Advanced Open Water

Thanks to Neil and Adam for making a wet weekend so enjoyable.
The rain torrential at times, soaking us through to the skin, (and that was before we got into the water) it could have been a bleak two days.
But we had a blast and they both successfully completed their PADI advanced course and Peak Performance Buoyancy.
The viz on the deep dive was pretty decent because the bottom draggers (who needs fins when you can trample over the silty bottom) stayed at home because of the weather.
They should take a few lessons from our students - I even got to see parts of Dosthill I'd not seen before.
Bosses have launched a new website with a good map and some pics that are worth a look for those new to diving or the wonders of Dosthill

Spring clips for scuba diving fins

You scuba divers all know the silly dance and have probably done it yourself more than once. Dressed in full scuba gear and at the water's edge you are desperately trying to tighten your rubber fin straps.

With one leg cranked behind your back in a position even Houdini himself would have found a tad difficult you reach down with the other arm to grab the lively end of the strap that seems intent on escaping the pinch of your fingers all the while balancing on the other leg like some graceless overburdened flamingo.

Go to any dive site and the dance is obvious all to the repeated clicking tune of rubber running through plastic buckles.

Fed up with looking like a right plonker (after all, I have the rhythm of a concrete bollard) I decided to invest in some spring clips for my Scubapro Twin Jets. A lot of the PADI pros I work with told me they were the way to go and I was eventually won over.

As most things in life can never be simple, trying to find a pair of Scubapro's own spring straps at anything near a reasonable price proved a nightmare.

Thanks to the advice of Paull Goodall at Aquasport International, I managed to get around the problem with a little bit of work which I thought I'd share for any other Twin Jet users.

So in the style of a Haynes manual (all those people who had to repair their own cars a few years back with know the reference) hear goes......

I bought a set of IST Proline FS 12 finstraps (retailing about £22 sterling).

The first step is to remove the metal fixing plate at either end of the straps. You'll need two screwdrivers to removed the fixing bolt. The plate is now redundant but keep the fixing bolt and the two smooth black runners.

Next, remove the rubber straps from your fins using the buckle pinch clips. Flip them over and find the plastic runner that the strap runs behind and helps you to adjust the size of the strap. Using a flat-ended screwdriver prize the plastic runner out of the buckle. It is probably easier to break them in half with a bit of force.

Take the fixing bolt you removed from the steel buckle of the spring strap, feed it through the hole in the plastic buckle of the Scubapro fin, through the one half of the black plastic runner removed from the spring strap , through the end of the spring coil and the remaining half of the black plastic runner and through to the other end of the buckle. Take the other end of the fixing bolt and tighten together.

Again you will need two screwdrivers to get the bolt tight. Don't over tighten as you may damage the buckle and will need to replace the whole strap.

Repeat on the other end (remember to get them facing the same way) and do the same for the second fin and clip them back into the fixing buckle on the fin itself and there you go, no more hopping around with your leg cranked behind your back trying to tighten fin straps.

If you are unsure of carrying out the work yourself, get technicians at your local dive centre to do it for you. I take no responsibility for any damaged fin straps.

Divefest - or should it be DryFest

Bit late in posting a quick update on Divefest but after three hectic weeks I'm only now back in front of a computer (must take laptop next time).

For those who remember, Divefest was the first of its kind festival into the UK bringing diving and entertainment in one event.

Thanks to the British weather (great the weekends before and after but blowing a hoolie on the weekend of Divefest) we had to brave strong winds and bad weather at Pentewan Sands near Mevagissey, Cornwall.

As a result we didn't even manage to get in the water. Well technically not true.

Instead, the Aquasport lot donned our drysuits and headed to the beach for a game of cricket.



And when the ball was smashed into the sea we all decided on a bit of body surfing in the crashing waves, made all the easier with a buoyant drysuit. As soon as I can find the pics I'll post them.

The lack of diving led someone to suggest it should have been called DryFest, but knowing we couldn't dive we enjoyed a fair few beers and a barbecue as well.

Despite the lack of diving, we still had a fantastic time and can't wait to do it next year.

Apparently Monty Halls managed to get a bit of depth but the poor weather and churning seas (Force 8 Gale at one point apparently) knocked the viz down to about 2m and sent the marine life scurrying for shelter.

Read here for a full review.

A Divemaster's Life

To some we are the dogs' bodies, to others the unsung heroes. Just so you can spare a much bigger thought for us in future, here's a quick day-in-the-life of this PADI DMs work on an open water course last week that kept me from blogging.

Weekend One
Saturday - Make the brews. Size up and sort out six lots of pool kit for our new OW students. Organise necessary paperwork for the confined water dives. Make some more brews. Get the pool ready. Fill in the necessary paperwork (air and time in). Observe them put their kit together and offer pointers. Help get the students ready for the confined water session, get them into their scuba unit and properly weighted. Get ourselves kitted up and in the water. Get underwater and pay careful attention to them. Check their air regularly so instructors can focus on teaching. Position ourselves correctly so we are on hand to deal with any issues or anxieties. Act as dummy when needed as instructors talk through certain skills (giant stride entries etc). Stay U/W when they are doing weightbelt removal to ensure nothing drops and cracks a pool tile. Once confined dives finished, get them out, complete paperwork. Wash kit down and put it away for the next day. Miss out on a brew. Clean and tiny the pool area, and lock up. Help them with any kit purchases. Miss out on the chocolate. De-brief. Bid them farewell. Go home, pizza and sleep.



Sunday - Make the brews. Sort out six lots of pool kit for our new OW students and make any necessary changes. Organise necessary paperwork for the confined water dives. Make some more brews. Get the pool ready. Fill in the necessary paperwork (air and time in). Observe them put their kit together. Help get the students ready for the confined water session. Get ourselves kitted up and in the water. Get underwater and pay careful attention to them. Check their air regularly so instructors can focus on teaching. Position ourselves correctly so we are on hand to deal with any issues or anxieties. Act as demonstration dummy when needed by instructors. Once confined dives finished, get them out, complete paperwork. Wash kit down and put it away. Miss out on a brew. Clean and tiny the pool area, and lock up. Miss out on the chocolate. De-brief. Bid them farewell. Go home, KFC and sleep.

Midweek - dry suit orientation
Wednesday/Friday night - Make the brews. Sort out six lots of open water kit for our OW students. Sort out drysuits. Help them to don and doff drysuits. Organise necessary paperwork for the confined dry suit orientation dive. Get the pool ready. Fill in the necessary paperwork (air and time in). Observe them put their kit together. Help get the students ready for session. Get ourselves kitted up and in the water. Get underwater and pay careful attention to them. Check their air regularly so instructors can focus on teaching. Position ourselves correctly so we are on hand to deal with any issues or anxieties as they get used to diving in a drysuit. Act as demonstration dummy when needed by instructors. Once confined dives finished, get them out, complete paperwork. Wash kit down. Issue it to them Miss out on a brew. Clean and tiny the pool area, and lock up. make sure they have all the kit and directions. De-brief. Bid them farewell. Go home, pizza and sleep.

Weekend Two
Saturday - Meet them bright and early at Dosthill in Tamworth. Make sure they sign in and have all their kit together. Give them a site brief (rules and regs on surface what to see underwater). Get paperwork started while instructors do their course brief. Observe them get their kit together. Have a chat, make it fun (even though they face 5C of water). Get them kitted up, help them through their buddy checks. Get kitted up. Help them into fins, masks, hoods, gloves and into water. Be on hand with extra weights for weight check. Get in the water with them. Closely watch over them in water. Accompany them on the first swim or be with them while skills are being done. Repeat a number of times sorting out any problems along the way. Complete paperwork. Help them to pack away. Gather in pub for a coke (no drinking and diving). De-brief. Bid them farewell. Go home, Maccie Ds and sleep.
Sunday - Meet them bright and early at Dosthill in Tamworth. Make sure they sign in and have all their kit together. Get paperwork started while instructors do their course brief. Observe them get their kit together. Have a chat, make it fun (even though they face 5C of water). Get them kitted up, help them through their buddy checks. Get kitted up. Help them into fins, masks, hoods, gloves and into water. Get in the water with them. Closely watch over them in water. Accompany them on the swim or be with them while skills are being done. Repeat a number of times. Complete paperwork. Help them to pack away. Meet back at the centre. Check all the kit in, ensuring it is washed down. Miss out on the brew. Get cylinders in for fills. Congratulate them on passing. De-brief. Go home, Maccie Ds and sleep.

Hell, I've even surprised myself with that amount of work. Why do we do it you might ask? Well we love diving, We're helping to teach with our friends and despite the huge amount of work, we actually have a great time. There's also the eternal gratitude of the Aquasport International bosses. But the thing that makes the weekend most worthwhile is the look on the students faces when they get their OW patch after completing the last skill and the smiles on their faces when they get a round of applause at the end of the course. helping people, who might be scared to even go under the water on day one, get to the end of the course as divers is a thrill in itself. Congrats to the six who passed last weekend. I look forward to seeing you diving.

Scuba Diving Jewellery

Like most people, when you get chatting to your scuba diving instructor you'll find they often have hidden depths to them.

Some play in their own bands, some like gliding, others run their own businesses. Take Jason Clarke, from Aquasport International in Birmingham. A qualified PADI and BSAC instructor he also has his own range of handmade jewellery called Evolution Jewellery.


Jason at work

The 37-year-old spent 21-years as a professional jewellery maker in Birmingham's prestigious Jewellery Quarter before becoming a full-time PADI instructor.

He used his love of the water as an inspiration for his jewellery and the range has taken off. His signature piece is an eye-catching fish-bone design, which comes as a pendant, bracelet and as a set of cufflinks, one you may have seen it advertised on the pages of dive magazines in the UK recently.

Each piece is handmade by Jason at his own workshop. Check out his website for the full collection.

And remember blokes, if you are planning a weekend away diving and want to guarantee quick agreement, something shiny like jewellery is always going to help win the missus over.

I should know, my wife already has a few of Jason's pieces.

Regulator Free flow

What the weekend's cold water diving highlighted was the possibility of regulators going into free flow (where the second stage sticks open releasing a continuous stream of air), particularly during deep dives when the temperature of the water is at its coldest.

Thanks to Vinni at Aquasport International in Birmingham, below are a few easy steps to preventing free-flows and dealing with them should they happen.

• Ensure your regulator is well maintained and serviced properly.
• If you are using hose protectors, pull them down a little to expose the metal fittings at the first stage. These will act as a heat sink warming the air in the hose slightly before it reaches the second stage.
• Keep your regulators in the passenger compartment of your car - not in the unheated boot - on the way to the dive site.
• Ensure the inside of the regulator is kept dry, particularly between dives.
• Don’t leave the air turned on for long periods of time between dives. Once you have checked the system after assembly, purge and switch off.
• Avoid breathing into you second stage prior to buddy checks and avoid purging your regs.
• Don’t leave equipment on the ground where it could be colder and damper than a few feet higher.

During the dive:

• Set your ‘dial-a-breath’ resistance knob to it's least sensitive point where it requires most effort to crack it, and the venturi switch across the air flow.
• Enter the water with you primary second stage in your mouth and the octopus mouthpiece down.
• Try to avoid high impact entries, such as giant strides which put gear under strain.
• Also avoid long surface swims which could leave you over-exerted and with a higher than normal breathing rate.
• Keep your regulator in your mouth for the duration of the dive.
• Try not to use the purge button at any point. If you have to use gently progressive pressure rather than one sharp stab
• Avoid deep or strenuous dives which will push regulators to their limits.
• Maintain proper buddy contact to ensure you are there for each other in the event of a problem.

If the worst does happen, stay calm and remember your training. We all trained to breath from a free flowing reg in our open water training and it is straight forward to ascend while doing so. You may find it stops at shallower depths.

You can also ascend on your buddy’s alternate. While doing so and if it is safe, get them to turn off your cylinder for a few moments and open the valve again slowly to see if the free-flow has subsided.

Thankfully, I've only ever had to bring one diver up from depth (20m) after a free-flow and the training kicked in perfectly. It's not as daunting as you might think.

First Scuba Diving Trip of the Year

After a few weeks off following Christmas and a busy few weeks at work, I finally got back into the water at the weekend.........and boy was it bracing.

The weekend I joined a couple of instructors running a PADI Advanced Open Water course at Dosthill Quarry, near Tamworth, in Staffs, UK.

Despite the cold waters, I had a cracking time.

AOW is a great course to help run - particularly when divers sign up for a January course, as you know they are going to be keen and excited with the underwater world.

Okay, the 5C temperature of the water had the potential to be a bit of a dampener but we all had a good time, with six dives over Saturday (dry suit, wreck and peak performance buoyancy adventure dives) and Sunday (deep, navigation and peak performance buoyancy adventure dives).

Sadly, the deep dive at 20m proved a bit of a challenge on Sunday after the bottom-dredgers in their twin sets and ponies had stomped over it.

Sometimes I wonder if its even worth giving them fins the way they walk over the silty bottom and I do wish they'd learn some buoyancy control to avoid turning the viz into pea soup for everyone else that follows.

Maybe they should have watched our students, who quickly grasped control of their buoyancy and fine-tuned it brilliantly over the weekend. Unlike my AOW course.

It might be in the distant past but it's still fresh in the mind. On my first dive (dry suit adventure dive) I remember seeing the back shelf at eight metres, then the surface......then the back shelf......then the surface.

Graphing my dive profile on my computer, it looked like a really toothy Jaws was about to jump out of the screen - but that's entry-level dry suit diving for you. Now I wouldn't be without one.

While the DM's job can be the busiest when it comes to logistics of the weekend (issuing kit, sorting out problems, getting people ready for the dive) it's also the most rewarding, particularly by the end of Sunday when the four smiling faces collected their certificates.