Scuba Diving

This week I assisted on the PADI Rescue course with instructor Stainton and four students. We practised the rescue skills in the lake then the next day was scenarios. This involved lots of incidents that the students had to work together to resolve including injuries, missing divers, panicked divers, and first aid including CPR. A challenging and enjoyable course that really improves your confidence when diving knowing you are capable of dealing with problems.

I also helped out with a PADI Open Water Course learning skills in the pool and Aquanauts on Saturday – a scuba club for children 8 years old and up to learn to dive in Andark Pool.

On Sunday I was lucky enough to go on Sunday Dive to Swanage Pier. Sunday Dives are a weekly programme of South Coast shore dives for new and experienced divers and is a great way to meet other divers. Swanage pier has a max depth of 5 m and is teaming with Marine life – shoals of pollack, loads of crabs, anemones and blennies. I loved it! Really enjoyed seeing so many creatures at a pretty dive site.

Next up was Scuba Camp – a 3 day course that takes children through the basics of scuba diving in the comfort and safety of the pool. We started with snorkelling techniques, then introduced the children to scuba equipment. By the end of the course, they were able to put their scuba gear together, do a buddy check, clear their mask, perform regulator recovery, and practice safe buoyancy in the deep end. A lot of fun and the children learnt so much which really gives them a head start with diving.

Over the past 3 days Margriet from PADI was at Andark to help us work on our Dive Master training and skills. Over the course of the three days we went through the 24 main open water SCUBA skills, practising them to demonstration level. We also did workshops for Discover SCUBA Diving- which is for people who want to try diving for the first time, and PADI ReActivate- which is for divers who have been out of the water for a while and need to refresh their skills. These workshops taught us how these sessions work to prepare us for taking part in them in the future. The most challenging part of the weekend was a full SCUBA equipment exchange- using only one regulator shared between two people, we exchanged all of our equipment (mask, fins, boots, hood, gloves and BCD). The idea of this exercise is to challenge you, and your problem solving and teamwork skills underwater. The exercise was strangely fun and I felt like I learnt a lot from it, though it was definitely hard work! It was a busy weekend and we got a lot done, learnt a lot and had a lot of fun!