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 29th 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!
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