Divecrew Blog

Arrogance and Ego’s.

The diving fraternity appears to be littered with small minded people with huge ego’s and totally arrant. Why?

It is with some, not all, divers get to Dive Master or Instructor and they know it all. God’s gift to scuba diving.

Look around the diving lakes, you will see some example of it. At Divecrew we are the UK’s only Gold Star Dive Centre awarded for our work and commitment to Adaptive Teaching. Almost 12 years dedication to Deptherapy.

Divecrew prides itself on working with all divers in a respectful manner putting the client at centre focus. We see some horrendous attitudes.  Here is a few examples:-

Bi lateral amputee, above and below the knee becomes a Dive Master. Instructor comments on face book stating a breach of standards as the guy cannot do a Giant Stride.

Triple amputee learning to scuba dive, Instructor states, ‘I appreciate your situation’. No you don’t not when you are not a triple amputee and have all your limbs.

Three ocean diver students are in the water. Instructor sat on the back of his car with no kit on, shouting across the car park, at the three students to do a weight check.

A nervous open water student, is hesitating at attempting a giant stride entry into deep water. The instructor pushed the student into the water from behind. Needless to say the student was very upset.

Remember instructors know BEST.

Sometimes professionals actually forget what is was like when they first got into the water. It is all alien, it is challenging, certainly in the UK with dry suits, cold water and poor viz. Your student is a paying client and needs to be respected as a client but also for any adaptive needs.

Divecrew are specialists at Adaptive Teaching. Our pro’s are monitored and assessed. Any issue with a course is fully investigated with the pro team. Why? Because we want ever improving standards, we want divers to be comfortable and safe. We want our pro team being customer focused. We want our pro team to adapt to the needs of individual students.

If you want to know more about our Adaptive Teaching contact Divecrew on 01344 771113

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Which dive agency is the best?

The BIG question. In truth none and all of them. Why? Because all agencies have great, indifferent and bad instructors.

It is not the agency that trains divers, it is the professional TEAM. All agencies meet the same ISO standards for diving. However, each agency tries to differentiate itself from the others. So pre-dive safety checks are different but cover the same ground. CESA and ESA, same sort of exercise but slight variations. Depth some are 18 metres for open water as a maximum, others are 20 metres.

Our advice is as follows:-

If going on holiday and completing a course there (referral) don’t assume it will be a PADI resort. Some resorts overseas are all SSI, not PADI.

Check customer reviews on the dive centre you are choosing.

Check the web site and the dive centres TEAM. What qualifications and experience do they have?

If requiring adaptive teaching, be more cautious. Many claim to be experienced adaptive instrctors but have only done a two day course and have limited experience in the field.

Scuba diving has its risks for sure, however, the right dive centre with the right profesisonal TEAM members can help mitigate the risks.  Equally, you as the new student have to play your part. Follow the instructions of the TEAM. Make sure you complete and understand the theory. When on site with the TEAM ask questions, explore their knowledge.

Your dive TEAM should make the experience SAFE & FUN.

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Perfect Buoyancy – Why we believe.

At Divecrew we often talk with new open water divers about Winnie the Poo!!  Your barking mad I hear. Winnie the Poo had some good friends, one of them was Tigger. Tigger went bouncy, bouncy. Scuba diving is all about buoyancy, buoyancy.

A lot of agencies state that the buoyancy course must be in open water. Why? In the UK the water is temperate. Deeper water makes buoyancy easier as the depth makes moves more forgiving.

SSI permit the Perfect Buoyancy Course to be run in a swimming pool. We use this course extensively, why? First of it means we can cater for warm water divers as well as those that dive here in the UK. We open the market 100% not half the market by insisting on open water in a lake. The pool we use is four metres deep. Makes buoyancy even more important. The other benefit is the pool dives are 3 hours long. Be difficult to get that time in the UK waters.

Buoyancy is the Holy Grail of Scuba. We offer the perfect buoynacy course as holiday divers spend the first two days frustatingly getting their buoyancy skills back whilst on holiday. Simple, do it before you travel. Buoyancy is a motor skill, you need to practice.

Of the courses Divecrew have run, we have found after giving course attendees a programme to follow after the course; their SAC rate improves, air consumption imrpoves, at times we have taken 50% weight off a diver (common to be over weighted). Fin action becomes more efficient meaning less air consumed. It is just WIN, WIN, WIN.

Whether you are a warm water diver, UK open water diver, this is the course for you.

Divecrew also do not recommend new open water divers going straight to PADI Advanced. You will not be an advanced diver, it will be a badge. We recommend you DIVE. Not under instruction. Practice, play, get some experience. If you really want to do another course – Perfect Buoyancy, not advanced.

Want to know more? Contact us.

 

 

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Get Hammered 2025 SORRY SOLD OUT

Join Divecrew as we explore the deep south of the Red Sea. Get Hammered has SOLD OUT for over a decade. After placing this trip on social media we have 23 divers already booked. Divecrew organises everything for the one week 7th June 2025, including: Return flights, Egyptian transfers, boat, diving, itinerary, marine park fees and fuel supplement. The luxury motor yacht is MY Majestic. Full board. Sailing out of Hurghada down to the iconic hammerhead site Daedalus before travelling further down St John’s. Rockies, Zagabag. Amzing diving with lots of aquatic interactions. Put a £500 deposit down to secure your place.  SORRY TOTALLY SOLD OUT.  Call 01344 771113

 

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The Holy Grail

The Holy Grail of scuba is BUOYANCY.

Our lead Master Instructor teaches four different agencies and states, ‘Not one agency has it completely correct’. So he has taken the best of each agency and created a bespoke Perfect Buoyancy Course.  Having run the course a number of times I generally take 50% of a divers weight off them. Most divers are completely over weighted. Being over weighted affects trim, affects breathing and air consumption.

A number of divers join the course because they have to end their dive early, compared to others. They generally come into the dive centre and ask for bigger cylinders or twin sets. This is not fixing the problem. Get to the root cause and fix that first.

If divers have good buoyancy the diving is much more enjoyable. Problems, if encountered, are much easier to deal with. It is a cycle that either works in the divers favour, or if wrong, works against the diver.

The course starts with information being sent to the diver, good solid and informative. It covers, kit, it covers breathing, it covers weighting and fin action. The course it self is run in a pool, generally 3.5 metres deep or 4 metres deep. Not being forced into open water means in the UK, we can accommodate holiday divers. Being pool based and shallower makes buoyancy more of a challenge where weighting and technique are most important.

Air consumption is exacerbated by poor breathing technique, poor fin action and poor buoyancy. Previously being a professional sportsman, we used video analysis all the timer. Perfect Buoyancy also uses video. In the water, some divers think they are doing X, but actually they are doing Y.

Divers are put through their paces and given ideas and exercises to go away with to make continuous improvements are undertake more practice.

Perfect Buoyancy Course being pool based can make a terrific Christmas present. The indoor heated pools mean the course can be scheduled any time of year. Interested? Contact the dive centre now 01344 771113.

 

 

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Time to Dive

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With the world opening up after COVID, Divecrew are now working hard on UK Trips and overseas holidays.

Overseas diving holidays:

Galapagos March 2023. This is a trip of a life time with mind blowing underwater and surface experiences. We have just three places left. Includes a liveaboard and shore based. Contact the dive centre for detailed itinerary and price.

Philippines Twin Centre Southern Leyte and Coron. 13th to 28th May. 15 night trip with incredible diving. £3095 includes hotels, overseas transfers, diving and return flights. Contact the dive centre to get full details.

Red Sea The legendary Get Hammered. This trip has been running for over a decade and SELLS OUT every year. We are booking now. Price includes: Return flights. Day shore diving. A week on BIG BLUE liveaboard. Fukll board save alcohol. Flying out 7th July until 15th July. We charter the whole boat and have negotiated a 20% discount to keep rices reasonable. Booking now (we already have 18 divers booked) only 22 berths available. Deposit secures your place. £1,855 total price. Deposit £645.

UK diving trips. (More to follow including inland sites and shore / hard boat dives).

Porthkerris. Boat diving in the UK waters can be great fun. Previously we have dived the inlet collecting scallpos. A great long weeeknd in a superb part of the world. 19th to 21st May. Boat and accommodation £478

Lundy. Boat diving. 1st to 3rd September. SOLD OUT.

Lundy. Boat diving. 7th and 8th October. Lundy Island is an amazing weekend diving trip. First dive is shallow, 6 to 8 metres. But, once the divers are in the water it is play time for the resident seals! Like naughty puppies they just want to have fun. Conact Divecrew 01344 771113 to get more detail and a price. We have just booked this as the previously Lundy trip is fully booked.

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BSAC Fast Track

Divecrew are a BSAC Fast Track Centre with an area covering the South East of England. So what is BSAC Fast Track? Divecrew have crossed instructors over to BSAC. So it means any club in the South East of England can refer a diver to Divecrew. Divecrew takes that student diver and progresses them through their chosen course, for example Ocean Diver. As Divecrew trains every week and has full time paid instructors the course goes ahead on agree dates regardless. Working on Fast Track the student could finish the theory and confined on two consecutive weekends. The open water element then being completed in one weekend. So three weeks, qualified. This removes the months of training within the club itself.

Once the diver is certified, Divecrew puts the diver back with the club. They then can go an dive, rather than being in training for months. This takes pressure of the BSAC Club Instructors. However, the Fast Track divers are going to need to gain experience. They are raw new divers. Certainly to be signed off, their buoyancy will be acceptable as will their mastery of the skills.

Divecrew have committed to the BSAC Fast Track programme and will deliver divers back to the respective clubs. Divecrew instructors are in the water every weekend teaching. However, Fast Track is not for everyone. Some students need a slower pace of learning and mastering skills. In which case they need to be trained by their club.

The Fast Track programme is in its infancy. However, Divecrew already have circa 20 students wanting fast Track.

A major coup was the Imperial College London who want Divecrew to Fast Track a group of Ocean Divers and Sport Divers.

So what about the PADI versus BSAC stand off? Well our Director of Instruction is a Master Instructor of  three different agencies and an Instructor of BSAC. Add to this being an Instructor Trainer for Adaptive Teaching, Martin has a powerful set of tools available to him.

Martin stated, ‘Every agency thinks they have it right and everyone else is wrong and therefore inferior. I have met good PADI divers and really poor PADI divers. Ditto SSI, ditto RAID, ditto BSAC. No one agency has it right 100%. Being mutli-agency I steal great techniques from each agency, add adaptive teaching where needed and make the techniques my own. This truly benefits the student on any course I run. As an instructor, I sometimes cannot get my head around the sheer arrogance of pompous instructors who know it all and know best. I would love to make it mandatory for every instructor to teach up to 16 school children and teach a triple amputee. No agency in its IDC makes enough effort about thinking outside the box. A number of the main agencies are too focused on liability and standards that must be met. Example. We work with veterans, troops who have suffered life changing injuries. A social media picture of a diver with no legs completing a course (open water) was met with some idiot instructor stating he should not be qualified as he cannot perform a giant stride. Unbelievable? I have come across this a number of times. Not just with a diver with no legs. I had it once with an autistic group where the diver refused to do a giant stride. She opted for a roll in to deep water. Job done. Check the standards! Divecrew are constantly developing its pro team and challenge agency standards as to their validity and interpretation. Divecrew will always be a high profile industry leader, not a follower. We are really pleased to be approached to be the South East BSAC Fast Track Centre. We are looking forward to breaking the past divides of PADI v BSAC. In Divecrew’s eyes – a diver is a diver regardless of the training agency’.

If you are interested in becoming a BSAC Fast Track Diver contact Divecrew. If you would like to become a Partner Club to Divecrew Fast Track Centre contact Divecrew.

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Lord of the Rings

Martin has been dubbed “Lord of the Rings”. He currently has 100% success record of finding and retrieving lost rings even in zero visibility.

How does this come to Divecrew?

Normally Divecrew gets a telephone call, can we help retrieve rings, mobile phones even a boat cover. It really helps when the client knows roughly where the item was lost.

On arrival at site, the conditions are checked including boat traffic, current, weather, water movement, bottom composition, depth of water. It is also important to establish the best entry and exit. The Grand Union Canal job proved tricky getting in and out due to steep piled banks. Once a search area has been determined a few methods are tried. Can you see underwater? On the River Thames job there was no visibility whatsoever. No torch would work. The bottom was silt and blanket weed. Depth was about two metres. The hardest thing in the Thames was orientation. So easy to go off the search area. The location position was achieved by coming to the surface, getting a point of orientation and dropping again. Obviously, great care is needed that your fins are not burying the actual object you are looking for. It is important to have the current wash away from the search site any disturbed silt.

Searching needs to be methodical, slow and precise when you cannot see anything. We use a “pin pointer”. It is a small underwater metal detector. Not only does it have bright LED’s (could not see them in the Thames), it vibrates when it detects metal. The bigger the metal, the stronger the vibration. The Thames search took around 50 minutes. Once the pin pointer alerted Martin to the metal, it is a case of carefully fur tilling around in the silt and weed. Bingo, a ring was found.

Finding a lost ring is a bit needle in an underwater haystack. One has to be methodical and patient.

In the Grand Union Canal job, the challenges were different. The client knew roughly where the ring entered the water. It was close to a lock sluice. The fast moving water could have pushed the ring down stream? Getting in was a challenge. Once in swimming against the current was difficult. Eventually getting to the place of the search, due to fast moving water, a john line was attached to keep Martin in place. The water was around one metre deep. However, the fast moving water had a bonus, the visibility was good. After checking with Ben (the owner of the ring) where to start the search, the rain stopped and the sun came out. As Martin descended he immediately saw a glint. The ring was being vibrated by the strong current and the sun was catching the edges of the ring. No pin pointer needed. Underwater search, less than one minute.

In previous searches, a lost iphone took 40 minutes to find when a paddle boarder dropped it in the lake. Another iphone with sensitive information on it? Took about 20 minutes to locate. A boat cover took less than a minute to locate.

Divecrew will attempt to recovery lost items. However, we make it very clear there is no guarantee of recovery. So much can affect the chances of the find. Wrong search area. Boat movement. Strong current. Zero visibility.

If you have something precious be it in value or sentimental value and you have run out of options, call Divecrew. 01344 771113

We do charge for the search regardless of whether we find the item or not. This is all explained honestly on the booking.

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Dry suit diving is COOL.

Diving in the UK’s temperate water, really needs a dry suit. So what are the benefits and how do they work?

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We are back!

Bigger and better than before. Yes Divecrew are back into full action as of the 2nd December 2020. Backed by our fellow Etonian, the PM, Boris, he has granted Divecrew to re-open for business. Well done sir.

So during lock down have we been vegetating? Hell NO. We have been busy behind the scenes. So first up was improving our on line shop. Second up was getting our heads around BSAC and SSI courses. Now we have we have so much to offer. Lots of courses with bundle deals to ensure you save money. Three of the senior team are now pool plant operators certified. We undertook crossovers, so BSAC Instructors and SSI Instructors. Divecrew is the UK’s first commercial BSAC Fast Track Centre.

We have also been busy with planning holidays for 2021 and 2022. Along with lots of UK diving weekends and days. Some of these are FREE.

We have ramped up our servicing too. More products have been brought into the shop including made to measure dry suits.

Divecrew are financially sound and ramping up to make up for lost ground. 2020 write it off. 2021 is going to be one hell of a party. Bring it on.

Oh, did we mention our brand new 40 metre luxury motor yacht? Yes it is in the water and sailing. It is just incredible. Book your trip with us and save up to £450 on the RRP as we book direct with the boat owner. We have again been using lock down time to work with our Egyptian contacts to arrange an incredible tour of the Red Sea. Our own hand picked and very experienced guide Tarek. We have chartered the whole boat. It is pure luxury. On our charters we demand high quality boats, captains, crew. guides and service. Holidays need to be special After Covid, very, very special. Join us. Red Sea. Philippines. Maldives. Galapagos. You choose.

PS. We are looking for more professionals to join Divecrew. So TDM’s, DM’s AI’s and Instructors. Lots of benefits. Working with the UK’s only Gold Star IDC centre. Opportunities to multi-agency train. Call Divecrew 01344 771113. We are open seven days a week.

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