Matthew King Openwater Course

Well done Matt you did it at last, and even more went on to complete the Advanced course as well. Well done mate, look forward to seeing you back here for some great fun diving with you again later in the year.

And there's more, Congratulations Matt on also completing your Advanced Open Water course

Congratulations to Paul & James

Congratulations Paul & James on completing your Open Water Course 28 May 2007. I'm looking forward to your advance course in July.

EFR Training

I Trained as an E.F.R. (Emergency First Response) instructor, it's one of those courses that you hope that you are never going to use but you need it for rescue diver and dive master so what the hell you do it and hope that you will never have to use it.

Well here I am 5 years down the road, and up until last Wednesday night I have never used the skill I learnt on that course well not for real anyway, but that all changed on Wednesday.

Like most people here in Tenerife I have two jobs Dive instructor by day News Paper distributor at night and it was while I was distributing news papers in the Cristianos area that I found a man lying on his back in an area where you would not expect a person to be, so I got hold of the security at the apartment block to come with me to investigate closer. when we got to the man we could see that he had suffered a head injury and was unconscious and his breathing was erratic I checked for a pulse it was there although very week. The security man said that he knew him, and that he had seen him leaving the apartment block about 20 minutes earlier, I stayed with the guy while the security guard went to call for an ambulance checking his pulse & vital signs after a few minutes he stopped breathing so I had to start CPR on him, this was the very first time that I had had to do this although I have practiced many times on a mannequin, to do it for real was rather daunting but none the less I had to do it until the paramedics arrived.

I have absolutely no idea how long that was Time just seemed to stand still for a while and before I new it they had arrive and I could then let them take over, while they worked on the guy who's name was Tony I had a few moments to reflect on what might have happend to Tony how did he come to be there, it appeared that he had fallen about 15mts in to the car park area and had landed badly causing a serious injury to his head, the paramedics worked on Tony for about an hour getting him stable enough to move, I was told that he was breathing on his own and that the readings they where getting where week but steady. In my mind I felt that I did what I could for Tony at the time but you always wonder if you could have done more, I just did what I had been trained to do and what I have trained many others to do under those circumstances. That is all anyone cans ask of you, some times the outcome will be good and other times the outcome may be not so good, but you have done your best to save a life and that is a good thing.

I have since found out that Tony died on the way to the hospital and my condolences go out to his family and loved ones.

As I sit here writing this I wounder if this is a good idea to publish this on my blog because there was a moment just after I found Tony lying there and the ambulance had been called that I felt like just walking away and leaving it to the experts, but I just could not do it I had to try and do what ever I could to help.

So if you ever wonder about the merits of doing an EFR course you never know when you might be in a position to help a stranger or even a member of your family.

Well done Paul & Sharon

Paul Clapham came to tenerife to learn to Scuba Dive with me at adctenerife, Paul brought his girl friend Sharon with him. Sharon didn't intend to to do very much except to chill and enjoy the sunshine here in Tenerife, but some how she got caught up in the whole process from the 1st day of the course watching the video & the kitting up seeing Paul enter the water & taking his 1st breaths underwater & then seeing the look on Paul's face as he came back from his 1st confined water session ( you know the look the 1 that says woo that was great) I think that was when Sharon made up her mind to have a go her self but she was just a little hesitant.

It wasn't till the next day that she asked me to take her for a try dive, well of course I said OK no problem we can do it at the end of Paul's next session at the end of the day. well the time comes for Sharon to take the plunge as I carry out the dive brief she is very nervous on entering the water she is shaking I gently take her by the hand & lead her out up to her waste taking a few deep breaths through her reg she begins to relax then as she leans forward to take her 1st breaths underwater her fears just disappear.

OK were of in to the blue water around Red cross bay for the 1st few minutes I am holding her hand just to let her know that I'm still there, now Sharon has relaxed completely & starting to play with the marine life around the rocks 40 minuets later and there's that look again (you know the one), well that is it Sharon is hooked but now time is short and she only has time to complete the scuba diver course.

Paul completed his open water course with flying colors and will be back for his advanced open water Sharon is also coming back to finish her open water.

well done to them both