Sub aqua club’s new divers ‘ready and doing well’

Locals from across the Avondhu region took to the National Maritime College of Ireland (NCMI) on Saturday for the penultimate stage in the journey to qualify as BSAC trainee divers.

Members of the Blackwater Sub Aqua Club drawn from Fermoy, Kilworth, Araglin, Mitchelstown and right across the locality, took to the college to close out their final pool skills underwater training before qualifying as a CFT Club Diver.

Speaking with TheAvondhu this week, Timmy Carey of the Blackwater Sub Aqua Club said that this year, the club saw a large group of new divers coming on board, with nine new members undergoing training.

Currently, the Blackwater Sub Aqua Club has approximately 40 members.

“They have to do twelve weeks of training in total and the deepwater pool is very important in this as it simulates open water and the pressure changes (that) you experience in diving,” he said.

The NCMI environmental conditions include a 20m x 8m indoor pool with a max depth of 5m, a wave and wind generator, rain sprinkler system, thunder and lightning effects amongst a plethora of other safety equipment items, all available to aid and abet trainees in their quest to improve their diving skills.

Skills completed here by candidates include flooding and clearing masks underwater, assembly and disassembly of scuba equipment underwater, buoyancy control, removing and replacing regulator mouthpieces underwater, and methods of entry.

On Tuesday night, new divers began snorkel training in open water and completed lectures.

“The new divers have taken their first steps and are doing really well. They’re ready now, they’ve passed all the various tests and exams and are ready for open water,” Timmy added.

New members will now go on to log five open water dives and once examined by an instructor and passed, will receive their Diver One-star certification.

After logging their first twenty to thirty open water dives and being examined and passed by an instructor, divers can then go on to lead scuba dives anywhere in the world and participate in various open water diving activities.

(Photo courtesy Peter Cooling) Participants who undertook the pool skills underwater training at the NCMI - back row: Jeff Carroll, Graham Burke, Elden Keegan, Dermot Barry, Arthur Stone, Mike Reidy, Noel Hayes, Dick Vaughan, Timmy Carey and Finbarr Murphy; front row: Dom Bardyszewski, Cormac Robinson, Pauline Lichou, Louise Feeney, Des Browne, Patrick English, Ted White and Eoin Burke.

(Photo courtesy Peter Cooling) Locals Eoin Burke and Timmy Carey pictured in the NCMI deep water pool doing some pool skills underwater training.