Trevor Hutton Course - weekend 1
Weekend 1 complete, and what a weekend it was. The group of 7 arrived at the beautiful little coastal town of Hermanus early on Saturday morning, and met with Trevor Hutton at 9am to start the course at the new harbour, the venue of Scuba- Africa. Everything was on-site, small but adequate lecture room, a small but adequate pool, and the ocean.
The training spot in the bay was protected from most winds, and had drop offs to good depths for training. A plus was the occasional unexpected visitor, namely an adult fur-seal and 2 Southern-Right Whales…YES PLEASE!!:friday
The morning was spent in the pool learning how to use a snorkel correctly, including maintenance of a correct surface breathing technique, the continuation, unperterbed, of the same technique with water in the snorkel, snorkel displacement, etc.
We went to the bottom, removed mask, fins and weightbelt, returned to the surface, did breathe up, then returned to the bottom to kit up fully, clearing masks, and returning.
We sat in a circle on the bottom of the pool and swopped masks, passing them around the circle, getting ours back, placing, clearing, then going the other way around. Outside interference from the instructor was not allowed to ‘remove’ us from the ‘zone of absolute peace’, (from now on referred to as ZOAP), that we were being taught to find under water.
The middle of the day was spent in lectures discussing all the laws governing freediving physics, and ensuring that all had a level of understanding.
After lunch, a fantastic afternoon of diving saw the team at 12 meters on breathhold, a first time ever for many of them. Not only were they down there looking so comfortable, but they calmy removed fins, mask, weightbelts, gave the OK to Trevor, and ascended slowly, often being circled by a curious African Fur Seal looking for company. Again, the emphasis was drilling the importance of maintaining a 'ZOAP' during the entire dive, allowing no outside influences to break the calm and cause stress. Correct surfacing techniques were practiced with focus on minimal energy-output.
On Sunday, more drills in the ocean built on the skills of day one, no seals visiting, but 2 huge Southern Right Whales passing by the team caused an unexpected delay and much excitement!
The weekend was rounded off with a game called ‘The Machine’. One diver goes down to a weighted ‘base station’ at about 5 meters, without a mask, and waits. A second diver descends to the station, removes their mask, hands it to the 1st diver, who then has to put it on, clears it, and returns to the surface, leaving the next diver maskless and waiting. The 3rd diver then dives down, and repeats the process. There is therefore always a diver without a mask at the bottom, and he / she may only return with a cleared mask, after leaving someone down. Keeping ‘THE MACHINE’ ticking over on apnea requires discipline, and a huge ZOAP from all involved!
7 tired, but very happy divers drove home. We are looking forward to the next session, and already are feeling the benefits of learning from Trevor.
The above is simply a very brief ‘summary’ of the weekends main activities, and in no way is a step by step brief of the course. Pics are the view of our training area from the classroom, and Trevor watching over a pool session.
Best regards
Jeff
