Two more PADI Instructors

Many congratulations to Andy and Phil on successfully completing the final parts of the Instructors Exam yesterday. Andy, an experienced BSAC Advanced Instructor, and Phil, who is equally experienced on the military and commercial diving side of life, both had a bit of bad luck in Bristol last month and had to come back and do one segment of the 2 day exam. We were there to encourage and support them and as our very busy season continues, we look forward to seeing them teaching in the dive centre in due course. Well done guys.

wah hay ... it's bloomin windy!

Yes the weather was a tad on the blowy side, but it didn't stop us. An all girl course finished with 2 Scuba Divers and 3 Open Water divers. It was a bit of a trek because with Horsea closing we had to go slightly further afield but once the logistics had been sorted out it all went well.
The wind and the weather threatened to blow out our try dive pool at Gunwharf, but we got lucky. The sun was shining on the Saturday and after about 12.00 on the Sunday it dried up and the kids started jumping in. So while it would have been nice to have had great sunshine and no wind or rain it didn't dampen spirits and was still a great success. Many thanks to everyone who helped us out over the weekend - we hope you had some fun.

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.

Whirlwind liveaboard

What can I say? A fantastic week of diving, a fantastic bunch of people and a fantastic boat. It was so good that we've already booked next years trip for a Southern Red Sea trip, and also a another boat that will do the Northern Red Sea Wrecks and Reefs.

A full trip report will be on the website in the next couple of days so keep an eye out for that. Just a little taster of some of the fantastic photo's that'll be posted soon on the site; the pod of dolphins that we spent nearly 10 minutes playing with.

If you'd like details of the trips next year then give the dive center a call.

SMB Workshop

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.

Summer is here - and we're really busy

Summer sems to have arrived, for the moment anyway, so the students all came back with slightly red faces at the weekend. There were rescue courses and open water courses finishing at horsea, so it was busy. Well done to all the students who completed those courses. On the Saturday morning the 20 club members heading off to Egypt for a week all met up for some smoked salmon and champers before the off - well you might as well. We are going to be on board Whirlwind and we think that there is internet access onboard, so hopefully Ian, who is running the trip, will be able to send us some regular reports and snapshots. We will post a full report in the Newsletter when they get back.

Scientific Diving Techniques

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.

Injuries everywhere

Last week it was poor old Simon Lamb - nearly fatally wounded when he plunged a stanley knife at least 3mm into his hand. And the accidents seem to be escalating. Ian managed to put a huge hole in his finger that broke the skin and bled for nearly 5 seconds, I snagged a bit of skin on my thumb (which was really stingy) and Donk broke a finger nail. Thankfully, paramedics were on the scene to save our lives just in time.

A Cracking Club Night - John Bevan evening

It was another excellent club night and presentation. Numbers were slightly down for one reason and another but there were still over 70 people at the function. We held the presentation in the Victory room of the Royal Beach - a new facility and very well decked out. John spoke on the history of diving in the area and it went down extremely well. We also raised quite a bit for charity had have donated £200 to the Historical Diving Society

It was very nice to see members from Southsea SAC, Portsmouth East, Cockleshell, and Portsmouth Univ Divers as well as our own club members.

Not sure what the next presentation will be - we are working on it.

Next club meeting will be on 5 June