Inside this issue:

1. Message from Diver Dicky
2. 2009 Diving
3. Sunday nights
4. Pool Rota
5. Diving Medicals
6. Social / Upcoming Events
7. Blondisms
8. Marc’s Training Update & Latest Qualifications
9. Diver reports
10. Fish I.D.
11. Octopush
12. Website
13. The Pool – Covering the costs

 

1. Message from Diver Dicky

The depressing winter months are here when dive kit goes away for months and we sit anxiously waiting for the spring.  But if anyone does go diving (abroad?), give me some information for the newsletter.  You don’t have to write tons – just the same as what you put in a dive log when, where and what you saw – was it any good?  Don’t worry too much about content and grammar, I can always jazz it up!  It will be edited and proof read by Karen’s mum before issue anyway.  Cheers

2. 2009 Diving

Location	Boat	Date	Dive Opens
Lyme Regis	Blue Turtle	18-19th april	1st Jan
Eastbourne	Our W	31st May	29th March
Eastbourne	Our W	14th June	12th April
Weymouth	Xdream	11-12th July	1st January
The Scillys	Evert	12-14th Sept	1st January

 3. Sunday Nights

Pool session (8-9pm), then drinks 9.15 ish in the bowling/snooker club (behind pool).  Meet other club members, all are welcome and we don’t just talk diving! Lectures are generally held here before pool sessions.

4. Pool Rota

Thanks to all those who take a turn on the pool rota roughly 3 times a year (see website, notice board and emails) – collecting pool fees and also acting as dry / pool side supervision.  PLEASE try to make your selected night as it means people don’t miss out on having a swim because they are forced to do the pool rota.  If you can’t do it let someone know.  A reminder text is sent the Thursday before your turn.

5. Diving Medical Certificates

It’s a club rule that everyone supplies one to Peter Burdett prior to going on a club dive. Medicals can be done with your G.P, a dive doctor or you can do a self cert (Any yes’s and you need to have a proper medical). Try Dave Rogers 01277 373974 in Brentwood (£50).

6. Social / Upcoming Events

HSD Christmas Bash – What a great night.  Certainly a few sore heads the next day.
A group of us – mainly non members! headed to the Bowling Club. An enjoyable night out.

7. Blondisms

None that I know of lately!

8. Marks training update & latest qualifications

Learn to Scuba Dive in Essex Resusci Anne Torso

Pool training – Coming to the end of  training with the current batch of  trainees

Ongoing Training – Please see the notice board regarding training for this year.  Courses will be run within the branch or at other branches within the local region.  Please support the club and the Training Officer by participating and use the opportunity to enhance your skills.

Practical Rescue Management (1 day) Sports diver and above.

Search and Recovery (2 days) Sports diver and above.

Dive Planning / Management (1 day) Experienced Sports diver.

Sports Diver Nitrox (1 day) Sports diver and above.

Other Regions

Lifesaver Award (1 day) Ocean diver and above.

First Aid for Divers (1day) Ocean diver and above

Combined Nitrox (2 day) Sports diver + minimum 20 dives

Reminder

Students must complete the front page of the Qualification book (and photo), otherwise you cannot be signed off for any qualifications.

Congratulations!

Advanced Diver, Asst Instructor, Dive Leader, Sport Diver, Ocean Diver

9. Dive reports

10. Fish I.D. To help you identify stuff

11. Octopush (is back! But for how long?)

Another game of Octopush Sunday 18 January.  This went very well with around 10 players participating.  It all started very amicable, a free flowing ‘friendly’ with no cheating.  Then after 10 minutes, the rules were abandoned and a free for all entailed.  Great fun, great exercise and a high scoring game.  A fair amount of knuckles were bashed and scraped and Smoothy’s white towel was a nice shade of crimson by the end of the night.  The club’s O2 was on standby but luckily wasn’t needed.  Alas Julie the ‘Hand’ Faldo was ill on this occasion but has vowed to participate in the next game.  More games (Feb 22) are planned and this may continue throughout the year.

12. Website

The hosting of the website has now transferred to a host server after years of being maintained by Andy Latchford, a former club member.  No doubt he’ll be pleased not to receive anymore ‘Andy how do I do this’? emails.  Many thanks to your help and support over the years.  We are also looking at upgrading and redesigning the website to make it even more user friendly, eye catching and dynamic.  There are a few things not working properly at the moment – pool rota etc but hopefully these will be sorted soon.

13. The Pool – Covering the costs

As you may appreciate this is one of the biggest expenses the club has and we always lose money on it, which drives John the treasurer mad.  This has been the case since – well…ever!  And particularly during the winter month is when we suffer the most.  It costs £45+ per week to have the pool, which is equivalent to 20+ people in the pool every week. So you can see how big this problem is – how often is there 20 people in the pool?  So ways of increasing pool revenue are – swimming (not everyone’s cup of tea), octopush (hooray!), Ocean Diver and Sports Diver student training, additional courses / training (which Marc is trying to organise, including annual Rescue skills review), testing kit, practicing skills (more for the trainees) and TRY DIVES.

TRY DIVES (£15) is one of the best ways we can help to cover the pool costs.  So if you know of anyone young or old, a group, a club or an organization who might want to try scuba diving then lets get some people in the pool.  Whilst we benefit financially, there is also the satisfaction of someone trying something new and really enjoying it.  Alan (the Chairman) once said he would do try dives for free just to see the smile on people’s (children’s) faces.   I doubt we would survive if we adopted this attitude – but hopefully you can see the point.

Who have done try dives? – schools, scouts, sea scouts.  We can usually cater for 10 at a time but larger groups can be split over 2 or more weeks or we can squeeze 2 groups of 10 into one night (as generally half an hour in the water is enough).