It's not often we want to say we taught a "rubbish" open water course, but our latest course was - literally! 

We have recently taught a family of four; Jenny, Sam, Dom and Elisa, and from the moment they entered the water they were picking up every bit of debris they could see. After completing the skills and going for a dive, they would be picking up plastic wrappers and bottles and passing them to both of the instructors Ben and Susie (who luckily had empty weight pockets to utilise for the debris). 

We love teaching people the skills needed for divers to go out and explore the underwater world safely. We love it even more that we can help grow their passion for protecting what we love - our ocean.

It wasn't long before all four were qualified PADI Open Water divers. It was a pleasure teaching everyone, but the diving didn't stop there. 

Elisa continued onto her Advanced Open Water course and it was easy to pick her first Adventure dive - Dive Against Debris. A 40 minute dive and we found over 10kgs of rubbish, including a lot of glass bottles and electrics from a boat. All removed and logged with PADI AWARE. Elisa now has the skills to find debris, keep safe while doing so, and also log the information to make sure the data collected isn't going to waste. 

Sam, Elisa and Jenny then enjoyed a pleasure dive to a World War 2 wreck called the HMS Maori where we visited the wreck and found stingrays. However, along the dive they couldn't help but clean up all the rubbish we could find. 

They quickly filled Susie's mesh bag quickly with bottles, wrappers and tin cans. They even found a collection of broken snorkelling masks that had been discarded into the sea, and a half inflated crocodile. 

It was a real pleasure to see our newly qualified divers relaxing on a safety stop and using the time at 5m to hunt for trash. We true passion for the environment and great to know we have 4 new divers who will make every dive a debris dive. 

We had a fantastic time diving with everyone, and looking forward to welcoming everyone back to Malta again later in the year. Who knows - maybe we can give Dom, Sam and Jenny a "rubbish" Advanced course as well? :)