Otter's Journal
join me on my adventures.
Okay, it was rainy, it was cold, it was muddy, but what better conditions to check out one of coolest dry suits on the market! There was a good turn out for those who wanted to try before you buy, several people came prepared to earn their Dry Suit Speciality certification. The quarry was 44 degrees, the air temp was in the high 50's and pleanty of mud to go around.
Saturday April 11 at 11 AM at Millbrook Quarry Whites Manufacturing maker of Whites Dry Suits will a have trailer full of Dry Suits available to try and dive!
Stop by the Shop get your Quarry pass (it will save you money VS buying at the gate) then join us to see all of the cool stuff that Whites Diving has to offer in dry suits; like their Fusion Dry Suit, that's what I am looking at.
Should be a lot of fun and with the Dry Suit you won't notice the chilly water temperature.
Look for updates and pics after the event.
Keys News.com and Big Shipwrecks.com reported the anchors for the Vandenberg arrived in Key West. The ship is supposed to be under way to Key West soon. They want her on the bottom before hurricane season starts, which is June 1. Can't wait! Great ship; will make a great reef.
Click on the Links above to read the articles.
We finished up our pool work today, the last of the stamina skills and a complete skills review. It all went well.
Covered what we need to do for the internship. A good day all in all.
Spent the weekend at the dive shop VIP-ing tanks, O2 cleaning tanks (lots of heavy lifting) and O2 cleaning valves.
The quarry opens for the regular season on April 4th. Yes it will be cold, not looking to splash in right away.
The last person to do a chilly willy dive in mid-march said the water was 44 degrees, I really need a dry suit.
Oh look - Virginia Scuba is having a Whites Drysuit Demo day on April 11th - hum a Fusion Drysuit would be nice...
Come check it out.
Checking out SquareSpace as blog and website option.
I am in no way a programmer. So this really cool. Lots of options. LOTS of them but I dont have to code any of the basic stuff. Click, select, drop drag.
Let's see how this goes. I have 14 days.....
This weekend is where we really got down to business. Rescue skills assessment, thanks to my willing “victim” and my best dive buddy Megan; we grilled the divemaster candidate from ascent to exit. All in good fun helping Stephen to perfect his rescue skills to demonstration quality.
I ran Stephen through the dive skills several times as well. He is doing great, I am very impressed with his progress. Our class is moving right along.
Sunday morning back in the pool then one more class room secession Sunday afternoon and we will be finished the book work.
The Divemater course is in full swing now. Two days in the pool testing skills and stamina. It is great fun taking good divers and helping them become diving professionals. You can see the change and improvement as they work their dive skills to teaching level. It is great to see the candidate realize this it tougher then it looks as you start the weekend. Then they see themselves changing and realize this is fun and achievable. It does the instructor good too to see the progress. We had a great time this weekend!
We began the Spring Divemaster Class with two days of paperwork, knowledge development reviews and a fews exams tossed in for excitement.
Next weekend the real fun begins, pool work, skills and stamina all part of the fun.
Are you up for one of the most challenging and yet rewarding courses from the PADI catalog! In the Divemaster Course, you are not a student , your are a candidate. Lots reading, lots of pool work, lots of FUN. When you have successfully complete the course you can join the ranks of Professional Diving (get paid to dive.) How cool!
Do you want to enter the ranks of professional diving. Click here for the course requirements http://tinyurl.com/Padi-Divemaster . If you’re ready then come join me.
This is always fun to teach and the more student the better. While the subject matter is serious the training is kept light, engaging and lots of hands on.
We cover Primary Care, the ABCDS of the Life Line and practice the skills needed to assist someone is trouble. We work with AED and its proper use.
With Secondary Care we cover how to assess a persons condition who is in need and how to administer basic first aid; you know bandages, splits, take a pulse that stuff.
In the Oxygen Provider class we cover how to properly setup equipment and administer emergency oxygen (always check to make sure the washer is in place :-) ). Then we covered safety considerations, and how to assemble and disassemble emergency oxygen equipment.
Congratulations to Stephen and Martha on completing these courses!
Want a great way to spend a few hours on a Sunday morning! How about signing up for a Scuba Tune up class? That is what Certified Diver Dan pictured above did. Dan is going to Turks and Cacios in a few weeks. We took a few hours to refresh his skills, which where great and we swam around the pool for a while to make sure he was comfortable with his gear and in the water.
