Author: Stephanie Down

Training report

On a sunny day in July a group of instructors, students and those roped in to help went to Vobster for some open water training. As well as teaching ocean and sports diver lessons, we were able to run the ‘rescue management scenarios’ for some of our dive leaders. A good day was had by all; the mock casualties survived, everyone got signed off and Ante has now completed his ocean diver course.

It has been a successful year of training for the club with trips to Wraysbury, Vobster and Stoney Cove. Overall the weather has been good, bacon butties great and visibility variable!! So far this year we have provided: 12 ocean diver, 14 sports diver and 3 dive leader open water sessions to students, we’ve had 3 sports divers and 1 ocean divers qualify while others are very close to finishing their training. With exciting trips still in the pipeline for 2019, there will be opportunities for our newly qualified ocean divers to experience diving in the sea. A huge thank you to all our instructors for their time and effort in making these training trips happen

Brighton – 31st March 2019

Despite the windy weather, 12 keen members of Putney SAC headed out for some diving just off the coast of Brighton on the 31st March 2019. A nice late start for a change and a quick stop off at Newhaven Scuba to pick up some rental cylinders got us to Brighton Marina at about 12:30pm ready to board Channel Diver and head out for the afternoon.

Due to the weather not being quite as bad as anticipated we stuck with the original plan and headed out to the SS Pentyrch, a 103m long cargo ship torpedoed by UB-40 (the German submarine, not the band!) on 18th April 1918 on a voyage from Tyne to Genoa with a cargo of coal. The visibility wasn’t great and the conditions were very choppy, with a bit of swell down on the wreck, butnevertheless a very interesting wreck and definitely one that needs another couple of visits to properly explore it.

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O2 Administration course – 23rd February 2019

On 23rd February, 8 students and 6 instructors were joined by Resussi Annie and friends for our annual oxygen administration course. As part of diver first aid training, the course is hugely important and the club encourages all members to keep up to date with these skills.

The day included a mixture of practical and theory lectures with a break for buffet lunch. We covered basic life support, diving incidents, casualty assessment and oxygen administration, as well as role plays, performing chest compressions on our mannequins and setting up the oxygen administration kit. Though we hope we never have to do this for real, what we learnt could make a difference to the outcome of a diving incident. At the end of the course, all Resussi Annies survived and subsequently students were signed off their oxygen administration or corresponding dive leader theory lectures.

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Vobster Quay – 17th February 2019

Keen to get the diving season started early in 2019, six members of Putney Sub Aqua Club, headed up to Vobster Quay bright and early on 17th February for a straightforward (but cold) first dive of the year.

At a brisk 5 degrees Celsius, drysuits were the order of the day for all, except Pradeep who we hope has now defrosted after his first and only dive of the day.

A great day out, with all who attended raring to go for the rest of the year!

Continue reading Vobster Quay – 17th February 2019