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Three New PADI Open Water Divers

Barbara B New PADI Open Water Diver

UWE and Ocean Quest Dive Centre are very excited to announce that we have Three New PADI Open Water Divers!  Jeremy, Ryan and Barbara decided to brave the cold January temperatures and get their PADI Open Water Diver certification.  We started in the pool and classroom on the 7 – 8 of January and everyone did a fantastic job.  All three worked hard in the pool and were very quick to master the skills that needed to get them to the ocean.

On the second weekend we were out to Whytecliff park to work on the Open Water skills and all three students held their own.  As always, there was some rough buoyancy skills but over the four dives all three students were able to work things our and showed that they had what it takes to be a diver!!

Well done to the Three New PADI Open Water Divers!!

Diver lost off Whytecliff Park presumed dead

A Lower Mainland man went missing Saturday while diving with a partner in the waters off Whytecliff Park.

The diver is believed to have drowned after searches by the Canadian Coast Guard and Vancouver Police Department Marine Squad failed to produce a trace of the man.

“We just want to reiterate how important it is to dive in pairs,” said West Vancouver police spokeswoman Const. Lisa Schmidtke.

The missing man, who is in his 60s and an experienced diver, became separated from his diving partner shortly before 5 p.m. on Saturday. The first diver waited for the missing man to surface before swimming to shore and contacting the coast guard.

A nearly four-hour search conducted that evening by the coast guard and police boats yielded no sign of the diver.

The comprehensive search was possible because the man followed all the proper safety steps, according to Schmidtke.

After another search on Sunday, which included diving colleagues of the missing man, the coroner was informed that the diver probably drowned, according to Schmidtke.

The search concluded at midday on Sunday.

Read more:  Missing Diver

PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider

Richard and Tex PADI Emergency Oxygen Providers

UWE and Ocean Quest and excited to announce we have two new PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider course.  Tex and Richard joined me tonight at the Ocean Quest and we got hard at the course.  Richard is an HSE 2 Commercial diver from the UK, and Tex is one of our experienced divers from the shop, both students did a bang up job on the course.

We started off with a Power Point Presentation which covered all the theory one needs to be a PADO Emergency Oxygen Provider, we cover O2, Diving related injuries, drownings, near drownings, DCS and DCI, and how a PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider can help with these kind of injuries.  Even though the course is only about 4 hours in length we can in depth into Oxygen and how to provide it safely and properly.

Well done guys, great work on completing the PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider course!!

First Open Water of 2012

Jan 2012 PADI Open Water Course

UWE and Ocean Quest are back at it, and we have just started our first open water of 2012.  Today was day one of the course and we had all six students in the pool first thing this morning so we could work on Confined Water 1 – 3.   The 6 students were divided into two groups with 3 for me and 3 for Mike T.

Everyone did an amazing job, they quickly got use to the equipment and started showing how comfortable they were in the water.  On completion of the the pool sessions, we headed back to the class, and started to complete the knowledge reviews for chapters 1 – 3.  So far everyone is doing a fabulous job, keep up the great work!!!

Diving in Tuwanek

Graceful Decorator Crab

UWE went and did some fun diving in Sechelt at one of our favourite dive sites.  Yes, of course it was Tuwanek.  Diving in Tuwanek has provided me with un countable hours of pleasure and happiness.  The dive sit is easily one of the best sites around.  The marine life is diverse and abundant ranging from schooling Pier Perch, plenty of rock fish, as well crab, flounder and in the summer I have found 4 octopuses within a 10 minute swim of one another.

On this days dives we split our dives between the left and right island and we were rewarded with a wolf eel encounter, huge balls of crul to swim through and last but certainly not least visibility in the 100 foot range!

Awesome diving!!

Minimum Deco Tables

GUE

Well everyone here at UWE have had to ask the question, what the heck is everyone doing diving on a bottom timer, doing multi level dives and yet have no apparent plan.  After asking a few divers, I have since discovered this set of tables called Minimum Deco Tables printed by DIR/GUE.  After doing some research it sure sounds interesting, and I am still going through the how to use file, but it still appears that this is to be a square dive profile, which of course no one seems to be doing.

Since returning to Vancouver to work, I have run in to a large number of people who have been bent, or have suffered a DCS since I have been back to the city, and I have to wonder if this is the reason. Not that the tables are wrong but maybe the divers are not doing it correctly which I think is more the situation.   Does everyone know what a square dive profile actually means?  That means the planned depth and time is it, there is no multi level diving it, no new depths, the time is the time…and we do not make it up as it goes.

Dive computers, now I must say, I do not follow my computer blindly, I wear two as I have one that has failed on more then one occasion, but then again I am diving a computer dive, a multi level computer dive which means, I have custom tables being made for me as I dive.  If the algorithm that is in the computer correct, I should be, or there should be a modicum of safety built into it.  Especially if I dive my limits conservatively.

If you go to our Downloads Page you will find the DIR/GUE Minimum Deco Tables, for your review.  Be sure to check back in the next couple of days as we will add to the site how to use the tables.

Opinions?