Sunday Catch Up

The after school diving club at Basildon Academies is doing very well, with everyone completing their Knowledge Review 1 and Quick Quiz 1 and both students and staff enjoying the course.

Tuesday night we were in the deep pool with Rhonda was working on her dry suit course with Nicole, Mia and Fernando. In the deep pool with have the unique opportunity to go through all the required skills, and being 20ft deep, you feel what it is like to get a squeeze on your dry suit. ‘The Invert’ (head down, feet up) is always interesting, seeing the students roll out and vent the suit before reaching the surface on a runaway ascent. Although this makes it difficult to work out if the suit is leaking or whether they are actually letting the water in! This was all in preparation for the weekend mentioned later in the post. Also on Tuesday night, we had Ian H. completing Steve’s referral course, ready for his trip to the Red Sea with Orca on the 4^th April. From the forthcoming trip, we also had Sarah, Alex, Nigel, Sharon, Liam, Michaela and another Steve preparing for the trip too! As well as this, Carol’s student, Lazar, couldn’t get in the pool because of a cold, so spent the time in the classroom doing his knowledge reviews. Lynne also had two DSDs in the deep pool with us too.

On Thursday night, we had the final South Woodham Ferrers pool night for the current open water course. 13 out of the 15 students have now completed their referral and the final two will complete their course in the deep pool after Easter! Although it is quite easy to teach a large group of students the theory for open water course, we break down the confined open water into small groups. Jamie, Dave, Gary and Rhonda all worked in the pool with the students in their smaller groups. To complete the line up of instructors, Gill was working with Sophie to finish her referral as she is travelling with her family to the Red Sea on Sunday! Have a great time everyone, we know Emperor Divers will look after you well!

We also had a guest visit the centre on Thursday...

Gary and Janie spent all Friday putting kit away and pumping tanks, ready for the weekend. While outside, there was a hive of activity around the deep pool as Fred had a big shoot at the studio on Friday and Saturday with lots of equipment being taken in and out!

This weekend Orca has been away! Rhonda took her three dry suit students and an advanced open water student up to Gildenburgh. Diving this time of year can be very cold, but with the right equipment (i.e. dry suits), good undersuits and suitable gloves and hoods, it can still be great fun! As with any dive, if you cannot equalise, it cannot be forced, as one of our students soon found out. Mia was only able to get to 5m and not equalise properly, so had to abort her dive. Once she was safe out of the water, the rest of the students carried on with the dive. Mia did try on the second dive, but still had trouble with her ears and took the sensible decision not to push it. On Saturday, Richard completed his advanced open water and Nicole and Fernando completed their dry suit courses in preparation for Sunday. Then on Sunday, Orca went to Nemes in Kent, so Rhonda could complete the open water skills for her rescue course students. Out of the seven students on the course, Steve was moving house, Mia still had problems with her ears and Fernando came down with a cold overnight, so they have all put back completing their course until after Easter. So we would like to congratulate Rachel, John, Richard and Tony on completing their rescue course, and we look forward to working with them all in the future as they have all shown interest in becoming dive masters! Also, in a very rare moment this weekend, Gary got in the water and was working with Calum on two of his advanced open water dives, Wreck and Peak Performance Buoyancy (PPB). Taking advantage of Nemes’ new underwater transport system (the bus!), Calum used this as one of the wrecks to explore. Calum hasn’t been in open water for a while, but really enjoyed the experience. He will be going up to Gildenburgh soon to complete his advanced open water and wants to move straight on to a rescue course!

Next week we will be in the pool Tuesday and Thursday, so if anyone wants to join give the centre a call! As it is now the Easter holidays for schools, Gary has two weeks off working with Basildon Academy, but will carry on working with South Essex College.

Guest blogger: Courtney

On Saturday 14^th of March, I went to the Underwater Film Studio in Basildon for work experience, to help the film crew shoot a music video for a band called The Maccabees. This involved me being able to ask questions about their jobs, and how the film crew got to where they are now. Everyone was very open to discussing his or her life experiences with me, making me feel comfortable in an unknown environment. I also got a chance to talk to the directors and camera crew about my ambitions, and they gave me great advice on how to progress in what I would like to achieve in the future.

The start of the day was a little rushed; however by setting up the equipment with the crew, I instantly felt like part of the team. This helped me to relax, considering I was in such an important underwater shoot for the music video. After the studio was set up, it allowed me to ask more questions of what the crew wanted to shoot and how they were going to do this. As well as this, the lighting was explained in great detail, allowing me to understand the reasoning behind what they were shooting. This hands on experience will allow me to extend my own understanding of lighting for my own photography shoots as part of my Level 3 BTEC in Photography, where I regularly use the studio and the studio lighting. In addition, I have learnt how to layer films one on top on the other, again teaching me a new skill, one of many that is transferable to my work. I feel I have extended not only my technical skills, but also my confidence in a demanding situation. 

When continuing to talk to the crew, I spoke to the makeup stylist and the people in the wardrobe department. This allowed me to look at other aspects of the film crew and understand their importance in the making of the film. This experience has encouraged me to continue my aspirations and continue onto university, as I aim to proceed into this industry.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the whole crew for allowing me to take part in such an exciting day!

Courtney

Sunday Catch Up

On Monday, Gary started the Basildon Academies After School Scuba Diving Club, for the fourth consecutive year! As per usual, we always get a member of the school’s staff on board, as we started to sign paperwork and work out the course structure. We have a member of the school’s staff present to cover safeguarding and to meet our chid protection policy. In the evening, Gary was working with Eden and Lee on their theory for their open water course. As Eden is only eleven, he is doing the Junior Open Water Course, so rather than purely home study for the theory, we also have class teaching as well to help him understand anything he is unsure about. So far Eden has got 9 out of 10 on his quick quizzes, so he is doing exceptionally well!

Over the previous weekend, Danny from Anglia Ruskin University, had got in touch with our centre to say they were starting a society for scuba diving within the university and were looking for a dive centre to partner with. Danny came down on Tuesday night to have a look at our facilities and to talk to Gary. He really liked what we could offer and Orca is going to help with the setting up and running of the Scuba Diving Society for Anglia Ruskin! Also on Tuesday night, we were back in the deep pool in Basildon, with Rhonda completing the pool session for the rescue course. Ian H. and Carol were both taking their open water courses, which are both moving forward. As well as this, we had Sophie back in the pool doing an Open Water Referral, as she is off to Egypt to do her qualifying dives. She has already completed all her theory and is really moving forward on her skills too!

On Thursday evening we were back in South Woodham Ferrers’ pool, where we had our final night with the SEAL Team! They were introduced to underwater photography, where they got the chance to use cameras and GoPros. After receiving everyone’s agreement, two of the children’s fathers got in the pool to take some pictures. This was quite amusing as one of them is an ex-instructor, and after using scuba gear for a while, popped his head out of the water with a big smile on his face, saying he misses diving! Jamie has started to put together some of the footage from the night, and until the full video is ready, here is a short clip!

During Friday afternoon, the centre had a visit from Basildon Academies’ Sport BTEC group, where they toured the facilities and went through kit assembly and disassembly, explaining how it all works. This included showing the students the compressor room, to show hem how we pump the cylinders. Additionally, we also had Francesca in the centre working on the website, which should be online soon! Although this seems an easy job, writing all the text for each page is driving her mad! We will be hearing more from Fran at a later date.

Just a final mention about upcoming trips: the Farnes Islands trip in October is quickly filling up, so if you want to play with the seals, get in touch sooner rather than later! Also, the August liveaboard to Fury Shoals in the Red Sea, is now up on the board, so anyone looking for any information, please ring the centre or pop in for a chat!

Guest Blogger: Matthew Szechenyi

Matthew is one of our Open Water divers, who has just completed his Masters Documentary Film Degree! He has been filming the divers in the pool recently, and has put together this great montage for Orca!

Click on the picture below to access the video:

Sunday Catch Up

On Tuesday we were in the deep pool in Basildon. Carol and Ian, fresh from their Instructors Exam, were teaching their first Open Water course! Ian was working with Paul and Carol with Mark as Dive Masters. Both courses are going well, with all objectives being achieved. Rhonda was carrying on with her Rescue course, going through the emergency action plans in the classroom, where the students compared each other’s plans to see if everyone had completed it efficiently. We find this exercise very useful, especially as most of the students have mentioned they want to move onto a Dive Master course, where they produce a more in depth Emergency Rescue Plan. Rhonda is going to open water on the 29^th March, with the Rescue course, so if anyone else would like to join in to refresh their rescue skills or would like to be a ‘victim’, please let the centre know!

Wednesday afternoon, we had more theory lessons in the centre with Sophie, Eden and Lee, going through open water theory. Doing the theory on a separate day to the pool tends to take the pressure off young students, as there is no hurry to get in, therefore making the slower pace more relaxing for the students.

After Janie had a day off on Wednesday for her mum’s birthday, she had a very busy day Thursday sorting all of Tuesday’s kit and preparing for South Woodham Ferrers pool night that evening! Once again the pool was busy with Writtle College, getting ever closer to their open water dive as they complete Confined Dives 3/4. The group of 15 is broken down into three teams, some of which have progressed further than others. The SEAL Team are still having great fun with Jamie leading the students. There are only two weeks left of the course, and their progress is really beginning to show! Development of skills is something we notice but can sometimes fail to relay to our new divers. At times, we have filmed the students throughout the course, which is always a source of amusement going over the old footage with the students so they can see their own development. We find this a brilliant learning tool too!

Gary had an early start Friday, dropping off equipment to the dive centre, to be sorted, checked and put away, but also to reload certain kit for the Basildon Academy Sport BTEC students. The Academy students had an hour and half pool session Friday afternoon, where we practice the skills they have learnt. Again we saw the progress they made since they first started the course!

Saturday was a quiet day in the centre, but the deep pool was used for a film shoot, as it is primarily an underwater studio. We had arranged for one of the Basildon Academy Sixth Form photography students to have a behind the scenes look of how a pop promo video is made. Courtney had a great time working with the photographers, make up artists, sound technicians and dive team, and met the lead singer of The Maccabees, Orlando Weeks. She will also be writing her experience for our blog, which will be published during the week!

Today we were back in the centre to complete the confined open water course we started last Saturday. We used this opportunity for other students to get in the water too. Rhonda completed Petros and Nicolas’ referral, who are off to Thailand next week! Good luck guys and have a fantastic holiday! Ian H. was working with students from South Essex College, who we will be hearing a lot more from in the near future! Nick was working on a ReActivate course, with a mum, dad and son, whilst Carol was working with the youngest daughter on the confined open water. Their next holiday at Easter will be to the Red Sea, where old and new divers will have great fun and we hope to get a report from them on their return! It is always great to see the enthusiasm spread from one generation to another within the family. Following the family theme, we had Dave and his son in the pool for the first time, going through skills with their full face masks. Watching them remove and replace masks and then changing from full face to a standard mask, brought back memories of when Gary did his disabled instructor course, where they had to use full face masks on students who could not hold a regulator in their mouth.

Coming up next week, on Monday we start Basildon After School Open Water course, which is the fourth year Orca has run this course, as we always have great fun working with them! Usual pool times are this Tuesday and Thursday. At this point, Gary would like to say a big thank you to all the staff that work tirelessly and professionally with us. Although the instructors often get a lot of credit, without dive masters and rescue divers and other team members who help out, none of it could be possible. Over the next few weeks, we will be giving the opportunity for some of them to write a blog post to share their experiences of working with us!

Sunday Catch Up

On Monday, Gary was working with South Essex College where all the students passed their final exam on the PADI Open Water course. Well done everyone! They all have one final theory session with the Recreational Dive Planner to complete the theory section of the course too. Although we use computer based open water crew packs and all our regulators have dive computers on them, we still teach the basic dive tables so everyone has the basic understanding and knowledge before moving on to the computers.

We were back in the deep pool on Tuesday night in Basildon. It was a busy night including Open Water and Rescue courses, which are all progressing well. Carol, who just came back from Egypt after completing Instructors Exam, was back teaching DSDs, and two of these students are going onto open water, which will be Carol’s first students starting next week!

Gary headed to Hadleigh, near Southend, on Wednesday to have a meeting regarding working with some young adults with behavioural difficulties. This follows on from the work we do with Basildon Academy and we are planning to also work with SkillForce, who are a charity that works in schools, drawing on the skills of ex-Forces personnel, to inspire young people to succeed. A lot of this work is made possible from the funding we receive from Sport Essex, which help get young people who aren’t sport motivated to get into sports. We feel that this also works to help with their confidence and self-esteem, and to possibly back into mainstream education. In the late afternoon, Gary was working with young students on their Confined Water 1. The 10/11 year olds are taught in centre, rather than rely on them to learn themselves at home in their own time.

As part of work we do with Basildon Academy, on Thursday Gary attended a careers convention for year 10 and 12, along with friends Laura and Steve, who each told the students their personal stories of how they got to where they are today. In the afternoon, Scuba Travel came to the centre to talk about next year’s holidays (2016):

1. One week on a liveaboard to the Red Sea 
2. A week on a liveaboard in the Maldives, followed by a week in a resort on the island. More news on these trips to follow!

As well as this, Janie was getting the equipment ready for South Woodham Ferrers that evening. Again at the pool, we had great fun with the Writtle College Red Sea Trip students, who were split into three groups working with three different instructors, Dave Chapman-Young (DCY), Rhonda and Gary. Nadine was also working with two people having their first experience scuba diving with the Discover Scuba Diving programme. In addition to this, Jamie headed up the SEAL Team, with the help of Janie and Nicole, which ended up with the usual Splash Time - a free for all in the water with students and staff!

On Friday Gary was back in Basildon Lower Academy with the Sports BTEC students, who are doing really well and we are starting to see all their skills come together. During Saturday, we had an open water referral course start in the deep pool at Basildon. Petros had got in touch trying to arrange an open water course as him and his friend Nikolas, are going to the Philippines at the end of March and could not find another centre to cater to this short time frame and they will be finishing their course off next Sunday. While this was going on, Andy Harris was also in the pool with three young DSDs who had a great time, and two very proud grandparents watched through the window and took photos to share with their family! After taking the open water referral course, Rhonda then took the last EFR course for her rescue students, which one student, Richard, finished this morning. Well done!

We have two pool sessions this week – Tuesday in the deep pool and Thursday at South Woodham Ferrers. We are also back in the deep pool Sunday – times will be posted on Facebook later in the week. Our other new instructor Ian Herbert, will be running a Night Diver speciality course in April. More information about this will become available later, but if anyone is interested please get in touch with the centre!