Massive Weekend!
Posted on Sun 02 August, 2009

Well this weekend was a huge one for the dive crew- things going on ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Serena and Harry graduated with their Dive Instructors and Dive Control specialist ratings, We did a Nitrox Instructor programme, we had a cracking BBQ outside the shop on Saturday followed by some sweet music at Le Cafe followed by shaking booty on the dance floor at  you guessed it- Mikeys!

The team also scored some sweet scallops on Saturday-slap on the wrist to Garth and Stu Monson who should have known better (they will tell you about it!)

Then Sunday (today) the posse kicked up dust as we finished off Adam, Buck and Chris as Openwater divers! Yay well done- esp the boys who had been at it for 6 months!

Jessie-Lee you will be there to soon but such a great effort considering your surface area to heat retention ratio!

All up guru weekend..

Can't wait till next Friday!

Thanks Grant for all the help- not long till your Dive Con is all wrapped up.

Congratulations Serena!
Posted on Sat 01 August, 2009

Well it's been a long time coming but after an intense 2 day evaluation we are really pleased to announce that Serena Wilson has passed her Instructor Examination and is now a Diving Instructor!

The instructor rating is a fantastic acheivement, it involves a lot of study, skill practise, dive leadership and overall committment to diving which Serena has displayed over the last 3 months.

Then you have to put all that together for the Instructor Evaluator who is Riaan Woest and convince him that you are up to the mark.

Riaan Woest (SSI Instructor Certifier) congratulates Serena on passing her Instructor Exam

So well done mate! Look forward to sharing in the celebration tonite!

BBQ at the Dive Shop- Kick off around 4-5pm!

Out There!
Posted on Tue 28 July, 2009

What better way to start a Tuesday than heading to the outer sounds for Kaimoana?

Rising earlier than the sun to ensure a prompt departure which, as the professionals we are, managed without a hitch. Off across the beautiful Picton waters, on what looked to be a ‘promising weather’ day.

As we hit the outer sounds, the sky started to cloud over into quite a sight, but the water conditions were still pretty darn good and the rain, thankfully, held out for us.

We decided to try our ‘old faithful’ cray spot first, Cooper Point, where we have been having quite a bit of luck in these past couple of months. Disappointingly, since everyone seems to have been reading our blog, the crays in that spot have been culled quite drastically, although we still came out with a couple of whoppers.

Check out the big papa on the left, he was too deep in the crevasse to reach and all his whanau were undersized.

Our second dive, we went around the tip of Cooper Point to try our luck around the other side. Around the tip was pretty barren, shallow and swelly but the reef heading out into the channel is definitely worth a look! The waters were around 11degrees, warm! Water temp is slowly rising.

After 2 decent dives, being such Guru’s, it was only midday and we had enough time to kick around to Ruakaka for a Scallop hunt. 3 outer sounds dives and back on dry land before 2pm! You can’t get much more primo than that.

Plenty of food for the BBQ this Saturday. See you there.

Posted by Serena Wilson

The Garth
Posted on Mon 20 July, 2009

Todays dive objective was the wreck specialty. As usual the conditions were cold but beautifully calm. We headed to the Koi for the first one (such a versatile dive site!) The boys got to practise some reel techniques. (I'm glad we weren't in the engine room of the Lermontov based on the amount of birds nests we created!

The day belonged to Garth as the slowest diver in the world at getting his s&@#t together!

After demonstrating proficiency at dealing with the reel, anti silting finning skills and attempting to pull themselves around the wreck with out kicking  we grabbed a few scallops on the way back- wicked.

Then over to the Vara for some inside practise. Well done to our visiting diver from Michigan (Lauren)- hacking the cold in the sweet DUI drysuit!

And finally well done to Rob for demonstrating with ease the skin diver programme as he works toward completion of his Divemaster.

Searching and Searching
Posted on Sun 19 July, 2009

Today was Mike Blacks turn to try his hand at finding the sausage!! (nah just kidding, it was a flipper) as part of the Advanced openwater course we were doing the search and recovery specialty.

The task- utilise different search patterns to find various objects then use lift bags to bring them up.

As scallops don't count because they are to easy to find we had to make it more challenging by setting the task of finding a missing fin. It was made all the more harder by the fact that they were Bens personal flippers (Trusty Blades 2)!

Well done- you found them (lucky) with the aid of a compex and well executed circular rope search ( cheers Grant for the help).

Adam and Buck- finally made it to the first Openwater Dives (only been 7 months boys!).

Nice work everybody.

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