New Dimension Scuba

It's Throw Back Thursday!

Throw Back Thursday!

Frank Edge, a lovely customer of our sent us some photos from his diving youth. A struggling engineering apprentice , Frank had to custom make much of his scuba equipment. This photos was taken in 1967 at Holyhead Harbour on Anglesey, Wales. The cylinder was originally a refrigeration bottle from an aircraft and had been salvaged from a sunken ship! The harness was made from car seatbelt webbing and quick release buckles were also seatbelt parts salvaged from a scrap yard! Frank made his own moulds and cast his own weights on his mum's gas hob and his wetsuit was a home-made job made from unlined neoprene.

What a great Week! Olly finished his PADI Dry Suit Specialty and he & Toby got a few more sidemount dives in even though the weather wasn't playing game!

We'd like to say a big well done to Daniel, Chase and Jacob who ploughed on through their PADI Open Water and PADI Advanced Open Water and also to Steve and Kimberly who achieved their PADI Open Water and their PADI Adventure Diver! An amazing effort all round considering the rough weather we've been having!

The week was completed by Nicola gaining her PADI Deep and O2 Providers Specialties, earning her the certification of PADI Master Scuba Diver!!

Today I started my Tec 40 with Toby. He took me through a tec skills circuit and we played around with my weighting, buoyancy control, trim and finning techniques. As some of you know, Toby's standards are very high so I was really put through my paces!

Today we Remember the countless heroes who have given their lives for their Country, in wars old and recent.

Malta's strong ties with the UK go back to WWII and unsurprisingly many of the dive-able wrecks here are British vessels or planes from the war. Some are very shallow, giving beginner divers a chance to experience diving on a piece of history, others are at depth so that only Deep certified divers or Tec divers can experience them. So if you get the opportunity to dive any of Malta WWII wrecks then maybe take a minute to remember the people who walked their decks, fired their guns, fought from above....did they make it home from the war?

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them."

From Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen, written in September 1914.

Below are a few examples of WWII Wrecks in Malta.

HMS Stubborn was an S-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 November 1942. Stubborn survived the Second World War and was sunk on 30 April 1946 as an ASDIC target off Malta.

HMS Maori was a Tribal-class destroyer named after the indignous Māori people of New Zealand. She served with the Mediterranean Fleet until she was bombarded by German aircraft while at Malta in 1942 causing her to sink. Her wreck was later raised and scuttled outside the Grand Harbour, and it is now a dive site.

Cirkewwa this morning for a PADI Advanced Open Water and fun dives on the P29 and Rozi. Then this afternoon, DSD mania finally kicks off at NDS. Summer has officially arrived!!

Diving the Blue Hole at Gozo

Bristol Beaufighter

Having just finished the Razor sidemount course with Steve Bogaerts I was able to sneak in a quick dive with Olly Steel, Tamara L May, John P and new addition to the team Alicia and her other half Marcus.

The Beaufighter was a twin engine 2/3 seater strike and torpedo aircraft with a wing span of 18 meters. On the 17th March 1943, the Beaufighter suffered problems and crashed into the sea at about 100mph. Both Pilot and Observer survived.

GUE Fundamentals………..For those of you who are unfamiliar with Global Underwater Explorers they are a non profit training agency who  emerged out of a shared desire to safely explore and protect the underwater world and to improve the quality of education and research in all things aquatic.

I first came across them after I had finished my Open Water all those years ago and saw a photo of a diver from GUE.In a nut shell he looked badass. It was like a little boys cliched dream that one day I wanted to be like him.

Well after many years diving, the opportunity to take the fundies course with Gareth Burrows from divedir came about.

Now GUE come under alot of fire from the diving fraternity….mainly because theycoined the phrase DIR or “Doing It Right” thus implying every one else was wrong.

I also think they come under alot of fire from jealousy and fear.They have very strict standards at all levels…these courses are not for everyone.It takes a mind set of wanting to be as safe as possible and dive to your best ability.

This is not to say other agencies are unsafe but it was definitely interesting to hear there reasons why they do things the way they do.

If you work from the more advanced diving levels down, then using a plate and wing with a long hose primary regulator makes sense, so why not teach this from the beginning rather than learn to dive on a BCD and then switch at a later stage? Have you ever tried an air sharing ascent from depth or even a swim back to the exit on the standard length hose?

They put a huge emphasis on team work and bloody right as well. How often do you see divers not bothering with basic pre dive checks or simply being unaware of their situation and their team mates.

Although we have to be self sufficient, when things go wrong I bet we would all love to have a competent team around us.Especially if you are the most experienced.

The course is 4 intense days, 1 day of theory and 3 days of dry intros to skills and then in water practice and practice and practice.

Trim and buoyancy are scrutinized at every moment and if you struggle with this then the skills are pretty tricky…..but the GUE instructors are there to coach you at every possible moment.

After you finish each session its video feedback time, when you really find out how flat in the water you actually are!!!!!

Your capacity to deal with tasks underwater will be greatly improved gradually over the course, with you holding a 3 metre stop as a team whilst sharing air and deploying an SMB.

The course is amazing and great value for money.  I can highly recommend dive dir and Gareth Burrows is an amazing educator who really knows his stuff.

The fail rate of this course is 20% and a pass comes in provisional, recreational and technical grades.

With a technical pass being the pre requisite for their more advanced courses but you can upgrade if you don’t hit the mark first time.

Even if you fail and don’t then upgrade you will still have a great time and learn a vast amount.

I believe so strongly in this course that as NDS gets bigger we will hopefully provide this as staff training to the NDS team each year.

If anyone wants to arrange a course then drop me a line or go to www.divedir.com

As for myself and Steve, we are out consolidating what we learnt …did we pass?Well you will have to ask us when you see us.

Laters

Yesterday was Day One of Toby & Steve’s GUE Fundamentals Course with Gareth Burrows. Gareth has been a GUE Instructor since 2008 so the guys know that they’re in for a good time over the next four days and will come away with their diving skills and knowledge improved massively.

Yesterday was theory in the classroom, some pool sessions, and setting kit up ready for getting under the water today.

Luckily for Toby and Steve it’s just the two of them on the course so they can ask as many “why? Why? Why’s?” as they like…maybe not so lucky for Gareth…? On asking Toby how Day One went he replied “Bloody brilliant!”

Curious about GUE? Have a look at Gareth’s page here.

So last year we asked you to review us on tripadvisor to help us with our ratings, and it also provides us with feed back as well. It’s surprising how many people will use tripadvisor to research their diving trip! Out of everyone who did this, we entered them into a draw and one lucky person won a NDS t-shirt.

This year, we’re doing the same, but asking that not only could you review us on tripadvisor, but also on google+. As I’m sure most of you are aware, social media is now the biggest way of reaching people and it’s really important that we continue the flow of reviews and feedback.

You can copy the same review so really we’re asking for no more than 5 minutes of your time. The names of everyone who contributes to both tripadvisor and google+ will be entered into a draw for a chance to win a t-shirt, cap and slap strap. Wooow!

To review us tripadvisor click here

To review us on google+ click here

Competition closes 31st May 2014.  Winner will be announced soon after. Good luck!