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!