“IF ONLY YOU KNEW THE
POWER OF THE DARK SIDE…”
trips and adventures
@SOUTH WEST TECHNICAL DIVING
We love to go and do our own diving. If you are looking to build experience or just need a team-mate get in touch. We’d love to have you along. Unless you retain us to teach or guide there are no charges for joining a trip
Welcome to The Dark Side!
May the Fourth be with you – the Darkside Beckons edition
See our featured course on starting your cave training
What have we been up to?
Latest news from us and the Padawans, Sith and Jedi
As the lockdown continues we haven’t been up to a lot of diving, lots of dreaming about diving and watching videos! Matt has shared his story on his experience with Covid19 via the dirty dozen and to 96FM in Cork and the local Echo newspaper – made the front page! Now training again to regain dive fitness. More on that story in future editions
We have managed set up some online learning and started some new students off on home study and manual reading. Online theory sessions to follow. Courses in progress include Cavern/Intro to Cave, Advanced Nitrox, Decompression Procedures and JJ-CCR MOD1 and MOD2 crossover.
I’ve also started to assemble the articles I’ve written over the last few years into a book on psychological skills for diving. If there is anything you’d like to see in there let me know.
We also did a webinar on the psychology of diving with our friends from Ageantec. Matt who runs the facebook page Psychological Skills for Diving @PSTforDiving spoke about what makes a high performance and cave technical diver
Product News
Scaleo Dive Lights
Those of you who have been with us a while will know we have been looking for a new light supplier and have tested and used a good number of different lights. We still really like the Light For Me product but supply and service are challenging. Two years ago at Boot show in Germany I chatted to two young and very bright engineers from Scaleo. We took a light to trial in deep, cold and cave. Loved it.
Lightweight, works on EO connections so interchangeable with the heating system battery and good for wet plug swaps. Great burntime, and a seriously high quality bit of gear. Price wise it’s at the upper end of the market, but worth every bit of it’s cost. www.scaleo-light.de. Check it out with all the options and then chat to us as official dealer for Ireland.
Featured Training and Trips Venue
Team Blue Immersion in Dahab
Run by Andy Suess and Kerstin Olbricht we have been delighted to take a number of students here and have been looked after brilliantly.
Team Blue Immersion operating via Dahab Divers Technical is located in Dahab, Egypt and dedicated to technical diving only.
The Dive Centre is located at the Lighthouse bay in walking distance to the water entrance. The dive area consists of a big sea grass field with a buoyancy park and lines from up to 40m depth for simulated decompression training. After an 8 min swim you reach a reef where you can do decompression dives down to 60m depth.
The Lighthouse bay combined with the close position of the diving facility makes it a perfect set-up for a relaxed training environment without any stress to catch a boat or to hurry up/wait for other groups. Therefore, we are happy to share and facilitate regularly other fellow technical diving instructors/Dive Centers with their groups from around the world!
The facility is equipped with:
- Oxygen/Helium booster
- Bauer Compressor
- Oxygen/Helium analyzers
- Work shop with all main tools needed for servicing equipment
- Twin sets (from 10L – 20L; mainly 11l aluminum)
- Sidemount tanks with opposite valves
- 2L and 3L CCR sets
- Stage cylinders (6L and 11L aluminum) and rigging kits
- Oxygen, Helium and Sofnolime stock
- rental equipment
- Cameras
- 2 classrooms with aircon/fan
- Equipment room and lockers
- Free water/coffee/tea at the dive center
For advanced technical diving training or for the simple purpose of having a good time Dahab offers a variety of dive sites (reached by car) with easy access to greater depth with clear, warm water and a beautiful scenery! Almost everyone knows the famous Blue Hole and its Arch which you can cross at a minimum of 55m or even exit to the outer wall at 130m. It’s for sure a spectacular site which changes its atmosphere depending on the depth you dive it at but let me tell you there is so much more to see! You can do 130m on the drop off of The Bells and still don’t see the bottom or explore one of the many canyons – there is even a 1.5 km system ranging between 40m and 60m (some parts even deeper) which is basically made for CCR diving – or just enjoy the corals and the great viz!
Some cool pics below
Training and Diving Tips
Last newsletter we said ‘keep the light in your left hand’. Here is why….
1. Most people are right handed so you should keep your most dextrous (some will get that) hand free for managing other kit
2. When winding in a spool or reel, or installing a primary connection/jump in a cave – if the light is on the right the light will appear to be flashing, the emergency signal
3. When using a DPV most people will control with the right hand so the light is better on the left where you can move it to look around.
4. If using a canister then the light cable if loose on the right may interfere with long hose deployment and blind the receiver
5. Most people give hand signals with their right hand and the light could shine into someones face when doing this if in right hand
This isn’t to say the light is never held in the right hand, certain situations may demand it, shutting left post on twinset for example. However Primarily it’s left so configure and practice that way.
Course News - Cavern
Start your path to the dark side!
The Cavern course is probably the most important of all the cave courses. It’s really the course that puts all the foundations in place for future development and a real challenge to all but the most experienced technical divers. Available on Open or closed circuit the course will address kit, configuration, buoyancy, trim, propulsion, line work, navigation, failures and much more. Have a chat to us about starting your pathway from Cavern, to Intro to Cave to Full cave.
Psych Skills for Diving - Article of the Month
A little bit of humorous relief in these challenging times. Enjoy. May we recommend a visit to the bathroom first!
Coping With Embarrassment, a humorous look at tech diving “habits”.
Upcoming Trips and Courses
Here is what is booked for 2020 so far
21 Feb, Go Diving Trade Day in Coventry
7-8 March, Irish Dive Show in Limerick
22-25 March, Divesoft Factory Training & Visit, Prague
18-19 April 2020, Tech Vision 2020 Scubadive West – Try tech, CCR and DPV
1-8 May, JJ-CCR Mod 1 and MOD2 Crossover – Gozo Technical Diving, Gozo
9-13 May, Sidemount Essentials – Gozo
13-18 May, In Gozo, What do you want to do?
20-31 May Athens and Rhodes exploration and wreck ID project (hypoxic CCR)
21-26 June: 10 awesome Wrecks in 5 Days
7-14 July: Discover Portugal’s Caves, Lisbon based
7-21 September: Cave Training in France, OC and CCR – 2 places available
We're proud to
collaborate with
tdi, andi & padi
set up a
coffee and
A chat
with a jedi
set up
an online chat
with a sith
