Commercial Course No 58a level one only - week 3

Monday 30th November

After a 2 day break we are back in the classroom today and we commence a new topic - Recovery Techniques which includes search patterns and calculations. Rick sure has a way of explaining things so everyone can understand. You only have to say the word math’s or equations and everyone freezes, but everyone did really well and were calculating mass, volume, density, buoyant forces, apparent weight and air calculations in no time at all. Well done guys.

Tuesday 1st December

George is all smiles

Back to The Pit today each student must log certain number of dives within certain depth ranges and today we hope to finish all the shallow dives. Today is much the same as Friday using full face masks and its back to finish our pipeline surveys. We must also complete a night dive as part of our course and tonight is the night. Although a very long day we were prepared with the BBQ, steaks & sausages - just the sort of food for long HOT day. After a few sausages off the BBQ and a couple of cold drinks, tonights task is to try and break a link of chain using a mash hammer, cold chisel and anvil. it sounds so easy on the surface, however underwater everything is more challenging. The biggest thing to concentrate on is not to get your fingers in the way - It still hurts underwater!!

Wednesday 2nd December

 After a big day of diving yesterday we spend the day in the classroom today. We start the days catching up on paperwork where students fill in logbooks, course files and student record files. Rick then runs a debrief on the activities of the last three days which gives students a chance to discuss the practical diving days. Next it was a big one our next topic was Calculations.... Stay tuned to see how they went...

Thursday 3rd December

We have a new diving location today – the Hume Weir. Although currently less than 20% water capacity we are still able to get our next depth range. The students again rotated between tasks and completed hand tool tasks which included, the hand drill and bow saw. A fun day for all!!!

Friday 4th December

Its the end of the week and after a couple days of diving, the students are glad to be back in the classroom. Although the relief is short lived, the first task for the day is the Recovery Exam. Obviously the students were listening to Rick, everybody breezed through the exam and were happy to have one  more exam out of the way. Decompression tables were next on the agenda, a very important part of the diving process. Understanding the decompression tables in paramount to the divers safety. We also start on Equipment. We cover regulators, hydrostatic pressure testing, cylinders, valves and compressors. The students quickly realise there is a lot more involved in the equipment that we use and get an increased understanding of the functionality and internal workings of the equipment we use.Everybody is looking forward to the weekend to consolidate all the new information learnt.