Sunday Catch Up

The after school diving club at Basildon Academies is doing very well, with everyone completing their Knowledge Review 1 and Quick Quiz 1 and both students and staff enjoying the course.

Tuesday night we were in the deep pool with Rhonda was working on her dry suit course with Nicole, Mia and Fernando. In the deep pool with have the unique opportunity to go through all the required skills, and being 20ft deep, you feel what it is like to get a squeeze on your dry suit. ‘The Invert’ (head down, feet up) is always interesting, seeing the students roll out and vent the suit before reaching the surface on a runaway ascent. Although this makes it difficult to work out if the suit is leaking or whether they are actually letting the water in! This was all in preparation for the weekend mentioned later in the post. Also on Tuesday night, we had Ian H. completing Steve’s referral course, ready for his trip to the Red Sea with Orca on the 4^th April. From the forthcoming trip, we also had Sarah, Alex, Nigel, Sharon, Liam, Michaela and another Steve preparing for the trip too! As well as this, Carol’s student, Lazar, couldn’t get in the pool because of a cold, so spent the time in the classroom doing his knowledge reviews. Lynne also had two DSDs in the deep pool with us too.

On Thursday night, we had the final South Woodham Ferrers pool night for the current open water course. 13 out of the 15 students have now completed their referral and the final two will complete their course in the deep pool after Easter! Although it is quite easy to teach a large group of students the theory for open water course, we break down the confined open water into small groups. Jamie, Dave, Gary and Rhonda all worked in the pool with the students in their smaller groups. To complete the line up of instructors, Gill was working with Sophie to finish her referral as she is travelling with her family to the Red Sea on Sunday! Have a great time everyone, we know Emperor Divers will look after you well!

We also had a guest visit the centre on Thursday...

Gary and Janie spent all Friday putting kit away and pumping tanks, ready for the weekend. While outside, there was a hive of activity around the deep pool as Fred had a big shoot at the studio on Friday and Saturday with lots of equipment being taken in and out!

This weekend Orca has been away! Rhonda took her three dry suit students and an advanced open water student up to Gildenburgh. Diving this time of year can be very cold, but with the right equipment (i.e. dry suits), good undersuits and suitable gloves and hoods, it can still be great fun! As with any dive, if you cannot equalise, it cannot be forced, as one of our students soon found out. Mia was only able to get to 5m and not equalise properly, so had to abort her dive. Once she was safe out of the water, the rest of the students carried on with the dive. Mia did try on the second dive, but still had trouble with her ears and took the sensible decision not to push it. On Saturday, Richard completed his advanced open water and Nicole and Fernando completed their dry suit courses in preparation for Sunday. Then on Sunday, Orca went to Nemes in Kent, so Rhonda could complete the open water skills for her rescue course students. Out of the seven students on the course, Steve was moving house, Mia still had problems with her ears and Fernando came down with a cold overnight, so they have all put back completing their course until after Easter. So we would like to congratulate Rachel, John, Richard and Tony on completing their rescue course, and we look forward to working with them all in the future as they have all shown interest in becoming dive masters! Also, in a very rare moment this weekend, Gary got in the water and was working with Calum on two of his advanced open water dives, Wreck and Peak Performance Buoyancy (PPB). Taking advantage of Nemes’ new underwater transport system (the bus!), Calum used this as one of the wrecks to explore. Calum hasn’t been in open water for a while, but really enjoyed the experience. He will be going up to Gildenburgh soon to complete his advanced open water and wants to move straight on to a rescue course!

Next week we will be in the pool Tuesday and Thursday, so if anyone wants to join give the centre a call! As it is now the Easter holidays for schools, Gary has two weeks off working with Basildon Academy, but will carry on working with South Essex College.