Rebreathers, rebreathers, rebreathers . . .

We’ve had lots of Rebreather try dives the last couple of days so Sascha has spent a lot of time assembling, disassembling and cleaning the rebreathers.

Jack’s had some trouble dealing with the heat. Viv has been keeping him in the office to keep him cool and out of mischief spent yesterday day expressing his jealousy at being left out by eating through the wetsuit hangars . . .

Caesar had such a good time the other day he has come back for more today. W are finding it reall odd that we have a Julius a Caesar and a Mark diving together. We are now just waiting for an Anthony!

Neoprene Pocket Shorts

Have you ever noticed that one of the only down sides to wet suits is that most of them don’t have pockets. Given that not many of us actually live on the coast, and cycling in scuba gear above water is not the most sensible of ideas, it makes sense that most diversz have to drive to the dive site. Which leaves us with one problem, where to put the keys? . . .

Not only are our keys a problem, there are various other pieces of equipment we might want to takes such as a backup mask or wet notes or a torch. If we had them all hanging off our D-rings we would look like Christmas trees.

For all these problems there is potentially one solution . . . The NEOPRENE POCKET SHORTS!

Here they are being modelled by Ed . . .

They are pretty much identical to the types of pockets you get on a dry suit. Make sure you get a pair that fit properly thou, you don’t want them falling down when the pockets are full!

Alan is going be wearing these magic shorts today. He’s taking them down to Polynesian at 65m to really test their durability. We will have to wait for him to report back on this one . . .

Get Ready for some Simulated Ascents

Alex’s gang headed out to the Beaufighter on Wednesday afternoon for a side mount experience of this stunning wreck. For those of you who have never done it the Beaufighter is a plane wreck that crash landed into the ocean during the war. It now sits at 38m upside down. It is only a small wreck but it looks spectacular surrounded by a vast stretch of white sand.Alex took some time out of diving this morning to try and fix up Harriet (the van) . . . after some confusion over some of Harriets quirks he managed to sort the problem. Sascha has returned from a short visit home and is taking Dennis to Zurrieq where he will be continuing his ART course with simulated ascents.

Hollis SMS 100 vs the Razor System

Lots of Pleasure divers went off to explore the Imperial Eagle on the boat this morning as part of their various courses. It was a refreshing 17 deg down on the wreck, quite a big drop from a surface temp of 23! Harry is doing his Normoxic Instructor course, while Christen and Jason are doing a Normoxic course. Alex’s 3 guys are going to be doing the dive on Side mounts.

Today’s dive has turned into Hollis SMS 100 vs the Razor competition.

The question is which is better? The SMS 100 is a modular system making it great for divers who like to swap and change between back mount and side mount. The Razor on the other hand is designed specifically for Side Mount and so probably performs better with side mount as it is designed for only one function.

Watch this space to find out their results . . .

Roll Up, Roll Up . . . for the GUE Open Day

Love them or hate them, if you want to know more about them and what courses they offer - as they do run some courses that can be very beneficial - come and learn about them. We are hosting a GUE open day on Saturday, 16^th July with John Kendell which will give you plenty of opportunity to ask questions and get detailed information about any courses you may be interested in. For those of you who are looking to try something a bit different or focus on problem areas but not sure what course you should be doing this may be the perfect opportunity for you to investigate some new options.

Harry Gets Ready for His Normoxic Instructor Course

It was man vs dog in the office this morning as Jack managed to stealthily nick Alan’s undersuit just as he was putting it on . . . Jack won initially but then Viv came along and got them back no problem! Progress is being made!

Aaron is adjusting the Halcyon harnesses for Harry and Florin so they can go and do a check dive on the house reef to make sure everything is working properly and is fitted correctly. Then Florin will be let loose for some pleasure diving around the island.

Harry is here to do his Normoxic Instructor Course so Alan will be setting him lots of challenges during the course of the week. Good Luck Harry!

Alan has gone to the Stubborn today on his Side mounts while Jason continues with the Advanced Recreational Trimix Course.

Le Polynesian

There have been a few dives going out to Le Polynesian the over the last couple of weeks. Jacques has made a video on it which he sent to us the other day which you can see if you follow this link:

http://www.haliotisexplovideo.com/

For those of you who have not been, or those of you that have been but don’t know much about it I thought I’d do a blog on it.

Le Polynesian is also known as The Plate Wreck because she sunk so quickly most of the plates and other some other artefacts can still be found on the wreck. She was hit by the torpedo of a German UC22 on the 10^th August 1918 and sank in 35 minutes.

She lies at her port side on a 45 degree angle 7 miles outside of Valetta Grand Harbour. The two deck guns, one on the bow and one on the stern are still present. Due to currents that are nearly always present, which vary from mild to very strong, there is an amazing amount of marine life to be found at this site, like big grouper and large schools of barracuda. Take a look at the divers bubbles when they are ascending in the video! If certified, there are lots of penetration possibilities on the Polynesian.