It's not all bad news this weekend... Congratulations Sub-Mission students.

It may have been a disappointing weekend due to the football results but Sub-Mission students were certainly celebrating their successes for the dives that they completed over the weekend. PADI Open Water, Advanced, Wreck and SMB courses were all completed over what turned out to be a glorious weekend.

PADI Open Water Diver Course

Matt, Wes, Ant, John, Jack and Tom were excited on Saturday morning as well as feeling some nervous anticipation. They were blessed with the sunshine after each dive. After the first dive all the nerves had vanished to be replaced by excited chat about the fish and the dive underwater.

They were all brilliant students over the weekend and completed their skills with ease. With all four dives completed they achieved the PADI Open Water Diver Accreditation. A special mention must be made to Tom who did a superb job of keeping up with the adults, even though the scuba kit was bigger than him.

Well done everyone. We look forward to you signing up for the Advanced soon….


PADI Wreck Specialty

The new plane at Capernwray is a great feature to learn wreck techniques on and Sub-Mission students had a blast on Saturday getting to grips with mapping, line laying and exploring every nook and cranny of it.

Jenny, Terry, Julie, Colin, Matt, Dave, Gary and Gavin were great students who enthusiastically threw themselves in to each task presented to them. They showed efficient and cohesive team work, especially during the actual penetration of the wreck. There were some moments of entanglement as they began to learn the techniques of reeling along the outside but soon mastered it.

The staff had a great day with the PADI Wreck Specialty students so thanks very much and congratulations.

PADI Advanced Open Water

Some of the students who completed the Advanced Open Water Course had booked the course several months ago and this weekend certainly showed us that the sunshine was worth waiting for. Matt, Craig, Sonia, Kieran, James, Ian, Mike and Dawn completed the required Adventure Dives over the weekend in order to achieve the Advanced Open Water qualification. They all completed the core Deep and Navigation Dives and then chose to also try their hand at photography, peak performance buoyancy, drysuit and wreck diving.

There were some cracking photo’s taken over the photography dives with some hopefully making their way onto the flickr account some time soon. Some even abandoned the drysuit in favour of a Semi Drysuit and loved the freedom and manoeuvrability whilst the water was warm enough.

Again, a great set of students who kept the staff laughing throughout the weekend! Well done.


PADI SMB Specialty

After a theory session and pool session learning the features of Surface Marker Buoys and reels as well as the techniques used to deploy them from underwater, Jenny, Stefan and Jon completed their Open Water dives on Sunday.

They had to complete two dives where they deployed their SMB’s numerous times as practice from a static position on the bottom and then whilst hovering mid water. They managed to avoid getting tangled and easily demonstrated the use of a variety of different methods to deploy their SMB’s. They each got to take turns with a variety of different reels from spools to ratchet reels. Jenny even braved the water without a hood. A brilliant performance by each of them and hopefully they will put their new skills to good use on their next holiday or UK coastal trip.

Congratulations Lyndon and Ant - NEW PADI INSTRUCTORS

We would like to congratulate Lyndon and Ant for passing their PADI Instructor Exam with flying colours this weekend. They have been working very hard lately to complete their Instructor Development Course (IDC) at Sub-Mission in preparation for the exam

The IDC taught them the techniques to teach PADI courses from Open Water to Divemaster.

At the exam, Lyndon and Ant were assessed on a variety of teaching area’s including theory exams, teaching in a classroom, teaching skills in a pool as well as in open water and finally rescue assessment.

Both candidates were very nervous over the weekend but still managed to perform well under the stress. They reached top marks in several areas and scored highly overall, with high praise from the examiners.

We would like to congratulate the two of them and welcome them to Sub-Mission as PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors.

If you are interested in becoming a PADI Professional, please contact Katy on Katy@divecourses.co.uk for more information.

Ant's Gone Ape Day

On a Sunday morning can you think of anything better to do than climb trees, swing between the branches and slide down zip wires? Sub-Mission Dive club took the challenge of Go Ape last Sunday and had a blast in Cannock forest.

With 13 gorillas and 2 baboons in our group we were dressed in harnesses, given an introduction to the ‘tree top’ course and then were given all responsibility for getting ourselves down from the branches. The course increased in difficulty as we moved from one tree crossing to another, which included simple plank walking to suspended rings that looked like they would have been better placed in the Gladiators arena.

The final section of the course was certainly the most exhilarating and frightening with a jump from the top of the tree into a net 6 metres below you with only the trust of the harness to get across.

It was certainly an excellent group activity, full of excitement. There was much screaming to be heard all the way around as well as the constant sound of laughter as we worked hard as a group to get ourselves and each other through the branches. So next time Sub-Mission Dive Club Goes Ape, make sure you come along too.

Well done all you gorillas and baboons.

Coral Reef Conservation Specialty - Another great course.

Sub-Mission Instructor Rich taught the PADI Coral Reef Conservation Specialty on Monday night to an eager group of students. Sam, Paul, Mark, Edward, Chris, Mark, Jackie, Mark, Gary, Steve and Antonia all learnt about the delicate equilibrium of the Coral Reef and its inhabitants, fish identification as well as the plight of the reefs and what we can do to help.

The evening began with a viewing of some of the film ‘End of the Line’ which managed to focus everyone’s attention to the ultimate message of the Coral Reef Conservation Specialty; without our help, the seas and coral reefs will degrade beyond repair.

Rich uplifted everyone though with some great media clips, photo’s and a pub quiz, which was won by Steve and Antonia. The students were certainly given a lot to think about and some great ideas to get them started to make small changes in their lives that will impact positively on the environment.

Thanks everyone for attending, it was a great evening!

PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Success

Sub-Mission conducted a PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty on Sunday as a follow on from our brilliant pool clinics. Astin, James, Chris, Paul, Dawn and Ian found the dives incredibly beneficial as they practiced a variety of techniques to improve their buoyancy. From hovering close to the bottom to using breath control to swim around obstacles.

Sub-Mission staff also spent time ensuring that each student was weighted correctly and that the weights were positioned to give good trim in the water. Following on from the pool clinics some of the students had also been practicing their breathing rhythms and improved their air consumption during the dives. By the end of the two dives, they were also able to easily hold a safety stop mid water. Even Rob from the PADI Advanced Open Water Course joined us for the second dive to complete his Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty too!

Keep an eye on the blog for our next buoyancy pool clinics if you want to get involved!

Too see more photo's of the weekend, please follow the link to flickr

Great weekend, great visibility, great students.

Sub-Mission had another spectacular weekend at Capernwray with some great students and fairly fantastic weather.

A group of recent PADI Open Water Students had requested a tailor made course so that they could all get together and complete their PADI Advanced Open Water on the same weekend. They had had such a great time on their course that they wanted to meet up again for the next step on their diving adventures. Rob, Lauren, Paul and Rob had some excellent dives over the weekend in order to complete their course. The visibility on Saturday was probably the best that the instructors had seen it.

Completing the Wreck, Deep, Navigation, Peak Performance Buoyancy and Multilevel dives, each of the students enjoyed the thrill of really diving, seeing the new plane and experiencing deeper dives. They all passed easily and were a pleasure to teach over the weekend. Well done and thanks for some fantastic diving!

To view all of the photo's from the weekend, please follow the link to flickr

Peak Performance Buoyancy Clinic success

Sub-Mission have been busy running Buoyancy clinic’s in the pool over the past few weeks and we would like to congratulate everyone who has attended one of the pool sessions. We consider these sessions to have been a massive success and are looking at scheduling some more clinics for the future.

What we have realised is that every divers buoyancy issues are different and so we’ve been working on an individual basis to improve our students skills and help them fine tune their positioning in the water. For some, heavy air consumption seems to be a problem and we’ve been working on breathing techniques, for others it’s control of positioning so we’ve been hovering in numerous positions to perfect that control amongst a lot of other skills.

We would like to thank everyone who has attending and we hope that they will be joining us for the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty that we are running at Capernwray on June 13th or June 27th.

Photographer Brian Skerry talks about the plight of the ocean

Please check out this video clip of Photographer Brian Skerry talking about his work to help protect our Oceans. His photo's are astounding so worth a look and a listen.

World Ocean Day - give Sharks a fighting chance

I thought this was important to share with you all today as it's World Ocean day. This is an email that I just had from PADI;

"This World Ocean Day, 8th June, you can spend two minutes and join AWARE Divers worldwide demanding that sharks be given a fighting chance.

Governments ignored scientific evidence and advice in favor of short-term economic interests at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), March 2010. They failed to give eight threatened shark species the trade protections they deserve.


Each year, tens of millions of sharks are killed by Earth’s most dangerous predators – humans. Too many of them fall victim to the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning – the act of removing shark fins and discarding the often still alive shark overboard.

Despite set-backs, thanks to advocates like you, sharks have received recent, historical national protections in Europe, Maldives and Palau. Together, we will make a difference for these critical species.

Sign the petition, express your outrage at the recent CITES failures. Your signature, together with thousands of divers and advocates worldwide, will demand government parties to CITES heed science and protect fragile ocean ecosystems."

So please follow this link and add your name to the petition, pass it on to your friends and family too!  

Katy

The Ocean Project

The Ocean Project

Another Happy Group of PADI Open Water Divers!

We’d like to say huge congratulations to the latest PADI Open Water divers to certify with Sub-Mission Dive Centre. This weekend at Capernwray Mark, Becky, Jeff, Mark, Paul and Nigel were all amazed by the wonders of the underwater world. The three dives on Saturday were completed successfully with only minor buoyancy issues. Due to the lack of other divers at Capernwray the visibility was good and the students loved riding Shergar and watching the fish.

Unfortunately Mark and Becky were unable to complete the dives on Sunday but we’ve rescheduled their dates and look forward to them completing the PADI Open Water Diver Course very soon.

So Mark, Paul, Nigel and Jeff carried on regardless on Sunday and had two brilliant dives. Although nerves began to creep in about the mask removal and replacement they didn’t let it phase them and all gained the PADI Open Water Diver certification. Each of them also completed a further dive to gain the PADI Drysuit Specialty. This was the perfect dive to end the weekend as they not only had a great time exploring the new plane but the group also saw the Sturgeon.

Well done everyone!