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.

Jessica’s first dive

O.K. so it’s a family holiday to Florida. The Keys to be exact, but this is just an excuse for dad to do some diving in crystal clear water for a change. There is added spice this year though, Jessica is old enough to dive in open water, she’s keen, the pool training is complete, and following some initial set backs such as ear infections and tropical storms, the day is upon us. Saturday 1st August 2009.

We load two boats at Duck Key, the Doggy family and our friends from across the pond. We head out to Coffins Patch Reef, a pretty little dive in no more than 6 metres of Floridian water, with oodles of life and no rust in sight. Usually it’s infested with pleasure boats moored all around, but today, nothing. Just us. Must be something to do with the 4 foot swells and stiff current. “Don’t worry Jessica, when you get under water you wont be aware of the sea state, all will be serene.

“Trust me, I’m your dad” We flop over the side, one man and his daughter, and also my good mate Stan. Virginia born, Florida adopted and dives like a true BSAC Brit. A good bloke to have on an iffy dive (remember the Duane Stan) and no one better to have watching your back, when you take your daughter for her first dive.

Now we are going to call Jessica “Lucky”, she dived for the first time on probably the worst conditions ever encountered on this reef. The swell was matched in strength and intensity by the surge beneath the waves; I’m sure you all know what I mean, half a yard forward, three yards back, all the time being moved left and right and up and down.

Some of this dive was in water only 3 meters deep over the reef making buoyancy a reel headache in such shallow water. The vis. was rubbish , the water full of sand and particulate, and yet for all that, she loved every minute of it. Remember those first dives, even Stoney was exciting back then, wasn’t it? Despite the poor vis, (still better than the U.K. on a good day) there were all the usual reef critters to be seen and some great corals.

I’m as proud as any dad can be. She did really well, coped with the surge, kept her buoyancy under control, and no moaning. Stan gave her the big thumbs up and he enjoyed the experience as much as I did. Well done Jessica.

And, what of the people left up top. Six miles off shore, the youngsters were all game, Molly and Evie and their friend Wednesday all snorkelled with Wednesday’s dad Travis, despite the conditions. As I broke surface everyone was back on the boat, all were visible and excited having had a great day out.

With one possible exception. Where was Mrs T? as I approached the boat there was the tell tale noise of a landlubber on board. “Euurgh!”  “ Hueeeey”.  “Dad” said Evie, “the fish are eating mum’s sick”. “Pepperoni and mustard – mayo. Sandwiches, anyone?”

I’d like to thank Stan, his wife Brenda and Travis for their hospitality, and for taking us out in their boats, making the day possible.

Doggy

I cannot do the rota as before. There is no texting faciltiy at the mo

so you need to remember your date / turn

 - stick it in your phone calendar!

Current Rota
June 21 Dave Thomas
June 28 Marc Freeman

NEW ROTA
July 5 Peter Burdett
July 12 (Weymouth) John Rickenberg
July 19 Sean Mason
July 26 Gary Neal
Aug 2 Derek Dale
Aug 9 Selena Irvine
Aug 16 Richard Porter
Aug 23 Andrew Lovell
Aug 30 Mark Smoothy
Sept 6 Dave Thomas
Sept 13 (Scillys) Alan Walker
Sept 20 Marc Freeman
Sept 27 Arthur Powell

Thanks
Diver Dicky

I am pleased to report that thanks to all the support from our members that the three sessions went extremely well. All the scouts thoroughly enjoyed their first diving experience in the murky depths of the pool.

Managing to train that many young scouts of varying swimming ability in over-sized diving equipment, is not easy and it’s a credit to the all instructors that took part. They could not have carried out the training without the assistance of the poolside members that helped with moving all the equipment and kitting out the students.

On behalf of the club, thanks to everyone that helped in any way and especially Richard who organised the event.

On Saturday the weather was great and had warmed quite a bit. It was therefore assumed that the dive the next day was on. So it was just a formality for Dave to call the skipper on Saturday evening for him to confirm that the dive is on. Alas, a call to the skipper on Saturday evening was bad news.  He informed Dave that as Saturday had progressed the wind swung round to the east and had gathered enough strength to make diving less than comfortable and that he was calling the dive off!

Lets hope we have better luck in a couple of weeks when we are booked to dive Eastbourne again.