Thursday, December 10, 2015

Latest News- December 2015




 Monday 21st December 2015
andreas

This is the time of year when it’s time to head out for the works Christmas Party. Wondering who your Secret Santa is and if they bought you anything that could embarrass you or give away any secrets you have been trying to hide for the last year. Wondering who will be the first person to be sick or say something inappropriate to the boss. Most work parties are done on the Friday night when you have a few days to recover before you have to go back in again on Monday morning. We don’t have the luxury of weekends or days off and we quite often don’t even know what day of the week it is, or which way is up or down (except bubbles go up) So when we had our Big Blue Staff Party a lot of us still had to go into work and dive the next day, so half of the staff were sipping on water and the other half were knocking back shots of tequila! Sadly I was working so no tequila for me(thank god).

Now every year we have the Christmas Awards and they are silly awards such as best smile, best bum, most likely to fall over on the night. But there are also some real awards which we the staff vote for and it is with much sadness and vomit in my mouth I have to say that Andreas ‘still hasn’t been arrested yet’ Dahlqvist, won the best freelance instructor award. To this day he still hasn’t shut up about his award winning position. And there was also an award to the couple most likely to get married next year, that went to Phil ‘Fishlad’ Smith and Antony ‘the Edge’ Edgley. They accepted there award graciously and were later spotted both coming out of the toilets clutching their trophies. Well done boys and congratulations let us know when you set a date…

Each year there seem to be more and more awards given out. The big boss man Jim is quite partial to Tequila and when the winners are announced it is traditional to down a shot of tequila and spin around on a chair trying to fall off singing a Mexican song. Jim also has a shot with the winners and by the end of the night he is being carried out but the elves and sent to bed with a empty bucket and a bottle of water next to his bed. This year was no exception. Merry Christmas Jim and enjoy your holiday in new Zealand while the rest of us are working.



Wednesday 9th December 2015dive spotting

Any of you who have been to Big Blue will have seen we have a wide variety of T-shirt designs, our latest Big Blue Pro shirt is out. It is based on the original Trainspotting poster (just in case some of you are now to young to remember). We are now trying to think of some new designs to add to the collection. So we are putting it out there to you, if you have any ideas please let us know. Contact us on info@bigbluediving.com with suggestions of picture designs and you could see your shirts in Drift and be part of the Big Blue massive.

Sidemount diving has been around for decades in the cave diving world, but was always seen as a very specialised and exclusive way of diving. This has all changed in the last few years as equipment manufacturers started to introduce much more practical methods for attaching diving cylinders to the diver. The result is that sidemount diving has really taken off, and is becoming more and more popular, for both technical diving applications and also shallow recreational fun diving.

When you first dive in sidemount you quickly realise why. It's a really comfortable way to dive. Where the BC is situated makes you want to be flat, and as the cylinders are tucked out of the way to your sides, you have a real feeling of freedom. Sidemount is an incredibly versatile way of diving and can be done using one cylinder or two. Cylinders can be easily attached when already in the water, so it's ideal for people with back problems, and perfectly suited to shore diving or boat diving. Having a redundant gas source makes your diving a little safer too as you are less reliant on your buddy in the event of an equipment failure. This redundancy makes it the perfect platform for decompression diving, not to mention the feeling of comfort on long decompression stops. Moreover, as it is easy to unclip the tanks and bring them forward, you can have a lot of fun getting through tighter spaces when penetrating wrecks, caves or swim-throughs.

You are able to complete the side mount course once you have finished your Open Water but we would recommend you finish the Advanced Course first. If you want more information on the sidemount course contact Rick at info@bigbluetech.net



Saturday 5th December 2015sand snowman

After a long and noisy wait we have been told the accommodation and classrooms above the shop will be completed in 2 more weeks. It has been a long wait with deadlines being pushed and we will all be relieved once it has finished, ready in time for our Christmas staff party.

Our swimming pool that has been burning the retinas off us all has been emptied, scrubbed, resurfaced and filled with lovely clean fresh water, without the use of chemicals we are using a salt solution instead. The rain has also been topping it up so we only need to fill it half way to begin with, which saved us some pennies.

We are on the hunt for the Christmas decorations, they were put in a safe place when we moved and no one can remember where exactly that safe place is. We started by looking in the bar, we looked behind the bar, then in front of the bar, we can confirm that the beer is there…. well it was when we started looking.  After confirming that the beer was working we forgot what we were looking for in the first place. So the hunt for the decorations will continue.

Our resident Instructor Trainer Iain Goodfellow is in the middle of teaching our latest new instructors. Divemaster ‘Homeless’ Stephen Larder is leaving his DM to become a professional mask clearer along with Dani, Yam and Lyndon. In the next few weeks they will be new SSI instructors ready to start their internship with our present instructors before they are unleashed on the masses. Good Luck all of you.

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