Sunday, 30 January 2011

O'Three Goes Nitrox

Well done to 8 of O'Three's staff and friends who completed their TDI Understanding Nitrox course. We spent today learning all the aspects that make a safe Nitrox diver from Oxygen CNS tracking to analysing and marking of your dive cylinder.

Well done guys and see you all soon for longer bottom times!

Cheers

Kevin

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Busy few Days


Hi Guys,

Well the new year finally got going for me as far as diving was concerned on Sunday!

Martin D and Martin P both did their Mod 1 Inspiration courses with me. I must have done a good job as they both came back for more! On Sunday they started their Mod 2 course we covered all the theory aspects of the course and had a discussion on equipment configuration which gave them ideas on how best to set up their rebreathers so to carry all the equipment needed to safely dive to 60m. They now have the next few weeks to fettle with their kit and practice their in water skills before we all fly off to Sharm El Sheikh for some serious diving.

Monday saw me take on a role reversal rather than being the educator I was the student, as I was attending the first day of the Sentinel rebreather user course run by Phil Short at Vobster. We covered assembly and disassembly of the unit preparing the unit for diving and the pre dive checks required for safe rebreather diving. We also touched on the theory of the course which is very similar to the Inspiration. It was an excellent and an informative day. I will no doubt be spending more time with Phil and the Sentinel in the very near future.

Tuesday and again I was learning new tricks this time at Sea & Sea I had a days instruction in the Ocean Reef Full Face Mask (FFM). This was to enable me to go away and teach others that want to learn how to dive using the FFM. We spent several hours in the classroom learning how to set them up and the benefits of the FFM one of which is the ability to communicate with your buddy, students and the surface. We then moved to the pool and put all the theory into practice. Within a few minutes I had the FFM fitted and I was under the water we tried to flood them and all that happens is air is released and this keeps any water out. We did removal and replacement and with a quick press of the purge button the mask was empty of water. Lastly we tried out the underwater comms these didn't work to well due to the confines of the pool and the signals bouncing off the pool walls.

I have now got a couple of days doing paperwork getting all my HSE stuff in order, then on Sunday I am off to O'Three for the day to teach nine of the staff how to safely dive breathing Nitrox.

Cheers

Kevin