The undead are on the move under water, and to counteract them a PADI speciality course with a difference will be on offer in Greater Manchester over the Halloween weekend (28/29 October).
This is when Bolton Area Divers (BAD) presents its exclusive PADI Zombie Apocalypse Diver experience, designed to equip scuba divers at all levels with the skills needed to survive that ever-present danger, a zombie apocalypse!
In fact BAD makes the course available year-round but, understandably, “we tend to see a spike in interest around the Halloween weekend,” says dive-centre manager and director Shereen Roberts. “We run a Halloween-themed weekend with dives just for fun as well as training dives, including Zombie Apocalypse Diver and the PADI Underwater Pumpkin Carving speciality courses.”
A ‘rescue' storyline links the elements of the zombie-busting course. “The training dives, as well as being a lot of fun, contain elements of a number of PADI courses including Search and Recovery, Emergency First Response, Rescue and Peak Performance Buoyancy,” says Roberts.
“Divers are encouraged to work together as a team to achieve the ‘challenges’ put before them in an attempt to save people from the zombies. There is an interesting ‘twist’ at the end – but you have to do the course with us to find out what that is!”
Participants go armed with a complimentary Student Manual & Survival Guide and explore the finer points of zombie biology, history and mutations along the way. They need to be qualified at least to PADI Open Water Diver to enrol on the course, and on completion receive a unique certificate ready to frame in their post-apocalyptic world.
Bolton Area Divers is a PADI 5* Instructor Development Centre that has been serving divers in the North-west since 1996. It has 40 staff and a club with some 350 members.
PADI Zombie Apocalypse Diver, an evening of theory followed on Saturday 28 with at least two open water dives, costs £125, while Underwater Pumpkin Carving runs on the Sunday. Call Shereen Roberts on 01204 394441 or email her at shereen@boltonareadivers.co.uk
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