It’s only a course
Yeh right, Saturday started with a few more lectures and then out in to the farm yard to set up our BP and harnesses, apparently mine is a little loose and is tightened up a bit, OK this is all becoming a bit of a blur so might not actually be in the right order. It’s time to go diving so we pack up and are off down to Vobster, the place is packed as they have a MCS charity event going on, but having booked a parking space I manage to park near the submarine. We haul our kit down to the pallets near the water and start to kit up. In the water Clare demonstrates the pre-dive checks and once in the water we do bubble checks. This is just a dive to see where we are all at, Fin has a complete set of borrowed kit except his BP and Mark is in a new suit which he is very proud of and has only used his kit a couple of times. We arrive at one of the platforms and Clare demonstrates fin kicks, Mal is ever present as video bitch they say the camera does lie and they are right it doesn’t. We move off the platform when an instructor and his students decide they want it :( It’s about time to surface so we do and this wasn’t one of my better moments, I am feeling restricted in my harness but that’s just an excuse I still haven’t got used to doing horizontal ascents after 12 years of vertical ones I find this a difficult skill. So I hit the surface first and my team follow shortly afterwards.
Second dive becomes a blur and I am not enjoying myself at all, my head has gone – the doubts are back and frankly I could quite easily go home, I am glad I am travelling on my own as I don’t want to be around anyone else at the moment. Back at Edenvale and we have some more lectures followed by a quick change – at least I did not sure about anyone else and we head off for some food, Mal doesn’t drink but thank god Clare orders one so we do. A nice meal and chat and then back to the farm, Clare suggests the 3 of us sit down and work through some of the work study sheets but after about 15mins it becomes clear to me I can’t get my head round the questions and need some quiet time to do them on my own. I head off to my room and leave the boys to it, I set the alarm for 5.15am but don’t need it and set about my work study exercises.
Sunday was to spend more time in the farm yard doing some valve drills on land but we have put our sets in for fills and out kit is at Vobster, so we set off and do the drills in the car park which must look amusing to those who don’t know what you are doing, then it’s time to kit up again and we are back in the water for valve drills and “S” drills. I am not concerned about the valve drills I have been reaching for them on each time I have done this year, OK now I have a problem the harness has been reset and while I can reach them I can’t perform the drill, I become frustrated and Clare recognises this stops the drill and I just become more and more annoyed at myself. Mark and Fin are doing an “S” drill and I am supposed to be concentrating on them, I can’t and want out. I signal to Clare that I have to go to the surface, we do and we have a chat. I agree to descend and complete the dive – I am annoyed with myself, nothing new there then.
During lunch Clare takes me for a post dive brief, she knows how I am feeling and said that I wasn’t doing too badly just need to sort my head and obviously complete the skills. The next dive I try again but this is almost as bad as the first time. I leave the water and decide to reset the harness, I know I can do it I just have to sort myself out. It’s the last night so we go to the local pub where we decide on a name of Team Beef as 4 of us decide on a Sunday roast, unfortunately there aren’t enough Yorkshire puds left so I change my order.
Monday morning was pay up and pack up time from the B & B, we hand over our exam papers and work sheets and Clare and Mal head off to mark them while we prepare our dive, with SCR, min deco and all the other information we have learned from the course. We have to prepare our dive and establish team order, Fin decides he doesn’t want to be 2 so he goes 3 and Mark is number 1, we plan our dive using a 5 min faff 
luckily on the previous days dives we have all used almost exactly the same amount of gas so the calculations of 20LPM and 30 for emergencies are easy.
We start the dives with the diver lift which is very difficult and I almost scrap poor Mark and his new suit into the quarry floor apparently just where there is a dead rat, I am sure I would revert to type in a real emergency and do the face to face vertical one, yes I am sorry probably not what should be written here. We also practice a couple of things which need brushing up on and Mal takes me to one side for a valve drill, not quite as slick as it should be but I can do it, the one problem I do have is the set I am using has recently been O2 cleaned and I hadn’t noticed until last week that the isolator has been put back on the wrong side and has been offset to the left instead of the right – so I am not happy about this but do manage to shut everything down in the right order. Then I have to do is again for Clare and again it isn’t too bad, I get there eventually, we do “S” drills round the team and then set off for “our” dive. Fin is a bit of a wreck fan and hasn’t had his hands on any metal all weekend so we agree to go and find the aeroplane and have a look round, we set of Mark as number 1, me at 2 and Fin 3. Along the plane I loose Fin’s light and turn around, he isn’t there so I signal to Mark and he turns and we go back to find Fin apparently Clare has highjacked him round the other side, we set off again and Mark’s primary light “fails” so he switches to his backup and goes into number 2 spot. Mark is then hit with an OOG drill and Fin thumbs the dive, I deploy the bag we had scheduled in 5 mins of faff time and apparently we got from OOG to bag up in about 2 and a half minutes but spend more time on the ascent something I had been a little concerned about all weekend anyway we arrive on the surface together which was a first
That’s it all over and we head back to the entry point to de-kit and a group post dive briefing, we then get our individual briefings and road map. It has been the hardest few days I have ever put myself through, I was and frankly still am emotionally and mentally drained.
Thanks to Mark and Fin for being supportive and helping a numpty with fins and ladders. Tim and his team at Vobster, there aren’t many dive sites where all the staff smile Mal for passing his video bitch speciality, I am sure the badge will be here soon and Clare for an incredible teaching experience.
I arranged a dive with Gareth (Gloc) the day before as I hadn’t been to Vobster before and just wanted a little orientation around to familiarize myself with the location and where things were. I had arranged to meet Gareth about 11am and at 10.45 pulled in to the car park, into the shop and signed up for membership as I would be able to take advantage of the privileged parking and reduced daily rate. While I was completing the paper work Gareth arrived and we went back to the cars to kit up and chat, after about 2 hours we were ready to get in the water, Gareth took me through the DIR pre-dive checks and in the water we did a bubble check, at this point Gareth pointed out I had a problem with one of my first stages so we get back out and he retrieves Howard’s set from the car. Thanks Howard but I don’t like your mouthpiece