CLUBFOCUS
Sports Divers Laura Gouch and Simon King
Colin Knight kitting-up
Saturday evening saw us relaxing with our own BBQ around the log cabin apartment on site , decompressing with traditional diving fare and a sensible sip or two of wine and beer .
Sounds like a great club trip …
It was . We have already set dates for Porthkerris 2023 and most of the divers on this year ’ s trip have signed up again for next year . Simon , a visitor to Porthkerris who happened to join one of our boats , is subsequently joining the club .
Sincere thanks to Mike , Jo , Shannon , Dave and the rest of the Porthkerris Divers team for looking after us so well .
Do you offer training ?
Mentoring and developing divers , to their full potential , has always been our primary focus . So training is focused on diver development , mainly PADI divers coming out of schools who want to dive in a club environment , and develop through the BSAC system .
Who delivers the training ?
We work with Andark Diving , in the BSAC Partnership Scheme , as we don ’ t have the kit for training . We can count a National Instructor , Advanced Instructors and Assistant Instructors among members , but two Open Water Instructors do much of the in-house training . We have had great support from the BSAC Southern Region training team , which has offered instructor training , as well as access to Skill Development Courses .
How did Covid affect your activities ?
Our divers are passionate about being underwater and have had to contend with the three lockdowns , a reduction in inland sites and the increased cost of charter boat diving . Nevertheless , our long weekends away are very popular and have a large social element . To combat lockdown boredom , we were able to deliver online theory training for Sports Diver and Dive Leader to many members . We were responsible with Covid restrictions , but also swift to return to diving when possible , with the appropriate safeguards .
Since April 2020 we have certified seven Sports Divers and have another eight students . We signed off two Dive Leaders , have three more who completed abroad after our theory training , and four more students . We ’ ve also trained three Drysuit Divers , three Twinset Divers , two of whom also qualified in Accelerated Decompression Procedures ( ADP ). Seven of our divers have completed the Buoyancy and Trim workshop , four of them going on to ADP .
What ’ s the secret to filling your dive trips ?
Beyond thoroughly organising the diving and logistics , we make sure that trips include lots of social activity because we ’ ve realised that the social element should be planned ( as well as allowing for spontaneous stuff ) rather than just left to chance . It ’ s the most obvious change that ’ s made a difference to the success of our trips . As a result we have a lot of fun together . �
Musical evening at Porthkerris
Chair Mike Rushworth ( left ) rinses Luke Sellwood
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