January 2023

Happy New Year to you all.  I can’t quite believe we are almost ½ way through January (although I am very much looking forward to warmer and drier days) already.

We are only 2 weeks away from starting the 2023 training program and it’s looking like another very busy schedule.  Spaces are now only available on our waiting lists but things do change so do get in touch.  If you’re not lucky enough to gain a space for 2023 then dates for 2024 will be released around Easter time.

After the backlog of Covid19, we are seeing a bigger return of our international students wishing to gain the HSE qualifications and so by the end of 2023, we will have hopefully caught up with those that were unable to travel during the pandemic.  New for 2023 is the introduction of an extra week on the HSE Surface Supplied Course – now totalling 5 weeks instead of 4.  This brings our Air Diver Course to 10 weeks of training with the extra week incorporating some supervisory elements to the course.  This coupled with some more ‘real time working dives’ will ensure students enter the industry with a greater insight into all that is involved in being a member of a working dive team, as opposed to training.

We always get asked ‘What do you do in winter when there is no training on?’   The training schedule finishes in November and as much as I’d like to say we all have the winter off, that is far from the case!  Our sister company (Commercial Diving & Maritime Ltd) is full steam ahead with mooring, shipping, docking down, inspection and general maintenance in the harbours and marinas that we look after.  That, alongside the maintenance of our vessels (did you know that we run over 10 boats?) certainly keeps everyone busy and it’s a constant logistical mission to get everything where it should be when it needs to be there. 

Servicing of equipment for the school is a high priority, with over 40 hats to look after, chambers, diving bells, compressors – the list is endless, and the workshop is certainly busy.

The purchase of brand-new hot water machines with a 3-diver capability (thankyou SMP Ltd) for use on the Offshore Top Up will ensure that everyone is kept warm and toasty on their dives and new fire suppressant systems installed on Loyal Watcher, Hambledon & De-Hinder keep up our high safety standards. 

Planning of jobs in the office & the answering of emails and enquiries is continuous (the longest email thread I’ve had is 72 emails for a 1-week course – he shall remain nameless but will always be remembered for the wrong reasons) but we are always here to help.   Every year we say ‘we need to write a book’, maybe in 2024.