Open Water Diver Course

This weekend I wrapped up my first open water diver course.  The classroom and pool sessions took place the last week in April but due to conditions we put off the open water portion to this weekend.

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel nervous with the group.  I had another instructor working with me and it was a good experience.  It helped that we had a great group and they all seemed to rock through the skills.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I had to give the “do over” sign.

The other instructor that I worked with deserves a pat on the back for answering my questions and showing me some really good tips.  I look forward to working with him again soon.

Open water dives 1, 2, and 3 were all conducted on Saturday at Shark’s Cove.  Open water dive 1 is basically a discover scuba diving experience.  There is very little in the way of skills.  So we enjoyed a little tour of shark’s cove led my yours truly.  After surfacing from this we conducted all the surface skills and then moved to open water dive 2.  On open water dive 2 there a bunch of skills that we knocked out pretty quickly.  On open water dive 3 we started off with the CESA.  We set that up so that all the students were in a line and one of us would make and ascent with a student.  Then on our way back down we would signal “ok” for the other to start his CESA with his student.  It worked out very well and we used the same technique in dive 4 with the compass swim.  After the CESA we moved through the skills pretty quickly.  Our class was crashed by a green sea turtle which was a treat for the students.  They were all very fascinated by the under water world and it was really cool to watch them enjoy themselves.

My fellow instructor offered Enriched Air in conjunction with the class at a special price and we had 3 students take advantage of that offer.  So, on Sunday we conducted Open Water Dive 4 and an optional fun dive where the 3 students got to dive nitrox.  We chose Electric Beach as our site for Sunday because it was the best conditions.  Even though it was best it wasn’t wonderful conditions.  But all of our students did a great job moving through the surf zone and the visibility was decent once we got out a little beyond the break.  I think the students especially enjoyed going to the end of the pipe and seeing the show of reef fish everywhere.  We also saw a sea turtle, some nudibranchs and a frog fish.  It was an added bonus for the students to get an additional dive because they worked hard on Saturday.

After our dives we came back to the shop, filled out log books and paperwork and took pictures.  I missed out on getting a group pic though and that bummed me out a little.  I’m proud of myself and I feel like I did a good job.  It’s exciting to be teaching and it reaffirms my reasons for taking the instructor course.  You don’t do it for the money, you do it for love of diving.  Sharing that with people is a true honor.  After all that’s what it’s all about, “go places, do things, meet people”

At the end I came away with 13 certifications toward my 25 needed for Master Scuba Diver Trainer.  Only 12 more to go!  I start a new class of 16 tonight in the classroom.  This will be my first time flying solo in the classroom but I’m not that concerned about it.  In fact,  I’m pretty excited.  I got this!

A New Chapter

I have been busy lately with all my diving and keeping up with the kids.  Plans are being made to head to CT for 3 weeks in June to see family and friends.  I’m looking forward to it.

I’m no longer working the same job at the resort and, as it turns out, that’s ok with me.  At first I was hurt and scared about venturing away from what was comfortable.  I developed great relationships with the people I worked with and they essentially taught me everything I know.

However, when one door closes another door opens.  Over the last 18 months or so I’ve watched as a new outdoor rec building went up right outside my front door and it recently opened for business.  Part of the new building is a space for a dive shop.  I have been working at this shop the last 3 weeks or so.  They have 2 other locations on the island and its been really great.  The operation is much larger than what I’m used to but that has it’s advantages.

I’ve had the opportunity to push myself to try new things and I’ve gotten to meet new people.  A couple of weekends ago, as part of Hickam Earth Day, I took 9 people on discover scuba adventures off the Sea Hound.  Then, last week I taught my first open water class with another instructor.  It’s been great to have someone to bounce things off of and learn from their experience.  I will always be grateful to my friends at Deep Ecology, but there is always room to learn and I have done that with some fresh points of view.

I am loving the structure of the classes at this new place and the schedule is also perfect.  Monday and Tuesday are spent in the classroom and then Weds and Thursday in the pool during the evening hours.  This works great for my family and for me.  The open water dives are done on the weekend which is also a great schedule for me.  I am able to easily balance it with my family and that’s been huge for everyone.  The stress level around here is lower and that’s great.

Starting Monday another class starts and it’s 13 students so far.  So again I will be working with another instructor in the confined and open water portions of the course.

I feel like I’ve been given a great opportunity and I’m loving a lot of things about it.  I love having access to the pool for my classes, and the classroom space is great.  Everything is brand new and state of the art so teaching in the space is both comfortable and easy.  The pool is well-maintained and makes confined water teaching much easier than using confined open water places that we have around the island.

I never imagined myself working for a dive operation the size of this one but it’s turning out great.  Even though there are 3 shops I’m not expected to do anything I don’t want to do.  I applied to work here on Schofield and perhaps some on Hickam but I don’t want to work out of the Hawaii Kai location because of the distance.  And so far I’ve been doing exactly what I like.  There hasn’t been any pressure to work a charter or  teach a class out of Hawaii Kai and I am loving that.  I guess because it’s a good size operation there are enough people to spread out and there seems to be plenty of work to go around without adding too much pressure on the individual.  I will be over perfectly content to teach 2 classes a month and maybe a little in between.  That would amount to 200 certifications a year which would be more than enough!

As for my MSDT, the application is in and I expect that I will have my 25 certifications very soon so that I can gain that title.  For now that’s where the progression ends.  I have no plans to continue to a higher level at this time.  I love teaching open water and watching people discover the world of diving but I don’t feel the need to “teach the teachers” right now.  The next step would be IDC staff instructor and I don’t really have my eye on that in the near future.  For now, teaching and gaining experience is enough.

MSDT Training

Since the IDC and the IE I’ve been given the opportunity to take 5 more specialty classes and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity. The 5 specialties I chose are the more popular courses that divers want to take.

As a part of the instructor course we are certified to teach Peak Performance Buoyancy and the 4 core courses. Included in what I paid for the IDC was the nitrox instructor and emergency oxygen provider. In addition to those I am choosing to take Deep, Wreck, Search and Recovery, Navigation, and Digital Underwater photography.

Two weekends ago we were able to get on a boat charter and do the first part of both deep and wreck. We got 2 deep wreck dives that day which was a stroke of luck because most charters are for one deep and one shallow dive. They were nice dives and they went a long way toward building more comfort and confidence in deeper water. Believe it or not, out of all the diving I’ve done only 9 of those dives were considered deep dives. So now the total is 11 out of around 150 dives. But I have hopes of doing some more of that soon. And to finish the Deep and wreck specialties I need 1 more deep dive and 1 more wreck dive. And since all the wrecks here are deep dives I will be doing 2 more deep dives.

Last Monday we met for a few hours and did most of the knowledge reviews. On Wednesday we had a stroke of luck that the north shore was diveable. So we did one tank there and I took some photos for the under water digital photographer specialty. That was a great dive! It felt like being on your home field. I’ve done so much diving at shark’s cove that I don’t have to work at navigation at all. It was so relaxing.

Today we met at electric beach. I was skeptical that it would be doable since they were predicting high surf. Apparently the swell wasn’t coming until this afternoon. Instructor is smarter than student once again. We only made one dive today but it was a long one, 55 minutes. We worked on search and recovery and it was another confidence builder. I had to swim the search patterns and it made me feel good and solid in those skills. I also got to learn a new search pattern that I had never used before. Even though I was familiar with it, it was great to get some guidance in how to set it up. It’s strange how a little thing like that can make me feel more confident. And not just in the patterns. It made me more confident in my compass skills also since that is what I used to navigate. It wasn’t all work though, we saw 2 turtles or 1 turtle 2 times. I’m not sure which. They seemed to be around the same size.

Last but not least I got some practice with a surf entry again. It’s been a while since I’ve really had to contend with it. The entire IDC we were working at Kakaako and there is a sea wall there that breaks the surf. I’ve done a couple of them in the last week and by doing it myself I have learned a lot about how to guide students through a surf zone. I’m glad to have that experience and I’m sure it will come in handy.

Later in the week I’m looking forward to working on the under water navigation specialty.

Building Confidence

Recently one of my mentors and friend told me “confidence comes from experience”. He also told me “at first we might have to fake it a little”. Now, that’s not to say we fake things in the course standards, just that we have seem confident even when we may not be. Being and instructor is a big responsibility and I don’t take it lightly. Maybe that’s what has led people to tell me I would make a good instructor.

This person knows who he is and so do some of you reading this. I feel compelled to share this because it’s been very important to my progression. I’ve had others encourage me and help me all along the way but no one with such timely advice as he. He always seem to have just the right bit of advice exactly when I need it most. He always seems to know what I’m thinking by watching me with customers or any fellow divers.

Such advice as “just work today’s charter and do your best”. This came at a time when I expressed stress about needing work and worry about whether I would get any. I still worry about it from time to time but I always remember this piece of advise and I do my best to let tomorrow take care of itself. It’s something I have had to learn with everything in this life. It’s especially key in diving because it can be unpredictable at times. Some days are slow and others are all hands on deck busy. All I can do is my best and at the end of the day that has to be enough.

I have gotten a chance to go out and see other instructors teach a class, make an entry into the water with a class, and see it executed. It’s been great but I hope that some day soon I will get a chance to do this myself. In the meantime I just have to let things go the way they will. I work hard and I try very hard to please everyone whenever possible. I’ve worked hard to get where I am and I have to believe that someday soon that work will pay off.

Another piece of advise that I have taken is getting out and diving for fun. It increases my confidence because I get in the water and I get more comfortable in the water each time. Let’s face it we weren’t exactly built to be able to breathe under water. So it’s like entering an alien environment and it comes with its own challenges. Sure I’ve done a bunch of diving. I’ve spent time honing my skills but it’s important to take time to enjoy myself also. Everyone has their happy place, where nothing in the world matters and you are at total peace. It just so happens mine is under the surface of the sea. So I have to remember to enjoy that too. I was able to do just that yesterday and it was great. It was refreshing to just be a diver. I should probably do it more often. But that’s a whole nother post.

Making Musubi

Recently my kids have decided that they like a local food called Musubi. It’s a cake of sushi rice with a slice of spam on top held together by a strip of nori. That’s the watered down explanation. I’ve had quite a few people from home ask about them so I took some pictures today and I figured I’d do a step by step write-up.

The Musubi is very cheap as a snack and is sold in most gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores. I think SPAM is used in Hawaii more than anywhere else in the world. I think what surprised me the most is that it’s not as cheap as you would think. My husband calls it “stuff posing as meat” and that seems pretty accurate to me. I think most people also know that SPAM is pretty bad for you as well. Full of nitrates, fat and salt. Because of all that I don’t eat them and neither does John. The boys like them though and I don’t see any harm in letting them eat them. What I found though is that I can make them pretty cheaply and the kids like them in their lunches in place of a sandwich.

It starts with a can of spam, a rectangular sushi mold, some sushi rice (medium or short grain rice), and Nori to tie it all together.

The rice is cooked according to package directions and then allowed to cool for about 5 minute or until cool enough to handle. The Spam is fried in a pan with some shoyu or soy sauce mixed with sugar brushed over top to add a bit of flavor. There are many ways you can season the Spam but this happens to be the stuff I had on hand.

While I was cooking rice and spam I also prepared a sheet of Nori to be used to hold everything together. I took one sheet and used a razor to cut it into 8 strips to go along with the 8 slices of spam I am cooking.

I cooked 1.5 cups of rice which yields about 4 cups of cooked rice.  I started by measuring 1/2 cup of rice and putting it into the mold.

Next I use the plunger or mold it into a rectangle

Then the plunger is removed, a slice of spam is placed on top.

I place a strip of Nori on the cutting board, shiny and smooth side down, and then center the mold over it.

As I apply gentle pressure to the plunger I lift the outer mold off.

Once I remove the plunger I wrap the nori around and I have a Musubi.

The only thing left to do it let it cool completely and individually wrap them up and serve.  At $.50 each it’s certainly cheaper than $1.29 at the store.  They can be served hot or cold.

It’s a neat part of Hawaiian Culture and food that my kids have embraced.  When I think about it it’s something they will always remember from living here and it’s cool.  It will be something we can take back and share with friends and family for years to come.