Barracuda End of Year Newsletter 2007
With the relocation of our dive-centre from Sherwood to St. Bartholomew's Road, 2007 didn't start too well for Barracuda. It took a little while for all of our customers to find us again. On reflection, perhaps our marketing for the move could have been better! Still, water under the bridge and all that.
Anyway, the new premises have allowed Barracuda to expand all aspects of its business, and to comply with the new IDEST Cylinder test standards. From 2007, all dive shops wishing to carry on testing diving cylinders, had to be tested and approved by the ministry of transport - you might say "What the hell has it got to do with them" - but somebody had to take charge of the new law and as they are deemed to be 'transportable cylinders', the transport ministry got the job! As you can imagine, working with government bodies takes a lot of effort and time, but we got there in the end, and we are proud to be the only IDEST approved test centre in Nottinghamshire - a move that is now paying off.
By April time, business started to pick up again, with most of our customers finding us once more (!) and wanting kit to be serviced ready for the new diving season. Clubs and Dive Schools are now more aware of the need to keep their equipment in good condition and 'in test' with new Health and Safety rules on the cards for non-professional diving club. There has been a sharp increase in this market. - so much so, that we have set up a club discount scheme for 2008 - see the 'New Offers' page for details.
2007 has been a good year for diver training. The extra space provided by our new premises have enabled us to extend our lecture facilities, not only to accommodate more students, but also to run national instructor evaluation courses. The most pleasing aspect of the year for us, was the number of our students moving on to the diver continuing education system, ranging from advanced divers to instructors - all good for our training at Barracuda (the part of the job that we enjoy the most!).
Another highlight of 2007, has been our continuing work with the Fire and Rescue service, repairing and servicing all things inflatable, including rescue suits and boats. Demand in this area has been strong - with all the floods the country has seen, and their kit has taken a bit of a hammering. We have helped them to keep their equipment in the good state of repair the Fire and Rescue Service expects and we feel like we are doing our bit to help the service with its life saving work.
2007 in general, has not been the best year for diving in the U.K., with more people choosing to learn to dive abroad as part of a package holiday. With this in mind, we will be expanding our SSI Open Water Diver Referral Programme. We all know the limitations of courses abroad, in terms of lack of time spent on theory and basic skills; with the Referral Programme, we know that we are sending our students off to do their open-water dives in the knowledge that we have given them a good grounding in SCUBA diving theory and basic skills gained in the pool - leaving more time to complete the open-water side at the resort.
That is just about it for 2007, it only remains for me on behalf of Barracuda Dive Centre Ltd. to thank all of our instructors, dive leaders and rescue divers for their help in making 2007 another fantastic and safe year of diver training. Also thanks to our own IT man, without whom we would have been lost this year, especially since we have introduced a new computer system and website.
Last, but not least, A BIG THANK YOU to all of our LOYAL CUSTOMERS for their support throughout the year.
Hope to see you all soon,
Pete and Trevor
Thanks to everyone at Barracuda for all of your help in 2007. The trip to Lundy was the highlight of all my diving so far (even better than Red Sea, believe it or not)- fantastic company and superb diving - especially with our friendly seal! The Stress and Rescue course was great - looking forward to my next diving adventure! See you all soon, Tess
Posted by: Tessa Allen | 15 January 2008 at 07:44 PM