Quick Update!

Well this past week has been busy to say the least! I have a feeling it's going to be a fantastic year. We kicked off the week with a meeting with James from Scubapro! We have lots of new stock now, so if you're thinking of upgrading before the start of the season then pop down and see one of us! If we don't have what you need, we'll help you find someone who does!

We also had two very busy pool nights! Tuesday was full of DSD's and lots of different courses starting. The Seal Team did very well on Thursday learning some new skills. We also had DM's practicing their swims and even a few friendly faces popped down to say hello!


We then had a lot of prep to do for the weekend where we had 12 men & women from the US Air force who were at Nemes doing their Open Water dives! A huge thank you to all of the staff that helped out, it was a very challenging but enjoyable weekend. All of the students did very well considering it was extremely cold. We hope to continue our work with the force over the coming years.

We still have two spaces left on the Nemo 33 trip due to cancellations, if anyone would like to book onto the trip then please contact Janie or Gary immediately.

Dive Show 2016!

"After parking in the Excel London car park, we started walking up towards the ticket sales and found that we were at the wrong side of the building! So we carried on walking to the other side & bought our tickets. We happened to over-hear a very annoyed man telling somebody that he'd pre-booked tickets but left them at home! So he ended up paying an extra £20. Couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy but it was quite amusing.

Entering the Dive show, we went to see Emma, Matt and Terry at the PADI stand! We always like to catch up with PADI and ask a few questions. Shortly afterwards, we took a look around what must've been about 20 stalls at most. One of which was The Manta Trust. They do a fantastic amount of work and have now helped put a law into place in Peru to save our beloved Mantas! It's lovely knowing that one of our Dive Masters, Kanina, contributed to the project! We're very proud. We then went to see Scuba Travel, Lee is a star and took a bit of time helping us plan a few last bits for the Egypt trip this April. Next, we turned around a saw a giant inflatable whale! Without a question, myself an Gary darted towards it! Inside the land stall, we found about 20 more inflatable whales and a few mermaids! This was the Whale Fest! Unfortunately, they won't be hosting an event this year but hopefully with the help of new volunteers, there will be one next year! After this, there wasn't really much that we took an interest in. There was a few travel companies, a couple of dive centre's but the rest was mainly for the outdoor show. To be completely honest, most of the divers that attended the show probably spent more money in the outdoor department.

We did however, meet Luke from Basking Shark Scotland. We're looking into having a trip there this August so keep your eye's out! We have a lot of trips on the cards so it's going to be a fantastic year.

Overall, it was great to network with a few people and even see a few old friends but the Dive Show seems to be getting even more disappointing! My advice would be to focus on the Bristol Dive Show. It seems to have a lot more coverage and a lot more merchants attending.

Weekly blog: New year!

The new year has started with a bang! It's three weeks into January and we've already run an enriched air course, an open water course, a drysuit course and all of our trainee dive masters have passed their final exams- just a few more bits to do before they qualify!

We've been back at The Basildon Academy mentoring as usual but we've just started up the after school club for our new students doing their open water course! As well as this, we've started a new course with their sports BTec students. This is the fourth consecutive year that we've worked with the academy and it's a delight. We've also held an evening at South Essex college where we recruited 15 new students! We've been working with the colleges for three years and all of the students have been outgoing and great to work with.

There was a Staff Instructor update last weekend that Rhonda attended. It was informative and gave an update on new techniques, materials and tips for teaching.

In the next few weeks we've got a few courses coming up:
January 30th-31st- EFR and Rescue
February 6th-7th- Rescue Open Water.
We've also got /night and wreck courses scheduled and we're confirmed dates next week!

Our first trip this year? NEMO 33!!!
We're doing a big deal on March 5th-6th! £100 including coach, hotel and 1 dive! On the Sunday, we'll be stopping off at Bruges for a few hours to explore and hit some hypermarkets! Feel free to bring a partner for just £75!
There's only 17 spaces left so book yours now!

2015 in a nutshell.

In 2015 we have moved forward as a dive centre. Milestones were achieved by us, our staff and many of our students.  At the start of the year, we were back don in Cornwall for the annual Dive Fest, diving with Porthkerris Dives on the Mohegan and Vase Point Pinnacle. Ending the weekend with a bbq at our caravan.

Moving on with the season, we were working with Writtle college preparing them for the Red Sea trip to Marsa Nakari. We worked through the theory first and then went to South Woodham Ferrers to do the pool work. After mastering all of the pool skills, the Writtle students went Nemes Open Water centre in Kent. After which, they all went to the Red Sea where a great time was had by all.

As well as this, we were  working with The Basildon Academies; Sport BTEC and after school club. Having spent four years working with the academies, it's always great fun and enjoyable to work with dedicated staff at the school, I look forward to carrying on the partnership with them.

We had the good fortune to work with great people like Lucy, who is studying photography at Falmouth university. As well as Faith and Ben from Writtle (amongst many others) who did their Rescue courses with us!

Using Nemes as our main Open Water location has been beneficial for us. Being able to get there with just a short drive and home for tea. We have used Nemes for two years and look forward to keeping the relationship over the coming year.

Without the goodwill of all the staff, all of this would not happen. The staff at Orca work hard all year to help new students get started and build up their skills, confidence and the also help past students continue their diving.

We now have 11 Instructors, 3 Assistant instructors, 5 Dive Masters and 10 Dive Masters in training. This means we are well equipped for the upcoming year.

During 2015 we had trips to Cornwall, Swanage, Farne Islands and 3 trips to the Red Sea.

In 2016, we've planned some old and some new. Starting with Red Sea liveaboard April 9th covering reefs and wrecks. Then we're down to Cornwall for the Dive Fest. Porthkerris diving has been booked for the first weekend of May. Then the Maldives liveaboard in August. Then a trip to South West Ireland planned for the summer.

As well as USAF, scouts, youth clubs, colleges, universities and anything else that walks through the door. So we'd like to say a big thank you to all the staff that helped us throughout the year and look forward to a bigger and better year in 2016!

Weekly Catch Up!

On Friday we had our annual Christmas meal, it was a fantastic event and was great to catch up with everybody, Drinks were continuously poured whilst Elvis gave us a treat....okay so Elvis wasn't so popular. But we all have a wonderful night of laughter, fun and good food! Our staff have put in so much hard work this year and have changed the lives of many people. From instructors to rescue divers to kit boys to shore support, every member of our pod is valued and appreciated. They give their spare time to teach hundreds of people how to dive. It's a pleasure to work with each one of them. We also welcome divers, friends and partners to these events.

This week has been very busy in terms of pool nights! We were very busy with ongoing courses and DSD's. Things will start to get quieter soon so it's the perfect opportunity to jump in and get wet. We  had a new Miflex delivery on Wednesday which means we're fully stocked until the end of the year! We also took even more vouchers to print on Wednesday as so many people have been interested! It looks like we'll have a lot of new divers next year. This year we've had more specialty courses than Open Water courses which means that a lot of our divers have been coming back. We think this is fantastic and we'd like to hear about your experience with us!

On Thursday & Friday, we were assembling/dissembling a lot of kit & checking for O ring bursts as well as our usual checks! We also out together some dry suit regulators which have a green hose to identify them. We then went through each BCD and checked them. Then we took apart all of the little masks, cleaned the lenses and left the rubber to soak to get rid of all the dirt that had built up. We like all of our kit to be clean, colour coded and organised. We then had about 60 cylinders ready to pump! this takes a few hours as the compressor needs to rest every so often. 

On the weekend, the wonderful Patricia completed Dive 1 & 2 of her Open Water course! She wanted to get it done in time for her holiday where she'll be diving with sharks! She's been having two pool sessions a week with us as well as extra theory and has been a lovely student despite being very anxious to begin with! She's shown real confidence and perseverance and will be qualifying this weekend. Good luck Patricia!!

Weekly Catch Up!

This week has been very busy. We've had James in from Scubapro showing us the newest products and revealing some big changes! As well as taking our order, James was teaching Janie the difference between diaphragm regulators and piston regulators and how they work. It was very educational for her as she often fixes small regulator problems but hadn't got a solid knowledge on first stages.  We have now reduced the Seawing Nova fins to £125! In black, blue, white, pink and purple.

Today, we want to take the opportunity to tell you about the dangers of storing kit carelessly over the winter period. We're going to show you some TRUE stories from divers we know.

"I was water often so I never got my BCD serviced. It had always worked perfectly and I didn't see a reason to pay somebody to tell me that my BCD was fine. Little did I know that not spending £25 on a service, could've killed me. For the sake of £25, I endangered the lives of my friends and myself. We were diving a wreck, entering negatively buoyant. It wasn't my first time, I had years of experience doing this so I didn't think anything of it. As we jumped in off of the boat, I started to inflate my BCD but no air was going in. I thought then that I was dead. I was terrified. I kicked and kicked, trying to get somewhere, anywhere. It wasn't working. I got further down, 10 meters, 20 meters, 30 meters.... I saw my buddy struggling to help me and I could tell what he was thinking, he was going to leave me. I shouted NO in my head, he couldn't leave me. At 56 meters, my buddy caught me and helped me get to the surface SAFELY. Only when we got onto the boat did I realize, he put his own life at risk, to save mine. Tears started flooding. He opened my dump valve and it was clogged with dirt and gunk. It turn out that leaving your BCD in a box in the garage for 4 months over winter each year, doesn't class as storing it. I had nearly died and potentially killed my buddy because I couldn't be bothered to clean it, service it or store it properly"

"My dry suit fitted me perfectly, Except the boots were a bit too big. I couldn't dive last year for about 6 months because of a medical problem and then it got to cold. So after getting the Christmas decorations down, I'd decided to store my dive kit in the loft. Including my dry suit that was still wet in the bag. It was fairly cold in the loft so I guessed it would dry eventually and put it to the back of my mind. Then my first dive of this year was at Stoney Cove, I got my kit down, threw it in the car and left. Then whilst diving at 35m, my inflator valve on the dry suit jammed. It was inflating more and more. Then the cuff release got partially jammed. So I grabbed the dump valve on my BCD and emptied the tiniest bit of air that was in there. I rigorously shook my arm in an attempt to get the air out. One of my buddies grabbed my fins and held me down whilst I was doing this. After the panic wore off slightly, I disconnected the inflator valve from my dry suit and kept shaking my arm. I eventually managed to get back down to my buddies who looked worried. Locking arms with the other buddy, we ascended slowly, did our safety stop then we reached the surface slowly. I was probably lectured for about an hour on how to look after kit. I never tempt fate again anymore. My kit is in immaculate condition. But that dive could have been a lot worse and would have been if it wasn't for my buddies and a bit of quick thinking."

Weekly Catch Up!

This week has been all about the preparation for the winter months and new year. We've made our final arrangements for the annual Christmas meal which is just two weeks away! We've been getting more stock in for those must-have Christmas gifts and we've got the heater out because Janie had icicles growing from her nose!

Monday started as usual with a lot of kit to wash, check, sort and put away. It's surprising how time consuming it can be. Gary was mentoring in the afternoon after which he started designing our new vouchers and sent them to print. We're now selling vouchers for all occasions which means you can give a unique gift as well as finding new dive buddies. 

On Tuesday we met with The Jupiter Centre which is a specialist learning centre. They're doing very well in their Open Water course and show extreme enthusiasm at every lesson. We are increasingly seeing growth in each student and it is fantastic to see them growing in confidence too.  Then we had our pool night! It was very busy with three Open Water courses, several DSD's and a lot of people jumping in for a play. 

Wednesday was a prime opportunity to talk to Scuba Travel about our upcoming trips in 2016. We've now finalized all of the details for the liveaboard in April. We'll be staying on The Whirlwind, a beautiful boat that has been voted "Liveaboard Of The Year" at Diver awards. We'll be diving Ras Muhamed, Abu Nuhas & Thistlegorm. As well as many other wrecks and reefs. Kit is available to hire from us and everything is booked through Scuba Travel. This trip is fantastic for divers of all levels. 

Thursday entailed getting ready for the SWF pool night! It was a very eventful night as the Seal team were up to their usual mischief. Whilst we started a new Open Water course as well as doing Dive Master training. We also had Hollie in for a play, she was very nervous when she first started her course but with Carole's help, she has slowly grown confidence. She is now topping up her skills and refreshing her memory before qualifying. This is something we advise as even the most professional divers forget things after not being in the water for a while. 

On Friday, we were preparing kit for the weekend as usual however a few old friends popped in to say hello which is always great. After getting all of the kit ready, we had a good sort through the container, making sure we had enough gloves, hoods and boots to keep us warm through the winter months.

On Saturday and Sunday we had Hollie qualifying as an Open Water diver as well as Lewis and Connor doing their Drysuit course. The water is getting a little bit colder but we're not stopping yet! If you want to join us at Nemes this weekend, you know what to do!