Courses

Refresher

Refresher fee: R100
This fee covers hard gear rental and air fills. If you are taking part in the advanced or rescue course, this refresher is free of charge.
13 April (Wednesday)
17:30 - 21:30 Meet at Underwater Club on the Great Field to sign out gear. We will be doing a refresher / skills review in the Rhodes pool.

Open Water

Course fee: R1900 (if you intend buying your own soft gear, ie mask, fins, wetsuit and weightbelt, or borrowing from a friend)
Course fee: R2400 (if you would like to hire soft gear for the duration of the course and buy your own at a later stage)
I would advise buying your own gear, because with good care it will last for year and save you having to hire soft gear every time you go diving.

14 April 2011 (Thursday)
Deposit of at least R1000 must be paid into the account listed at the end of this email. This payment books your place on the course. If your deposit is not present in the account by the end of the day on 15 April, you will need to sign up for a course in the second semester. The remaining R900 is due before we do our sea dives on 7 & 8 May.

26 April 2011 (Tuesday)
18:30 - 21:30 Meet at Sociology B for Theory Sessions 1,2 & 3.

27 April 2011 (Wednesday)
13:00 - 16:30 Meet at Union Gates. We will be going to Port Alfred to purchase your soft gear or hire soft gear if you intend doing so. Note that this date is flexible and can be done on 25th or 26th April too, or even in your own time if you have your own transport.
18:30 - 21:00 Meet at Rhodes pool for swim tests and snorkel and skin diving training session. NB: Bring costume, towel and soft gear.

28 April 2011 (Thursday)
18:30 - 21:30 Meet at Sociology B for Theory Sessions 4 & 5

30 April 2011 (Saturday)
13:00 - 17:30 Meet at Underwater Club on Great Field to collect dive gear. We will be completing Pool Sessions 1 & 2.

1 May 2011 (Sunday)
13:00 - 17:30 Meet at Underwater Club on Great Field to collect dive gear. We will be completing Pool Sessions 3 & 4 ( and maybe 5)

2 May 2011 (Monday)
13:00 - 17:30 Meet at Underwater Club on Great Field to collect dive gear. We will be completing Pool Session 5 (if not already completed)

4 May 2011 (Wednesday)
18:30 - 21:30 Complete final Theory, Quizzes and Exam

7 May 2011 (Saturday)
4:30 Meet at Underwater Club on Great Field to collect dive gear and pack the bus. We'll drive to PE and complete Open Water dives (sea dives) 1 & 2 at Slipway, We can either sleep over or drive home and then leave early the next day to get back to PE.

8 May 2011 (Sunday)
4:00 Meet at Underwater Club to pack the bus and drive to PE (if we don't stay over in PE). We will complete Open Water dives 3 & 4, diving from dive boats with Prodive. The first dive will go out at first light.

12 May 2011 (Thursday)
19:00 Meet at Underwater Club for Open Water graduation. There will be a braai so bring along some meet and we'll welcome you to the world of diving :) You will receive temporary cards to show that you have been certified and the original ones will arrive in a month or two.

Advanced Open Water Course

There's an opportunity to do something kiff with this course. It involves doing three of the dives at Aliwal shoal, rated as one of the top ten dive sites in the world, where you can do some truly magnificent diving. NB!!!!!! If you are not keen for this idea and you think it is too expensive, please let me know and we can revert to the old setup with diving in PE and the cost would be R1800.
This course involves five open water dives (in the sea). Here's the break down:
Course fee: R2500
This includes:
Equipment Rental
Air fills
2 shore entry dives in PE
Transport to Aliwal Shoal
3 nights accomodation at Aliwal
3 boat dives on the Aliwal Shoal
All materials necessary for certification and your certification card
The only extra expense to you is your food and beverages
Here is the plan:

7 April (Thursday)
16:00 Deadline for payment, deposit of R1500. If this is not present in the account then you will need to take part in the next Advanced Course.

13 April (Wednesday)
17:30 - 21:30 Meet at Underwater Club on the Great Field to sign out gear. We will be doing a refresher / skills review in the Rhodes pool so that we're all one the same page when we go to the sea.

14 April (Thursday)
19:30 Meet at Underwater Club on the Great Field to fetch your manuals. You are welcome to join us for the braai, just bring your own meat and whatever else you'd like to graze on.

16 April (Saturday)
5:00 Meet at Underwater Club on Great Field to sign out gear and pack the bus. We will be completing the Peak Performance Buoyancy and Navigation dives in PE at the Slipway.

22 April (Friday)
5:00 Meet at Underwater Club on the Great Field to sign out gear and pack the bus. We leave for Aliwal Shoal and should arrive in the afternoon.

23 April (Saturday)
5:30 Meet at dive centre for 6:30 launch. We will be completing our Deep Adventure Dive at Cathedral.
Have breakfast
10:30 Complete our Fish Identification Adventure Dive on Aliwal Shoal

24 April (Sunday)
7:30 Meet at dive centre for 8:30 launch. We do our Wreck adventure dive on the MV Produce, one of the best wrecks on the East Coast, famous for the family of giant Brindle Bass that live it, each weighing up to 500kg.
18:00 Advanced Open Water Graduation :)

25 April (Monday)
6:00 Leave to return to Grahamstown, arriving back in the afternoon

NB!!!!!!!!! This is only an idea for the Advanced Course that would be really cool. If everyone isn't keen then we can just do the normal one on the same dates but we do the dives in PE. The cost of the normal one is R1800, but for that we will get about 10% of the visibility and 10% of the fish life that we would have had in Aliwal. So think carefully.
If there is space we will open this up to other divers in the club who are already advanced and would like to join us. They can join us for R1500, which includes accommodation, transport, 3 dives on Aliwal, club gear hire and air fills.

Rescue Diver Course

Course fee: R1500

29 April (Thursday)
Deadline for deposit of R750 to book your place on the course. If this is not paid by the end of the day on 29th April you will need to join the Rescue course that will run in the second semester.

6 May (Friday)
12:00 - 13:00 Fetch your crew-pack at the Statistics Post-Grad study (near the fountain behind the clock-tower) anytime between 12:00 and 13:00.

9 May (Monday)
18:30 - 21:30 Meet at Sociology B for Rescue diver Theory.

10 May (Tuesday)
18:30 - 21:30 Meet at Sociology B to complete Rescue Theory

11 May (Wednesday)
17:30 - 21:00 Meet at Underwater Club on the Great Field to sign out gear. We will be in the Rhodes pool for our first pool session.

13 May (Friday)
17:30 - 21:00 Meet at Underwater Club on the Great Field to sign out gear. We will be in the Rhodes pool for our second pool session.

14 May (Saturday)
5:30 Meet at Underwater Club on the Great Field to sign out gear and head to Port Alfred or PE to do the open water skills evaluation.

17 May (Tuesday)
17:30 - 19:30 Meet at Sociology B to complete the Rescue Diver Exam

19 May (Thursday)
19:00 Meet at Underwater Club on Great Field for graduation. There will be a braai so you are welcome to bring some meat etc. You will be issued a temporary card as proof of certification until you receive your original card after a month or so.

Divemaster Course

The DM course is a very full course and takes alot of work but is very rewarding and once complete, you have an internationally recognised level of training as a dive professional. The first step will be to purchase the DM crew pack which contains all the materials you will need for the course. The crew pack cost R2000. I will show you mine and you can see that its actually quite alot of stuff. If you're keen to do your DM course, please drop me an email if you have not already done so. I already know of two people who are keen and we'll meet early next term to make plans.