Digital Underwater Photography Speciality Instructor Course

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.

Dry dive November 11th at the London Diving Chamber



What a great time we had in the London Diving Chamber last night.

I met up with Helen, Jon and Marcel to do a 50 meter dry dive.

I now have 5 Instructor Specialities to be able to teach

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

Can an SMB be to BIG?

 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.  

RYA SRC (VHF Radio) Course

Sarah and myself signed up for the RYA SRC(Short Range Course) course, this is the renamed VHF radio course we did this with Sea Training Sussex based down at Eastbourne Marina, the home port of our rib.

The course consits of 2 parts the first being the correct manner into using the radio for voice calls, and the second part for using the DSC(Digotal Selective Calling). The second part is the new part of the old VHF Radio course. One of the great advantage of using DSC is if there is an emergency onboard then by simply pressing the DSC button on the radio this will alert the Coastgard that you need assistance.

At the end of the course you have to complete a test however this isn't that bad and then you'll be awarded the RYA SRC Cert.

Night Diver Course

 Well I wanted to do my PADi Night Diver Speciality and found a local club down in Eastbourne that could do this. After speaking to them they told me it could be done over 2 nights in the Marina, which was good for me as it was on the way home so I could take my dive gear to work and then straight to the dive centre to do the diving.

The Instructor Dee went through all the classroom items first and I'd already completed the the reviews.

The first dive would just be for 20 minutes and this would be the navigation part of the course, which was good as I'd dives the marina a few times and had also already completed my PADi Underwater Navigation Speciality.

As we spent a bit longer on the first dive we didn't have time to complete the second dive that night. This wasn't a problem as we always had next week.

The next week we met a little earlier so we could get the two remaining dives completed, we all kitted up and got into the marina as we descended into the darkness I led the way out, we would then stop and switch off the torches and alllow our eyes to adjust to the darkness, it's amazing how much light there is and to what you can see, the silver flecks of the small fish.

Dive 3 was really just putting it all together and we completed the dive apart from my torch decided go pop and I had to switch to the backup one .

Anyway another speciality completed.

Master Scuba Diver Certification

Finally completed my PADi Master Scuba Diver, not bad when you think I only qualified as a diver on 22nd August 2009, I managed to rack up 52 dives and five specialities which include, navigation, drysuit, Peak perfamce Bouyancy, Nitrox and Search & Recovery. As well as Advanced Open Water Diver and Rescue Diver.

Next Stop Divemaster......!

Padi Rescue Diver

The PADi Rescue diver course is the last of the non professional courses, one of the great things with this course it prepares you to being a better dive buddy. As you become more aware of what is going on around you.

Anyway back to the course, this was done with Maidstone Scuba, the course is broken down into 3 segments, the first being a classroom based which as usuall was done in the corperate headquarters better known has the kitchen in John's house, beware of the dog also as it has a tendancy to want to shag your leg from time to time.  I was glad I'd watched the PADi Rescue Diver DVD and also a glance at the course book and completed the reviews. Well the classroom part was rushed and then onto the exam , then marked all passed.

The second part was set in the pool where we would go through all the scenarios, which included saving a tired diver, paniced diver, onto the three different types of diver tow's. The next part was to get the diver from the bottom of the pool, we then practiced a search pattern. It was then onto how to get the diver out of the water and also how to de-kit them.

The final part was at Wraysbury where we would be given some scenario's and had to complete them, my first was the paniced diver, however the second was the missing diver, we had to go down onto a container which was the last place they was seen and then find them, both Steve and myself descended we got down to the container at around 8m we then found our missing divers playing naughts and crosses I ended up with Tracy and Steve got Ray. I started to find her Inflator hose and then slowly brought her to the surface and then towed her to the slipway which was around 50m. We had to dekit her and then lift her out which was easy as she's only small.

That was really all there was to the Rescue course and I passed as a Rescue diver

EFR Course

Again George and myself was on this course, we had to travel upto Maidstone one evening to complete this Martin would be running it and was being helped by John's son. Martin went through all the reviews and then showed us the oxygen and and also the defib.

It was on with the roll play where we had to deal with different problems, however when it came to applying a bandage to John's son feet I just wouldn't go there they looked like they hadn't seen water in weeks.

We completed the exam and all passed it

Advanced Open Water Diver

George was also on this course, the Advanced Open Water has 5 parts to it of which 2 are compulsory (Deep & Navigation).
We was going to complete the first two dive at Wraysbury then the last three at Guildenborough the next day.

The first dive was Peak Performance Bouyancy which was basically swim out to a bouy descend down to a platform, hoover and then swim around the platform in a neutrally bouyant, then it was out dive completed. Second dive was navigation, which included walking around the carpark with a towel on your head whilst using a compass to walk a square, the next part was back into the water swim out to a container and descend then in buddy pairs we had to navigate a square underwater and return to the container, George and myself set off and made it back with no problem at all, then it was swim out on a bearing and turn 180 degreesand return from where you started. Lastly we swam back to the exit point which was the natural navigation part.

Day 2 at Guildenborough, George picked me up at about 6.00am as we had a 3 hour drive up there, when we arrived, we met up with the group and was given the days plan, dive 1 deep dive, dive 2 wreck and then dive 3 fish aware.

George and myself went for a coffee and a bite to eat, we both noticed that the staff at Gildenborough hate divers don't want your business and are more arsed over the ducks and geese. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BACK.We kitted up ready for dive 1 "The Deep " the plan was to swim out to a bouy descend down the line and onto the top of a container, then we would write our name backwards and they would time it and see how much difference there was from when we did it at the surface. The would also demonstrate how the different colours are affected by depth. We made it down to the container when I looked at my dive computer it was saying only 16.5m after a few minutes we all dopped off the side to get the 18m requirement, however as it was a large group by time the first lot was coming up as we was descending onto them, finally managed 18.1m for around a second or two before it was back onto the top of the container and then swim back to the shore and get out.

We had a break for a bit before it was time to do Dive 2 "The Wreck" this time we was to descend down in 2's and when we got to the wreck we was to measure it and draw on a slate the position it was on the bottom, the ascend to the surface and out the water well that was the plan. However George and myself was last ones down we had managed to drift off as there was a strong surface wind which meant that we ended up an another platform at 19m, we didn't have either a divemaster or instructor with us and no one seemed to notice we was missing either, George and myself made sure we was OK and then signalled to go upto the surface at 5m we did a 3 minute safety stop and then swam to the exit point. None of the instructors seemed bothered that we hadn't seen the wreck which was a bus.

The last dive "Fish Aware" , again we was told just togo for a dive around the sides and see what fish we could see note it down and then come back and tell the instructor job done. This was a total joke as the visability was less than 1m and you couldn't hardly see your buddy never mind any fish. We got out and we was all told well done your now Advanced Open Water Divers.

To be honest the Advanced Open Water with Maidstone Scuba was a total joke I didn't benefit from any of it I felt like it was a con to get more money out of you.