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Wraysbury Training Weekend
A gathering of students arrive at Wraysbury Lake around 9.00am to demonstrate newly acquired skills to their intrepid instructors and able assistants.
Piles of equipment are carefully distributed to the students who diligently assemble it into something resembling Scuba sets! These are then donned prior to the students gleefully taking to the shimmering azure waters of Wraysbury lake!
Saturday saw Chloe, Ben & Jamie successfully complete their Junior Scuba Diver qualifying dives in difficult conditions. Most of the celebrations seem to be prompted by the knowledge that they don't have to get back in the water, for some unfathomable reason!
Meanwhile Chris and Peter eagerly plan Sunday's open water dives 3 and 4 with their instructor, Jeff.
In another part of the lake, Rescue Divers in the making, Sally, Cathy and Peter watch demonstrations from instructor Hugh & Course Director Vernon.
Assistant Instructor Colin and Divemaster Andy serve as the unfortunate victims.
David Blake qualified in Wraysbury earlier this summer before continuing with his Advanced Open Water course in Mauritius. He thought UK diving couldn't be as bad as he remembered and decides to take his new drysuit for an outing. PADI Drysuit & Enriched Air specialty course dives seem to provide sufficient justification to get back in the water.
He quickly rises to the challenge of deploying a DSMB although disappointment follows when his inflation proved poor compared to that of instructor Clive. However the contest is declared unfair when it is pointed out that Clive is legendary for the volume of hot air expelled during his briefings!
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Sunday starts with two quick dives by instructors Jeff and Clive with students Chris (completing open water dive 2) & Sandra making a Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure dive to complete her Advanced Open Water course.
Open Water dive 3 follows for Chris and Peter. They are joined by Emma and Tom who are upgrading their Junior Scuba Diver certification to Junior Open Water Diver.
The Rescue Diver candidates learn further skills and apply them to various scenarios, some of which appear to involve lunge reins: presumably for sea horses?
The final Open Water dive for Chris, Peter, Emma & Tom provides them with an opportunity to demonstrate their skill with a compass in near zero visibility - and that was at the surface!
Emma & Tom both deploy a DSMB to complete their dives & demonstrate excellent buoyancy control during their final ascent.
Logbooks and certification papers are completed following the successful course dives and the solemn intitiation of Tom is undertaken by Colin and Andy!
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The Rescue Course concludes with a final debrief in the September sunshine closing a very pleasant and satisfying weekend.
Congratulations to Chloe, Jamie and Ben on qualifying as Junior Scuba Divers, Emma and Tom as Junior Open Water Divers, Chris and Peter as Open Water Divers, Sandra as an Advanced Open Water Diver and David as a Drysuit and Enriched Air Diver.
Further congratulations to Sally and Peter who are shortly to qualify as Rescue Divers.
Finally, my personal thanks to Jeff, Hugh, Vernon, Colin and Andy for all of their hard work over the weekend.
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