Danny missed the second day of his confined water rescue training three weeks ago as he wasn't feeling so good on the day. On Sunday he was back to join Gary and others finishing of his preparation for Open Water. It was good to see him and he was on good form.
We had plenty of pool time because Gary was also running a full Open Water course. Sadly I have no photos as the camera case suffered some damage on the Mulberry trip. The good news is that it is now fixed so it will be ready for Cornwall and Plymouth next week.
The other good newsis that we are re-booked for another trip to the Mulberries on 25th July. See the web site for details where you will also find that a new calender of events.
Back to Danny and Gary. The extra time meant that we could really concentrate on diver lifts. I will always recall that when I learnt to do this I was pretty daunted and would have avoided it if I could. In fact that remained the case even once I became a divemaster. My own experience was tainted with memories of failed lifts or being bounced up and down the water column as a victim at Stoney Cove. I can assure that bouncing up and down is not pleasant and my ears made sure that I knew all about it.
Now when I teach diver lifts I build up to it in stages. Having a 6m pool helps get it right as well. I always start by getting the diver to ascend simply using the BCD and without fining. Once we have this down I introduce weights and repeat the process. This gets the idea in the head and body as students start to feel what a good controlled lift actually is. The most important technique is to get plenty of air in the BCD to start the lift. Many people seem to feather their air but experience shows that you are better putting loads of air in to shift the inertia and then to feather letting the air out.
Once we have the lift going well and controlled and only once am I satisfied do we introduce a victim. This does also mean the additional considerations involving the victim can now be introduced and understood.
The result on Sunday was some truly brilliant lifts with both Danny and Gary getting it spot on.
That was definitely worth the beer afterwards.
Dive to live.
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