9am on a Saturday morning finds five members of the Club changing into their diving gear at Porth Ysgaden to do Sports Diver training. Dewi and Irfon did a very exhausting SO1 “Diver Rescue” with Hugh and Wyn did a very gentle SO2 “Use of Surface Marker Buoy” with David. Four times while doing AV continuously, the former group removed their kit and the casualty’s, dragged the casualty up on the beach and finally put the casualty into the Recovery Position. Knackering. Underwater; 1.5m visibility, 7 deg C, very little sea life, a couple of crabs and a fish. More than you would find at Vivian.
The Club will soon be the proud possessor of a Compaq Evo N600c laptop computer. Thanks to Robin we were able to put a bid in for the laptop, which was surplus to requirements, and our bid was accepted.
As a result of a grant from the Gwynedd Sportlot Community Chest the Club has been able to purchase a digital projector for training purposes. It is a Hewlett Packard HP VP6315.
The Committee in decided to go for a projector because all the diver theory training packs are now PowerPoint presentations and the Club had no means of its own to deal with groups of more that two or three trainees. There may be enought money left over from the grant to purchase a cheap laptop computer in order to complete the Club’s audiovisual training needs.
The committee’s next grant application is likely to be for additional dive kit for training but the decision will depend on priorities at the time.
No one can say that the Club and its members are not active. The whole morning was made over to three Sports Diver Training Theory sessions at the DO’s place of work MCL in Penrhyndaedraeth. The trainees: Dewi, Irfon, Wyn, Tim, Peter, Sue and daughter Gwenllian (3 months old), and were present. Just Cathy was unable to attend of the group which started a year ago almost to the day. David did the first lecture (see below) the Sports Diving Introduction, then Hugh did Equipment & Techniques and Neil finished off with Diver Rescue. There are just three more lectures to go.
It was then over to Vivian Quarry to start the Sports Diver open water sessions. Neil took Peter, Wyn and Tim on the “Use of the SMB”. Peter was wearing a 13mm semi-dry suit , and Wyn was wearing a 7 mm wet suit surprisingly they showed very little sign of the cold after the 30 minute dive. David took Irfon and Dewi, and Hugh took in Mick for controlled buoyant lift, towing and AV assessment. Lee graciously volunteered to act as a body for the assessment.
Today found the our intrepid Club Instructors again giving their all at Vivian Quarry. Neil, David and Hugh were doing what they do best, but that was later at Pete’s Eats. The weather was sunny but cold. But oh the delights of the cool breeze wafting around ones loins in the middle of the carpark as one hops up and down on one leg trying to get into ones thermals.
Lee, with Dewi’s assistance as a body, completed all the open water exercises and just has heavy breathing to do with ResusiAnnie (Mike’s old girl friend). Mick moved and lifted a shot using a lifting bag. Robin did his first Dive Leader open water dive.
Several of the group then went over to Pete’s Eats and were in and out in record time. Lee just had the bacon sandwich.
The National Park needed some help from the Club. Could a small group of Club members find a sunken dumper truck in Llyn Llydaw and report and photograph its condition. So specially insured for the occasion, Hugh, David and Mike met up with DO Neil and National Park Warden Wallis at 9:30am in the car park at Nant Peris and transferred their kit into the Park 4 x 4. The weather was v**y cold but the sun was out and there was scarcely a breath of wind as we wound our way up to Miner’s Track to the lake at 443mtres.
The AMD visibility was very good and the dumper was quickly located. Neil and Hugh remained to photograph the vehicle. Mike(MD) and David did a reccy of the depths of the lake and went down to around 30metres before deciding to turn back. There was no life in the lake. The silt was easily agitated and as Confucius said: “The superior man will not obliterate the path he intends to return on”, a quotation briefly forgotten!
The sun shone but on the Llyn not at Vivian Quarry. This time there was some shot weight moving with a lifting bag for diver Lee, David instructing and another go at the mid-water DSMB deployment by Mick and a first go at it by Robin with Hugh instructing. Neil took Dewi and Irfon on their first Sports Diver Open Water dive. All the trainees did exceptionally well at their tasks. Some of us then retired to Pete’s Eats, some of us had a snack, one of us had an enormous plate chile and chips.
