This Week's Courses — George & Elias

No two weeks of teaching are ever the same, and this one was a good reminder why. Two students, two very different journeys — one brand new to a site I'd never dived myself, one a friend who keeps coming back for more punishment than most divers would ever ask for. Here's how the week went.

George — Advanced Nitrox & Decompression Procedures

George is a returning Dive Systems customer taking the step into technical diving, and he made the whole course a pleasure — a genuinely great team member with the kind of attitude that gets the most out of every single dive. That matters more than people realise on a course like this: Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures ask you to slow down, plan properly and trust the process, and George did all three without complaint.

His qualifying dive landed on Double Arch — which, regular readers will know, was a first for me too, only a couple of weeks earlier. So there we were: George on his qualifying dive, me on my second-ever visit to the site, both of us getting something new out of the same stretch of Gozo reef. The whole day on the boat was, honestly, wicked. Some qualifying dives are a formality. This one was a proper adventure for both of us.

Elias — Helitrox, Extended Range & Advanced Wreck

Elias is one of those students I genuinely look forward to seeing on the schedule. He started with me on Sidemount years ago, and every time he comes back to Malta he's after more — this trip it was a Helitrox upgrade, Extended Range and Advanced Wreck, back to back. He's also become a genuine friend over the years, which makes weeks like this one even better to run.

We used some proper training grounds across the week — Tug 2, the Rozi, the P29, MT Hephaestus and the Um El Faroud — everything from big open engine rooms to properly silty, tight little compartments. Plenty of range to actually test the skills, not just tick them off.

Advanced Wreck is where the week earned its stripes. Day one was tough — genuinely overwhelming for Elias, and he'd be the first to tell you that. Day two was already a different diver: the blackout drills went well, confidence building with every run. By the end of the course we'd silted a wreck right out — zero visibility, exactly the kind of scenario the course exists to prepare you for — and during the entrapment drill, with me deliberately stuck in a tight restriction, Elias was the one who pulled me out. That's the moment this course is built around: not reciting the theory, but actually being the diver who gets it done when it counts.

He enjoyed the blackout drills so much he asked to run another one — lost line this time — just because he wanted more of it. That's not something I hear often, and it's exactly the kind of appetite that tells you someone's built for this.

Where Elias goes from here

Here's the open secret: Elias is heading for a rebreather. He knows it, I know it — the only real question left is which unit. Watching someone build steadily toward CCR over several years, course by course, trip by trip, is one of the genuinely good parts of this job. When he does finally take the plunge, you'll read about it here.

Weeks like this are the whole reason I do this job. A new diver finding his feet on a site that surprised both of us, and an old friend pushing himself harder than he needed to, purely because he wanted to. That's Malta technical diving at its best.