Wendy Northway
As it was getting towards the end of the season I thought I’d
better organise a last official training day for 2012. I put a plea out to the OWI and they
responded well. I had a zillion and one
lessons I wanted to tie off, a similar number of trainees and 4 instructors –
no problem! However, a slight glitch
happened Friday lunch time – the ordering system at Hurtsy’s work had unearthed
a gremlin which meant Dave had to drop out otherwise Santa would not be able to
deliver Christmas this year. Not even I
could stand in the way of Santa Claus supplying Noeltide – go Dave, go! Rescue the Yule, so long as the kiddies have a smile on their
faces come December, we can cope! Thus I gathered the crowd and we set about
the tasks for the day.
Dive 1 – I took Gareth in for OO3 with Dave (AKA John - it’s
a long story….) Humpreys acting as buddy.
Nice big step entry then descent to about 5m and we were bound for the
6m platform. Bit of mask clearing then
AS. I demo-ed on Dave (good job I only
had to point to him, otherwise I would have been confussled with his name. I think it would be a lot easier all round if
everyone was called John). Over to
Gareth and he expertly acted the hero as Dave was ‘out of air’. Nice steady climb to the surface and support
for Dave as he inflated his jacket. We
went down again and the roles were reversed.
Again a good solid rise to the top.
One last time to get our heads under the water to complete the drill – a
pleasure dive. We went over to The Answer,
had a little swim around when a large shoal of rudd came over – really quite
magical. As much as I enjoy instructing,
it’s great to be reminded of what the end point of it all is – to see the
wildlife under water!
Back at base, Stella had to do a bit of thinking on her fins
– she’d taken in Dan for OO4 with John Sweetman as buddy. However, on entering the water, John suffered
a classic ‘ice cream’ headache. After
leading him out, she changed her lesson to OO5 (such would be the order of the day,
last minute changes, nothing was set in stone, more like one of those meals you
prepare from left overs from the pantry, adding a bit of something else and not
really knowing what the end result was going to be but anticipating all along it
would be good as you know you have a mix of all your favourite ingredients.)
Ariel had taken Sarah and Katy in for OO2. Again most drills completed to the satisfaction
of Commander Northway. However Katy also
surfaced with a slight headache and opted not to dive again that day.
After a quick cylinder change and cup of hot chocolate
(getting to that time of the year again) I sorted out the next wave. Today would be very intense as I want to
offer a maximum of 3 dives to those who wanted them. In order to do that, I requested an hour’s
surface interval between dives. As I
juggled air runs/comfort breaks/buddy pairings and chasing after Sally, I was fast under the impression that this
was oh so easy on paper! Thankfully, as
I went up to collect my cylinder, I saw Alan returning with a pink netted
bottle. I could have hugged him!
Buddy pairings sorted for dive 2, I started to kit up, only
to be approached by Stella – she’d ripped her wrist seal. OK, at this moment I think we were on plan
G. I had to bump Sarah, whom I’d planned
to dive with as my priorities today were signing off a couple of Ocean
Divers. I took in Gareth and Dan to
complete OO4 and Ariel carried on with Zoe for SO4 – compass work. OK, OK putting a compass in Ariel’s hands can
be likened to laying breadcrumb trails in the woods, but times were hard! Unfair!
Ariel’s underwater navigational skills are good. Up down – what more is there to know! Dan, Gareth and I settled down on the 6m
platform and we went about CBLs. True
BSAC style, this was broken down – self lift, mini lift then to the
surface. Nice bit of towing from Daniel
then we went down for Gareth to repeat.
Where did all those divers come from!
The whole podium had now been swathed with a school of divers. Neatly packed and all similarly attired, they
stretched the length with no room to squeeze a salmon between them! I felt very much like the poor relations as
the 3 of us crouched to the side on the quarry bed. No problem however – my students were stars
and coped well. In the real world,
should an emergency happen, chances are it would not happen at such a convenient
spot as the 6m stage.
Whilst we were down VRSAC managed to embarrass ourselves
with respect to the emergency services.
Alan had opted to have a little swim around the quarry (that is surface
swim, no kit. Let me rephrase that, he
did have his dry suit on). This was all
legit – he paid £5 for the privilege. However he got a little enthusiastic with his
butterfly stroke which surface cover mistook for a distress signal and duly
launched the rescue vessel.
Back at base, Zoe had expertly navigated her way back to her
mum’s car (which incidentally, it was lovely seeing Karen Hursthouse on dive
site again!) and we prepared for round 3.
I’d explained beforehand to Zoe that she would have quite an
intense day as in between dives, she would have surface lessons. I wish someone had reminded me the same! Now for Zoe’s final dive – simulated deco and
laying a distance line (I love teaching this lesson which is weird as I am probably
the last person in the branch who would ever make use of this skill as I have
no interest in wreck diving and the thought of caving gives me the heebee
jeebeeies!) Dan joined us for the
experience of the dive. Well having been
first in the queue this morning, he wasn’t going to let another opportunity go
by! Zoe expertly laid the distance line
then gathered it up and we headed back to the shot line to ‘decompress’. Zoe very nicely managed the stop then we emerged
from the water with a long surface swim back to the shore. I chuckled to myself – I reckon with all this
hard slog both teenagers would be sleeping on the way home in their respective
cars – Hursty can you confirm, cos I know Dan managed a short nap!) Ariel mean time had taken in Gareth for his
final Ocean Diver drill and had opted to include Sarah and Alan for good
numbers. Why have one Farnworth if you
can have 3!
After tidying the kit away, the café was calling us and
round a couple of bowls of chips I sat back and assessed the day. 2 new Ocean Divers – well done to Gareth and
Dan. Several Sport’s Diver drills
carried out (I omitted to mention, Zoe also got SP1 signed off – assistant Dive
Marshal. It would have been churlish not
to, after all she’s been doing the log sheets since before she could crawl.) A couple of Ocean Diver drills for Katy and
Sarah were also realised. It was a challenging
day for me, the organiser, I constantly had to update the plan, down to the
last second, yet in my eyes, it all seemed to run smoothly and everyone
understood what was happening and was happy to adapt. A big thank you to Alan who helped with
Sally, I couldn’t have managed without him walking her for me, but most of all –
thank you team VRSAC for all pulling together without so much a moan when the
plan changed yet again!
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