Well having done some TDi Tech courses earlier this year, as part of my IDC package we can also go on to do the PADi Tec Deep Instructor.
This awill allow me to teach down to 50m evently, however you have to be a PADi Tec deep diver first, this means that I have to shadow the the Tec40 and Tec45 courses before I can go onto the Tec50.
These are going to be run starting in March 2011 and should be finished about June. Ryby will be conducting all the training from blueoceandiving.
Well tonight is the Digital Underwater Speciality course which I'm looking forward to, camera is packed and ready to go.
The first part will be in the classroom followed by a dip in the pool.
My setup is a Canon 500D dSLR with either a Sigma 10-20mm Wide angle lense or a Canon 28-55mm Lense, the housing is a Sea & Sea RDX450,and 6" dome and with a Sea & Sea Stobe, this is rated down to 60m
Well we had a play in the pool doing various things, here are a few from the pool session, note to self next time check the strobe batteries before getting into the pool.
Had a great day at Holborough on saturday,met up with Jon, Marcel and Jim(bearded diver). Jon and Jim turned upa little late, however this didn't put us off. The first dive we had another diver call Harry tag along with us as he was on his own.
Jim and Jon finally kitted up, so the order was Jim and Jon together and myself and Marcel and Harry would keep up the rear so to speak. Marcel wanted to try out his new sony camera and I took mine along and placed it in video mode. We entered the water and set off as the visability wasn't that good around 4-6meters.
We all managed the loose each other so we surfaced and swam out to the bouy and down to the platform and then set off around the lake. Jim and Jon (bloody bearded divers) seemed to be walking on the bottom with the amount of it they was kicking up. Well as Marcel only had a semidry on after 35 minutes it was getting to cold for him so we headed back to the slipway.
Dive 2: This was just Jon Jim and myself, I used this to play the roll of instructor and told them we was going to do some drysuit skills and sort out there bouyancy problems. I adjusted Jim's weighting by removing the ankle weights and attaching them to the front of him. I was going to conduct only 2 skills which was pin pivot and a horizontal hover. We entered the water and swam out to the platform and desended down to it.
Jim had some problems equalizing however he got over that, we was on the platform, On with the first skill of the fin pivot to be completed both with thw drysuit inflator and then using the BCD inflator. The second skill was the horizontal hover, once they were both in a nice hover position I got them to swim around the position it was amazing that just changing Jim's weighting by removing the ankle weights he was nearly horizontal.
It was then back onto the platform and we all set off for a swim around the lake, I led the way following the ropes, we came onto a large wooden platforms and both Jim and Jon glided over it with any problems. I swapped positions so I could follow them and check the smoke screen however they was now only kicking up around 5-10% of what they did on the first dive.
I finally managed to gain 5 speciality instructor courses now that I'm able to teach, all I need now is to get some people to do the courses and then I can become a Master Scuba Diver Trainer Instructor (MSDT). So please I need some students (Victims) to practice on.
What speciality Instructor courses can I teach:-
Drysuit
Enriched Air (Nitrox)
Night Diver
Emergency Oxygen Provider
Boat Diver Along with being a Open Water Scuba Instructor I can also do Peak Performance Buoyancy
Well another Instructor Speciality down and plenty more to go. Last night it was the turn of Drysuit Speciality Instructor.
Yet more fun was had in the pool with our drysuits on being spun around making sure that you are able to dump air from the suit should all the air end up in the feet of the suit.
Along with the usual hoovering and fin pivots both using the drysuit inflator hose and your BCD. The some kick and glide around the pool.
Sometimes you have to ask yourself how big do you need have your SMB(Surface Marker Buoy), well I've recently managed to get my hands on a 3meter (10 feet in old money) red smb with it's own cylinder that is used to inflate it.
Well as we was at holborough on sunday it just had to be done, we we sat doing a safety stop I passed the camera to George and out came the SMB, some people have called it a lift bag but I know it's an SMB.
I opened it up and slowly open the valve to allow som air
into the SMB, making sure I was holding the reel in the other hand and with my finger on the release button the SMB rocketed to the surface. We slowly surfaced to be greeted with all the comments form people about the size of the SMB.
However 3 meters is just right when you are doing dives at sea this gives the skipper a great view if where you are, and in large swells just makes it safer for yourself. The only problem is don't get caught up in it otherwise you'll be rocketing to the surface with it and then you could be having a trip to the chamber in a helicopter.
We decided to visit Holborough Lake at Snodland in Kent on sunday, with a couple of goals, one was for George to test his drysuit after it's come back after repair and for myself to have another play with the Canon 500D dSLR and the Sea & Sea housing.
The weather was overcast and and slight wind blowing over the lake making it a little chilli. We signed in and left the cylinders to be filled.
We started to kit up it was then George noticed he'd left his BCD at home, not a great problem as you can hire them from Holborough at a reasonable price of £5 per day. The got the cylinders back and finished off kitting up and checking the equipment.
Next for me was the camera setup I'd done most of this at home so it was just a matter of doing the last few bits, checking the strobe was working making sure the lense was clean and clear of bits of dirt. A took a quick couple of photo's to make sure everything was working.
We planned to do 2 dives today, as George had never dived here before, Holborough is a great training with plenty of attractions for you to swim around and also lines run between all the items making it good for newly quialified divers to find there way around whilst having a good dive. For a inland lake the visability has always been a good 8-10m making it good for taking pictures.
DIVE 1:For me dive 1 was all about taking some pictures making sure I could use the camera and get some good photos in the process. For George this was a checkout dive making sure his drysuit kept him dry. We headed out from the slipway following the lines to the platform , then onto the Sweet Mystery which is a large 30 foot wooden wreck in about 8meters of water. George decided to try hiding however I found him.We left the wreck following another line this took us past a small tyre and onto a platform in 10meters of water. Onwards to the car half car in the side of the lake and then onto the old 100cc motorbike, we continued down the ropes and then turned back which brings you back onto a small rowing boat. Which we could see from at least 15+ meters.
We started to head for the speedboat where the visability was still 10+ meters. Which made for some great photographs, one with George looking ratehr vertically challanged but nothing new there.
We then headed back out to the slip way and exited the water. on checking the dive computers we had just completed a 45 minute dive with a maximum depth of 10.1m DIVE 2:This dive was only going to be a short one I was going to show George were the Gargoils was, I set the camera to video mode, and in we went to get them.
This was a simalar route out past the platform with the upside down bomb next to it onto the Sweet Mystery Wreck, but this time we went over it onto the raised platform and to another small speed boat. This fetched us to a large tractor tyre which always seems to have some large perch swiming around it. We then found ourself onto the mould where the Gargoils are the visability was amazing, shortly after the camera said memory card full. Somehow you can't change them under water. We followed the route back and exited via the slip way again. This dive was a maximum of 8 meters and only 25 minutes.
DIVE 1:For me dive 1 was all about taking some pictures making sure I could use the camera and get some good photos in the process. For George this was a checkout dive making sure his drysuit kept him dry. We headed out from the slipway following the lines to the platform , then onto the Sweet Mystery which is a large 30 foot wooden wreck in about 8meters of water. George decided to try hiding however I found him.We left the wreck following another line this took us past a small tyre and onto a platform in 10meters of water. Onwards to the car half car in the side of the lake and then onto the old 100cc motorbike, we continued down the ropes and then turned back which brings you back onto a small rowing boat. Which we could see from at least 15+ meters. 
We started to head for the speedboat where the visability was still 10+ meters. Which made for some great photographs, one with George looking ratehr vertically challanged but nothing new there.
