Stoney Cove Dive Leader Training

Dive Leader Training at Stoney Cove on March 6th

Instructors:  Alan Harman & John Strong

Trainees: Angela Shaw & Stuart Crump

The journey up was not too bad little divertion due to works on the road we were on took us a little out of our way but not too bad.  Weather was clear but cold so not looking forward to getting in the water brrr.  As it’s a long journey up I thought it would be a good idea for me to read to Stuart the items in the Dive Leader Book about the work we were planning to do for the day.  Think I may do an audio book one day…… You may think it’s a bit Jackanory (those of you who can remember that childrens programme) but in actual fact it was quite interesting, until you read these books you do not realise how indepth each skill can be broken down to and how much we have to take into consideration for each task.  As an example before you attempt to lift any item you must know the weight of the item in order to calculate the size of the lift bag to use to lift the item and there are a variety of ways to lift an item, moral of the story ensure you read all your manuals before attempting any skills it will give you a different perspective on the job at hand.

Intention of the day was to cover the DSMB & Use of lift bag to move an item.

Dive one:

My primary DSMB has a cylinder on it and a closed end so I could not use this for this skill however this was identified during the brief and I used my spare for the days work. 

We swam to the Wessex and from there was to partially inflate the DSMB to the point where it was not rising to the surface but had enough air in it to be open.  Before we could complete this exercise Stuart signalled me and other to say he needed to go to the surface, we all followed.  On the surface it was identified that his DV was freeflowing and he could not see very well, he changed to his pony to complete his ascent and we discussed the problem on the surface.  Due to this we all returned to the shore and checked the DV it was still letting  air out.  Luckily for us Alan had a spare which he replaced on Stuarts Regs (he’ll never see that again)….  It was decided to return to complete the task as the water was 5 degrees lets just say I was not looking forward to going in again my hands were still cold, but only them the dry suit was working well.

Back in again for the skill we went to the edge of the wall and partially inflated DSMB, a couple of times and then swam over the wall to the deeper area so we could practice using a drop reel, we hovered for 13 mins and then surfaced on our DSMB lines.

Back at the shore we discussed how the skills went any issues which needed to be covered then had lunch, sat on the patio tables and chatted about the previous dives and the next ones we had yet to do.

Dive two: 

I made a good decision to get dressed in between dives it meant that I could warm up they have lovely changing rooms at Stoney cove (heated).  So when the time came for the second dive I felt better to start, this option is not always available to us.

 This dive was to move a weighted object using a lift bag, Alan went through the task requirements ensuring the lift bag was adequate for our needs, and we set off to do the work near the wall.

Alan and John took the bag out to the area we were doing the work, Stuart and I were given the intructions to complete the skills and it went well we partially inflated the lift bag with enough air to just enable us to gently and easily lift the item from the lake bed and fin with it to its new position and place it on the lake bed again.  We both achieved this.  I sent the lift bag to the surface taking into account all the requirements, ie holding away from me or other obstruction, at the surface we retrieved the bag unfortunately I saw a lift bag and attempted to retrieve it but without realising it found out ooops it wasn’t ours, was trying to steal someone else’s lift bag while they were using it.  John informed me it wasn’t ours so I decided to leave the lake quickly…..;-)

We had our debrief and thankfully Alan and John were pleased with our achievements for the day so we had a picture taken and loaded up the kit and drove home, exhausted with the heater full blast.

Brilliant day, thanks again to Alan and John for giving up there spare time.