Sunday catch up

As mentioned in our last blog, we were very busy last weekend at Stoney Cove, Nemes and Gildenburgh.

On Saturday, Rhonda was at Nemes with Paul and Robyn who were completing dives for their Advanced Open Water and Open Water respectively.  Paul then carried his journey onward to Gildenburgh Lake on Sunday to complete the deep aspects of his Advanced course.

Ian was busy at Stoney Cove teaching Dan his Advanced Open Water course and also completed his Deep speciality and also his Search and Recovery speciality. 

So all in all it was a very successful weekend with 1 new Open Water diver, 2 Advanced Open Water divers, 4 with their new Deep Speciality certification and 3 having completed their Search and Recovery Specialities. 

On Tuesday, we had a return visit from Grapevine.  They are a charity who provide recreational and educational activities for adults with learning disabilities in Essex. All of the students had a great time doing try dives at Moulsham High School's pool.  It was a great opportunity for us to be able to help out people who would not normally have access to this type of activity, we look forward to seeing you all again next year.  Finally a big thank you to Nicole for helping out Gary. 

The deep pool on Tuesday night was extremely busy.  Jamie started a new rescue course, Rhonda continued with her Open Water course and Gill completed her Open Water course.  There was also dry suit training, DSDs and people in for a play. 

On Wednesday, we were at South Woodham Ferrers Leisure centre doing Bubble Maker courses and DSDs.  These were organised through the summer holiday programme run by Chelmsford Borough Council.  It was then a trip back to the dive centre to sort and organise kit for Thursday night. 

Thursday night we were back at South Woodham Leisure centre. Gary started a Junior Open Water course, Rhonda worked on a new Open Water course and Gill took the DSD students.  Jamie worked with Courtney, who was then off to open water on Friday.  Jamie also took Bernie to finish her Open Water course. Glad to say that Bernie completed her course and Courtney finished dives one and two. 

Rhonda was out all weekend at Nemes with Open Water students; Ryan, Becki, Robyn and Spud. On Sunday, Kate joined Rhonda to finish off her drysuit course. 

The Farne islands is once again proving popular. There have been 4 people booked on the boat out of 12 already! So get in touch quick if you want to come along. 

We are also going to Swanage on the 22nd and 23rd August.  If you want to go or need more information please get in touch with the shop. 

Belated Sunday catch up

Sorry for our slightly delayed catch up this week, but here is what we have been up to in the last week. 

It was the last week in school before the summer holidays and this meant Gary was in and out of schools a lot.  He did his final DSD session with Cold Norton Primary school at South Woodham pool. 

At Basildon Academy, it was the last visit to see the guys Gary has been mentoring, he set them up for the summer and wished them well. Gary said goodbye to Laura Chapman who was his liaison at the Academy as she is leaving for pastures new, we wish her all the best for the future.  

We did not have access to the deep pool on Tuesday night, as though the filming had finished, visibility was poor so we are now waiting for the pool to be emptied, cleaned, refilled and heated.

Thursday night we were back in South Woodham pool with plenty going on.  A family with DCY finished their confined sessions and prepared to head out to finish their course at Nemes, Gary was running the last Seal Team and Jamie was with Bernie and Vince, also getting ready to go to open water. 

On the 18th and 19th July we were at Nemes; DCY was with his group of students (all related!), Ian Herbert was with 3 students from local colleges (South Essex and Palmers) and Jamie had 2 new open water divers and 1 new dry suit diver. 

After just over a months filming, we were finally back in the deep pool on the 21st July and what a busy welcome back it was! Callie, Harry and Harrison from the Seal Team had their first experience of the deep pool whilst Jamie and Rhonda held more open water courses.  DCY was training with his new trainee Divemasters teaching DSDs.  We also had some old friends pop down for a bit of fun and to get wet. 

Thursday night was quiet, but for Jamie working on his duck diving, Rhonda taking open water students and Gary working on a DSD. 

Friday was all about getting set for the weekend. We had staff and students at Stoney Cove, Nemes and Guildenburg and therefore had to ensure all of the kit was fully checked and prepared for them, the students did well and the photos below confirm this. 
  

 

 

 

My final thought for this catch up is around one of our most popular trips of the year - diving with the grey seals in the Farne Islands. With such a huge interest we have added another trip to the calendar, the weekend of 31st October to 1st November. If you are keen to go or would like some further information, please contact the centre.  If the last trip is anything to go by, the places will go fast!

Gilwell 24

Saturday 11^th July 2015

2am – fly in, fresh from the Red Sea.

7.15am – back at the centre, see Ian off to Nemes for Open Water.

17.30pm – arrive at Gilwell.

18.30pm – begin a night of DSDs, with our own ‘24’ to envy Jack Bauer.

After a busy week of diving in the Red Sea, all the kit had to be washed and checked.  Once the kit was sorted out it was loaded up again into the trailer.  Luckily, it wasn’t our first time and with all of the tanks and kit we were taking with us, we were able to fully utilise the space we had.

Gilwell is the Scout HQ for England and once a year in July the association run ‘Gilwell 24’.  This is 24 hours of non-stop activities for Adventure Scouts; from driving lessons to paintball, white water rafting to high wire, live bands to film showings, fun fair rides and many, many more - including Scuba Diving.

                                                                           

We have helped out for the last 4 years, running the night shift from 6pm till 8am with the help of many Orca staff. This was a great night with a total number of DSDs sitting at 297…annoyingly short of 300 but still a great effort!

Following a quick unloading of the gear and a process in place for dealing with the constant stream of divers through paper work, briefing and then into the water, we were underway and we had the first divers at around 6:30pm. 

                                                                           

   

All of the people we met were having a great time, even when the weather turned against us and the hours ticked through the night with little or no sleep.

With so many DSDs and no compressor, we had to take all of the tanks we could get our hands on.  Dave Moss was doing the tough job of decanting air from the 15 and 12 litre tanks into smaller ones.  This is no simple task, Dave managed to keep us stocked with plenty of air throughout the night.

All of the kit was checked for air and defects after each dive.  A team of 4 divers were in the water at all times rotating every few hours.  The pool was outside and heated but it didn’t take long to feel the chill, we were in shorties but there were comments about dry suits for next year!  The frequent runs to the burger van and hot drinks van kept everyone going and in good spirits until we packed up to head home at around 8am.

All in all, a great night and we are looking forward to next year.

Belated Sunday Catch Up!

Apologies for being away for so long - we have been extremely busy with the end of the school year and so we have been doing quite a few school visits! And we recently had a trip to the Red Sea too, which we will tell you all about in a future post!

25th June: Gary visited Purleigh School's Year 5/6 class, who all got the chance to get in the water to experience using scuba gear and to have a splash in the pool! We also had another big pool night at South Woodham Ferrers that evening with several Open Water courses running alongside DSDs!

26th June: Gary went to Writtle College to present Nicole Wood with an award from PADI for Helping People of All Ages Get into Scuba Diving! Congratulations again for your hard work!

27th June: We went to Nemes during the day to complete open water dives and in the evening there was the annual staff BBQ - a way for Gary to say thank you to all the hard work everyone does throughout the year!

28th June: We were back at Nemes the next day to finish off the Open Water dives!

29th June: Gary spoke to PADI about Assistant Instructors who have been out of teaching for a long period of time and want to get back into teaching. As well as this, Gary spent some time of the phone to Emperor Divers in Sharm El Sheik arranging John McDonald's accommodation and weeks diving for him! Later that day, Gary and some of the Orca staff travelled to Kent to meet up with Nemes Dive Centre, who were hosting a PADI Forum, presented by Terry Johnson. The forum was to update us on PADI's expanding e-learning, interactive and touch systems of learning, which coincided with the PADI webinars. At this event, Gary was presented with an award from PADI to Orca Scuba Diving Academy for Exceptional Growth as a PADI Dive Centre. Without the help of all our staff, who put in endless hours of work during their evenings and weekends, this award could not have been achieved. The award was a complete surprise to Gary and the team and he would personally like to thank everyone who has helped over the last few years!

30th June: Writtle College students started to come to the dive centre to pick up their kit for the Red Sea trip and to also book their Advanced Open Water courses!

A message from Nicole, Writtle College Student:

"With thanks to Orca and Writtle College, we had another amazing trip to the Red Sea! The week started off well with everyone getting used to being in the water and improving the skills they had learnt and only got better when I saw my first shark and getting up close with a pod of 6 dolphins for the first time. It was great being able to watch the students learn and develop their skill just like I had done the previous year, getting to see some of the changes that can happen to the reef over time and revisiting the wreck where the growth of coral could be seen which was very interesting. All of the staff were friendly and helpful as always and we can't wait to hopefully return next year."

2nd July: Gary took the final group of Year 5/6 pupils from Purleigh School to the pool for their scuba diving experience.

3rd July: Writtle College and Orca set off to the Red Sea! More information on this in a future post!

11th July: Ian H. headed to Nemes to start open water dives, whilst Gary returned back to the dive centre just hours after getting back from the Red Sea to start sorting out all the kit from the trip! This was to get ready to be used for Gilwell 24, later that day. We will have a full report on what went on in a future post!

12th July: Ian H. was at Chepstow with a big group of students completing their open water dives. John, Rachel and Kevin all completed Dive 1 of their Deep Diver speciality, Dive 1 of Search & Recovery speciality and Open Water Dives 2, 3 & 4! Maz also completed her Peak Performance Buoyancy, Deep Diver & Search & Recovery to finish her Advanced Open Water course!

Sunday Catch Up

It's been a while since the last post, but we've been very busy! With the ongoing problem of the major film unit being in the deep pool, and not being able to find a suitable alternative, we have had to try and move all pool diving to South Woodham Ferrers on a Thursday night. Luckily enough, SWF is big enough to cater for all of us!

Over the last two Thursdays, we have had six confined open water students on two courses coming to their end and five new students starting their courses. We also had three scuba reviews, the SEAL Team and the Young Divers in as well as DSDs, plays and swims! This has put a lot of pressure on Janie to make sure we have enough kit of the right size for the evenings.

Last weekend we were at Nemes with nine students from Writtle College and three from South Essex College, completing their PADI Open Water qualifying dives over the two days. There was a great effort from team members who went down for the weekend, including Saturday boy Nick who was pumping bottles back at the dive centre, although he may not have the right idea!

Following the big weekend, there was a lot of kit to be washed, checked, dried and put back in the store. On top of the normal everyday runnings of the shop, this took us all the way through till Thursday morning, just in time for that evening's pool night! All the equipment is transported in the trailer, with hanging racks, front and rear doors, and a low threshold so it is easier to walk in and out of, which we find more adaptable than a single large van. All the equipment is loaded back onto the trailer on a Thursday night and returned to the dive centre on Friday morning to be washed and checked again before going back into the store.

At 7am Saturday morning, Gary was back at the dive centre starting to lay out kit for another weekend of training and lake cleaning, shortly followed by staff and students. The more time spent organising and preparing, means we have more time to spend with the students on dive days. This year, we have refined our dive paperwork but this is an ongoing process, with the aim of making dive days as smooth as possible. Not only do we have to complete all PADI paperwork, we have to satisfy Health & Safety Executive (HSE), as we are considered commercial divers, but we hope to minimise the amount of paper we have to store for seven years.

Ian Herbert, Joe, Andy and Daniel Herbert (no relation), were all staffing yesterday at Nemes. It was fairly quiet at Nemes this Saturday and because of this, we managed to complete qualifying dives 1, 2 and 3! Whilst this was going on, we were getting ready for today's training and a lake clearing! Ian H. and his students were back at Nemes on Sunday, with Gary working as a rescue diver. At the same time, Carol Vickers and her team were completing Lazar's open water course. As well as the open water course, Ian H. was completing Summer Harris' dry suit course too. After a very successful day, we have three new open water dives and one new dry suit diver! Well done to Lazar, Mark, Francesca and Summer for their achievements!

As this was going on, we had a team of divers at Bourne Mill millpond in Colchester, attempting to survey the bottom and clear any major items of rubbish. We will have a full story next week from Dave who headed the team. Dave was working with Cheryl, Rhonda, Tony, Janie, Brandon and Graham, with Mark Prior covering the surface support and taking pictures.

This week, Gary has a very busy week mentoring at Basildon Academy, continuing Jupiter House confined open water and giving the opportunity to Years 5 and 6 at Purleigh primary school to complete the BubbleMaker experience, and at Cold Norton primary school, we are in the Year 6 class talking about scuba diving and getting the students ready for their BubbleMaker experience.


Upcoming Events:

11th July - Gilwell UK Scout Headquarters: Offering DSDs from 6pm till 9am, as part of Gilwell 24 (24hrs of non-stop activity!)

12th July - Chepstow: Day of diving!

25th & 26th July - Stoney Cove: Deep, Wreck, Search & Recovery and SMB courses with Carol Vickers.

If you want to join one of the courses, or join us for a dive that weekend, please get in touch with the dive centre on 01268 520111 or 07960 140520.

Belated Sunday Catch Up!

As we have mentioned before, Fred has got a film unit in this month, and so we haven't got any access to the deep pool. However, as ever in the world of showbiz, the film was delayed a week, and so we were able to get in the pool Monday night!

Tuesday was a special event for Marie, celebrating her 70th birthday with two friends, doing their DSDs! All three ladies had a fantastic time, and ticked off another activity on their bucket list! The next thing on their itinerary is white water rafting at the weekend!

We had a very busy night on Thursday at South Woodham Ferrers pool, with three open water courses and a big SEAL Team in the water completing Inner Space Aquamission. This Aquamission is all about buoyancy and is based around the NASA diving pool - which is used for astronauts space training! Although our students didn't get to do any space walks, they did have fun going through hoops of all shapes and sizes!

This weekend we had a full on couple of days! Writtle College Red Sea trip students (batch number 1!) were at Nemes in Kent, completing their PADI Open Water Courses along with Andy Day, who also joined in! Saturday for Writtle College students was spent completing dives 1 and 2, whilst Kevin Nicholls completed scenario 1 for his Rescue course. Whilst on Sunday, the Writtle students and Andy completed dives 3 and 4 to qualify for their open water certification, and Kevin completed scenario 2 for his rescue course. Well done to Zoe, Paige, Angelina, Ben, Carly, Andy and Kevin!

We also had Carol Vickers at Nemes on Sunday with Lazar, who was completing dives 1 and 2 of his PADI Open Water Course. A big thank you to all the staff for their help this weekend: Carol, Gill, Ian H., Jamie, Nadine, Rhonda, Richard and not forgetting Nicole and Janie for their help during the weekend!

A message from Gary:

"Whilst diving at the weekend, I've noticed that sometimes experienced divers are intolerant of students and newly qualified divers. We all started at the beginning, and all worked to the level we are now. I know when I first started, I made many mistakes but did have good divers around me that made sure I was safe, and who were understanding. If a student is coming along a line at an inline dive site, it would only be courteous for an experienced diver to move to the side or above, giving the right of way to the student divers. It is normally very easy to identify students, even in low visibility. The same consideration should be given to training on a platform. Unfortunately, we have had experienced divers landing on us, not looking what they are descending on to and also, doing a safety stop on a line, divers coming up not looking where they are going, and divers bumping us off. This same courtesy goes on to the entry and exit points. Priority should always be given to people exiting the water.

When I was a student, even though I was looked after by very good divers, they never let me forget embarrassing moments or pictures."

This week, we are in SWF pool Thursday night, and at Nemes on Saturday and Sunday, with 11 open water students. Any members of staff who are available to help at the weekend, please call the centre to let Gary know you can make it and on what days.

Don't forget - we are still looking for more people to help with the Bourne Mill clear up on the 21st June! Please get in touch if you can make it!

Sunday Catch Up

As it was half term this week, Gary’s had the week off school too! (From his mentoring at Basildon Academies, the After School Club and the BTEC Sports class). However, of course Gary has used this free time productively to attend meetings and catch up with admin work in the office.

Tuesday and Thursday were both busy nights in the pools, as students were preparing for their weekend dives. Although on Wednesday, Carol and Steve went to Stoney Cove to complete Steve’s rescue course! Well done to Steve on completing and Carol for her first full certification!

On Thursday afternoon, Gary met with Jim Messenger, who is head of Essex County Council’s Sportivate programme. This is a programme that was born out of the Olympic legacy, with the idea of getting non-active people into sports. This was a very productive meeting, bringing Gary up to speed on new paperwork, but it was also lovely to see Jim again, as he has been a great supporter of Orca for many years!

On Friday, Dave Chapman and Gary travelled to Colchester to Bourne Mill, which follows on from a trip Dave made a few weeks ago. Dave previously spoke to the house manager on the subject of diving in the millpond to clear up the rubbish. The National Trust agreed this would be a good idea, and Dave then got in touch with Gary. So on Friday, Gary and Dave went to Bourne Mill for a preliminary meeting to discuss dates and exactly what the National Trust would like us to do. So on Sunday 21^st June, a team of divers from Orca will descend into the depths of the millpond to clear and survey the topography. This will commence at 11am and finish around 2pm, so anyone wishing to be a part of this or just want to have a look around, please do get in touch with the centre!

This weekend we have been down to Nemes, with the dive team headed by Rhonda over the two days, who was joined by Gill, Joe and Richard on Saturday and Carol and Steve joined on Sunday. After a successful weekend, congratulations to Brenna, Josh, Ben and Dan for completing their open water, and Dan who also completed his dry suit course! Carol also said it was a very warm 16°C in the water that weekend, so no hoods or gloves for the first time this year!