COHORT OF WIGHT DOLPHINS DIVERS ACHIEVE BSAC CERTIFICATION

The Wight Dolphins training team has been busy with 6 divers successfully achieving BSAC certifications in the past few weeks. The club has its own fully approved British Sub Aqua Club diving instructors, who volunteer their own time to provide training for students at all levels and is headed by the club Training Officer, Gary McGinty. The entry-level open water BSAC qualification is the Ocean Diver course which equips students with core diving skills and gives them the opportunity to complete dives from the shore and from the club’s own boat, enabling diving to a depth of 20 metres in the UK and abroad. The next step up is the Sports Diver, giving the opportunity to perform longer, deeper dives with decompression stops, as well as learning rescue skills and building experience in a range of conditions. The Sports Diver can dive to a maximum of 40 metres. Tony Delap, Kev Newell and Jan Fletcher are all now fully signed up Sports Divers but they have each come to Wight Dolphins with different skill levels and varying qualifications Tony joined Wight Dolphins in 2022 after taking part in a try dive session with the club having returned from holiday abroad with the bug to learn to dive. He immediately signed up for his Ocean Diver course which he completed in 2023 before completing the Sports Diver course in August 2024. He is now using his skills to dive abroad for the first time and has signed up to further extend his skills with Wight Dolphins as a Dive Leader. Kev and Jan both joined Wight Dolphins last year with different PADI qualifications – Kev started diving in 2022 and was an Open Water Diver; Jan started diving in 2017 and moved to Wight Dolphins as an Advanced Open Water Diver. Alongside Tony, they have both completed the Sports Diver course having conducted numerous dives at varying locations around the island, from the shore and from the club boat as well as diving at Vobster, an inland lake and completing rescue skills at Shanklin which always attracts interest! Kev is looking forward to using his skills at an upcoming trip to Lundy where he will be diving with the renowned and very playful seals. Ezra Grimaldi, Maisie Sims and Masato Hagiya have each attained their initial diving qualification, and are now Ocean Divers. If you are interested in taking up diving or developing your skills, get in touch with Wight Dolphins through their website wightdolphins.com. The club has 2 planned dates for try dive sessions at Freshwater Pool over the winter, on 2nd November and 7th December.