

In 2012, Patty invited the first international student who arrived with her parents and progressed through to junior master scuba diver, the highest non-professional level in the PADI system. Her parents also became divers!  We hope we can continue to attract families to bring their kids to Belize so that the whole family can learn to be scuba divers.  We hope that these families could become ambassadors for Belize in their home counties to help market Belize, Placencia and Belize.

Splash is very committed to the protection and preservation of the reef environment in Belize. Patricia Ramirez is an active member of Placencia Mooring Masters, an organization that uses funds that it raises to install mooring buoys at the popular dive sites to protect our reef from anchor damage. The first one that Splash Dive Center sponsored is at Laughing Bird Caye (National Park and World Heritage Site) on the very popular and appealing dive site known as Coral Gardens. While Patty no longer has to time to go out to personally clean the barnacles from the buoy and the anchor line, she is still very committed to the objectives of PMM. Splash has provided the funds for a second buoy which is awaiting installation as soon as other buoy and buoy materials are in place. Splash Dive Center will continue to contribute to additional mooring buoys at popular dive sites in the Placencia area by providing funds, dive boat time, scuba tanks and manpower.

For many years Splash has organized a cleanup of Laughing Bird Caye National Park and has strongly participated in Placencia’s Whale Shark Day.  These are now combined and again, Splash has taken the lead with the strong support of Southern Environmental Association to do the annual clean-up of Laughing Bird Caye.  The words of Justino Mendez, SEA Outreach Officer express it well:

“Every year the Southern Environmental Association (SEA) in collaboration with SPLASH Dive Center host and coordinate an “Earth Day” event. This year under the theme “Mobilize the Earth: Living Green” “Sea-Splash” once again mobilized students from three community schools namely St. John’s Memorial Primary – Placencia, Independence High School – Independence and Nuestra Senora Primary School – Sagitun, who gave their all in making this event a success. Laughing Bird Caye National Park – World Heritage Site, co-managed by the Southern Environmental Association along with the Forest Department, was given an early mothers’ day gift, as 70 plus participants picked up a total of 45 drum size garbage bags of litter that was washed up on the beach. In plain sight, no one could have imagined that all that garbage was there, but as you dug deeper, the garbage emerged.

“Sea-Splash” ensured that students not only worked in picking up garbage, but also made it a learning experience for them, as Marco Suampul – gave them a presentation on “Marine Sea Turtles, Annelise on “Lion Fish” and Justino Mendez on “Coral Ecology” which made their visit to Laughing Bird Caye exciting and memorable. An excellent briefing was also done by head ranger Mr. Adolphos Molina Sr., which caught the attention of all participants.”

In addition to protecting the environment and reef, programs like this benefit the community and the attitude of the community to support sustainable tourism so that future generations will be able to enjoy the beauty of Placencia and environs.

In early 2011, a group of friends and Placencia business owners initiated a new organization called the Placencia Tourism Business Organization (PTBO), designed to help Belizean owned businesses and native sons survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment on the Placencia peninsula.  While Ralph and Patty are not native sons, they were invited to participate as “founding fathers” of this new organization.  Ralph and Patty were happy to support this initiative as these are the very people that give this peninsula its special character and charm. Some local businesses are doing well, many are just hanging on and the rate of unemployment and under-employment is high.  New businesses that have easier access to capital and modern business techniques are moving into the peninsula.  While investment and development are welcome, Belizeans from Placencia are concerned that this should not be at the expense of businesses that have been here for a long time or at the expense of native sons who are trying to establish viable businesses or provide services. Ralph and Patty helped by participating in the discussions and preparing the draft Articles and Memorandum of Association for regularization by a lawyer and paying for the legal fees to get this new organization registered.  Splash also provided an office for the group and paid the power and water bill up to the end of 2012. The Placencia Tourism Business Organization (PTBO) mission/vision is to protect, promote and preserve the native business in Placencia Village by working hand in hand with native business to enhance their business, and promoting local tourism. Splash encourages its customers to use locally owned businesses.

BUSINESS PRACTICES

To be the best and to provide superior service requires excellent employees.  Splash continues to stress the importance of high quality service to our employees with regular informal performance reviews aimed at steadily increasing the performance standard.  Feedback from customers both oral and by written questionnaires, on-line reviews, personal attendance on dive trips and “secret customer” reports all contribute to making this a meaningful and effective process.  In addition, Splash provides in-house training to its employees. Besides providing on the job training on scuba equipment inspection and maintenance, our senior boat captain is charged with improving the standard of operations by our boat captains with the result that three of our boat captains achieved higher level licenses during 2012 and the standard for operating the boats has been raised. By the end of 2012, four employees had nearly completed the dive master program (with two of them not having had any prior scuba qualifications), six employees had completed two or more scuba speciality courses and three employees were working on becoming licenced tour guides.  During 2013, we expect that four employees will complete their dive master training and along with five of our current dive masters, will take the PADI scuba diver instructor course (this will be taught in house as Patty is a PADI course director so is one of two Belizeans qualified to teach at this level).  Splash wishes all of its dive masters to reach the instructor level as personnel at this level have a greater understanding of the scuba diving business and tend to be more professional.  During 2013 we will also provide formal sales training to our employees, both office staff and dive crews.  We will also conduct formal risk management courses for our dive crews based on PADI materials and experience – this is extremely important not only from a risk management point of view but it is a vital tool to ensure customer safety.

Splash has made considerable and strategic investments in our dive center, our “downtown” Placencia booking office, boats, air conditioned vehicles, rental scuba equipment and air fill station operation.  Our dive center is spacious and welcoming with an appealing retail display with the full range of scuba and snorkel equipment, comfortable reception section, spacious waiting areas alongside the dock or under one of the cozy palapas.  Splash boats are either new or refurbished and well maintained projecting a very professional image.  They are fully equipped with all the required safety equipment including VHS radios, first aid and oxygen kits, clean life jackets, and compass and GPS systems.  It should be noted that Splash made major strategic investments in boats, facilities, store inventory, employee training, and vehicles as well as in marketing even through the recent downturn in the economy so as to be well positioned for the economic recovery.

RECOGNITION

Splash has been recognized by peer organizations in the diving and tourism businesses.

In 2012, Scuba Diver Magazine named Patricia Ramirez as a Sea Hero.  Her interview can be found in Appendix III or at http://www.scubadiving.com/article/news/sea-heroes-patricia-ramirez-june-2012.

Patty has been recognized on two occasions by PADI, the premier organization in scuba diving, receiving Certificates of Recognition for Outstanding Customer Service & Scuba Instruction.

The Belize Hotel Association named Splash Dive Center as the best Associate Member of the BHA in 2011.

In 2010 Continental Airlines included Splash Dive Center in Belize as one of five recommended dive destinations in the world.

PHILOSOPHY

Splash wants to teach the world about the beauty of Belize and the need to protect and preserve this special place on Planet Earth. We and our employees will encourage our customers to become ambassadors for Belize and to share their enthusiasm with all.

http://splashbelize.blogspot.com/#!/p/splash-dive-center.html

Diverse & Beautiful Belize Coral Reefs

Belize’s coral reefs are the most diverse and beautiful of all marine habitats which include both hard and soft corals among other marine life.  The sub-tropical climate here provide ideal conditions for the formation of corals which thrive in shallow, clean water, plenty sunlight and temperate waters between 16 and 30 degrees Celsius and an abundance of food sources such as plankton and baby shrimps.

Undeniably, the geographic formation of Belize’s landscape, along with the moderate climate, has favored some of the most astounding natural coral reef systems that took several millenniums to form. Over thousands of years, calcium carbonate skeletons of tiny coral polyps are collected together, layering over skeletons of past coral marine life.  As each generation of polyps dies, the corals grows a bit larger giving rise to a cluster of slow growing hard corals.  Soft corals, such as gorgonians, are also composed of some rigid calcium carbonate as hard corals.  Although well rooted, and with no exoskeletons, soft corals such as sea fans and sea whips move with the waves of the water.

Sea fans, sea whips and sea plumes are all soft corals from the gorgonian family.  The common sea fans are often sighted in a variety of brilliant colors while the fan-like polyp colonies are normally erect, flattened, and branching.  Carnation corals are natural charms that never fail to draw attention.  Quite easily, these are one of the most beautiful that comes in a spectacular range of colors.  No less impressive are the tree corals sighted through the vast reef systems in the cayes, shallows, atolls and drop-offs.  The beauty and biological diversity in these life forms are a true marvel.  Coral might be beautiful to look at but should not be touched.  Watch out especially for the fire corals from the Millepora family ranging in variety of shapes, including stick formations, branch formations and even those that resemble underwater plants. Nematocysts on the tentacle skin of these corals release toxins which create a burning sensation when rubbed against.

Just about any imaginable hard and soft coral is sighted in Belize’s reef systems whether diving or snorkeling around the atolls or other islands.  The sheer numbers of and different types of coral, sponges, and fish, makes scuba diving all the more exciting and enjoyable.  A proliferation of hard corals easily seen include the brain coral, staghorn coral, elkhorn, rose coral, club finger coral, rough and smooth starlet and the knobby candelabra. The brain coral are common but spectacular formations that may take several hundreds of years to form and may grow as high as six feet.  Corals feed at night by extending their tentacles to catch their food and use the tentacles as protection during the day. Hard corals, however, enjoy a symbiotic relationship with tiny algae which live inside their skin. These algae use the coral as a safe place to live, and in return, can provide the coral with most of its energy.

Staghorn corals and elkhorn corals are among the most important reef building corals sighted anywhere in the reef.  These hard coral colonies, although structurally complex, are incredibly fast growing with an average growth rate of 2 to 4 inches per year and may span as much as 10 ft wide.  This magnificent spread makes excellent homes for lobsters, parrot fish, snappers and other reef fish.

With such a vast and complex coral reef system that includes a barrier reef straddling the entire coast with teeming inhabitants, Belize’s reef is a universe of its own.  With top dive sites unmatched anywhere, Belize is well poised in the Blue Caribbean for extraordinary diving. To book any diving trip in Belize contact Patricia Ramirez at patricia@splashbelize.com

Scuba Diving Magazine Recognizes Splash Dive Center as Sea Hero of the Month

In its June 2012 publication, Scuba Diving magazine featured Splash Dive Center as a Sea Hero recognizing the many efforts that the dive center has contributed to community building and awareness of the marine environment.

Since 2005, Splash Dive Center has organized and led the Splash Kids Club which has engaged, over the years, about 70 young persons in the protection of Belize’s irreplaceable marine resources.  These youths have benefited from free Open Water Diver certification and continuing education.  Several have achieved Divemaster status, which as the first professional scuba diving level, puts them on the path to a career in diving and tourism.  All become committed to the vital importance of the marine environment and its relevance to the community’s tourism, economy and sustainability.

As an environmentally responsible player in the conservation of Belize’s natural and invaluable assets, Splash Dive Center organizes an annual cleanup and education day at Laughing Bird National Park, a world heritage site.  Each year on Earth Day, children from the communities on the Placencia Peninsula participate in a cleanup of the Park, supported by many local businesses, the Southern Environmental Association and the schools.  A highlight of the cleanup day is the presentations on environmental issues by members of the Splash Kids Club.  Children to children presentations are very effective ways to educate our future citizens on the sensitivity and importance of the environment to the way we interact with Mother Nature.

Not only is Splash Dive Center enhancing positive youth development and environmental awareness but also playing an active role in environmental protection as member of the Placencia Mooring Masters.   Through its membership, Splash Dive Center is the proud sponsor of two mooring buoys installations to protect the reef at popular dive sites - Laughing Bird Caye National Park and Silk Cayes.

Splash Dive Center recognizes and accepts its shared responsibility of preserving the environmental integrity of Belize’s priceless marine resources and even more so in the advent of the challenges of climate change.   A leader by example, Splash stands tall in supporting community initiatives that promotes marine education, appreciation and protection.  For all these responses to sustainability in tourism, Splash Dive Center was humbled and honored to be featured as Scuba Diving magazine as Sea Hero of the Month. 

Getting To Belize: 1 – 2 -3 Heavenly Belize from the US or Canada

Belize is amazing!  Rapidly changing topography allows travellers to experience estuaries, rivers, jungle, mountains, coral reefs, expansive underground caves, glorious waterfalls and an incredible collection of flora and fauna.  Some come in the high season (November to May) to escape winter.  Some choose the quiet days of summer for their Belizean adventure. Both times of the year have their own unique attractions or things to do and the choice of when to visit is totally up to you, your budget and the adventure you seek.

Belize Map

My Fist Dives in the Indigo Blue Waters of the Caribbean….

My boyfriend Tony, at the time, has always been a diving enthusiast and had tried to convince me to take a few dive courses so I can join him in his underwater adventures. Just the thought of going in the ocean filled with sharks and other unknown scary marine creatures, while carrying on your back heavy tanks, was not particularly exciting to me at first. Now, our yearly vacation trip to a new destination was coming up and we were doing a little online research to see where we would go next.  A friend of ours had just visited Belize, a tiny country in Central America facing the Caribbean Sea.  He kept raving about his amazing experience in Belize and all the great dives it offered.  So Tony and I looked it up.  Impressed by what we read, we decided to give it a shot.  Being afraid of water, I was interested in all the charms that a beach destination has to offer but diving. However, Tony was persistent that I took some diving lessons.

Before I knew it, I was already going on a sixty five feet boat to Glover’s Reef in Belize for my first diving course. I felt nervous and tried to focus on all the skills learned and practiced in the pool at the resort.  I was thankful that my instructor at Splash Dive Center in Placencia was very knowledge and patient during my training and practice exercises.  Now at Glover’s Atoll, I kept reminding myself to keep calm, control my breathing, hold nose and blow and so forth. Once there, the views were comforting too. Looking at the nearby great coral ridges, with some rising dramatically and plunging into the ocean into the clear water made me mysteriously excited of what lies beyond this intense surface. 

As nervous as I was inside the sea hearing my own heavy breathing, I was taken aback by what I saw. Words alone can describe what utter excitement it was to be for a moment in a different and strange world.  An ecosphere so close yet so foreign and mysterious strives beneath.  Although terrified, I was in awe of the fish swimming around me.  I saw an intimidating barracuda and schools of yellow tail snappers.  A green moray eel, with a head larger than mine, was looking on curiously from underneath two overlapping rocks. Every coral head held its own surprise. I saw Baby angelfishes, damselfish and tiny arrow crabs and even small worms like the “Christmas tree” and “Feather dusters” which retracted back into their hard shells whenever they sensed danger.  Even the sand held its own wonders. I saw a Green Razor fish hovered over the sand and dived into the sand whenever it felt threatened.  A number of rays, fishes, and eels crawled under the sand as if though playing a game of checkers for their own amusement.

To my surprise, I was also tuned into the sounds around and above.  I could hear the subtle crackling sound of the corals, the crash of the waves against the reef and the feel of the surge.

Belize Barrier Reef

My first experience was both exhilarating and additive. I had forgotten about Tony who was far lost in the gigantic aquarium of Belize’smarine biodiversity.  Unsuspectingly, I discovered a new sport and I was eager to do more dives.

Next we did the open water dive at the Gladden Spit in hope to see the great giant of the Ocean. I was equally astounded here.  Unfortunately, after an hours dive, I did not see a single whale shark until the second dive. Just as we were getting ready to leave, in the distant blue of the sea, a silhouette of a large fish was making itself more visible revealing all the white spots on its body as it swam towards me.  This was indeed a moment.  Diving just 25 feet under water on a late afternoon of a second full moon, had reached its climax with this large breath-taking but curious sea giant coming right up to me. It swam around me for a brief second just to see who I was and swam out of sight into the depths of the ocean.  Although this magical experience lasted less than ten seconds and I ended up swallowing plankton and seawater, it was all worth seeing. I would do it all over again upon an eye’s blink.

Whale Shark

Since these dives, I am a converted diver and a certified dive  master too. If I was told that on the first dive, I would have called it their bluff!  Now Tony and I can enjoy exceptional honeymoons in each dive destination we visit. We have been married now for fifteen years and our love is still going strong and enjoying many similar hobbies and interests like diving! 

If you are interested in learning how to dive you can contact Patricia Ramirez at patricia@splashbelize.com or visit www.splashbelize.com for more information. She will make your diving experience memorable!