I was very generously sponsored by PADI to undertake some of their courses, including my PADI Drysuit, Wreck, Deep, and Underwater Navigation diver courses. I went to PADI Asia Pacific with Jayne to meet with Danny Dwyer who is manager of marketing and business development,  and Mike Holme who is Director of training and quality management and also in charge of the Project Aware division. It was great to have a meet and greet and discuss some potential for projects with Project Aware later in my scholarship. I hope to be undertaking some work with them for a few weeks later in my scholarship.

Danny Dwyer, myself, and Mike Holme

I went down Plunge Diving at Chowder Bay, Sydney to undertake my PADI Drysuit course. Peter Szyszka and the team at Plunge Diving are truly fantastic, incredibly thorough with all their divers and go above and beyond with the running and teaching of their courses. Upon meeting Peter, he quickly had me in my brand new Waterproof Draco Drysuit,  putting me  through the paces for my PADI Drysuit diver. I undertook nearly a dozen dives with my drysuit, getting to feel really comfortable in it, honing by buoyancy, and clocking up the hours. The drysuit preformed amazingly and now I feel ready to tackle the cold waters of the world!

Peter Szyszka and myself just outside the Plunge Diving shop

Next up came my PADI Deep diver which was a very exciting course. I just jumped on this one last weekend. The first day diving was down in Chowder bay at around 18m. Undertaking drills with no masks, out of air scenarios with full ascents. It was a great opportunity to brush up on my skills. Unfortunately the boat dives scheduled for the next day were cancelled due to the wild weather that Sydney has been experiencing lately, and I am shooting off on the next leg of my journey around Asia and Micronesia! so I will have to complete the rest of the course at a later date. Instead I went for a dive to Shelly Beach, it is a great little dive spot and I got to have a close look at a giant cuttlefish and ornate wobbegong, both very interesting animals.

At Plunge Diving they really put you to the test and if your not doing it well enough, you do it again till you do, or don’t pass the course. I think the professionalism that they display is fantastic, as all too often dive operations are churning out divers all too quickly, that are not sufficient at undertaking the skills required to be a safe and confident diver. Which in turn leads to accidents occurring.

I would like to thank Peter, Ronnie, Henry, Martin, Marcin, and the rest of the team at Plunge Diving for all the help with the courses and the generosity for all the dives they hosted me on.

I’m off to Phuket on Wednesday for the 2nd Asia Pacific Coral Reef Symposium, I’m going to be presenting my masters work there, and like many conferences will be a fantastic opportunity to meet some fellow colleagues. I’ll let you know how it goes!