Castaways Sub-Aqua Club
	A Branch (Branch No 2071) of The British Sub-Aqua Club

Training weekend

Hallsands, Devon

5th & 6th August 2000

The main aim of this weekend was to provide an opportunity for people to complete any open water training they may have had outstanding and to have a relaxed diving weekend. The training took priority over diving for pleasure, and we managed to get a lot of training done during the weekend.

We stayed at the Globe Inn, which is a short drive from Hallsands on the main road. The food was extremely nice and the bar stayed open suitably late for residents J After a filling breakfast everybody jumped into their cars for the short drive to Hallsands. When we got to Hallsands Paul and Suzanne were already waiting for us with Teabag. This was to be Teabag's first dive trip and his behaviour was impeccable for the weekend, more about that later.

Suzanne and Teabag

The main diving activities were from a RIB and were organised in up to 4 waves each day. These included Sports Diver drills, Dive Leader Drills as well as some nice scenic diving. On one of the waves there were no training dives needed so we went out and did a cracking drift dive, the best I have done in a long while. In a ripping current we saw thornback rays in the sandy parts, dogfish and some rather large lobsters that were only protected by the fact that we couldn't go against the current to reach them.

The enthusiasm knew no bounds

Both days diving were very successful and we even managed a bit of sunshine. As well as the individual training, we also ran a Practical Rescue Management SDC over the course of the weekend, with the CPR session being held in the hotel beer garden much to the bemusement of the other patrons. Do you know how hard it is to get grass stains out of an 'Annie'?

Is it dead yet?

Suzanne and Jake's dog, Teabag, joined us on his first diving trip and was no bother at all. He provided plenty of amusement between waves with everybody attempting to get him to go swimming in the sea. This is the first dog that I have met that is frightened of the water. We even went so far as wading out carrying him into the waves and then letting him go. All he did was swim over to Suzanne and climb up onto her shoulders in order to get as far out of the water as possible. Oh well, you can lead a dog to water…

Nigel and Justin both try to be casualties at the same time!

Thanks to Suzanne for organising the weekend, it was fun, and we achieved a lot in the way of training.

The Castaways rodeo gets underway

Anthony Peacock