Army days

Saturday night may once have been the traditional night to spend out on the town, but not if you are a diving Instructor with 17 Army cadets out for a try dive experience. By the time I turned up with the rest of the staff at the Deep Pool Gary was already there and the cadets dressed in their greens were all standing in an ordered line. I am just not used to this normally there is just a rabble of people, I almost felt obliged to do a quick inspection. I passed on the offer preferring to find a way to split the group so that we could take half in at a time.

Gary in an amazing demonstration of organisation had all the kit ready by the poolside so I simply asked who wanted to get straight in and who wanted a full briefing beforehand. Now of course I could have just split the group in two but the reality is that some people prefer a more extensive briefing others probably aren't going to listen anyway and just want to get on and get stuck in.

The first group went straight into the pool with Gary in charge and with some nervousness on my part in charge of my camera. I stayed outside with Gill and conducted a reasonable thorough briefing. The lad were full of questions and really kept my on my toes. I took the opportunity of showing them the amount of pressure in a cylinder and of course they each then had to have a go at placing their faces in front of the air blast. I must admit it is very funny watching their cheeks billow in the air.

Briefing over and the lads went quickly down to the observation glass to see their mates getting in the water. My cue to go and take over the camera. Gary with his sense of humour couldn't resist telling me I had run out of film and that the case was flooded........ha ha, he would of course be dead.

By the time I got in the adult staff were in their element and most of the cadets were in the process of submerging. Soon afterwards they were all on the bottom of the pool throwing the Frisbee around and looking pretty comfortable. Seeing their mates in the observation window was like offering honey to bees as they all swarmed round waving and larking about.

Change over was fun as we organised our way through chaos and puzzled that one of the cylinder had somehow ended up with only 50 bar. Can't help wonder which of the cadets was the air guzzler. I'll leave them to try and figure that one out.

The second group in the water were much the same. A couple struggling to get all the way down but in reality they all did really well and there are some natural divers amongst them. Just as before there was plentiful use of the Frisbee and a fascination for seeing who was looking through the observation window.

As the session ended the cadets returned after changing and took all the gear downstairs for us. What a pleasure and what a great bunch for doing that.

It appeared to us that the troop really enjoyed their evening and in truth so did the staff. I would really like to see this bunch back in the future whether to learn to dive properly or just for another play.

At the end of the evening I was glad that it was the cadets that went off to sleep under canvas and I went home to my bed.