Still in Bristol

I seem to be spending more and more time in Bristol than I have done for some time. One of the consequences is that I have started diving with a local centre to help fill my evenings and to make an opportunity to meet new people rather than sitting in my digs on my own or eating junk food.

I have also entered the Bristol half marathon after a bit of cajoling from Beks so I am now running as much as possible as the training starts. Should be good for diving fitness and another reason to skip on the easy option of chips for supper.

As the diving centre in Bristol is around 180 miles from Orca there is no real competition issue and at present I am finding the experience really valuable because I am getting to see first hand how other people operate. I hope in time that I will add some real value to what they are doing too. It is also giving the chance to see some dive sites in the West Country as there are several more local trips to get on including some mid week stuff. The coast is a bit nearer and places like Brixham are in easy reach and offer good beach diving as I have discovered.

The centre I have got involved with is Subaquaholics which is rather a mouthful after Orca. Early impressions are extremely good as both the owners and staff are really friendly and welcoming. I am not sure I could have met a better crowd, Spike and Lou should be extremely pleased with the impression that they give people.

It turns out one of the staff was a former colleague from my days as a copper in Bristol with whom I had played Rugby. He's now retired and has made me feel quite envious as he has actually just flown off to Malta to work as an Instructor over the summer months. Now of course that has given me the excuse to make plans to get back out to Malta for a spot of pleasure diving. I really do fancy the idea of a long weekend over there so I may well be looking for some dive buddies to join me in the near future.

Anyway let's get back to the point. There are some really great things about working with another centre in addition to making new friends. We all have our interpretations of certain things within diving including the skills and course delivery. I guess that while we are all obviously PADI we do all bring our own slant to play in the way in which things are done. For me this means a great opportunity to learn. We do adopt an Orca way in our training but there are other approaches and with most things there is ample room for interpretation without things being right or wrong.

This doesn't meant that I will rush to change some of the things that we do at Orca. In fact some of our core beliefs should never change and these include always seeking to add value. But whenever I see a different approach I like to think about not only why it is different but what is good about the difference. If I do see something that I think is a better approach then we can adopt it for ourselves.

One thing I do know is that change is inevitable and the only way to deal with it is to celebrate it and look at what's good about it. Not all change is good nor is every adaptation suitable or right for what we do down at Orca. I am always up for trying things out and seeing if they work. As an Instructor this is great in the safe environment of the pool so I am very up for trying new stuff when there is nothing to loose.

This may all seem a bit vague because I haven't given specifics of what I may well try and adopt as yet and I not sure that I should do so on the pages of this blog. I can say, I love the shark shaped torpedo used in the pool in Bristol and I may well investigate getting us something similar. Then again I still really like our underwater Frisbee.

Sometimes we get tempted to change things because the new thing is exactly that new! New doesn't always mean better and in fact much of what is tried known and tested is actually a much better option. When instructing it is not unusual to find that if you stray from what works you only get to figure this out when somebody else points out that you are doing something differently. There is a reason that the PADI teaching approach works and if you change the approach because you think you have something better often times it isn't - as a good instructor you should recognise that and go back to what is tried and tested. Our Course Director, Steve Prior often point out that the very best instructors just simply do what they were taught.

One of the other advantages of doing some instruction in Bristol is that I can now get work mates involved and I am really looking forward to teaching some of them in the coming weeks.

So far I have seen a Rescue and Open Water course in progress. Tonight I operated as DM for a brand new OWSI and it was great fun. I have to say the standard of demonstrations and general approach was very high for somebody so new to the Instructional arts. Very encouraging indeed and a great example of just doing what you are taught.

Keep an eye out for changes in what we do, you will know where they came from.

Living and Diving