Making a list and checking it twice
30 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in SCUBA Tags: Hawaii, Oahu, educational, exploration, park, swimming, outdoor, north shore, Haleiwa, scuba, diving, training, Dive Master Candidate
I’m getting close to completing my Divemaster program. At least I think I am. I have done a lot of work but there is still more work to be done. I sat down and looked through the instructor manual today to see what is left. According to the manual I have to complete the following.
- Knowledge Reviews and Final Exam
- Create and Emergency Assistance Plan
- Complete Waterskills exercises
- 400 meter/yard swim
- 800 meter/yard swim
- 100 meter/yard tired diver tow
- equipment exchange
- Complete diver rescue assessment
- Complete the dive skills workshop and assessment there are 24 skills that must be demonstration quality
- Complete the divemaster-conducted program workshops
- Scuba Review in confined water
- skin diver course and snorkeling supervision
- discover scuba diving program in confined water
- discover scuba diving in open water
- discover local diving in open water
- Deep Dive Scenario
- Search and Recover Scenario
- Dive Site set up and management
- Dive briefing
- Mapping Project
- Complete Practical Assessments
- Open water students in confined water
- open water students in open water
- continuing education students in open water
- certified divers in open water
- Meet the Professionalism Criteria
- At the time of certification:
- Log at least 60 logged dives
- Complete EFR Primary and secondary Care
- Read and agree to the PADI membership and license agreements
Does this seem like a lot? It looks worse than it is. I have about 2/3 of it done. A lot of the time multiple criteria can be accomplished in one day or even in one dive. I’ve been at a slight disadvantage the last month with some of the skills and swims because it’s something that is normally done with a group of candidates and I have been the only candidate at the shop. Recently, however, two more DMC’s have started the program. So, this weekend I hope to knock out the swims, rescue scenario and whatever else I can during the “divemaster day” that is scheduled for sunday. So what do I have left?
- Complete Waterskills exercises
- 400 meter/yard swim
- 800 meter/yard swim
- 100 meter/yard tired diver tow
- equipment exchange
- Complete diver rescue assessment
- Complete the dive skills workshop and assessment there are 24 skills that must be demonstration quality (about half of these)
- Complete the divemaster-conducted program workshops
- Scuba Review in confined water
- skin diver course and snorkeling supervision
- Deep Dive Scenario
- Search and Recover Scenario
- Dive briefing
I will be spending the weekend at the dive shop working on all of these. During the divemaster workshops set for sunday I hope to get the water skills, rescue assessment and the remaining skills done. That leaves very little to do. To be honest the part that has me nervous is sunday’s swims because they are graded based on time and there is a minimum score based on the cumulative total. It’s not hard to achieve but I must at least meet the minimum times and that’s what I’m nervous about. What if I can’t make the 400 meter swim in the minimum time? Same with the 800 meter and the 100 meter tired diver tow. I’m also nervous about looking weak or silly in front of my fellow DMC’s. Both of the other candidates are male and in the military so I’m sure they will leave me in the dust. I guess that depends on how polished their swimming skills are for the 400 meter swim. I know that I have excellent form and strong skills in a swim that doesn’t include and equipment. But I’m used to fresh water and the surface current and waves could really mess with my time. I guess I’ll just cross my fingers.
I’m at the tail end of the program and most of the objectives have already been met. With just a little more work I will be an official Divemaster! I’ve set a goal of June 16th for completion.
Confined Water Workshop Supersized
25 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in SCUBA Tags: Scenic, Hawaii, Oahu, educational, park, outdoor, north shore, Haleiwa, scuba, diving, Dive Master Candidate
Yesterday evening I accompanied 3 instructors to a college here on the island for the confined water portion of the Open Water course. When I arrived at the shop the instructors were way ahead of me. They had the tanks loaded and were just about finished with packing all the gear. I guess they’ve done this a few times before. I’ve never seen so much gear in one place nor have I ever seen that gear loaded into a van. In this case logistics took careful planning.
We had use of the pool on campus from 6-10pm and in the time all of confined water skills needed to be performed. I was warned that we would be tight on time but I still underestimated the great effort it would take to keep things running smoothly. There were a total of 17 students which were split into 3 groups. The night was eye-opening for me and taught me a lot about how to keep a dive site running in the face of a challenge or two. I got to meet a lot of new people and that’s probably the best part of diving. I get to meet all kinds of people from all kinds of places. They’re people who I would never meet otherwise and we have the common ground of diving. I try to learn a little from each person.
I finally hit the sack around 1am and got up at 6am in order to make it back to the dive shop for 7am this morning. I’m pretty whipped right now and I’m on my own with the kids because hubby is at a charity run with his unit. I’m hoping the kids go to bed easily for me.
This morning I got a chance to work with an instructor I haven’t worked with before. Each time I work with someone new, though I may know them personally, I have to adapt to their style of doing things. Most things are the same but each instructor has a method of doing things and each teaches a little bit differently. This benefits me in a few ways. I get the chance to see how different people teach and what works for them and why. Then I get to take some of the things I really like and incorporate that into my interaction with divers.
We took 4 people out to do their navigation dive as part of Advanced Open Water. I had a really enjoyable time and I got some great tips from the instructor. I’m starting to feel like I could do this without the instructor. But I’m not there yet.
The last thing I did before I left the shop was talk about what I have left and how to move in that direction. I set a goal of June 16th to have my divemaster finished. I have several objectives to conquer between now and then but nothing that can’t be tackled with a little work and planning. I have a few things to study in order to get ready for certain tasks but I’ll get there. Tomorrow I should complete one more objective I hope. There are a few more Dive Master Candidates that are getting their orientation tonight so I’m hoping that some time can be scheduled to complete a few of the objectives that are independent from the customers. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Skills and Written Exam
22 May 2012 1 Comment
in SCUBA Tags: coral reef, Dive Master Candidate, diving, educational, Haleiwa, Hawaii, hawaiian green sea turtle, north shore, Oahu, outdoor, PADI, PADI Dive Master, park, Scenic
This morning I got up and took Mason over to a friend’s house and Aidan to school so that I could meet with my instructor to do some of the skills that I need to perform to demonstration quality before I finish the program. If I counted correctly I performed 14 of 24 skills today. I’m happy to have them out-of-the-way. I didn’t do the swims today because the tide was out and it was really shallow. For the most part the skills went well. My instructor had a weight belt in his car so that I could use it rather than the integrated weights in my BCD. Having the weight belt also made it easier to perform the free dive skills with the wet suit on. At the end of our dive we did some more skills and I found it hard to stay down in only 4 ft of water with an empty tank so I needed a little extra weight. Once I had some extra weight I did ok. The taking off the weights and BCD under the water will have to be done again. I removed the BCD fine and I even did ok with the weights until they fell out of my hand and I shot to the surface…lol. It was really shallow water and I pretty much just fumbled with the weights and that’s all. I’ll get it right the next time. It’s the weights that make it tricky. You have to keep a hold of them because if you don’t you do exactly what I did, float.
After we did a little work we went out and played a little too. My instructor showed me a site he calls “Jameson’s Wall”. The beach we entered at is called Jameson’s by local people because of the restaurant across the street by the same name that has been a Haleiwa land mark for a long time. The water is generally pretty murky and shallow with a silt bottom but out farther there are some really large coral heads. It’s very similar to the Haleiwa Trench dive. That makes perfect sense since one is around the corner from the other. The reef is pretty covered in silt and the vis isn’t great because of it. Of course it’s also right in the boat channel also. We saw plenty of turtles and a bunch of reef fish though. Some of the turtles were probably 4 ft in diameter at least. I saw a pretty large Puffer fish as well. I didn’t take any pictures because the visibility wasn’t great. That and I was in awe of the huge coral heads. They are beautifully untouched and unknown. I doubt if anyone could find this site without help.
After the dive I went to the dive shop to drop off my tank and to check on what else I need to finish the course. The only thing left is the free dive skills and a scuba review internship. I also asked when I could schedule the second part of my exam and the instructor in the shop offered to give it to me. So I took him up on it since I wanted to get it out-of-the-way. I took the first part of the written exam last week I think and scored a 93%. I put off taking part 2 because it’s the physics portion of the exam and I wanted to be sure I had all of the formulas straight in my head before I took it. Today, I took part 2 and scored 95%. Woohoo! It feels great to get that off my plate. It’s funny, I didn’t need to use any of the formulas that I studied. I did everything with a calculator and an eRDPml. The only thing I needed to figure out was partial pressure and the volume of things when taken to depth or to the surface. I was pleasantly surprised.
It feels really good to have the academics out-of-the-way because now I can concentrate on the in water portion of the course and get it wrapped up. In the mean time I’m going to go enjoy my birthday with my family!
Nerves
21 May 2012 2 Comments
in SCUBA Tags: Dive Master Candidate, diving, educational, Haleiwa, Hawaii, north shore, Oahu, outdoor, park, Scenic, scuba, snorkeling, swimming
Throughout the dive master process I have been confident in my skills. I credit my instructors with preparing me well for everything and giving me the tools I need. I know that I have good customer service skills and I know that I can do the job well.
Tomorrow I will be completing my swims and skills. I’m confident in my skills and I don’t see that as an obstacle. My parents gave me swim lessons through my whole childhood and I was on the varsity swim team in high school for one year. But that’s fresh water with no surface current or waves. I’m nervous about how much effort that will add to my 400 meter swim without fins. The up side of completing my swim on ocean is that I can do one straight line or one line down and back. That cuts out the turns that take up time and effort.
Adding to me stress is the fact that all of the swims are timed and my score is based on those times. I need to reach a minimum score in order to pass. It’s not too hard to get a good score but I am nervous about it. I feel like I’m probably in better physical shape than I was in high school as far as the strength of my legs and arms so I’m hoping that will really help me.
I’m heading to bed early with my fingers crossed for a good day tomorrow.
Progress
20 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in SCUBA, Uncategorized Tags: Dive Master Candidate, diving, educational, exploration, Haleiwa, Hawaii, north shore, Oahu, outdoor, Scenic, scuba, Shark's Cove
Today I assisted with an Open Water Day 3 class. The class had accomplished most of their objectives in the last 2 classes. I was with them on Day 1 and I was excited to see how they had progressed. Most of the time on the first day people are really out of their element. They flounder around under water and struggle to get comfortable breathing under the water. This class was no different. On day 1 we had a couple people that struggled a bit with the whole idea of being able to breathe under water.
Today, though, it was like a different group. They were all comfortable in the water and were all ready to go out and spread their wings. It’s really great to see people discover the under water world. They come in unsure and they leave eager to explore the reef.
Our dive today took place at shark’s cove. We entered the water and they performed some skills on the surface while I anchored the flag as the instructor asked me to. His instructions were to anchor the flag in about 20 ft of water. But I also knew that I needed to be near a sandy area so that it would be safe for the students to sit on the their knees in the sand while they waited for the others. The skills went fairly quickly and everyone did a great job. We were able to explore the reef a little bit and it was really nice to see them excited by their surroundings. For all of them, it was the first time they had gone diving in shark’s cove.
I decided to sit out the second dive since I had studying to do and a sore foot. I’m not sure what’s up with the foot but it seems to be aggrivated by diving. By the time they came back I was ready for them. We packed up all the gear with efficiency. They learned a lot about that on day 2 apparently.
When we returned to the shop I started some water to wash the gear and was suprised that they got right to work. They didn’t need me to tell them a thing. It was awesome because I was free to hook up and start filling tanks. As with everything else, the transformation is amazing. I have to wonder if the transformation was this great durring my open water class. It really wasn’t all that long ago.
After the gear was washed they had a final exam to work on and I had tanks to tend to. I also had to wash my own gear. I had my evaluation with the instructor and was pretty much ready to leave but decided to stick around. I wanted to wait for them to finish their final exam so that I could congratulate them. It didn’t seem right to just leave when I had spent time with them on 2 of their 3 training days.
I used the time to review my divemaster packet. After today I have completed all of the internships except one. I made arrangements to complete that this coming weekend. I was also able to talk to my mentor about completing my skills and swims on tuesday. So the only thing left to do will be my physics exam. Maybe I’ve been putting it off but I really want to be sure I’m solid before I do it. After those 2 things are complete I have to complete a search and recovery and a deep scenario. I’m not sure what all that involves yet. Today was dive number 56 and I need 60. So I should have no problem meeting the 60 dive requirement. With any luck I will be a dive master by the first week in June. I began the program on 5/10/12 so I would be happy to finish by 6/10/12. Working about 3 days a week the program took about a month to complete. It can be done quicker but the stars have to align for that. You have to have all of the right classes going on and you have to be able to be very flexible to make that happen. As things pick up for the summer I wouldn’t be suprised to see some dive master candidates complete the program in 3 weeks maybe a little less. I think I will have spent about 15 days in the water and many aditional hours on my own studying. I have been very fortunate to have a wonderful mentor as well as numerous other people who have helped me through the process. I could not have chosen a beter place to be. You know who you are, thank you! It has been a lot of fun and a lot of work. When it’s complete it will be quite the accomplishment! I’m excited but let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.
