DIVING – A SCHOOL FOR LIFE
At Helenesee Lake/Germany with the Kepler-Scool
In January 2013 Viola and Joachim Sperling took the stage to claim the “TAUCHEN Award” for the exceptional dedication they showed in the “Tauchen im Schulsportunterricht” (School Sports Scuba Diving) project.
BAUER KOMPRESSOREN, main sponsors of this premium event, were so en thusiastic about the project that they decided on the spot to contribute a sorely needed breathing-air compres-sor. The portable OCEANUS has compact dimensions and weighs in at only 46 kilos, yet offers an FAD rate of 140 litres, making it powerful enough to fill divers’ cylinders rapidly wherever they are. Now, two years later, BAUER decided to see how the project was progres-sing and visited the annual diving expe-dition held by the Keplerschule at Helenesee lake near Frankfurt / Oder.
Fringed with pine forests and beautiful sandy shores, the sapphire waters of Helenesee Lake glow like a jewel in its picturesque setting. The lake is the location for the diving course which started with practical training in local swimming pools and theory lessons, and now culminates here with open-water diving ex-peditions and diving certification.
The Kepler-Schule is located in Berlin’s Neukölln district and is designated a “hotspot school”. In other words, there’s always plenty going on!
Reason enough for Joachim and his wife Viola, both teachers at the school, to initiate the diving project. The disciplined behaviour that is essential during the project is designed to promote mutual helpfulness and team spirit among the participants and to reduce conflicts between different classes and school years.
The students spend the first six months of the course at the swimming pool, initially practising distance diving and handling the basic equipment (fins, mask and snorkel). Only then does the actual diving equipment come into play. The project requires admirable dedication by all those involved; diving teachers and assistants sacrifice their holidays and pay for all travel and accommodation costs. The project would not be possible without the generosity of these volunteers and the gift of their skills – or assistance from external sponsors, like Christian Wendt from the Atlantis Diving Centre in Berlin. He supports the pro-ject by supplying material, maintenance works, repairs and cylinder filling.
In the morning Joachim briefs the participants on the day’s schedule before they gather at the tables in front of the diving centre to prepare their equipment for the dive ahead. The morning is the turn of the CMAS BASIC course members. The diving instructors patiently stand in the knee-deep water with their students, helping them to put on their flippers and checking their equipment before the groups dive in suc-cession.
At the shore, assistant Issa Kayed counts the students as they return and meticulously enters the length and depth of their dives in a notebook. After all, CMAS diving certification has to be earned, and the students are ambitious to do well.
The ten best students from the course will be able to join the school’s second diving expedition to Croatia in the late autumn. Everyone poses for a group photo before I start the car and head back to Berlin.
I have rarely been so convinced that BAUER KOMPRESSOREN’s sponsorship has supported such an important and positive project.
