Great South Sponsorship - Update

With pledges still coming in I am really pleased to tell you that the total now raised has just gone over the £1000 mark. Thanks to everyone for your support - it is fantastic.

Great South Sponsorship

We've tallied the sponsorship money pledged so far and it comes to just under £1000 in total. Many thanks to all the club members who sponsored the runners, my thanks to everyone at Xyratex who sponsored me, to those at Estee Lauder for sponsoring Andi Davies and to Rothman Pantall for their generous sponsorship of Terry Stocker.

Open Water Successes

Congratulations to all the students that passed their Open Water Courses this weekend. You all did brilliantly, especially with the foul weather! Lets hope it perks up for the students that completed their pool/classroom sections of the course this weekend - but just for you - we've got brand new shiny wetsuits for you next week too!

Well Done to Everyone - The Great South Run

Lets face it the weather was horrendous. So please join me in saying well done to the Triton Team that completed the Great South Run today. Congratulations to:
Chris Gambs (an amazing 66 minutes 168th place), Simon Lamb (1 hr 19), Ruth Sims (1 hr 21), Kim Jones, James Douglas, Adrian Pashley, Terry Stocker, Andrea Davies, Catriona Sutherland, Felipe, and not forgetting ......... yours truly (3 coughing fits, a bad dose of man flu, 74 minutes and 783rd) - Yes I was pleased - thought I was going to die!!

Well done everyone - a fantastic effort!

Great Instructor Meeting - but what happened afterwards?

Last week saw 22 instructors and qualified staff turn up for our regular instructor meeting and entertainment. We held the whole thing at the Noble House in Osborne Road and covered all sorts of topics from changes in standards to equipment maintenance. After the meeting we had an excellent meal and many thanks to John and all his staff for looking after us so well. However, several of the party moved on after the meal for a few drinks and I just happened to be looking through the photos when I came across this one. I recognize newly requalified instructor Chris and full time member of staff Ian, but the dance steps are new to me - can anyone give me a clue. Answers on a postcard to PADI Quality Assurance Department (Role Model Behaviour Section), Unit 7, St Philips Central, Bristol.

The Sun is Shining

Well last weekend was a lot of fun - dive show weekend and we had loads of great bargains, plenty of wine and food and it was great to see so many of you over the 2 days. This weekend the sun has been out and the open water course finished. Many congratulations to all the successful students; we look forward to seeing you on your next course or the club meeting on 1 November.

Donk Seen in Jelly Bean Fancy Dress Costume

When Donk decided to rip the zip from his suit he just popped along to the Horsea dive centre and grabbed a hire one. What he didn't know was that it would make him look like a giant jelly bean! Nice one Donk.

More Recognition from PADI

Its always nice to receive a bit of praise - especially when you dont ask for it! Over the years we have received several Recognition Certificates from PADI for the work we have done and as we received another one last month we thought we would let you know. The citation reads:

Awarded to Triton Scuba for outstanding customer service and professionalism in PADI scuba instruction as acknowledged below:
I am sure there are more glamorous locations in the world to learn to dive – but for me – the Triton team got it spot on where it counts – the quality of instruction was superb. Signed David Morgan

Thanks for that David – we really appreciate it, and it is good to know we are still getting it right.

Hectic Weekend but Successful

It was a bit hectic - with 5 students finishing their open water course, 8 just starting and another 8 doing their Advanced Open Water (great course photo guys!) we knew it was going to be busy. But when the university decided to do over 30 try dives the kit room was looking slightly denuded to say the least. Still with a bit of good planning it worked well, the only major problem was getting enough champers in the fridge to celebrate! Many congratulations to all the successful students and a big warm welcome to the 8 new members who joined the club.

Belize Photos

Some of the photos from Belize are now available on the gallery.....far to many in fact - but then there are 4 DVDs full to choose from!

Another Cracking Club Night

Good to see so many of you at the club meeting last night. Also really nice to welcome our guests from West Wales Divers - glad you enjoyed yourselves and we will look at coming to you for a club trip next year. The raffle raised £70 and a big thank you to everyone who bought tickets. Next club night is going to be on 1 November and if you could let us know if you are coming before the day of the meeting it would be appreciated! Yes you Rosey!

New First Aid at Work Instructors

Many congratulations to Brian, Tim and Mike, who have all passed their EFR Instructor and FAW Instructor programmes with us this week.

Club Trip to Portland

Last weekend saw 16 club members making the trip to Portland, where we 'Teamed up' with Fathom and Blues for some RIB dives. After spending 3 1/2 hours fighting the traffic on Friday night we eventually met up at The Royal Breakwater bar where there was much deliberation about who should sleep where, and if Mike Gear 'really did snore THAT badly'. Then it was beer and discussion about the planned diving for the next day.

Dale had very kindly scheduled the first dives on Saturday for midday, which judging by the state of the hangovers was not a bad thing. We had a mixed group, so there were 2 itineraries booked. The Countess of Erne, and the M2. Viz on The Countess was about 4 metres so not that bad, and was thoroughly enjoyed by those that did the dive, the M2 on the other hand was 'interesting' to say the least. Someone turned the lights off at 17 meters, and with a little current running, it made for an exciting dive. Stories of the huge conger eels, and massive crabs were the talk of the rib ride back.

After a spot of lunch it was time to kit up again for the second dives of the day. Lulworth banks and The James Fennel. For those who haven't done Lulworth Banks, this is a great drift dive. Scallop bed central. F&B have a strict "no take" policy this left some of the divers frustrated in having to leave the food for the BBQ on the bottom - guys, remember fish are friends! Also spotted during the dive was a Thornback Ray, cuttle fish and squid. The guys doing The James Fennel also had a good dive, especially Helen and Charlotte, who, not content with looking at the wreck decided they'd have a little drift dive as well. 25 minutes later they surfaced to find that they were possibly marginally closer to France than they were to England. After making contact with a passing Catamaran, (well actually it nearly ran them over) and using some passable French linguistic skills (just in case) the RIB finally picked them up.

F&B had organized a BBQ for us on the Saturday night with the promise of 'all the beer you could drink'. Being the premier dive club in Portsmouth etc and not wanting to let anyone down, we put in a commendable performance and attempted to drink any profit Dale may have made during the day. Due to the fact that the weather was turning and the BBQ had gone out it was decided that we would retire to The Breakwater for a quicky just before going to bed. It was there that we discovered that contrary to popular belief, Elvis is NOT dead but resides in Portland. Shocking scenes followed as the beer flowed and confidence grew, nearly everyone thought they could do better. Jules in particular was on fine fettle as some shocking video footage of him dancing proves!!

Sunday saw an early start and a few missing faces - something to do with the beer I assume. The weather had also deteriorated so the planned drift off White Nothe was changed to the Landing craft and the Bombard unit in the harbour. Nice dive with plenty to see and lots of life on it.

Charlotte eventually surfaced from her pit and decided that the car was a much better place to be than a RIB. However with much persuasion she decided to come for a ride to Pulpit Rock. Unfortunately the weather was getting worse, and with 2 meter swells and a Force 4 blowing she wished she hadn't as she was drenched in about 30 seconds! So we turned around and did The Countess.

It was yet another classic club weekend away, with plenty of fun and some excellent diving.
Many thanks to Dale , Ron and all the staff at F&B for making it a great weekend. More trips are planned for the next few months so if you want to join in let us know in the dive centre.