Mr. Takashi Ito and his wife Kyoko Ito owner of Kohama Island Dive Shop (Ito Service) in Okinawa, Japan has returned to Yap and among other things celebrated a birthday with us.  This is Mr. & Mrs. Itos’ 26^th visit to Yap and the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers.  Ito’s diving love is manta rays and everything about his life in Okinawa revolves around these magnificent creatures.  The outside of his house features a manta mating train and his pool has mantas on the bottom.

When asked for his favorite dive site, Ito immediately said “an incoming tide at Manta Ridge”.  This site is actually named Tzimoulis Ridge in honor of the late Paul Tzimoulis but Ito, like a lot of other old time guests, still refers to it as Manta Ridge.  His most memorable dive at the ridge in Mi’l Channel was the time when he witnessed a mating train of over 25 rays following one of the big females in crystal clear water.

Takashi Ito, Bill Acker and Thaddaeus Sullivan

For his birthday, the staff gave Ito handmade flowered leis and Bill Acker presented him with one of our 25^th Anniversary pins.  Everyone then sat together over a couple of cold beers and fresh sashimi while reminiscing about past dives and planning for future trips.

Alex Raimon,Takashi Ito, Bill Acker & Grandson Taz and Kyoto Ito

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Congratulations to Mr. Guntram Vogelsgesang of Hohenfurch, Germany whose name was drawn from over 550 entries during a ceremony Friday the 4th of February on the S/V Mnuw.  Guntram has been notified that he has won a free 7 night/5 dive day stay at the Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers, Micronesia’s finest dedicated dive resort.  A separate letter of thanks has been sent to all other entrants.

Guntram, as seen here sporting a brand new Mares‘ cap, has notified us that his vacation time for 2011 is allocated but that he will be here sometime in 2012.  We look forward to seeing him in Yap and to hopefully welcoming many of the other entrants from the BOOT Show 2011.  Thank you again to everyone who stopped by either of the two Yap Divers’ booths at this year’s show.

Guntram Vogelsgesang from Hohenfurch, Germany

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We at Manta Ray Bay Resort & Yap Divers would like to take a minute to thank the newbies, the repeaters and colleagues from the industry who passed by at our booths at the „Salon de la Plongee“ in Paris, the „boot“ show in Düsseldorf as well as the „FESPO“ in Zürich. Bill, Jan, Detlef and me had a fantastic time during the European show circuit, and it was great to see that the interest in Yap and Micronesia picked up big time.

Manta Fest shapes up very well and we were able to catch the interest of some of the diving world’s biggest companies for the event. News will be coming up shortly. So: thank you very much – it was a pleasure to meet you (once again!)

Daniel