Dewi, Robyn, Hugh, Peter and David joined a community litter clearing afternoon at the Nature Reserve centred on Lon Cob Bach, Pwllheli. Items found, apart that is from the hundreds of plastic bags, crisp packets, beer cans and plastic bottles, were, 1 supermarket trolley, 1 bike, 1 bus stop, 26″ TV, sitting room carpet, 1 used condom (found on top of a pile of horse manure!?), three road signs, 5 traffic cones and a child’s scooter. There were about 40 volunteers adults and children and there seemed to be around 100 bags of rubbish collected. Not bad for 2.5hrs work.
We had all the students present: Tania, Brian, Llyr, Rhian, Lois & Anna. The three lessons were covered in pretty good time. Hugh took the first, OT5 “Going Diving”, which offered practical advice to students on going diving. Peter took the next OT6 “What happens if….” showing students how to prevent accidents by anticipating how to recognise and resolve problems should they arise. The echoes of the words “Your doomed” reached us all the way from Loch Fyne. The final lesson was taken by Robin, OT7 “Enjoying your diving” which showed students what new diving experiences they can look forward to after qualifying.
The theory part of the course completed the, Training Officer asked the students to decided on a date for the exam and offered a pre-exam training session. The discussion then went on, with Mike Duke present, to organising a dry suit trip up to Northern Divers and Divers’ Warehouse. Friday 4th April was suggested as a possible date. A second trip would be organised with Anna après, ‘l’après-ski’.
In introducing the evenings agenda the Diving Officer announced that Dewi Jones, our grants secretary, had just been told that his application to Community First for a grant for the Club of £2574.05 had been successful. The money is for three Resusci Annes to improve our first aid training and to pay for instructor training. He also reminded those present of the Community First Litter Collecting afternoon on 1:30pm or 2pm Sunday next, meeting at Lon Cob Bach car park/Nature Reserve, Pwllheli. See map for its location.
A very enjoyable evening was had by all. The AGM was completed successfully. The full list of this year’s committee is in the membership section. The main changes are: Chris Green appointed as the Club’s first President; elected were Carl Borum as Chairman, Mike Duke as Secretary and Lee Calderwood as Minutes Secretary. The following left the Committee: Neil Rawlinson Chairman, and Carol Jones Minutes Secretary.
Lee then took over the evening with an excellent quiz. It covered sights around Pwllheli, film stars young old and dead, soaps, complete the sentence from guest publications and a whole lot more. The question part of the quiz over, it was time for the finger buffet prepared by Vi. Vi’s job of preparing all the food would have been made easier had it not been for Mike deciding the previous day to set about part of his anatomy with an angle grinder. It is not known whether it was his intention to just shorten it or just lop it off all together; however we do understand that the limp with go in time. Back to the food, Vi did us proud despite these distractions and the room went very quiet while everyone quietly but enthusiastically masticated. Then it was back for the answers. All three teams did very well. The final scores very close and the winning team members were: Craig, Gemma, Ben, Rhian, Mathew (guest), Wyn & Helen. The party finally wound up just before 11pm.
A marathon. All 7 new members were present. Both David and Peter shared the lecture. It was OT4 Planning to Go Diving. It dealt with diving and the effects of nitrogen, the use of tables and dive computers, then went on to nitrox and dive planning for gas. By the end of the lecture two hours later it was felt by the Training Officer that enough was enough. The second lecture was postponed. Mike Duke showed a short video of last season’s training in Vivian Quarry just to get everyone gagging to get back into the fresh water.
Diving took place on 21 of the 24 Wednesdays planned between mid-April and the end of September, missing only the week in mid-June when some of us were on Skye and the last 2 weeks of September, due to weather.
The full breakdown of dives is as follows:
4 times to Criccieth, including 2 night dives and an expedition to Simon’s reef.
5 times at Trefor pier,
3 times at Porth Ysgadarn, including a visit to the bay to the north-east.
Twice to Vivian Quarry for training.
Twice to the Menai Straits.
Once to Gimblet Rock.
& 4 outings on the boat, all but one in tandem with Mickey’s boat, including 1 night to St Tudwals for the Ocean Divers’ first boat dive, one windy night in Glandon bay for DL Rescue Scenarios, and two great evenings off the North coast.
We did miss out on The Cyprian at Tudweiliog and Porth Iago remains to be tried. Attendances were generally high, varying from 3 hardy souls for the first trip to the Menai in late May to as many as 14 divers at Criccieth in August. Overall, it was our best season ever, especially good as the tide is usually only diveable from the shore every other week, and the weather during late June & July was abysmal. Here’s hoping it is anywhere near as good this season.
David.
