Another Assistant Instructor - well done Ed

Ed completed his IFC this weekend so become an assistant instructor. He said he had a fantastic time and can't wait to help out in the pool and teaching in the classroom.

Well done!

Hellfins, Clidive and Maritime Volunteers Service combine to complete Oxygen admin course

This weekend, members of Hellfins www.hellfins.com , Clidive www.clidive.org and Maritime Volunteers Service www.mvs.org.uk all got together to complete the Oxygen administration course.

Much merriment was had despite the serious nature of the course.

Bart seems to have developed an unhealthy obsession with Annie. Clidive cupid strikes again! ;-)

A veteran diver who came along for a free refresher said that he was so glad he did it - it's amazing how quickly you forget these skills because, thanksfully, we don't need to practice them.

Chartwork course on the Thames

6 Clidivers and a member of Ruislip BSAC embarked on a voyage of chart discovery last weekend!

With the theory on Saturday and the voyage planned, they set off on Sunday for a day crusing along the Thames.

When not plotting the course and fixing our position, students were entertained with knot tying, taugt to helm Londinium 1 a 45' Nelson, extra theory lessons were given to finish off DT8, DT12 and a chance to practice VHF calls to request permission to go through the Thames barrier.

A fun day was had by all and a total distance of 60 nautical miles!

Thanks to Maritime Volunteers Service www.mvsthames.org.uk City of London unit for supplying boat and crew. Another great collaborative effort :-)

The first dive trip of 2012 but there’s no water!

Thankfully this wasn’t a planning mistake - 11 of us climbed into the hyperbaric chamber at the London Diving Chamber, in St John’s Wood, for a dry dive to 50 metres.

I think it’s safe to say that all of us were ‘narked’ and this was very much expected... what was not expected is the funny squeaky voice syndrome that accompanies the experience (high-pressure affects the pitch of your vocal chords).

In the end I’m not so sure if we were laughing so much because of Nitrogen Narcosis or simply because everyone sounded hilarious!!

by Martin Rishton

2 more assistant instructors :-)

Congratulations to James Pryce and Bart Wagrowski for completing thier IFC this weekend. Welcome to the hugely rewarding world of instructing.

Nice to see our very own National Instructor, Colin Yule, also in attendance. It looks as though a fun time was had by all.

Ed Wilde and Bart Wagrowski trainees of year - newcomers

2 friends that learns to dive back in january and are now dive-mad!
Passing ocean diver and straight onto sports diver they proceeded to buy all their own kit (Bart bought 1 item before even doing open water - the biggest knife you've ever seen!) and fill every waking moment day-dreaming of diving. They did seasearch, wreck appreciation and have been enthusiastic and re-invigorated the club.

Well done guys!

Natascha Gewaltig Trainee of Year - advanced

With so much training this year, Clidive decided that we should have 2 traine off the year categories this year - advanced and entry level. Natascha learnt to dive with clidive 2 years ago and through hard work and determination she has progressed through to Dive Leader. (merely 6 months after starting it - a record!)
This year she did boathandling, VHF, IFC, became an assistant open water instructor, did her compressor operator and chartwork and position fixing.

A well-deserved award!

Ben voted Instructor of the Year 2011

With so many great instructors, it can be hard to choose. This year, Ben was awarded this accolade due to his dedication and help with such varied training.

• Came most Thursdays during the Mad Sports diver course
• Helped Open water in Plymouth at Easter

• Ran the Open water weekend in October

• Taught on 2 BH courses, signed off 3 other BHIs
• Taught Advanced Diver theory
• became a Diver Coxn assessor
• Taught ADP theory
• became a Gas blender, then a Gas Blend instructor, taught 6 people

• Did loads of training during Shetlands expedition

• Taught 5 VHF Radio courses

• Encouraged others to do their AI

• Is loved by all the students who think he's GREAT!

clidive has 5 new assistant instructors

Congratulations to Dan, Lucy, Neil, Orlando and Elina on completing thier IFC!

Boathandling on the Thames Nov 2011

I joined the boat handling course not only to get a feel for driving a small boat but also because I have a passion for diving so figured it was something I needed to learn one day, even if I can’t quite afford my own boat just yet. I was pretty nervous about driving on water – imagining myself being pulled uncontrollably by the waves into other boats, however, after spending several hours on two different boats I was confident enough to call myself a cox’n, if only for those couple of days. The course covered all aspects of driving a boat with several hours of hands-on experience over two days.

I had no experience driving a boat before yet thought it would be great to learn in the case I ever needed to take divers out to a site or in the unlikely event I found myself abandoned on a boat at sea. We were 6 students and 3 instructors. The day started at the Poplar Rowing Club in order to unload and launch one of the RIB’s (rigid hull inflatable boat) at a slipway then drive it to Wapping where the classroom lessons would take place.

We all brought along warm waterproof clothes, hat, gloves & our own lunch as we were expected to have to stay on the course full time for the two days. Only 2 minutes after meeting were we taught about the different parts of a RIB, and how to prepare it to tow it to a launch site by car. After launching the RIB our teacher drove us to the classroom, much more speedily than I ever anticipated a small boat could drive. We spent half of the first day in the classroom where we listened to three lectures covering: the different types of small boats; equipment on a boat & how to operate one; how to read charts & plan trips; the rules at sea; buoyage; understanding the effects of weather & tide; learning the difference between a GPS device & an echo sounder; and also what to do in an emergency situation & what to say on a VHF radio. We were also taught about sea legislation and learnt how to distinguish between all the different coloured safe-water & isolated-danger marks. Most importantly we practiced remembering which side of a boat is port & which is starboard and where to drive in relation to the red & green coloured buoys at sea and also to always keep a lookout. We spent the rest of the day on a four-stroke engine RIB getting to grips with the most fun part, the steering & gearing.

First we had practice filling the fuel tanks and squeezing the bulb to prime the fuel line (expelling any air), and also turning the engine on after clipping the kill button cord to anything it would clip to on our clothes. We drove at both low and high speeds getting a feel for the difference in handling the steering. We were trained how to speed & turn, reverse, approach a buoy and also drive up to & reverse from the shore - should one want to drop off divers. We spent the rest of the time driving out to sea, or actually only a few hundred metres past the Thames Barrier before returning back to the pier & receiving a de-brief of the days tasks. In the early hours of Sunday we stood on the pier practicing rope knots & hitches, which was not really the easiest thing to learn first thing in the morning (yet it was lots of fun). The rest of the day was spent on the water, this time on a 2-stroke engine RIB. In turn we drove under the ten bridges to the Houses of Parliament, then returned back to the Tower of London, where we ran through more skills such as: learning how to deploy an anchor in a current and also retrieve it again; how to approach a dive site (in our case a buoy) to drop off divers and how to use the current to pick them up again. We also practiced how to speedily spin the boat around & get back on its course in a ‘man-overboard’ situation and how to moor the boat alongside the pier, where we then needed to try our best to remember how to tie the right knot in a rope. From the whole wet-eyed weekend of speeding along the Thames’ surface, I think I most enjoyed flying over the bumpy waves and practicing the super-fast spinning-the-boat-around task as it was something that I feared beforehand, thinking one of us might actually fall out, into the chilly river on the steep turn. It was also good to learn how to anticipate and avoid a collision with any other vessel, in one of the lectures we had, yet luckily none of us actually had to put this into practice. We were also able to admire the sometimes-nice, sometimes-wacky architecture along the Thames. Overall the two days boat handling were a good addition to the BSAC Chartwork & Position Fixing course as well as a great basis for the VHF radio course & the BSAC Diver Cox’n assessment. The final words we were left taking home were ‘practice, practice, practice’.

Thanks to Joli, Don, Andy and Gary for teaching on this course!