SSI certify first Mares Horizon Instructors in UK

Published 6 years agoon August 20, 2020

The first week of August saw the first SSI Extended Range Instructors certified on the Mares Horizon Semi Closed Rebreather. The training started at Stoney Cove and moved on to Dosthill, as SSI Horizon Instructor Trainer, Przemyslaw Kacprzak, put the group of 6 through their paces. We joined them for one of their open water training days at Dosthill.

The training included the following a mixture of academic and practical components:

Equipment configuration session to learn the intricate details, assembly, functioning and maintenance of the SCR
SCR Dive Planning session to learn how to safely plan SCR dives
Academic presentations to ensure that our knowledge was instructor level
Specific program exam
Confined water sessions to learn the skills
Open Water sessions to continue skill and instructor development

At the end of the week, the UK had 6 new instructors that will now be focussing on increasing their hours on the Horizon unit. The new instructors are:

Cat Braun – Tekstreme Diving (Egypt)

John Chambers – Cork Diving (Ireland)

Will Cooper – Divemaster Scuba (UK)

Andy Rose – Mares / SSI (UK)

Barry White – Fin Divers (UK)

Adam Wood – Divemaster Scuba (UK)

Cat Braun from Tekstreme Diving (Egypt) said “The training was very in-depth into the most intricate functioning of the SCR. As an instructor it was not only important for us to understand how to dive and teach the unit but more important was to understand the functions, the mechanical components and all the workings of the components.”

The Mares Horizon SCR is easy to get familiar with and was very comfortable to dive.
Open circuit divers should take to diving the unit with ease.
The controller is clear to see (even in UK waters) and easy to follow.
The SCR is super-efficient on carbon dioxide absorbent gives “real time” duration information.
Any size cylinders can be fitted to the SCR making it super flexible.
The flexibility on cylinders and the fact the unit is so light weight will also make it easy to travel with to other destinations.

You can find more information about courses here:

Mares Horizon

Base unit price is £3600 RRP plus £450 for optional deco kit.

For UK and Ireland course prices people should contact the following dive centres. Additional centres will be added during training programmes planned later this year.

Cork dive centre http://www.corkdivecentre.co.uk/

Divemaster Scuba, Nottingham https://www.divemasterscuba.com/

Morecambe area divers https://mad-divers.co.uk

Fin Divers, Stevenage https://www.findivers.com/

For more information about the Mares Horizon visit the website by clicking here.

Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown

Nick and Caroline (Frogfish Photography) are a married couple of conservation driven underwater photo-journalists and authors. Both have honours degrees from Manchester University, in Environmental Biology and Biology respectively, with Nick being a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, a former high school science teacher with a DipEd in Teaching Studies. Caroline has an MSc in Animal Behaviour specializing in Caribbean Ecology. They are multiple award-winning photographers and along with 4 published books, feature regularly in the diving, wildlife and international press They are the Underwater Photography and Deputy Editors at Scubaverse and Dive Travel Adventures. Winners of the Caribbean Tourism Organization Photo-journalist of the Year for a feature on Shark Diving in The Bahamas, and they have been placed in every year they have entered. Nick and Caroline regularly use their free time to visit schools, both in the UK and on their travels, to discuss the important issues of marine conservation, sharks and plastic pollution. They are ambassadors for Sharks4Kids and founders of SeaStraw. They are Dive Ambassadors for The Islands of The Bahamas and are supported by Mares, Paralenz, Nauticam and Olympus. To find out more visit www.frogfishphotography.com