Hi all,

It’s time of the year again to start our pool and academic sessions for the Ecodiver Training Course.

For EcoDiver wannabes, details are as below:

Dates: (Saturdays)
2010: Nov 20th, Dec 4th and Dec 18th
2011: Jan 22nd, Feb 12th and Feb 26th
Venue: Pusat Akuatik Shah Alam (PADE)
Time: 9.00am-4.00pm

There will be a maximum of TEN people per session. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

What do you have to do?

Divers who are interested to participate must have done at least 25 leisure dives or confident enough with their buoyancy. Where we feel it is necessary, we will advise divers to gain additional experience or skills before completing the EcoDiver course.

There are four elements to the EcoDiver course:
- buoyancy assessment and training
- fish identification
- invertebrate identification
- substrate identification

Doing a Reef Check survey dive is very different from doing a normal leisure dive. Survey diving requires not only a high level of concentration and discipline; it also requires the diver to have good dive skills, to avoid damaging the reef and to collect good data. Divers must be able to hover motionless and dive inverted (head down, feet up), while carrying a slate and recording data. These skills are not often used while leisure diving. As a result of our experience of training EcoDivers over the last two years, we are placing increasing emphasis on assessing participants’ buoyancy and general dive skills before proceeding with the rest of the EcoDiver course.

The course is as follows:
Session 1: buoyancy and skills assessment. This is a pass or fail session. Those that pass proceed to Session 2 and, hopefully, complete the EcoDiver certification at one of the island dive centres.

Performance Requirements: To demonstrate adequate buoyancy skills for conducting Reef Check Surveys, EcoDiver candidates must be able to demonstrate the ability to:

1. Descend and Ascend using primarily their breathing to control descent/ascent rate and buoyancy.

2. Perform a fin pivot moving no more than 50 cm up or down (from a mid-point once a stable position is established) for a period of 30 seconds, using only breathing to control depth.

3. Hover in a horizontal position over a defined point moving no more than 50 cm up or down (from a mid-point once a stable position is established) for a period of 30 seconds, using only breathing and fins to control depth and body position.

4. Hover in an inverted position over a defined point moving no more than 50 cm up or down (from a mid-point once a stable position is established) for a period of 30 seconds, using only breathing and fins to control depth and body position, while copying a short script from a display panel onto an underwater writing slate

5. Swim through three hoops placed in a line on the bottom, separated by 5 m, without touching the sides of the hoops or moving them.

Session 2: theory and methodology.
This will include the EcoDiver presentations (Identification) and a pool session, introducing the basics of the Reef Check survey methodology: how to measure 2.5 m underwater; practicing writing underwater; practice stopping every 5 m; practice swimming the “s” shape, head down; practice using plumb line, etc.

After participating the pool session, you will continue with the 3 days 2 nights island-based training which will be scheduled after early March and April 2011.

How much?

The training cost is RM750 which includes training kit, certification and dives. Please bring RM110 deposit.
** Transportation, meals, accommodation and pool session fees are on own cost.

Please note: Our partner dive centres on the islands will still be free to offer EcoDiver courses to anyone who wishes to sign up direct. However, terms and conditions will vary from centre to centre.

Please contact our EcoAction Manager, Ummi Haslinda if you are interested in signing up for these courses. You can email her at: ummi@reefcheck.org.my