Commercial Course No. 55a - Level One Course Only - Week 2

Tom becomes familiar with the aga

Monday 24th November

Today is our first major exam. It's the hardest of the sectional exams - Physiology. This exam should take about 2 1/2 hours however we tend not to limit the time so that we do get the best we can from each student. This time the exam takes about 3 hours and as we believe in immediate feedback the exam is marked and each answer discussed to ensure complete understanding. The good news - all students achieved a pass with the majority of marks in the high 80's.We progress to some practical theory which included lifeline signals, knots and splicing and search patterns - all of which will be put into practice leter this week when we start our practical diving. It was then time to introduce the different reserve systems and full face masks with communications again which students will commence using later in the week.

Tuesday 25th November

Tom and Jenna practice life line signals

Today we are back in the classroom, and what a day its going to be - Des's speciality -CALCULATIONS.... He sure has a way of explaining things so everyone understands. Most students hear the word calculations and have an instant brain freeze, but before long all students where calculating mass, volume, density, buoyant forces, apparent weight and air calculations.

Wednesday 26th November

Introduction to Aga full face masks

'The Pit' is the first of our diving locations and chosen for its depth range from 1- 16m all easily accessed with a walk in entry straight off the bank. It's a very realistic dive site as its cold and subject to silting. The students are given a thorough debriefing on 'The Pit' and then start gearing up for their first dive. Dive 1 is a skills checkout dive - where the instructors get into the water with the students to assess the students basic skills, also a great shakedown for students with some not having dived it dry before. Dive 2 is made up by a number of standby diver drills. Students are to perform a number of rescues including an entrapped/entangled diver where the diver is actually tied off and must be cut free before being brought to the surface.

Thursday 27th November

Nil visbility searches

Its time to practice some of the new skills we have learnt in theory sessions. We start the diving today in 'the pit creek' - a shallow, nil visibility creek near our main training area. Its only claim to fame is that it has absolutely no visibility at all and lots of snags. The idea of this session is for students to gain confidence and ability in working in true nil visibility. Divers complete two search patterns, a grid mesh search for lost keys and a parallel bank search for supposed murder weapons - a knife and a handgun. 

 

 

Friday 28th November

Rescue assessments