March to April 2009

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. Octopush

9. Diver reports

10. Pool Costs

11. Marc’s Training Update & Latest Qualifications

12. Website

13. Fish I.D.

 1. Message from Diver Dicky

Hooray the dive season has kicked off. Anyone been diving (abroad?), if so 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 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. No texting facility at the mo so we have to resort to a list and email – so more responsibility for making a note of your turn.  

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 Doctor Dave Rogers 01277 373974 in Brentwood (was £50 – 2008). 

6. Social and Upcoming Events

 Held at the Bowling club behind the pool.  A small group of club members and partners. We enjoyed listening to a very good singer (Ashley), until the early hours. 

Saturday night out 14 March 2009

Come on don’t be shy come on down the next time we do a Saturday night out.  It is open to all – not just club members.  

7. Blondisms

Plenty from Lyme Regis!
I recall there were a few ‘It happened to me’ / blondisms over the weekend – Obviously I must comment on, wait for it, wait for it – man overboard

8. Octopush

After the last match I decided there was too much ‘moving of the goal posts’ so I have made some!  I know you are all dying to see what they look like. A new game to be arranged soon. 

9. Dive reports

March 2009 Mexico – Cenotes & Cozumel by Dave Cuz  (the swine!)

I have just come back from Mexico where I did a couple of dives in the Cenotes (limestone sink holes) and a couple off the island of Cozumel. The Cenotes is pretty much cave diving, the water is gin clear and where there are holes in the ceiling of the cave the light that comes through shows spectacular sights with the stalagmites and stalactites as you swim through them. There is very little life in the caves, but if you dive in one of the Cenotes that opens up into a mangrove forest then you get a few fish, but even here there aren’t many. Also when you are in some of the caves you are swimming in both fresh and sea water. You notice the difference by the different temperature and the fact that there is a haze barrier between the two and sometimes if your hands are in one and your head in the other, which can happen easily, you can’t see your hands (or focus on your camera), I was reliably informed that this had nothing to do with the free drink at the hotel.
 
Cozumel – This is nice for a warm water dive or a day out and that’s about it. I was disappointed as it was reported to me as the second biggest reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, but from the two dives I did, I didn’t see that much of a reef. To be honest there is a lot more life in the Red Sea (Sharm) and it makes Cozumel look barren. Still as I said it was a nice day out and I got some good pictures of a 6-7 foot nurse shark and a turtle that pretty much pushed me out of the way so he could have a munch on the sea bed. (so a shark and a turtle on a dive is a bad dive!- ed)

18/19 April 2009 Lyme Regis (by Marc and Richard)

A great weekend with some cracking viz on the Sunday and some superb wrecks with the HMS Sidon submarine being the best, narrowly beating the submerged builders yard / knocked down brick wall (Heroine). Who could possibly find a pile of bricks interesting – maybe builders? Ok so it was home to congers and mating dogfish so it was not too bad. Remember those immortal Alien words – In space no one can hear you scream – and you would think the same would apply underwater – not so when Rebecca had a dogfish thrust in her face! We also did the obligatory Baygittano, shame there was an algae bloom though as it was not seen at its best.
Later, in the evening, whilst relaxing post dive in a local inn there was a marriage proposal with a dowry, which I’m sure in some countries would be an acceptable (5 fence panels and a garden gate) but alas she said no, but he persists.

One thing that did crop up at Lyme Regis was a very rare kit malfunction. A dry suit valve that completely came apart from the dry suit despite being tested before the dive. I have had the internal part of the dump valve come apart, my under suit then clogged the dump valve mechanisms, which meant a speedier than usual ascent because I couldn’t dump air. But these are examples of rare kit malfunctions.
But on the subject of buddy checks –  these should be completed before every dive – but how many times are you being rushed to get in the water either because of tide times or to beat numpties from another dive boat onto a wreck. To what extent should you do the full buddy check?
Usually on the first dive of the day/weekend you would do a proper buddy check but I think most of us will always fast track our buddy checks on subsequent dives which involves self checking air in/out, inflate/deflate, weight belt on, air on. Ultimately there probably is a minimum you should do yourself and you should pass a cursory eye over your buddy’s equipment to ensure all is well, if you don’t do a full buddy check. (Well spotted Rebecca for noticing the aforementioned dry suit malfunction). 

From Derek 

A special thanks to Marc and Smoothy for getting Rebecca and I through our dive leading skills. After two weeks in Hurghada, the water seemed a tad colder, but I wouldn’t have missed Smoothy holding court on Friday night, it’s got to be one of the funniest nights for a long time. I also managed to have 1 extra dive than anyone else. I think that Doug (the skipper) must have gone over a speed hump (see blondism). Also it was quite funny when Smoothy handed me the shot line, without the other end being attached to anything –doh!. I had a great weekend.

10. The Pool – Covering the Costs

I mentioned before that the club’s biggest expense in the last newsletter. £50p.w. is equivalent to 25+ people in the pool and how often does that occur? Since then, we had 3 weeks with a total of 48 try dives helping towards the pool costs. Ways of increasing pool income are – diver/student training, rescue skills review, testing kit, practicing skills, swimming (not everyone’s cup of tea), octopush (hooray!) and TRY DIVES. 

TRY DIVES (£15 for a full 1 hour or £10 for ½ hour) are the best way to help 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 let me know. Our instructors and assistants get satisfaction out of seeing someone try something new and really enjoy it so it’s a two way thing as well.

The last try dives were scouts so hopefully this demonstrates who we can cater for, usually 8 at a time (16 in one night) larger groups can be split over 2 or more weeks. 

11. Marc’s training update and latest qualifications

Pool training – There’s been mainly Sports Diver training in the pool over the quieter months. Then there is the wait for warmer ‘open’ water to practice the skills.

Rescue Assessments – During March most of the club’s divers qualified to sports and completed their rescue assessments and kissing ‘annie’ training. It is important to keep these skills up to date as you never know when you might need them. This will be an annual assessment pre dive season and its a club rule for any diver who puts their name down for a Club dive.

Ongoing Training – Enhance your skills – Courses will be run within the branch or at other branches within the local region. 

Practical Rescue Management Sports diver and above.
Search and Recovery Sports diver and above.
Dive Planning / Management Experienced Sports diver.
Sports Diver Nitrox Sports diver and above.
Lifesaver Award Ocean diver and above.
First Aid for Divers Ocean diver and above
Combined Nitrox Sports diver + minimum 20 dives

Dave Dog is doing Nitrox workshops, which are going well.
A trip to Stoney Cove for training will be arranged shortly.

Congratulations to:

Ian Marsh, Harley Hill and Matthew Shepherd have passed the Sports Diver exam.
Paul Allsop has now qualified as a Sports Diver
Marc Freeman and Dave Thomas aka Dog are now Advanced Divers

12. The Clubs Website

The new website is getting closer and closer to being finished and should be completed shortly.   

13. Fish I.D.
 
To help you identify stuff: The Ling

Long, slender body with mottled green/brown appearance. Lighter flanks with brownish blotches, white belly. Dark blotch at the rear of both dorsal fins. The tail fin is rounded. The second dorsal and anal fin are feathery and extend almost to the tail, both are white edged. Upper jaw is slightly longer than the lower, one barbel on the chin. Needle sharp teeth. The Ling may grow to a length of  2 metres. It is related to two other deepwater European fishes, the Spanish or Mediterranean Ling and the Blue Ling.