Finding out your ancestory ....

We saw many amazing things on the Malta trip. What was amazing was that we also found out a bit about our selves and our ancestory! Take Becci for example:

Becci is an excellent diver as this image shows ...she has excellent buoyancy, is comfortable in the water and is great fun.

But we reckon it also showed an amazing similarity to something else. We were not sure what exactly; there was something about the posture, maybe the suit she was wearing, but we didn't have the answer. Then it came to us and here as the best we could come up with ...... what do you think?

No rest.....!

Well we all came back from Malta yesterday after a thoroughly good holiday - trip report coming soon, but we'll leave out the gross bit about Chris eating the beetle, not convinced that survival training skills were a neccessity in Malta! - and came back to 4 students finishing their PADI Advanced Open Water, 8 finishing their PADI Open Water course and yet more students in the pool starting their Open Water Course. Congratulations to you all!

More Open Water Students and off to Malta

Last weekend saw 17 club membersa fly off to Malta and 7 new open water divers!

Is there something we should know ......?

We forgot to mention this .... Last Thursday when the beeb were here, our good friend Simon from Oceanic rocked up in his nice new van. And a lovely van it is as well - covered in great images, loads of stock and with a bit of sponsorship from PADI thrown in. Simon (who we have to admit takes a bit of stick when he comes to visit) has eventually passed his driving test and with a Yorkie bar in one hand, the steering wheel in the other, he can now be seen eating up the miles around the country.

On closer inspection we noticed that the van not only holds loads of gear that we can spend our money on, but also has a bedroom area above the cab so that Simon can get a good nights sleep in between taking in those orders and making divers happy. We just wondered ..... given the description of the said sleeping area (see image below), what does he dream about???? Is there something you want to tell us Simon?

Speciality Instructor Training

Crikey - what a busy weekend it was. As well as 6 students starting an OW course the other programme that was running was the Speciality Instructor Course. 4 of our recent IDC candidates undertook the training which culminated in 2 days at Horsea this weekend. The training programme which is run by a Course Director is designed to provide instructors with an insight into the logistics, planning and conduct of speciality courses. The students covered 7 programmes in total; wreck, deep, navigation, drysuit, search and recovery, nitrox and one of our distinctive speciality course, twinset diver. Hopefully, we might see them teaching these programmes around the dive centre in the future. Well done guys.

Rescue Diver Fun

5 candidates successfully passed their Rescue Diver training course this weekend at Horsea. There was plenty of "diver diver are you ok" going on and some good weather made it a really fun as well as educational time. It was good to see Cam back in the water as well as "the body". And I am sure she will be glad to know that I decided not to photoshop the course photo! It was tempting though, and there is still a newsletter to go out. Well done to all the candidates.

Master Scuba Diver Success

Many congratulations to Michael Gear and Simon Lamb who have joined that elite band of Master Scuba Divers when the completed their Rescue Diver training this weekend. To achieve the highest non-professional dive training rating, candidates must complete the rescue course and 5 specialities. And neither of them injured themselves while they finished off the rescue course .... remarkable.

Can't Dive ..... or Drive!

Several years ago car and van manufacturers came up with a brilliant idea. The worked out that if you put mirrors on the sides you can see what you are doing when you go backwards. Incredible! Unfortunately one instructor missed this particular point during his driving training as you can see. And guess who it was ..... Timeeeeeeeeee! Can't believe his company let him have a mercedes.

All sorts of stuff ....

It has been a bit manic this week with various things including courses, first aid training, and the BBC - so time for a bit of a catch up.

Last weekend saw the last of our Scientific Diving Techniques courses finish - and our first students on the course who were not studying at the university. Five in total finished the training so well done to all of them. That is it for this year on those courses, but we hope to bring news of a new distinctive speciality in the summer.

Our six IDC candidates all arrived in Bristol for the Instructor Examination, all somewhat apprehensive not unaturally given the occasion. James turned up having come off a night shift at 4 that morning which was not ideal! Throughout the weekend all the candidates did extremely well and worked incredibly hard, just as they had during the IDC. Unfortunately, a bit of bad luck, exam nerves, whatever the cause (ironically to probably the most experienced candidates in the group) meant that 2 of the group will have to pop back in a month to resit one of the sections. No great shakes, it happens and we will be with them and supporting them at the next IE. To the other 4 candidates it was plain sailing and we wish you every success in the future. The whole team will be back this weekend for speciality instructor training. The whole team also qualified as EFR instructors during their IDC , during which they used their skills and knowledge to good effect. This allows them to teach the primary and secondary care, care for children and the "add-ons" (because they are not stand alone programmes) of AED and O2.

The BBC came to visit on Thursday for a morning of filming ahead of the Bahamas in July. The aim was to get some footage showing how the star (known as the "contributor") learned to dive ahead of his trip when we will take him to dive the amazing wreck we sank last year. The fiming went really well; James remembered all his stuff from his course and the Director was happy enough. We will let you know how the Bahamas bit goes in August when we get back.

So that pretty much brings you up to speed. This weekend as well as the MSDT prep we have a rescue course and an open water starting so we let you know how that goes.

Well Done to our New Open Water Students - and Charlie!

Another 4 Open Water Students passed at the weekend. Many congratulations to all of them. And a particularly big WELL DONE to young Charlie (Aged 10), who successfully managed to get his Junior Scuba Diver qualification.

IDC Finishes - next week it's the Instructors Exam

The IDC that has been running for the past 10 days finished yesterday. It has been a great course even though it has been hard work. The final open water session was at Horsea with everyone getting excellent scores. Next weekend all 6 candidates are off up to Bristol for the two day instructors exam. We will let you know how they get on, but given how well they all did on the IDC we are very hopeful for a full house of passes.

Advanced Course

Well done to our Advanced Open Water Course Students who sucessfully passed at the end of May.