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Published: October 29th 2012
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The Chapel
Dodging weddings and diving deep.....
well not really but deeper than Green Bay A typical day in the Diary of a trainee Dive Master
As far as days go, don't think this one can be beaten!!!
Started the day off with a good 60 odd lengths of 'Sweet Memories' Pool, in preparation for the swims, which are part of the Dive Master criteria, as this week if it is quiet Jody has said he'll be taking me through them, so thought I'd better check I can still swim being as we've a 400m and 800m sea swim to do....lol!!!
Downstairs with a brew for 8:30am ready to go....
Mike and Mike are out with us this morning for a cruise around the dive site 'Chapel', which is a first for me.
It was great taking out two experienced divers as it just made the dive so chilled. Pretty deep one too, think we bottomed out at 22m, talk about chucking Jake, the intern who's first day it was, in at the deep end, as he went on the dive too along with Shirlee, another intern who is on her second week.....Tyler (former intern, now instructor) led it and did a great job navigating considering he'd not dived it this
Chapel
And in the water dodging boats! year.....
The biggest challenge at 'Chapel' is getting into it!!!! Firstly down a load of steps and then a backward decent down rocks, with some serious stretching action going on to hit the ledge at the bottom. To enter the water it's the usual, inflate BCD, mask on and reg in, fall back into the bath that is the Mediterranean....Getting out is similar and despite empty tanks it's still a tough trek up to the truck!
As far as marine life goes, nothing to get very excited about, and when I say nothing, I really do mean nothing, shame but true....The most exciting bit of the dive was hearing an explosion, which you could feel the tremor of in the water where we were!!!!! Apparently it's one of too things.... Fishermen using dynamite to kill masses of fish in one go..... Sad but true and believable when you see how sparse the fish are in the Med, or two ..... Detonations by the Navy.... There's even a third thought now, that it might be tremors from the bombings in Syria.... we are close afterall .... Whichever way it can't be good for the marine life 😞 ......
Green Bay by day.....
Gordon made it bearable by day! So after that it was back to the shop, wash the kit and set up for the afternoon.... A nice easy Confined Session and Dive 1 for a guy called Gordon, who'd been diving for 20 years for Scottish Scuba, but despite all that experience, as he's lost his paperwork, and there's no record with Scottish Scuba due to the fact they don't keep records back that far, he has to do it all again....So it was down to Green Bay for my 60th logged dive, to practise what I started off doing..... The PADI Open Water Course.....
Mastered all the skills and got to play instructor with Jake and Shirlee as they practised theirs too.... oh and got to switch off Tyler's air .... With the 'Out of Air' skill..... All went well until I tried to switch it back on again and it started free flowing out of the connector..... A bit of tightening up the connection and he was fully functional again.... phew!!!
Loads of small fish as usual at Green Bay.... Damsel, Bream, Weaver and a random Barracuda.... Obviously he got board trying to find food else where so he must have decided to
The night divers ready to go.....
Tyler, Shirlee, Me and Jake....
Kev's the camera man! relocate to where they all get fed!!!! Soon we may end up with one, huge fat Barracuda and no small fish!!!!
Gordon was great as you'd imagine, and it was a pleasure to be at Green Bay, despite the choppy conditions.
After the usual kit clean and tidy down, it was time to set up for a night dive, sign off knowledge reviews and listen to Tyler's brief on what we needed to do during our night dive to pass the 'Speciality'... So that as soon as evening hit and that sun went down we were prepped and ready to go!
And that was that, at 7:15pm we set off to Green Bay and had the dive of all dives.....Oh and a few Mozzy bites..... Nothing compared to what we've been used to though, so all good...
Kev came with us too and I promised I'd cook tea for us all when we got back.... A bit of Jamie Oliver Carbonara.....Jake was a bit nervous as it was his first night dive but he soon relaxed and took it all in...... And I mean it all..... Moray, Octopus, Rock Fish, Damsel and Squirrel sleeping under rocks,
sand eels, crabs, shrimps, barracuda, crazy little fish darting everywhere including up Shirlee's shorts!!! Fluorescence everywhere, you didn't even need to turn your torches off to get the amazing effect!
However as much as I loved the Octopus and the Moray Eel, who was beautiful, purple and spotty, and out swimming, not as you usually find them in a hole, so you got to appreciate it in its full beauty.....my absolute fave was following a big sand eel and watching it basically reverse park into the sand, until he was invisible....so fast, elegant and bizarre to watch!!!
So a good 2 and a half hours diving ....
What a treat.....
Great way to start a week!!!
After a quick rinse of the kit again, I was upstairs cooking up a feast worthy of such a top day.....
And now after all that excitement..... Sleep is calling.... Sweet dreams x
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Leon
non-member comment
Come to County Donegal for some proper diving!!
Dude, when you're finished the dive masters & you're back in Blighty, you should pop across to The Emerald Isle to a place in Co. Donegal called Muff. They have a well known diving club there that's worth checkin out --> http://www.muffdivingclub.ie/ Enjoy the hol fella. Talk to yo soon. L