Weekly Catch Up!

Just a quick reminder that there are still places left if you want to come to the Christmas Party at Three Rivers on November 27th!

In the deep pool this week, Dave was working with the trainee Dive Masters, who had their Knowledge Review and practised Kit Exchange, which proved to be a lot harder than everyone originally thought! We also had four students in for their Dry Suit orientation, including father and son, Andy and Luke. Dad (Andy) quickly found out that if you vent through the wrist seal in an emergency situation, you get extremely wet! We also had a new SEAL Team start on Thursday night with Gill in the South Woodham Ferrers pool!

Over the weekend, we were once again very, very busy! On Saturday we Gill and Rhonda went to Nemes with students who were completing dives 1, 2 and 3, and were also joined by Andy and Luke, who were completing Dry Suit Dives 1 and 2. Congratulations for completing the course!

On Sunday, Gill and Rhonda went back to Nemes with Races and Henry to complete Dive 4, as well as Nimrod and Jasmine who were completing Dives 1 and 2! Gary also went to Nemes on Sunday to have a ‘bimble’ around the lake with father and son, Dave and Travis.

This weekend we are at Stoney Cove Saturday and Sunday, Gildenburgh on Saturday and Nemes on Sunday, so if any staff can help, please get in touch with Gary or the dive centre! Also, if any Trainee Dive Masters want to do their Deep Diver Scenario for their Dive Master Course, this can be done at Stoney Cove this weekend!

Belated Sunday catch up

Sorry for our slightly delayed catch up this week, but here is what we have been up to in the last week. 

It was the last week in school before the summer holidays and this meant Gary was in and out of schools a lot.  He did his final DSD session with Cold Norton Primary school at South Woodham pool. 

At Basildon Academy, it was the last visit to see the guys Gary has been mentoring, he set them up for the summer and wished them well. Gary said goodbye to Laura Chapman who was his liaison at the Academy as she is leaving for pastures new, we wish her all the best for the future.  

We did not have access to the deep pool on Tuesday night, as though the filming had finished, visibility was poor so we are now waiting for the pool to be emptied, cleaned, refilled and heated.

Thursday night we were back in South Woodham pool with plenty going on.  A family with DCY finished their confined sessions and prepared to head out to finish their course at Nemes, Gary was running the last Seal Team and Jamie was with Bernie and Vince, also getting ready to go to open water. 

On the 18th and 19th July we were at Nemes; DCY was with his group of students (all related!), Ian Herbert was with 3 students from local colleges (South Essex and Palmers) and Jamie had 2 new open water divers and 1 new dry suit diver. 

After just over a months filming, we were finally back in the deep pool on the 21st July and what a busy welcome back it was! Callie, Harry and Harrison from the Seal Team had their first experience of the deep pool whilst Jamie and Rhonda held more open water courses.  DCY was training with his new trainee Divemasters teaching DSDs.  We also had some old friends pop down for a bit of fun and to get wet. 

Thursday night was quiet, but for Jamie working on his duck diving, Rhonda taking open water students and Gary working on a DSD. 

Friday was all about getting set for the weekend. We had staff and students at Stoney Cove, Nemes and Guildenburg and therefore had to ensure all of the kit was fully checked and prepared for them, the students did well and the photos below confirm this. 
  

 

 

 

My final thought for this catch up is around one of our most popular trips of the year - diving with the grey seals in the Farne Islands. With such a huge interest we have added another trip to the calendar, the weekend of 31st October to 1st November. If you are keen to go or would like some further information, please contact the centre.  If the last trip is anything to go by, the places will go fast!

Sunday Catch Up

It's been a while since the last post, but we've been very busy! With the ongoing problem of the major film unit being in the deep pool, and not being able to find a suitable alternative, we have had to try and move all pool diving to South Woodham Ferrers on a Thursday night. Luckily enough, SWF is big enough to cater for all of us!

Over the last two Thursdays, we have had six confined open water students on two courses coming to their end and five new students starting their courses. We also had three scuba reviews, the SEAL Team and the Young Divers in as well as DSDs, plays and swims! This has put a lot of pressure on Janie to make sure we have enough kit of the right size for the evenings.

Last weekend we were at Nemes with nine students from Writtle College and three from South Essex College, completing their PADI Open Water qualifying dives over the two days. There was a great effort from team members who went down for the weekend, including Saturday boy Nick who was pumping bottles back at the dive centre, although he may not have the right idea!

Following the big weekend, there was a lot of kit to be washed, checked, dried and put back in the store. On top of the normal everyday runnings of the shop, this took us all the way through till Thursday morning, just in time for that evening's pool night! All the equipment is transported in the trailer, with hanging racks, front and rear doors, and a low threshold so it is easier to walk in and out of, which we find more adaptable than a single large van. All the equipment is loaded back onto the trailer on a Thursday night and returned to the dive centre on Friday morning to be washed and checked again before going back into the store.

At 7am Saturday morning, Gary was back at the dive centre starting to lay out kit for another weekend of training and lake cleaning, shortly followed by staff and students. The more time spent organising and preparing, means we have more time to spend with the students on dive days. This year, we have refined our dive paperwork but this is an ongoing process, with the aim of making dive days as smooth as possible. Not only do we have to complete all PADI paperwork, we have to satisfy Health & Safety Executive (HSE), as we are considered commercial divers, but we hope to minimise the amount of paper we have to store for seven years.

Ian Herbert, Joe, Andy and Daniel Herbert (no relation), were all staffing yesterday at Nemes. It was fairly quiet at Nemes this Saturday and because of this, we managed to complete qualifying dives 1, 2 and 3! Whilst this was going on, we were getting ready for today's training and a lake clearing! Ian H. and his students were back at Nemes on Sunday, with Gary working as a rescue diver. At the same time, Carol Vickers and her team were completing Lazar's open water course. As well as the open water course, Ian H. was completing Summer Harris' dry suit course too. After a very successful day, we have three new open water dives and one new dry suit diver! Well done to Lazar, Mark, Francesca and Summer for their achievements!

As this was going on, we had a team of divers at Bourne Mill millpond in Colchester, attempting to survey the bottom and clear any major items of rubbish. We will have a full story next week from Dave who headed the team. Dave was working with Cheryl, Rhonda, Tony, Janie, Brandon and Graham, with Mark Prior covering the surface support and taking pictures.

This week, Gary has a very busy week mentoring at Basildon Academy, continuing Jupiter House confined open water and giving the opportunity to Years 5 and 6 at Purleigh primary school to complete the BubbleMaker experience, and at Cold Norton primary school, we are in the Year 6 class talking about scuba diving and getting the students ready for their BubbleMaker experience.


Upcoming Events:

11th July - Gilwell UK Scout Headquarters: Offering DSDs from 6pm till 9am, as part of Gilwell 24 (24hrs of non-stop activity!)

12th July - Chepstow: Day of diving!

25th & 26th July - Stoney Cove: Deep, Wreck, Search & Recovery and SMB courses with Carol Vickers.

If you want to join one of the courses, or join us for a dive that weekend, please get in touch with the dive centre on 01268 520111 or 07960 140520.

Belated Sunday Catch Up!

As we have mentioned before, Fred has got a film unit in this month, and so we haven't got any access to the deep pool. However, as ever in the world of showbiz, the film was delayed a week, and so we were able to get in the pool Monday night!

Tuesday was a special event for Marie, celebrating her 70th birthday with two friends, doing their DSDs! All three ladies had a fantastic time, and ticked off another activity on their bucket list! The next thing on their itinerary is white water rafting at the weekend!

We had a very busy night on Thursday at South Woodham Ferrers pool, with three open water courses and a big SEAL Team in the water completing Inner Space Aquamission. This Aquamission is all about buoyancy and is based around the NASA diving pool - which is used for astronauts space training! Although our students didn't get to do any space walks, they did have fun going through hoops of all shapes and sizes!

This weekend we had a full on couple of days! Writtle College Red Sea trip students (batch number 1!) were at Nemes in Kent, completing their PADI Open Water Courses along with Andy Day, who also joined in! Saturday for Writtle College students was spent completing dives 1 and 2, whilst Kevin Nicholls completed scenario 1 for his Rescue course. Whilst on Sunday, the Writtle students and Andy completed dives 3 and 4 to qualify for their open water certification, and Kevin completed scenario 2 for his rescue course. Well done to Zoe, Paige, Angelina, Ben, Carly, Andy and Kevin!

We also had Carol Vickers at Nemes on Sunday with Lazar, who was completing dives 1 and 2 of his PADI Open Water Course. A big thank you to all the staff for their help this weekend: Carol, Gill, Ian H., Jamie, Nadine, Rhonda, Richard and not forgetting Nicole and Janie for their help during the weekend!

A message from Gary:

"Whilst diving at the weekend, I've noticed that sometimes experienced divers are intolerant of students and newly qualified divers. We all started at the beginning, and all worked to the level we are now. I know when I first started, I made many mistakes but did have good divers around me that made sure I was safe, and who were understanding. If a student is coming along a line at an inline dive site, it would only be courteous for an experienced diver to move to the side or above, giving the right of way to the student divers. It is normally very easy to identify students, even in low visibility. The same consideration should be given to training on a platform. Unfortunately, we have had experienced divers landing on us, not looking what they are descending on to and also, doing a safety stop on a line, divers coming up not looking where they are going, and divers bumping us off. This same courtesy goes on to the entry and exit points. Priority should always be given to people exiting the water.

When I was a student, even though I was looked after by very good divers, they never let me forget embarrassing moments or pictures."

This week, we are in SWF pool Thursday night, and at Nemes on Saturday and Sunday, with 11 open water students. Any members of staff who are available to help at the weekend, please call the centre to let Gary know you can make it and on what days.

Don't forget - we are still looking for more people to help with the Bourne Mill clear up on the 21st June! Please get in touch if you can make it!

Sunday Catch Up

Basildon Academy’s Monday After School Club is always difficult when students don’t turn up or haven’t done knowledge reviews! So this week’s session was all about catch for some of the students, before their final exam after half term break!

Tuesday was very busy day for Orca! Gary started off at Basildon Academy mentoring and then got back to the dive centre for the Academy’s Sport BTEC group, who was in the deep pool for the first time. After this session, Gary then went back to Basildon Academy for a mentor meeting about working with some new students. In the afternoon, two students and two staff from the Jupiter Centre (a children’s support service), came to the deep pool for their first pool dive! They were working alongside Carol Vickers and Gary was leading the session. This was the start of a busy week for Carole, who also working Tuesday night and at the weekend! All the students completed Dive 1 on the platform, and then it was time to go down to the bottom of the pool! Following up from previous comments about our staff, we received a text from the staff at the Jupiter Centre to say that everyone had a great time and was very pleased with how patient Carole was with one of the students who was a bit nervous. It is always lovely to hear that our staff has exceeded expectations! The day was finished off with pool night in Basildon, where students were carrying on with open water, rescue, drysuit and DSD courses.

When Gary arrived at the dive centre on Thursday, the roof of the deep pool was just about to come off! Being a film studio, there are times when you need a birds eye view, and for this the roof needs to be removed. In the evening however, we were in South Woodham Ferrers pool and had three open water courses running with six students, as well as the SEAL Team completing Safety Aqua Mission.

Over the weekend, Ian S. went to Stoney Cove with Stew and Sam. Being over thirty metres deep, Stoney is an ideal location for Advanced Open Water and Deep Diver Speciality courses. Stew and Sam finished their advanced open water on Saturday by completing deep, wreck and navigation dives. They then completed three more dives on Sunday for their Deep Speciality course. Well done to you both and thank you to Ian S. for your hard work this weekend!

Whilst this was going on, Gary and the team were back at the centre for two days in the deep pool. Nick was running a rescue course (which is not easy when you only have one student!), but this gives members of staff time to get an Oscar by playing panicked divers! Rhonda was running a confined open water course over the two days, followed by an EFR course in the late afternoon on Sunday, whilst Carole was back with another open water student for confined water dives 1 and 2. As well as all of this, Gary was running dry suit courses in the pool, so it has been a great weekend for us!

Upcoming this week, we have the last Tuesday night deep pool at Basildon until July, as Fred has a film unit in for a month! So this will now be moved to a Monday night at Basildon Lower Academy’s pool at Timberlodge Lane. Later in the week, Gary and Dave will be going to have a look at a dive site in Essex for a possible clear up and underwater survey – more details in the upcoming weeks! Next weekend, we will be back to Nemes running open water courses – any staff that can help out or anyone wanting to join in, don’t hesitate to give the centre a call! 

Sunday Catch Up

Sorry again for the late blog last week, and we’re one day late again this week because of Scuba Fest!

Although Monday was supposed to be spent pumping lots of tanks after the previous weekend, Gary was late getting out of Basildon Academies that morning after mentoring some of the students! As well as this, Janie had the day off and Gary had to return to the school in the afternoon for the After School Diving Club, so by the time Gary arrived back at the dive centre, he had a very busy evening sorting paperwork!

On Tuesday, Gary was able to put all the kit away from the weekend before a great night in the deep pool in Basildon. That evening we had DSDs, Open Water courses and Dry Suit courses all taking place at the same time, as well as four new students from Anglia Ruskin University, who were all having their first taster of scuba diving! All four enjoyed their time with us in the pool and we are looking forward to starting their Open Water Courses soon! We also had Fernando join the dry suit courses, as he was testing out his new dry suit ready for the weekend!

By Wednesday, there was time to start pumping the tanks from the weekend, but now also with the tanks from Tuesday’s pool night! However in the afternoon, James from Scubapro came into the dive centre to discuss new scuba gear and we bought fifteen new regulator sets for the dive school, as well as a few other pieces of equipment for the shop! Up until now we have used Cressi regulators and have had a very good experience with them, but we felt it was time to change, as we are no longer a Cressi dealer and we therefore cannot service the regulators in-house.

South Woodham Ferrers pool night on Thursday saw Gary back in the pool with the SEAL team, who are improving brilliantly! Rhonda, Dave and Gill were all with their open water students, whilst Jamie was with a DSD student, who he also worked with on Tuesday night. Although the student got to the bottom of the deep pool on Tuesday, they were not comfortable in such depth and so we suggested trying out SWF pool to see if they still liked scuba diving. This seemed to work much better and they will be retuning next week for another try dive!

Friday was spent getting everything sorted for Scuba Fest in Cornwall, which included kit checks and tank filling. After a nine-hour journey that night and arriving at 1am, everyone enjoyed some sleep before waking at 6:30am for the first weekend dive! We were diving at Porthkerris, but as easterly winds were coming in, we ended up meeting the boat at Falmouth. Gary watched everyone board the boat in mist and rain, as he stayed behind due to suffering a migraine. Everyone retuned an hour and half later after a great dive seeing three types of rays, Gurnards and some very big barrel jellyfish! There was then a two hour wait for the second dive to a small wreck, which was in the bay as the weather beyond there was still rough. Everyone then went to The Shark Fin Restaurant on Mevagissey harbour front on Saturday night, where we all enjoyed great food and service!

On Sunday we went down to Porthkerris for a couple of dives: a drift just off shore and a pinnacle called Penwen! Both were great dives and we saw lots of life under the sea including Barrel Jellyfish, Ling, Cod, Dead Men’s Fingers, Jewelled Anemones and one thing that was great to see was lots of Pink Sea Fans! Back at Scuba Fest, Gary popped in to see PADI, Fourth Element, Suunto Atomics and the other companies who were attending, and it was great to catch up with old friends! In the evening everyone spent the night at Gary’s van for an indoor BBQ, as it was raining, but all had a great night with friends and a few drinks.

Gary would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who made the long journey down this weekend, especially Richard, Tony, Fernando, Joe, Gill, Rhonda, Sharon, Holly, Russell, Paul, Graham and their families!

Next week we are in the deep pool on Tuesday night, South Woodham Ferrers on Thursday evening. If there are also any staff who are able to come to the centre on Saturday, we would very much appreciate your help sorting the rest of the open water kit in the containers!

Belated Sunday Catch Up!

Sorry we were late this week!

We had a slow start at the beginning of last week, so used this time to check and put away kit from the previous weekend’s dives. Gary was back in Basildon Academies for the After School Diving Club on Monday and also had the Basildon Academies’ BTEC Sports class’ last diving pool session on Friday.

On Tuesday, Gary went to the Children’s Support Service at the Jupiter Centre in Hadleigh. This is to run a PADI Open Water course and work with young people who have become disengaged with education system. The first day consisted of the first theory session, paperwork and an overview of how the course will be run. But, there was no pool night on Tuesday evening in Basildon, as Fred had another film shoot in. However, this gave us a head start to begin sorting out the summer kit! As we have just finished a long winter without many dives, all of our kit has to assessed before we can begin using it again. Gary and Janie made a good start with this process on Tuesday and Wednesday last week!

Last Thursday we had a very busy night in South Woodham Ferrers pool for the evening, where Gary was running the SEAL Team. Gill started a new open water course, whilst Rhonda and Dave continued with their current open water courses. And on Friday, Gary was preparing for the weekend just past.

Rhonda spent Saturday with Steve H. at Nemes to complete his Advanced Open Water course. Steve completed his first four dives in the Red Sea on the recent liveaboard trip, however there was no suitable location to do the navigation part of the course where the trip took place. Steve therefore finished this part of the course in the UK on Saturday with Rhonda! On Sunday, Rhonda went back to Nemes with Tony, Richard and Fernando, who are all newly qualified rescue divers, who after helping out as ‘victims’ on a recent rescue course, identified they would all like to become dive masters. Therefore, they spent Sunday with Rhonda logging up five dives, whilst also gaining more knowledge of the site, for future experience.

Gary is off to Cornwall this weekend to the annual Scuba Fest! Orca has been going to Scuba Dive Fest for the last four years and everyone always enjoys their time there! This year we will be diving at Porthkerris on Saturday and Sunday, in a boat called Kitten! If there are any questions about or prior to the trip, do not hesitate to get in contact and next week we will be posting a full review about the weekend!

Nick will be in the dive centre on Saturday this week if you need anything, but we will be closed on Monday due to the bank holiday! Next week, we will be back to normal in the pools on Tuesday and Thursday, so if anyone wants to jump in just give us a call!

Sunday Catch Up

Gary was back to his role as mentor this week at Basildon Academies, as well as starting their after school club on Monday! But most of Monday and Tuesday was spent washing, drying and checking kit from our recent Red Sea, and we also took individual photographs for everyone’s certification cards. Although this is part of the paperwork people don’t like doing, making sure all documents are completed properly is very important and some people have come across various problems because of this.

However, after hours of uploading the video to YouTube, here’s the clip of our Red Sea trip!

On Tuesday night we were back in the Basildon deep pool for a busy and active session! Matthew, our documentary filmmaker, was doing a dry suit orientation ready for the upcoming weekend. Nick was running a rescue course with the help of some students who have just completed their own rescue course. We find this very useful for newly qualified rescue divers, as they get a different perspective and it reaffirms what they’ve learnt. We also had seven DSDs and two open water courses running in the pool as well. As ever, this would not be possible without the fantastic help of all our staff: Ian H., Carol, Paul D., Peter W., Rhonda, Nick, and our scholarship student, Nicole, who does a lot of running up and down the stairs sorting kit out!

This week we have also had Katie in the shop on work experience, who has had to work very hard as Janie is away! She has been learning how to sort and check equipment, as well as answering the phone and taking messages.

On Thursday night we were back in South Woodham Ferrers pool. Rhonda and Dave both took open water courses; Nadine was working with two DSD students; and Jamie started a new SEAL Team, which there is still time for anyone to join in with Jamie if they want to! Following the SWF pool night, there was meeting held regarding our next Red Sea adventure, which is with Writtle College students in July! Forward planning for any trip of this nature is very important and it gives all staff the opportunity to ask any questions and for us to clarify exactly how the trip will run. There will be more details about this trip closer to the time!

On Friday, Gary was back in Basildon Academies, working with BTEC Sports students who have nearly finished their confined open water and we are now starting to plan open water dates! One of the pupils on the course has already completed his open water course before with the after school club in a previous year; so when the rest of his colleagues are doing their qualifying dives, he will be taking his advanced open water! The rest of Friday consisted of getting ready for an open water weekend!

Jamie went to Gildenburgh on Saturday to complete Calum’s advanced open water course, and Steve went along as well to log up a few more dives with Joe working as dive master. At the same time, Rhonda was in Nemes with Matthew doing his qualifying open water dives. As it is still early in the season, Matthew was doing his open water course in a dry suit, after completing his dry suit orientation on Tuesday evening! And on Sunday, Rhonda was back at Gildenburgh to complete Matthew’s open water and dry suit course and she was also assisting Nick who was running the qualifying dives for the rescue course and everyone qualified! Well done!

In the upcoming week, we will be posting Ben’s photos of the Red Sea trip on our blog. Here’s a little taster of his amazing work…

Next week there will be no pool on Tuesday as there is filming in the deep pool. We will be in SWF pool on Thursday as per usual, so if you want to join the SEAL Team get in touch!