Thank you Richard Branson for making the Underwater Festival more affordable this year !

Please check out the updated packages page for new prices. These prices will obviously be also paid by those of you who have already booked your packages ex-Perth

A nice Christmas present on Christmas Island when they spotted 4 whale sharks on boxing day !

Let’s hope they stick around and we’ll all get to swim and dive with them during the festival.

And what’s even better, there will be some aunoc lights as prizes too !

Have a look at the Night Dives – Torch Trial page for more info.

In other great news, our friends at AquaMarine Diving in Bali have come up with a fantastic prize package including 4 nights at The Watergarden and 4 days of diving Bali. An awesome prize for one lucky winner of the shoot-out competition.

Scubapix together with Light & Motion are sponsoring a Light & Motion Sunray 1000 Video Light System worth close to $5000 as well as some other fantastic prizes from Ultra Light Control Systems, Gates, Light & Motion, Aquatica, Sea & Sea and Technical Lighting Control. Scubapix is also offering 10% of Regular Pricing for of all Light & Motion and Aquatica products for registered Festival Entrants – must be direct purchase from Scubapix. Offer only valid until the Festival starts.

Beuchat prizes are fantasic like last year with wetsuits, a full set of scuba gear including regulator/occy, BCD, mask and fins and more.

Another great reason to book your festival spot quickly … before they run out.

Check them out at the bookings & packages tab on the Underwater Festival website.

All you need to make sure you don’t miss out, is follow the links to pay your deposit and specify what accommodation option you prefer.

Any questions, just email or call us and watch the UF10 website for news and announcements.

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underwater australasia is hosting the 4th instalment of its hugely successful annual Underwater Festival on Christmas Island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Held for the first 3 year in Byron Bay, the most easterly point of the Australian mainland, the organisers have decided to ‘spice it up’ and take the festival to a new and exciting location in 2010.

Christmas Island diving is endless kilometres of spectacular wall diving, untouched corals, undersea caves, hundreds of species of tropical fish, dolphins, whalesharks, and warm clear water. Truly a dive destination that has it all.

In 2009 close to $40,000 worth of prizes were awarded in the photo & video shootout competition alone and 2010 will again see a massive prize pool. There will be photo and video clinics, outdoor cinema, BBQs, the underwater party and other fun events. This years successful product trials will continue.

On of the most important aspects of the festivals so far seem to be the social interactions between photographers and videographers from all over the world. Although there is competition involved and the prizes are fantastic, previous years have shown that people very freely exchange tips and trick and new ideas for composition of shots and interesting subjects.

As in the last 3 years of the festival, images captured during the event will help build up a database of species for this location and there will be prizes for those who contribute most new records to the Christmas Island records.

Neville Coleman will again be a VIP guest of the festival and he will be the driving force behind the new species database for Christmas Island. In addition he will conduct a series of Underwater Naturalist and Fish ID programs.

Mathieu Meur has promised his participation with his extremely popular underwater photo clinics for beginners and advanced photographers to continue on Christmas Island. In addition to that we are hoping to have video clinics as well for both new and advanced underwater videographers.

New photographers are encouraged to participate and there will be FREE trial cameras for hire during the festival for those that are new to underwater photography and don’t have their own set-up yet.

UF10 will be officially launched at the Malaysia International Dive Expo in Kuala Lumpur 3-5 July at the underwater australasia and Christmas Island booths. Come and see us there and reserve your spot – places will be more limited as boats and tanks ‘on island’ are limited.

Festival packages will be available on-line from July 2009.

For more info please keep visiting this site – join the facebook group – follow updates on twitter (@UWfestival) or subscribe to the RSS feed.

The 2010 Festival will be held at Christmas Island as part of a new direction the festival is taking. Be excited about discovering new destinations and meet marine enthusiasts, underwater photographers and videographers from around the world.

We start with one of our favourite diving destinations, Christmas Island in middle of the Indian Ocean. Endless kilometres of spectacular wall diving, untouched corals, hundreds of species of tropical fish, dolphins, whalesharks, warm clear water, caves and more.

The format of the festival will remain, we will have a shoot-out, photography and possibly video clinics, film, fun and party nights. Watch this space for further announcements.

Video winners have been uploaded as well … hope you enjoy the shows.

We hope to see you all next year at the 2010 Underwater Festival – keep your eyes on this site for some exciting announcements !