IDC Countdown - 25 days to go!
Here’s the first in a series of articles I’m writing for the Okidiver website. Please visit it if you get the chance. I know some of the information here is known already by readers, but news and new views will follow in future articles.
OK – 25 days until the start of a trip which will hopefully shape my future career. On July 21st I’ll travel to Thailand and take part in my IDC to become a PADI OWSI. This trip has been organised for the best part of 12 months, and it’s quite scary to believe it’s under 4 weeks away now. Over the past few months my life has been consumed by diving. If I’m not actually diving, I’ll be reading a diving manual in my free time or thinking about diving situations and going over skill demonstrations in my head. Last weekend I was in Taiwan for the first time, yet my mind invariably kept going back to diving. Yes – at the moment it’s fair to say I’m obsessed.
Hopefully this is going to develop into a regular series of mini-articles, so for the first one I should probably introduce myself. I’m Dave, a 25 year old Englishman who’s been in Okinawa for 2 years. I teach English at a senior high school on the south coast of Okinawa, but outside my work I live and breathe diving. I learnt to dive in the Maldives (a paradise of diving, which everyone should visit if you get the chance) and now am lucky enough to dive in Okinawan waters. My two passions in life are teaching and diving, and so about a year ago I realised that I should try to combine the two and become a dive instructor. About a month later I was booked onto an IDC course on Koh Samui and Koh Tao, where I’ll be spending 6 weeks over summer.
The course I’m doing is fairly intensive, and includes EFRi (plus Care For Children EFR instructor), DAN O2 Oxygen Provider instructor, 8 specialities, Mares Equipment Technician, Gas Blender instructor, Compressor Orientation, Resort Management, Sales & Marketing and Business of Diving seminars. Basically I’ve chosen the most intensive course as I want the best chance possible of getting a foothold in the dive industry when my contract finishes here in August 2007. My first choice of destination was going to be Florida, as I’ve a good friend in the dive industry who said she would be able to get me a good job at a dive school over there. But I’ve found out that getting a working visa would be nigh-on impossible for me, as dive instructing in Florida is not really a profession where they need foreign workers to come and meet demand. I do have to pass the IDC before I start thinking about where I want to go next…
And that’s where my nerves start to kick in. I don’t have any worries about the lesson presentations. I’ve been working as a teacher for 3 years, so if I can’t make a good presentation about something I love then I don’t really deserve to pass the IDC. I’m just worried I’m going to miss some critical step in a skill demonstration, or during the rescue scenarios. I’m sure most people have these fears, and I’m just going to try to lock them away inside my head, and just give this the best shot I can. Sorry if this sounds dramatic, but this is the first time I’ve had a career choice that I think is the perfect one for me.
Well, this pilot episode has come to an end. Hopefully everyone is not bored to tears and you’ll read the next instalment. Please feel free to email or PM me with comments/advice/constructive criticism. Topics in future episodes will range from my IDC preparations, to equipment selection and future travel plans, and anything else that comes to mind. I’ll leave you with a quote from Wayne Bennett – an Australian rugby league coach and who’s book, “Don’t Die With The Music In You” should be read by anyone who wants to become a better person in whatever they do.
“You only fail when you give up trying”
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