Weekly Catch Up!

On Monday, Gary met with Danny Ayling from Anglia Ruskin University to discuss setting up a date for the students to complete some DSD's. We are looking forward to the dive society expanding and encouraging new people to dive!

Then on Tuesday, we had students from Writtle College completing their DSDs, before signing up for a trip to Egypt next year. Joe & Steve S. went through the briefing with them, and although a few were quite nervous, they all enjoyed it and are hoping to complete an Open Water courses. We also had Nick taking a new Open Water course with 3 new students.

Gary & Janie met on Wednesday with Justin - the representative for Atomic Aquatics. Justin showed us a lot of new stock and put in an order for snorkels, masks, BCD's, gloves and hoods! We now have the Zeagle Zena BCD - which is made by women, for women. It is a wing jacket that has a removable front panel making it easier for transitioning from a pool BCD to an open water BCD, as you can buy panels in multiple sizes and colours, but they will all fit the same BCD.

We also have the Zeagle Express Tech Deluxe which is a men's wing BCD. It's a one-size-fits-all design, with the no sewn trim so that you can adjust the length to your preference and cut it to the required length.

Zeagle Zena BCD

Zeagle Express Tech Deluxe

On Thursday we loaded up lots of kit in the truck for South Woodham Ferrers, as we had a busy night. Lucy came to do Confined Dives 4 & 5 of her Open Water course, to get ready for the weekend. We also had the Seal Team carrying on from the previous week, plus a few DSD's and our usual Dive Master Trainees practicing their swims.

Friday was quite a busy day down at the centre, as we had friends popping in for a chat, a theory lesson, and we had to get prepared for the weekend! This meant setting up weight belts and getting other kit ready for students leaving on Friday night and Saturday morning.

On Saturday Gill took a group down to Gildenburgh to start their Advanced Open Water with the assistance of Joe. They all did very well and are planning on completing the course next weekend! We also had Rhonda and Sharon doing an Open Water course and a Wreck speciality. They were then joined by Marc & Janie on the Sunday who helped out too. Lucy did very well in completing her Open Water as well as Lewis and Connor, who are now fully trained wreck divers. Janie also completed her Deep diver speciality. Everybody had a great weekend, and congratulations to everyone!

And we're back!

Sorry for the lack in blog posts over the past few weeks, it's been an extremely busy summer for Orca Scuba Diving Academy and the staff!

First of all, we know it's only September, but we would like to mention our upcoming Christmas Party, which is open to everyone! This year we will be going to Three Rivers Golf & Country Club, for a Las Vegas themed night, with drinks and meal included! It is on Friday 27th November, and will be £45pp. If you want to join us, you will need to pay us a £10 deposit by Saturday 3rd October and the remaining needs to be paid in full by Friday 23rd October. The following is included in the price:

• Evening commences at 7:30pm
• Pre-dinner reception drinks
• Four Course Christmas dinner
• Free House bar open 10pm - 12.00am
• Christmas Road show Disco

For any information, call the centre on 01268 520111 / 07960 148520.

The summer started off with a fantastic trip to the Red Sea, where we stayed on the liveaboard Asmaa, which is part of the Emperor fleet, sailing out of Hamata and heading to St. John's via Fury Shoals. With a complete cross section of divers on board, with newly qualified advanced divers to instructors, this trip was suitable for all levels. Orca took up half the boat, but we were lucky that the other half was full of great people, as this can sometimes be a concern for people who go on holiday by themselves and are apprehensive of who they may be sharing their time with! There was lots of wall diving, shallow reef diving, with all kinds of marine life to be seen. One of the highlights of the trip, was Gary's ultraviolet torch for night diving. After seeing it on TV, Gary, who loves scuba gadgets, managed to get hold of one for the trip, and it lived up to his expectations!

On returning from the Red Sea, there was no time to rest for the Orca Team, as we carried on our busy training schedule. With numerous courses over the summer, Orca has had a very busy year so far with over 50 Open Water, over 35 continuing education, over 70 Speciality Courses and over 400 DSDs! And we still have ongoing courses and plenty of time for anyone to complete by the end of the season (around November), just give the centre a call and we will fit you in!

Now the summer holidays are over, Gary is back working in local secondary schools, where he mentors some of the children. He will also be starting an after school club at Basildon Academy in after October half term, where he will be running PADI Open Water Courses for those that attend. We have also started planning next year's Writtle College trip back to Egypt.

Over the past weekend, we had our busiest weekend of the year so far with Rhonda at Nemes completing Open Water dives with Travis and Robin. At the same time, we welcomed back Ian Syvyer, who has been away working with other commitments, and over the weekend he taught the PADI Rescue Diver course. Whilst this was happening, Nick was completing a confined open water course, and Gary was working with a mum and daughter on Sunday, who were having a Dry Suit Orientation before their upcoming open water dive. Gary was also working with Travis, practising his Search and Recovery skills for his Advanced Open Water Course, and finally working with Tiffany and Michael, who work at a US Airforce Base, and were completing a DSD. Gary is hoping to visit the base soon, so the pair can complete a PADI Open Water Course.

Next year we have two very exciting trips, which are sure to book up fast! So to book or to find out any information, don't hesitate to contact Gary on either number mentioned above.

Belated Sunday Catch Up!

Apologies for being away for so long - we have been extremely busy with the end of the school year and so we have been doing quite a few school visits! And we recently had a trip to the Red Sea too, which we will tell you all about in a future post!

25th June: Gary visited Purleigh School's Year 5/6 class, who all got the chance to get in the water to experience using scuba gear and to have a splash in the pool! We also had another big pool night at South Woodham Ferrers that evening with several Open Water courses running alongside DSDs!

26th June: Gary went to Writtle College to present Nicole Wood with an award from PADI for Helping People of All Ages Get into Scuba Diving! Congratulations again for your hard work!

27th June: We went to Nemes during the day to complete open water dives and in the evening there was the annual staff BBQ - a way for Gary to say thank you to all the hard work everyone does throughout the year!

28th June: We were back at Nemes the next day to finish off the Open Water dives!

29th June: Gary spoke to PADI about Assistant Instructors who have been out of teaching for a long period of time and want to get back into teaching. As well as this, Gary spent some time of the phone to Emperor Divers in Sharm El Sheik arranging John McDonald's accommodation and weeks diving for him! Later that day, Gary and some of the Orca staff travelled to Kent to meet up with Nemes Dive Centre, who were hosting a PADI Forum, presented by Terry Johnson. The forum was to update us on PADI's expanding e-learning, interactive and touch systems of learning, which coincided with the PADI webinars. At this event, Gary was presented with an award from PADI to Orca Scuba Diving Academy for Exceptional Growth as a PADI Dive Centre. Without the help of all our staff, who put in endless hours of work during their evenings and weekends, this award could not have been achieved. The award was a complete surprise to Gary and the team and he would personally like to thank everyone who has helped over the last few years!

30th June: Writtle College students started to come to the dive centre to pick up their kit for the Red Sea trip and to also book their Advanced Open Water courses!

A message from Nicole, Writtle College Student:

"With thanks to Orca and Writtle College, we had another amazing trip to the Red Sea! The week started off well with everyone getting used to being in the water and improving the skills they had learnt and only got better when I saw my first shark and getting up close with a pod of 6 dolphins for the first time. It was great being able to watch the students learn and develop their skill just like I had done the previous year, getting to see some of the changes that can happen to the reef over time and revisiting the wreck where the growth of coral could be seen which was very interesting. All of the staff were friendly and helpful as always and we can't wait to hopefully return next year."

2nd July: Gary took the final group of Year 5/6 pupils from Purleigh School to the pool for their scuba diving experience.

3rd July: Writtle College and Orca set off to the Red Sea! More information on this in a future post!

11th July: Ian H. headed to Nemes to start open water dives, whilst Gary returned back to the dive centre just hours after getting back from the Red Sea to start sorting out all the kit from the trip! This was to get ready to be used for Gilwell 24, later that day. We will have a full report on what went on in a future post!

12th July: Ian H. was at Chepstow with a big group of students completing their open water dives. John, Rachel and Kevin all completed Dive 1 of their Deep Diver speciality, Dive 1 of Search & Recovery speciality and Open Water Dives 2, 3 & 4! Maz also completed her Peak Performance Buoyancy, Deep Diver & Search & Recovery to finish her Advanced Open Water course!

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

This year’s dive calendar is beginning to fill up! We have the following booked for the rest of this year:

May 23rd-24th:	Express Weekend, where we will be running rescue, open water, dry suit, DSDs and anyone who wants to jump in at Basildon deep pool
June:	Training at Nemes or Gildenburgh every weekend
July 3rd-10th:	Marsa Alam (Red Sea) trip with Writtle College, to carry on the conservation work we started last year with previous students
July 11th:	Gillwell 24 – 5pm till 5am!
July 25th-26th:	Deep Diver and Search and Recovery Specialities in Chepstow
July/August:	Weekend trip to Swanage TBC
August 5th-12th:	Red Sea trip at Fury & Friends on a liveaboard
October 24th-25th:	Farnes Island weekend trip

We have a few places left for the Farnes Island and August Red Sea trips, so if you’re interested, please get in touch with the centre! As well as all these events, we will be training every weekend until November, but there will be other events added to the list throughout the year!

We will shortly be posting an events calendar as part of the blog, as well as through Facebook events!

Over the last week we have again been very busy, Gary working with Basildon Academies After School Club on Monday, Tuesday night in Basildon deep pool with various courses running and Thursday night at South Woodham Ferrers pool.

This week we have had numerous deliveries from different suppliers, and Gary has spent most of the week trying to find space for the new stock, whilst also sorting out the current equipment!

We have had a diverse weekend with Dave at Nemes on Saturday completing Open Water Dives 1 and 2 on his course, whilst Ian H. and Andy Harris travelled to Stoney Cove on Sunday to complete Advanced Open Water course. Back at he centre however, it was an early start on Saturday to meet the compressor engineer to change the filters and conducting an air purification test. This is one of the many hidden costs of running a dive centre and as the old adage “How do you end up with a million pound in diving? Start with two!” The rest of the day was spent with Nick pumping sixty cylinders, whilst Rhonda Richer and Mark Prior sorted both storage containers! A colossal effort from Rhonda and Mark - thank you both so much, we can now actually walk in and out of the containers!

Next week we will have a photo gallery from Ben's trip to the Red Sea - sorry for the delay, it's Gary's fault!

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!

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!