Nov 2009 to Jan 2010

Inside this Issue

1. Message from diver Dicky

2. 2010 Diving

3. Sunday Nights

4. Pool Rota

5. Diving Medicals

6. Social/Upcoming Events

7. Try Dives

8. Octopush

9. Diver Reports

10. Pool Costs

11. Marc’s Training Update & Latest Qualifications

1. Message from Diver Dicky

It’s been very quiet during the winter months, presumably no-one fancied ice diving. But if anyone has been doing some diving or training give me some information. You don’t have to write much – when, where and what you saw – was it any good?  Don’t worry too much about content and grammar, it can be jazzed up and its edited and proof read by Karen’s mum before issue anyway. Cheers Diver Dicky

2. 2009 Diving

3. Sunday Nights

Pool session (8-9pm), then drinks 9.15 ish in the bowling club (behind pool). Meet other club members, all are welcome and we hardly talk about diving! Lectures held in the same place before pool sessions.

4. Pool Rota

Thanks to all who do the pool rota – collecting pool fees and acting as dry / pool side supervision.  PLEASE try to make your turn so people don’t miss out on a swim because they have to do the pool rota. If you can’t do it let someone know. There is a texting facility now so you will get a reminder.  There will be some new names added this year to help spread the load.

5. Diving Medical Certificate

Club rule – everyone supplies one to Peter (Memberships) prior to going on a club dive. Either done as a self cert, with your G.P, or a dive doctor. Any yes’s on a self cert and you need a proper dive medical. Try Dave Rogers 01277 373974 in Brentwood (was £50 – 2008). I believe the self cert ones are annual so you might have to do another one soon before the dive season kicks off.

6. Social/upcoming Events

Unfortunately there was no Christmas do as there wasn’t a lot of interest within the club and dates were proving too difficult to tie up.

No social events planned at the moment.

LIDS 2010 – probably the best £7.50 you’ll spend this year
27-28 March 2010 London Excel – get some kit or attend seminars

7. Try Dives

We had a small group of scouts come and do try dives over two weeks in November. Luckily they were older scouts so the kit fitted and they all seemed to enjoy themselves.

There is another group coming along on 18 April so it will be all hands to the pool. I’m hoping there will be 16.

8. Octopush

Unfortunately only 6 turned up for the last game I organised.  4 of us had a two on two game. We really need a minimum of 8 people to play a match.

It’s been a while since the last match and in view of the fact that things are quiet in the pool, maybe its time for another match, especially to try out goal mark 1!  I know you are all dying to see what they look like.

Put this in your diaries next game 28 February 2010 – please can any training be suspended for this week.

9. Dive  Reports

Its all quiet on the dive front unless there have been any training dives going on, which given the weather is highly unlikely.

9. The Clubs Website

The new website is up and running and is being tweaked constantly check it out!

10. Marc’s Training Update & Latest Qualifications

Ocean diver training – they are Becks, Adem and Tim.
Derek, Becca, Paul and Peter have been doing Dive Leader training.

Becks and Adem have passed ocean theory exam
Tim passed Sports theory exam.

See newsletter page for more information

See newsletter page for more information

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

 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).

Hi all,

Feel free to email me (sharkyrjp@yahoo.co.uk), any dive reports, event info / reports etc and I’ll include in the newsletter or it can be emailed to news@hsd1223.org.uk where I can access it.

Cheers
Diver Dicky

Dive report

Er there hasn’t been any, something to do with winter and cold.

Other news

Try Dives- There’s been a couple of group try dives which have taken place in the autumn / winter and as before the assistance is appreciated – a big thanks to all the club members that gave their time in preparing the kit, taking the try divers in the pool and putting the kit back. The treasurer was spotted doing a jig because of the numbers in the pool especially at this quiet time of year.

Xmas Party – Friday 9 December 2005 at the Railway Pub, Hornchurch.

Even though there was a last minute panic about whether there would be enough people going – it seems most people enjoyed the evening.
Thanks to Ian for organising the hall, band, music and lights etc….
Thanks to John Julie and Alan for organising tickets, money etc….
Thanks to Craig for entertaining us with his dancing….at least that’s what he called it…..
Thanks to Selena and Ian for arranging the food…..er what food? what do you mean I thought it was for Saturday night? Yes apparently there was a mix up on what night our ‘do’ was and there was a hasty buttering of bread to ensure a spread was put on other than the jellied eels!
Thanks to me and my lovely assistant for doing the raffle selling tickets – I managed to get rid of some of my unwanted boot sale stuff. Well done Dr Dick for winning the star prize the dvd player and of course congratulations to Steve’s Michelle for winning Craig for 2 hours of her choosing….so nice of him to volunteer his time like that….

Future events

There’s not a lot to mention at the moment except that there are more try dives looming so put these dates in your PDA’s, diaries, sat nav’s
We have a group of scouts from Elm Park coming down to the pool on 15 & 22 January and 5 & 12 February.

Dive dates for 2006 so far
Fri 7th April Littlehampton (Michelle Mary?)
Sat 20th May Littlehampton (Michelle Mary?)
Sat 24th – Sun 25th June Lyme Regis (Blue Turtle)
Fri 21st – Sun 23rd July Plymouth (Same as last year – Fury? )
Sat 12th – Sun 13th Aug Weymouth (The Big Yellow thing)

There is also a possibly of going to others – Dover ?

A Dive Joke

A group of Havering BSAC Divers are on a dive charter boat off the coast of Plymouth which runs into a terrible storm. Rain wind and huge waves pound the boat. They are miles from land – it’s like a scene from Perfect Storm.

The divers are quiet but are getting a bit scared. They are sure the boat is going to sink as they cannot raise the coastguard and that they are all going to die. At the height of the storm one of the young women Selena jumps up and exclaims ‘I can’t take this anymore! I can’t just sit here and drown like an animal. If I am going to die let me die feeling like a woman. Is there anyone here man enough to make me feel like a woman?’

John R – one of the divers stands up – a tall handsome, muscular man. He smiles and starts to walk towards Selena. As he approaches her, he takes off his shirt. She sees his bulging muscles – already she is glad for her decision. He stands in front of her, his torso naked, hardly flinching from the pounding of the sea, wind and rain and says to her – ‘here take this shirt and iron it!’

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Hopefully I’ll find the time to keep this going on a regular basis as this will be a source of info for diving – dive reports & site information as well as info on social events etc.  Feel free to email any dive reports, event info / report etc to news@hsd1223.org.uk and I’ll include it in the newsletter

Richard Porter
when we diving the M2?