Mapping NZ dive locations

[sail-fish]

Hi All,

I decided to do something about this beginners feeling of not knowing where all the dive spots are so decided to build a dive site which maps all the dive sites in nz. The only problem I face is the one before I started and thats not knowing where the sites are in the first place!! My fiancée knows a few and has put them up. You can upload as many photos as you want for each site which is cool. I'll be adding video to the sites soon as well. There are support forums as well, so feedback is welcome and ideas or bugs (there are a couple that I need to fix: display ones that is). Another side to the site is that it holds dive logs. Being a computer person I hated from day one having to fill out the manual dive log book so thought id put my dive logs online. I put this into the site so anyone can do it. If everyone puts up one site each then that would save me driving all over nz. I've made it so you can rate them as well. For those that want to use it outside nz, feel free it will work for you but I planned it for beginners in nz. site is www.octidive.co.nz . Sites like kapiti island where seals swim with you are awesome. I highly recommend that one.

hopefully see some new sites soon

cheers

mike

[AndyNZ]

Nice idea, Mike.

It's certainly going to be an interesting year in NZ online diving! There are a number of other sites all doing the same thing, to a greater or lesser extent.... e.g. Divemaster - New Zealand Scuba Diving Guide to Dive Sites, Dive Shops and Dive Charter Directory including maps and diving photos.

Would be nice if everyone could pool resources and get behind one site and make it work really well!

[sail-fish]

d'oh didnt see that site. I guess one of the main points to the one i built is tying up your photos to your dive logs. I run nz's largest online 4wd community so have a little experience in such sites. I'll add the video up tonight on to the sites which hopefully should give that advantage over the others.

A good community site should have the following in my opinion:

site locations mapped
photos on the locations
videos on the locations
ratings by the users
dive logs, personal and public
support forums.
user photo galleries (soon to come)
buddy lists with buddy updates. (soon to come)
bio warnings from bio security nz (soon to come)
Hoefully that should make this site a tool for nz divers.

But if the user base is not there its all in vein ;-) But you know what they say, good things take time

[AndyNZ]

Hope it works out, Mike!

[Packhorse]

It may be easyier to map all the non dive sites on NZ coast!
Spot X dive has a ship load of sites in it and it misses heaps!

As Andy said there are many pre existing web sites that list dive sites. Check them out and steal their data!