Mavericks Diving Scuba Equipment Courses

Prerequisites:

• Qualifications: entry level diving qualification from any agency (including NAUI, PADI, BSAC, CMAS, SAA, SSAC, etc.)
• Experience level: none
• Minimum age: 12
• Diving medical: self assessment acceptable

Equipment:

• If you own your personal diving equipment, it's best to take the course using this. If not, Mavericks Diving will loan you all that you need, except for a prescription face mask.
• You will need your own bathing costume and a towel.

Duration:

• one day

Dates & availabilty:

• on request

A Mavericks Diving scuba equipment speciality course is a one day workshop on recreational scuba gear. It was developed to bring new divers considering purchasing their first set of scuba equipment up to speed on how to select the gear that is right for them. The Mavericks Diving London scuba equipment specialty course includes both classroom presentations and practical wet sessions in the Action Underwater Studios filming tank. This fantastic facility provides 6 metres (20 ft) of water in which you really can get to grips with different scuba equipment and kit configurations. The workshops are led by NAUI Worldwide instructors Andrew Pugsley and Steve Warren. Andrew is Mavericks Diving's director of training and a presenter of The Underwater Channel. Steve formerly created consumer equipment testing for the magazine Dive International (now Dive) for whom he acted as technical editor. In addition to leading equipment testing with groups of divers drawn from the magazines readership, Steve also wrote numerous articles about equipment selection. He also worked on major projects including a special investigative feature on alternate air source use for the launch issue of Dive. The equipment workshop designed by Andrew and Steve draws upon a wealth of experience and is emphatically not a selling day disguised as a course. Its purpose is to develop a greater understanding of diving equipment applications, limitations and the potential safety issues that will better help you when choosing your own scuba equipment. To achieve this the Mavericks Diving scuba equipment course provides lots of detailed information on the kit you will need in order to dive comfortably and safely. So you'll get thorough background information on key life support equipment including regulators, alternate air sources, buoyancy compensators and dive computers, as well as accessories that you'll commonly use. Your NAUI Worldwide instructors will mix classroom discussions with lots of hands on pool work on the equipment itself. For example, the Mavericks Diving scuba equipment workshop includes an explanation of how scuba regulators actually work. You'll get to understand how regulator performance is assessed and why many insiders question whether CE performance standards for regulators are set high enough. You'll look at the effect of sharing using an octopus has on breathing performance and how tank pressure, depth, cold and different gas mixtures can all affect how well your regulator breathes. During your pool work at Action Underwater Studios filming tank - Star Wars, Bond and Bourne movies are just three blockbuster franchises shot here - you'll experiment with different alternate air sources, try out a range of AAS stowage and deployment configurations and practice using alternate air sources to discover which combinations work best for you. BCD's seem simple, but making the right choice is all important. The Mavericks Diving scuba equipment course will show you how to calculate how much lift you really need. You'll learn why loss of buoyancy from your exposure suit needs to be considered, why tank size and type is an issue, and why overweighting is so misunderstood and extremely dangerous. Your practical pool BCD workshops will include trying both jacket style BCDs and wings, work on buoyancy skills, including proper weighting and weight distribution (you'll work out on Mavericks Diving's Diamond Reef buoyancy course) and emergency weight jettisoning. You'll also make simulated rescue lifts on our special Simulaid manikin to experience some of the problems and solutions involved in making buoyant lifts of diving casualties. Don't worry if you haven't been taught basic rescue - Andrew and Steve will quickly teach you the basics, including in-water resuscitation. Dive computers revolutionised scuba diving. Steve and Andrew will review basic decompression theory with you, and then explain how dive computers work their magic. They'll show you how and why a dive computer can make your diving safer and more enjoyable than using tables. You'll also discuss current thinking of defensive diving that will help reduce the risk of decompression sickness.The depth of Action Underwater Studios filming tank means that you use your dive computer in dive mode, helping you better understand displays. We supply Suunto dive computers for your use. Staying warm is essential to safe scuba diving. Steve and Andrew will explain how being either too cold or too hot can be a problem for any diver. Then they'll show you how different types of diving exposure suit allow you to adapt comfortably to a wide range of diving conditions from polar to tropical.

You'll also get a chance to work with reels and learn how to deploy delayed surface marker buoys. And you'll also look at how different divers configure their personal diving equipment, discussing DIR (Doing It Right) philosophies and typical recreational set ups, all aimed at helping you to ultimately create an equipment system that works best for you.

During your scuba equipment workshop with Mavericks Diving, you'll also get to try lots of other fun equipment. You'll have a go with rescue equipment including pocket masks and rescue lines, check out an oxygen kit, have a go with a full face mask, try underwater communications equipment and fly a professional diver propulsion vehicle. And if you'd like to try an underwater camera, just ask...

Steve and Andrew will do their very best to ensure that when you leave your Mavericks Diving scuba equipment course, you'll have discovered answers to a host of questions you'd never considered, improved your personal diving skills and had a lot of fun. As always, if there's specific subjects you'd like Andrew or Steve to cover during your Mavericks Diving course, let them know. Our philosophy of only working with small groups means we can give you maximum one-to-one time and can often include additional subjects and skills on request.

To book this course we recommend you get in touch by phone, e-mail, or by dropping into the shop to discuss the requirements. If you've already done that, you can download the booking form (editable pdf).