The good news is that Horsea Island is not going to be closing. There was a rumour that the military were going to be stopping the use of the lake by civilian recreational divers. Many of you will have signed the petition that was produced at the booking office. I have to be honest and say it is not the first time that I have heard such rumours, but the last time I was sat on the other side of the fence as the person running the military training and negotiating the contracts with Andark on behalf of the MOD! I suspect it will raise its head again in the future unfortunately - that is the nature of the beast. However, for now, HIDC have a concession to continue to operate and we hope it continues.
There have been a few additional restrictions placed on diving in the lake though and I received the following from Karen at HIDC:
"As many of you will know we have recently been campaigning to keep Horsea Island Dive Centre open as a civilian dive site, and for all the support, you, our valued customers have given us we are thankful. So it’s now with a big sigh of relief that we can announce that Horsea will be OPEN at weekends 0800-1630. There are however, some changes to the rules, firstly we will only have access to the small toilet block at the top of Zone 3 (ask any staff if you are unsure about the location), and we will now be using Zone 2 (Sea Survival) changing facilities as our primary toilets/showers.
The second change is that security will be stepped up; we will now be requiring photo ID upon entry to the site. The other security change will be that we will now be escorting people on the site, to make this work efficiently can we ask that groups arrange to meet at the booking office at the same time.
Sadly currently we are closed midweek due to continuing military operations, we hope that we can gain access to the site Wed-Fri again soon, however this does not affect your bookings, if you wish to make a booking, you can still call/email/fax us during the week and a member of staff will be here"
So, a bit of a walk for a pee and you will need to bring some ID with you but otherwise business as usual.
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.
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.
Horsea was a sea of inflatables this morning when ten club members took advantage of the first workshop of the year and learnt all about using and deploying SMBs. Workshops are free to club members and there will be more coming up this year including Bouyancy, Rescue and Equipment Workshops. The Bouyancy workshop will be on 15th June. Please contact the dive centre if you'd like to join in.
Congratulations to all 10 students who passed their PADI distinctive speciality in Scientific Diving Techniques. The course was originally designed for the university as part of the marine biology course, but its popularity has spread to a whole load of other faculties. It offers the chance for recreational divers to have an insight into some of the things that commercial and research divers get up to and they get to have a go at some of the techniques. There are spaces on the last course of the year which starts on 31 May and runs over 2 weekends. You dont have to be a university student to do, it so if you want to try something different, and gain a pretty unique PADI cert, why not give it a go.
Congratulations to all the new Open Water students - you all did brilliantly! Welcome as well to John Hill who is the latest instructor to join our ranks. John has worked a lot in Dahab so brings plenty of experience to the centre. Needs a haircut though!
Congratulations to all those that passed their Advanced Open water this weekend, Rebecca, Roy, Steve and Rob. We had som excellent diving at Horsea and Vobster. Not sure about the growler pose though!
Congratulations to the 6 students who passed their PADI Open Water course this weekend. Sounds like you had a lovely day in the sunshine, some grea viz and some excellent dives. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.
