2020 has been and continues to be a challenging year… whilst we all want to be somewhere warm, with sunshine, blue skies and water temperatures that don’t require a drysuit, this is inconsequential compared to the current need to stay home, protect the NHS and save lives. So here at Bespoke Diving Adventures we decided that the pandemic was not going to stop us from learning and doing our favourite activity! Since lockdown 1.0 where we delivered 25+ Science of Diving courses via Zoom, we have had some great outings, milestones and achievements that have helped to keep morale up within the Bespoke Diving Adventures Family. In a year and era where talking about and looking after peoples mental health is so important, we truly feel that diving (not just the dives themselves, but the learning and online zooms) has been a vehicle for helping ourselves, members of our team and those that have joined us to reground ourselves, find some joy and have a safe and supportive network of friends. We are a family after all, so keeping each other going when the going has got tough (which it has, in different ways for everyone), has been our ultimate mission and will continue to be so long as we remain. We would like to take this opportunity to celebrate some of the highlights of the year so far…
We have had some excellent, hilarious and productive weekend trips to Capernwray, staying over in the local town and spending downtime sharing diving experiences that have had us all howling with laughter and creating many more memories that I’m sure if we could send to ‘you’ve been framed’, we would be rich! :P We kicked off the summer with Paul Faulkner and Ashley Powell (Miss Scuba UK) completing their Dive Guide course at Eight Acres, with an nail biting preparation to deploy their dSMBs haha! But nevertheless they passed with flying colours! Mark Abbott arranged a great trip to the Farne Islands, with two amazing North Sea dives…a great curry house and fish and chips too! 
A few more trips to Capernwray saw Will, Craig and Jayne complete their Stress and Rescue Courses and Rob and Will hone their navigation skills! Sally completed her upgrade from Scuba diver to Open Water Diver and Drysuit Diver! A day trip to Mark Duncombe’s abode provided a perfect setting for the most entertaining, informative and thorough React Right Course with our rescue divers. Throughout the summer we had the pleasure of teaching many a drysuit specialty to the Muddiman’s and Nika and Bruno who travelled up from London on their honeymoon to complete their drysuit course! Mark and Charlotte arranged the who trip from catering to accommodation, transport and of course the diving! The experience really was Bespoke in every way! And to top the season off, Rob reached his 100th dive, whilst Jayne and Craig become Master Divers!
Now lockdown 2.0 has slowed our roll with the practical side of diving, we are back on the computer, zooming away every Tuesday conducting our Dive Guide course with Rob, Will, Jayne and Craig. Fortunately, a key part of the course is learning to brief you’re divers, so we have been setting them tasks to brief us on new dive sites around the world! It keeps us smiling and is helping add to our dive site bucket list! Keep up the great work guys! We are really impressed and proud with your journeys so far and cannot wait to get back into the water with you… although if you wouldn’t mind waiting until it gets above 4 degrees that would be perfect although 10 degrees would be desirable! Haha i’m kidding !!!!!!
As instructors, all three of us have been learning as we have gone with the use of online zoom sessions and at times it has been entertaining to watch us get it wrong… technology hey! But ultimately we have enjoyed seeing our diving family learn, grow and adapt as the year has thrown many different challenges and I’m sure as it continues to do so over the next few months we will continue to support each other, have lots of fun and keep learning as divers and as individuals!
Here's to next year!!
Exciting times ahead of us all, we all have goals and dreams to fulfil I know I have.
Kerry, Mark, and me
Kerry, Mark, and me