Crowley's Blog

[divebunnie]

Haha! Don't I know it... wise words there Crowley...

You know.. nine times out of ten I check the current on the wreck here and I too have smugly drifted by divers swimming in the opposite direction... today we were running late...so had to just jump... hence I saw you gliding past us on Yolande hehe... Thankfully we had all dived it the other day, so a slightly different route was not a problem.. I did spend the bulk of the dive, kicking myself for being impatient however hehe...

 

[Crowley]

Actually that was two days ago when I wrote the original but never got around to finishing it. So - sadly it wasn't me drifting gently by today, as I was having a day off to do the laundry and the cleaning. We are very quiet this weekend, and I am taking full advantage to have an actual weekend

 

[divebunnie]

Haha! How funny... the timing just seemed so right. I am with you on the current checks too... it really doesn't take long, but makes such a big difference to the dive itself. Shark and Yolande was still pretty amazing yesterday though despite my having to meander in between sheltered spots out of the currrent.. oops. Have you seen the puffer fish are shoaling?? Soo cute.

 

[Crowley]

Ah the puffer fish are getting together? How cool! And I'm going to miss it cos I am stuck on the house reef tomorrow. Which is great, of course, but I'd prefer to be in Ras Mohamed

 

[Crowley]

Due the regulated nature of packaged holiday travel, the level of business at our dive centre rises and falls with the scheduling requirements of a number of tour operators - and as far as i can work out, at least for my centre, the highs and lows are cyclical around a four week period.

It depends on the type of holiday people book - most are here for one only one week, many are here for two, and since the turnaround is at the weekend - Saturday Out, Sunday In - the cumulative effect is that we get a lull every weekend, a more noticeable lull every second weekend, and every fourth weekend we seem to be relatively empty.

Thus, over the last two days I have had an actual weekend. As in Saturday and Sunday, those days where people with normal jobs sleep off the hangover from Friday night and then spend Sunday afternoon in a state of depression because they realise how much they have to do next week; that the boss is going to show up sometime around midday and *still* chew them out for being late even though it wasn't their fault because the bus broke down three miles from the office and they had to walk... and also that it actually takes two days to sleep off the hangover from Friday night, not including any Saturday shenanigans, and you're not in the mood.

Malesh - from therein was born the Monday Morning: a few hours of dread terror between restlessly falling asleep on Sunday night and relentlessly grasping for the coffee machine twelve hours later.

So today I arrived at work after spending Saturday recovering from a hangover and Sunday cleaning my apartment, and I find out I have 19 divers on my boat which means ten for me and nine for my colleague (I'm generous like that) and also that my long weekend (two whole days again!) has just finished. This is a real Monday morning, and I can feel it, even though generally speaking I can only hazard a guess as to which day of the week it really is. I had two coffees this morning...

BUT...

Fortunately, I was granted a reprieve when I looked at the number of dives each customer had - and the most inexperienced diver on board had more than 70 dives. After that it was easy. Repeat customers with oodles of dives each (as in some with over 500), who just love to go diving - wherever that happens to be.

They're all great divers and I'm taking 19 of them to Ras Mohamed tomorrow (with another guide, of course, to maintain ratios ) but tomorrow I will basically be getting paid to have fun.

The visibilty wasn't so great today (maybe only 20 metres or so in places) but I did see a family of Napoleon Wrasse at Ras Umm sid - at least 4 individuals - and loads of tuna at Tower, if not the big muddyfunsters that are hanging about at Jackfish Alley recently.

So, it wasn't so bad after all. That was my Monday Morning... how was yours!?

Cheers

C.

 

[Red Sea Leonfish]

That was my Monday Morning... how was yours!?

All the better for the thought that this time next week I'll be heading to the airport to come looking for that familiy of Napoleon Wrasse!

 

[divebunnie]

Cool... my Monday morning was not dissimilar, except we had check dives to do as well.

Once again I learned that I am right to trust my instincts when we had a couple with quite a lot of dives, and regular guests with us, but hadn't dived in over a year. This would usually call for a full scuba review, however in light of their experience, and familiar faces, I said they could have the mini check dive version. At first they were fine, then once on the boat one started to query the need for such a session. Hmm now I felt guilty, was I forcing them to do something completely unnecessary? Well I was proved right when the very person who had queried the need for a mini skills session really, really struggled with the mask skills! Maybe they weren't a favourite, but it is such an important skill, at least I was able to give a couple of tips to help them, should they have a mask flood during the week.

The dive itself was awesome.. we had a turtle.. on Fiddle Garden! Then at lunch we had a couple of mantas fly by the boat... needless to say a whole heap of us leaped in to see them... fantastic!

 

[Crowley]

When it comes to refreshers, what I find is that the people who argue the need for them are invariably the people that do. The people who ask for refreshers or think it's a good idea when we tell them that after a certain time period, dependent on experience, we are going to insist on it if they wish to dive with us are usually good, conscientious divers who appreciate the opportunity to get back into the swing of things slowly...


And I think I need to visit Fiddle Garden sometime soon, given the non stop action there at the moment!

Cheers

C.

 

[Red Sea Leonfish]

I always try to avoid going more than 12 months between dives (6 if I can) anyway, but on the occasion that I did once have to undertake a full PADI two-dive 'Scuba Review' I did find that (whilst I can see why certain centres will insist on it for certain divers) the strict insistence on running through the whole slate in order can be a bit tedious. I would in no way consider myself to be an especially experienced diver, but, once you get passed a certain point of being comfortable with your kit and familiar with the general dive conditions in a location, I would suggest that certain exercises can either be skipped or abbreviated.

The classic exercise being the partial mask flood on dive #1 followed by a full mask flood on dive #2 when I would happily take my mask off five minutes into the dive and swim around without it for a while before putting it back on and enjoying the rest of my dive(s). Similarly, if you can demonstrate to a dive guide/instructor that you can control your buoyancy adequately (passing a deco-gas bottle between you for example) then sitting in a group taking it in turns to watch each other perform manual inflation fin pivots can be a bit tedious!

The best dive centres, it seems, recognise this and are willing to 'take a view' based on whether they know you, whether you know them, your experience and actual period since your last dive and – as the final and most important factor – how you actually perform underwater. I would agree that a shallow beach dive (where available) to check weights, buoyancy, etc with a good guide/DM who watched you kit up and keeps an eye on you underwater can, in certain circumstances, be sufficient to demonstrate that you 'know what you're doing'.

However, I would certainly never begrudge a dive centre who insisted on checking your practical skills alongside your qualification. In fact, I would question any dive centre who saw fit to draw up buddy groups where they hadn't taken some steps to satisfy themselves that everyone in the group was suitably experienced and practically able and skilled to deal with the conditions and challenges that they are likely to face. Failure to do so not only risks the safety of that guest but the safety and enjoyment of the other guests and, ultimately, the safety of the guide who might have to go after them then they bolt to the surface from 25m when their mask strap breaks!

 

[Crowley]

Because we are a multi-agency centre we don't insist on the full scuba review, but market a "refresher course" which is agency independent - if people want the full review we can do it but I'd rather spend time making sure weights and buoyancy and basic safety skills are fixed first. I never bother with - for example, snorkel-to-regulator exchange at the surface (unless I'm doing a full Scuba Review of course, in which case, I must) - if somebody can comfortably remove and replace their reg and perform an out of air drill underwater then I see no reason to waste diving time faffing about at the surface.

I think fin-pivots are one of the most valuable skills a recreational diver can learn and practice (although the requirement to actually pivot around the fins has been removed from PADI's courses), so I always do them in a refresher.

I wrote an article about the grading system that dive centres use for divers in the May edition of the Equalizer (click my signature to be re-directed there) and this will give you some idea as to the process of check dives and refreshers and whatnot. We try to pair-up insta-buddies of similar ability and experience but it is inevitably impossible to accurately gauge a diver's overall ability in 100% of cases. I frequently dive with people or are active DMs and Instructors who require 15 litre tanks (standard is 12) and still run out of air in 45 minutes on an easy dive - and I've seen freshly qualified Open Water divers who I would happily rely on - to a point - as a buddy.

It doesn't always work, but we do our best, given the vagaries of human nature....

Cheers

C.