Just got back from 9 days doing my PADI IDC Instructors course at Aquanauts in Plymouth along with a few other YD "names".
For some time I've been actively involved with Dive Wimbledon (
www.divewimbledon.com) a PADI school and club based in South West London. I did my Divemaster with them and I've found that I really enjoy teaching and helping qualified divers to improve their skills. Roger Hirst who runs Dive Wimbledon focuses on quality rather than quantity of training and is a terrific guy to work with. He struggles to find good quality Instructors and fed up with listening to him moaning about it - I decided to take the plunge
The Protagonists Steve Syson
Our Course Director. Royal Marines for 22 years. CD since 1992 - trained over 500 Instructors. Taught for BSAC for years before that. Ran three different major dive centres all over the world. Calls a spade a spade. Very, very good. Big, big hair
Paul "Turbanator" Harris
The original YD loverat. This man would eat Digger for breakfast. Lured from the safe backwaters of Guildford by YD's own Plymouth seductress "Kirstie" and now busy squandering his redundancy as a professional Divebum. Did GUE Cave 1 with Jarrod Jablonski back in the 90's and has been diving deep mix for years. Turned up wearing a hot pink snorkel. Oh how the mighty have fallen
Mark "Okie" Sylvester
One of the Aquanauts team for quite a while now. Currently a mature student doing a degree in "Seagulls". Not good in the morning after a bottle of Pernod and half the cash crop of Thailand. Lost the only set of keys to the Aquanauts jeep which proved extremely popular. Oh how we laughed
Tony "The Monkey" Mankey
At 23, the baby of the group, but trained up to Divemaster by Steve at Aquanauts and the good training showed. The original Plymouth bad boy, currently being kept on the straight and narrow by the healing power of the PADI system. We took our eyes of him for 5 minutes one night and he ended up making the beast with two backs with someone's Mum in Torquay 25 miles up the road. Couldn't remember how he got there or how he got home. Definitely one to watch - especially round your Mum.
Andy "Mr DSMB" Browne
AI at Dive Wimbledon who survived an entire holiday in El Gouna last year with me clipping a DSMB to him on every dive and still managed to resist the urge to punch me. Top man
Howard "Foxturd" Payne
Inundated with words of encouragement from the Foxturd boys: "Have you put the PADI stick on your mask strap yet?" "Those re-enforced knees on your DUI'll really come in handy". Only about 5 text messages a day for the last 3 weeks. F%^&*(rs
The rest and pics to follow...