Sunday Catch Up

Sorry again for the late blog last week, and we’re one day late again this week because of Scuba Fest!

Although Monday was supposed to be spent pumping lots of tanks after the previous weekend, Gary was late getting out of Basildon Academies that morning after mentoring some of the students! As well as this, Janie had the day off and Gary had to return to the school in the afternoon for the After School Diving Club, so by the time Gary arrived back at the dive centre, he had a very busy evening sorting paperwork!

On Tuesday, Gary was able to put all the kit away from the weekend before a great night in the deep pool in Basildon. That evening we had DSDs, Open Water courses and Dry Suit courses all taking place at the same time, as well as four new students from Anglia Ruskin University, who were all having their first taster of scuba diving! All four enjoyed their time with us in the pool and we are looking forward to starting their Open Water Courses soon! We also had Fernando join the dry suit courses, as he was testing out his new dry suit ready for the weekend!

By Wednesday, there was time to start pumping the tanks from the weekend, but now also with the tanks from Tuesday’s pool night! However in the afternoon, James from Scubapro came into the dive centre to discuss new scuba gear and we bought fifteen new regulator sets for the dive school, as well as a few other pieces of equipment for the shop! Up until now we have used Cressi regulators and have had a very good experience with them, but we felt it was time to change, as we are no longer a Cressi dealer and we therefore cannot service the regulators in-house.

South Woodham Ferrers pool night on Thursday saw Gary back in the pool with the SEAL team, who are improving brilliantly! Rhonda, Dave and Gill were all with their open water students, whilst Jamie was with a DSD student, who he also worked with on Tuesday night. Although the student got to the bottom of the deep pool on Tuesday, they were not comfortable in such depth and so we suggested trying out SWF pool to see if they still liked scuba diving. This seemed to work much better and they will be retuning next week for another try dive!

Friday was spent getting everything sorted for Scuba Fest in Cornwall, which included kit checks and tank filling. After a nine-hour journey that night and arriving at 1am, everyone enjoyed some sleep before waking at 6:30am for the first weekend dive! We were diving at Porthkerris, but as easterly winds were coming in, we ended up meeting the boat at Falmouth. Gary watched everyone board the boat in mist and rain, as he stayed behind due to suffering a migraine. Everyone retuned an hour and half later after a great dive seeing three types of rays, Gurnards and some very big barrel jellyfish! There was then a two hour wait for the second dive to a small wreck, which was in the bay as the weather beyond there was still rough. Everyone then went to The Shark Fin Restaurant on Mevagissey harbour front on Saturday night, where we all enjoyed great food and service!

On Sunday we went down to Porthkerris for a couple of dives: a drift just off shore and a pinnacle called Penwen! Both were great dives and we saw lots of life under the sea including Barrel Jellyfish, Ling, Cod, Dead Men’s Fingers, Jewelled Anemones and one thing that was great to see was lots of Pink Sea Fans! Back at Scuba Fest, Gary popped in to see PADI, Fourth Element, Suunto Atomics and the other companies who were attending, and it was great to catch up with old friends! In the evening everyone spent the night at Gary’s van for an indoor BBQ, as it was raining, but all had a great night with friends and a few drinks.

Gary would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who made the long journey down this weekend, especially Richard, Tony, Fernando, Joe, Gill, Rhonda, Sharon, Holly, Russell, Paul, Graham and their families!

Next week we are in the deep pool on Tuesday night, South Woodham Ferrers on Thursday evening. If there are also any staff who are able to come to the centre on Saturday, we would very much appreciate your help sorting the rest of the open water kit in the containers!