Well, what can we say?
It's certainly been one hell of a month!
We've got to start with a big THANK YOU to everyone for their help, their patience & understanding and all your comments & well wishes. It's been a big month for us, here's why...
We had the keys to our new premises at the beginning of last March, so January - March was busy packing boxes and sorting through our old premises in preparation for our much awaited move. March kept us busy refitting the new premises on not a lot of sleep....
However, we did enjoy designing, decorating, repairing, cleaning and all the rest of it. We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone that helped us out where they could, we really appreciate everything that you all did.
On Monday 12th April we opened the doors, not just for the first time in our new location but for the first time since the middle of December! The support and positive feedback from all our divers (old, current and new) since then has been phenomenal! We were so excited to open our doors, not just to show off our new dive centre, but to catch up and see everyone again. It was great to see people again and has been a privilege to meet loads of new divers.
We're not shy to say ourselves that we are very pleased with what has been achieved and to get the exact look & feel that we wanted (and more!).
People have commented, not just recently, but in the run up to opening our new centre, that they thought we were mad doing it in such challenging times, especially when we still don't entirely know what is round the corner. We must admit, we were very nervous about it ourselves but in all honesty, it was always the plan (global pandemic or not)!
In 2019, when we purchased Dorset Diving Services we knew the lease would end on the current unit in April 2021, so we had always planned to relocate over the Winter of 2020/2021. We did have the option to stay at the older premises a little longer, but we don't do things in half, so we decided to bite the bullet and go with the original plan! We are so glad we did it...
Something even more crazy.....
.....We got married on the first Saturday of opening!
A big thank you to our 2 team members Pablo & Cameron for holding down the fort for us at the centre for the day. After having to re-arrange our wedding 3 times already, we couldn't re-arrange it again and we couldn't have asked for a better day. The weather was in our favour and we enjoy a truely amazing day.
A big thank you to Trev & Sharon on Rocket for their hospitality on the boat during the day. They were kind enough to take us round to Swanage Pier on the boat and whilst on the boat we enjoyed canapes & champagne and some lovely decorations :) Another big thank you to divers Andy & Piers for their experise throughout the day.
Again, a MASSIVE thank you to all of our divers that gave us cards, liquids, foods, presents and sent us their well wishes. We were so overwhelmed and it really does go to show how lucky we are to know such a great bunch of divers. You guys are the reason we love our job! Thank you so much.
Back to reality....
At the beginning of the month the team had a day out at Vobster Quay. As you can imagine, we were all dying to get back in the water! The main reason for our outing was to get reaquainted with our kits, blow off the cobwebs, practice a few skills and re-route ourselves under the water. We also needed to check our weighting.....(insert funny comments/emoji's here!)
The day was a success, only a couple of small issues which were sorted by the end of the day. A few new routes mapped out for our courses. Our kits got wet and so did we! It was great to get together again and have a good laugh. We can't wait to get our students back in the water.
We started boat diving again too, woooooo!
The viz hasn't been fantastic, but we still got wet and still had some good dives and some good laughs.
Through the month we managed to do a couple of courses too, well done to the below:
Emily for completing her PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider
Matt for completing his PADI DSMB Diver
Well done to Greg & Tom for completing Dive 1 of their DSMB Diver.
Trev & Jordan for completing their Emergency First Response Refresher
Tracey for completing her PADI Equipment Specialist Course
Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for upcoming events & trips.
Once the weather has brighten up again and the present plankton bloom has cleared we will be organising some shore diving.
We have a couple of trips in the pipiline too.
If you join our DIVE CLUB you'll get priority notifications and bookings on all our trips and events, as well as other stuff. Check it out and join now!
You can also book onto our Boat Diving and upcoming courses via our online booking system!
If you have any enquiries please don't hesitate to get in touch with us!
info@dorsetdiving.co.uk
See you in the water!