All courses over - into the final few days of my trip
Saturday was the last day of courses for me, with my DAN O2 Provider plus instructor course. That was a really interesting course but the instructor exam was very tough. All of us who took the exam were very relieved to pass. It’s strange - the girl on our course was still pretty apathetic about the course. Plus 2 people turned up to the course either still drunk or hungover, which rightly annoyed our Course Director. That’s really pathetic and I would have personally just told them to leave the class and come the next time I was putting it on. They wouldn’t want people turning up drunk to their diving classes, but think it’s OK to come to post-IDC classes when drunk. Very sad. But now I am certified to provide oxygen in response to diving injuries (mainly Decompression Illness: that is Decompression Sickness and Embolisms), and I can teach it to others if I get myself an oxygen kit. The DAN ones are very nice, but are a little expensive to buy. Should probably get things like first aid mannequins first, and I do have my eye on the Mk25T/S600 reg set. On Saturday night I went out for dinner and a few drinks with John to celebrate the end of my courses. Ended up in reggae bar but didn’t stay there too long as I was shattered.
Yesterday I’d planned to go around the island with Goi (a girl who works in La Bodega). She probably hasn’t visited the island and it would give me the chance to do a bit of sightseeing before I depart. Arranged to pick her up at 11, but I got there and she didn’t show. Tried calling but had no answer so I came home. An hour later she called to say sorry, and that she’d been in a motorbike accident. She was ok but had some scrapes and cuts on her leg. Now this is scarily common in Thailand, with people having a so-called “Samui tattoo”. It’s another reason why I’m so against people drinking and driving. The roads are dangerous enough with the other crazy drivers and bad surfaces without people driving while under the influence of drink and drugs. After her call I headed straight back to the restaurant to see her. Bless her - she looked really down and had iodine rubbed onto her cuts. I stayed with her a while and then she said she wanted to come over. So she came over and promptly went to sleep. Slept the rest of the afternoon until she had to go back to the rerestaurant to work. John came over mid-afternoon and we watched some of the marketing videos; they have a lot of worthwhile information, but are definately a cure for insomnia!
I have only 2 days left in Samui, including today. Then it’s onto Bangkok for one day before flying back to Okinawa on Thursday. I’m looking forward to getting back to Oki and teaching again, but I will miss Samui. My thoughts about Thailand have changed from the ideas I had about the country before I came. The only problem with this island is that it’s quickly becoming overdeveloped. New villas and resorts are springing up everywhere and will do so until there’s no greenery left and the attraction of the place declines. Hopefully that won’t happen for a while but the development shows no signs of slowing from what little I can gather. Thailand is now a place I’d consider visiting again, but when I have both the time and the money to visit is another matter.
I don’t think I’ve much else to say in today’s entry. The next entry I write will probably be from Okinawa again. So farewell from Thailand, take care and dive safely
More Specialities and my first whale shark sighting!
God only knows what I do to these keyboards on my laptop, but this is the second one I’ve nearly killed. This is the second keyboard I’ve had on this computer and one of the shift keys, the numbers 2, 3 and 7, the right arrow key and the letter z don’t work. Can’t wait to key my external keyboard connected back in Okinawa so I can type at full speed again. But this blog isn’t about my computer, and I’m sure you don’t want to hear these things, so onto the diving!
Yesterday we went on our last day of diving as part of our speciality courses. We had another deep dive to do, plus I had a dive as part of my Digital Underwater Photography course to do. Once again the weather was glorious, with just a slight breese to take the edge off the heat. Someone had seen sense too, and decided to replace the canvas roofing on the top deck of the boat, so people could keep out of the sun if they wishes but still not be cooped up inside. As part of our deep dive we made a full support station at 5m down, with a drop line going 40m down. The support station had a cylinder, BCD and reg set for making staged no-deco stops and we each ahd to use this for one minute during our safety stop at the end. We prepared that on the journey out, and as we were doing this rumour spread among the boat that a whale shark had been spotted by numerous boats at Sail Rock. That definately got my attention - never seen one of them before and would love the chance to see one first-hand in the wild.
PADI IE over… now onto the specialties
The Instructor Examination has finished but as they say, there is no rest for the wicked. Following the EFR instructor course, we have had speciality (note that I am being British and keeping the second “i” in there!) courses. Yesterday we went on the Waverunner to Sail Rock to do part of our Deep Diver and for me, the Underwater Naturalist speciality instructor courses. So it was a return to the place where I had my first dive in Thailand, and I was hoping for much better things.slowsly
And the omens were certainly good. Clear skies and calm seas greeted us at the pier as we packed our gear. A shame that the roofing on the upper deck had blown off in a previous storm and not been replaced, but it wasn’t a huge issue. 2 and a half hours later and we were at Sail Rock. Feeling much better this time with not a twinge of seasickness. Maybe my sealegs are slowly coming back me. We had our Deep Diver briefing and got into the water. Although we were only the second boat away from the rock, a pretty strong surface current made it quite a swim to the site. We all got there and descended down to about 28m. We did a few exercises (cracking an egg and seeing the yolk stay together, putting the right pieces into the right holes on a child’s toy etc.) and then made a slow ascent up to the surface. No problems on the dive, except a few times around the corners where we really had to kick hard to get through the current. The vis, at 8m, was quite a bit better than I’d seen previously so I was pleased with that.
During the surface interval we had lunch (which I ate this time!), and discussed the briefings for the second dive of the day. The other guys were doing the Multi-level speciality, but I don’t think anyone would ever choose that in Okinawa, so I opted for the Underwater Naturalist dive. My task was an interesting one: I had to spot 2 plants, 4 invertebrates, 5 vertebrates, 1 example of symbiotic life, 1 example of predatorial life, and 1 impact of man. Had trouble finding the plants at that particular dive site, but managed to find the rest of them without any major issues. John also found an eel and took a bunch of photos of it with his new camera and underwater housing. There was quite a bit of marine life out there, and a fair few fish that I’d not seen in Okinawa. If there’s one weak point in my diving, it’s fish identification and that side of it. I should really work at that over the next year to get right up to speed with it. But all in all that was a pretty good day of diving, and a much better diving experience in Thailand. My faith in the place is getting restored!
Which brings us up to yesterday and another 2 speciality dives. This time the location was Chewang Beach and the dives were Navigation and Search & Recovery. We were a little late starting, but then went through our briefing for the Nav dive. One of the students had a few problems with the compass which was a little surprising, as she’d been rock solid until now. Scarily enough, she had never been taught how to use the rotating bezel on the top of a compass. But she seemed to learn and we did the dive. Don’t know what was up today but people were taking a long time with what should have been basic skills. I know the main pressure of the IDC and IE is over, but we still have to pay attention and work hard at these specialities. This mindset continued as we went into the afternoon and the Search & Recovery dive. This comprised of 2 dives we were going to do straight after one another. But once again this same student didn’t seem focused on either the briefing or the dive skills we had to do, not comprehending the search patterns we were going to do. One of the other guys later told me that he thought she was hungover from the night before. I’m sorry, but all I can say to that is that I’m glad she wasn’t my dive buddy on any of the dives I did. Drinking the night before a dive is sheer stupidity, no matter whether it’s a dive to 5m or 35m. You’re less focused, more prone to mistakes and DCS, and a liability to your dive buddy. But people don’t seem to get this ingrained into them, and it’s something I’ll make sure my students know. The same frame of mind is taken by a lot of people here in Thailand with drinking and driving. Because the chances of them getting caught and arrested for being drunk driving are low, they go ahead and do it. They wouldn’t do this at home but think nothing of doing it here without a helmet, going on poor quality roads with little streetlighting, the potential for stray dogs to jump out at you etc… I may be the one who doesn’t take too many risks with their life, but I’ll end up being the one with all my limbs still in place at the end of it.
But with that little rant out of the way, I’ll be going. Want to post this before my Equipment Specialist course continues this afternoon. Take care, have a good week and dive safely and soberly.
A few post-IE photos
Thought I’d just upload a few photos from after the IE. Not much else to say really so I’ll get straight to it!
Liz (aka Miss PADI), me and Imran.
Me and John.
Imran, Jack, me, Erik, John & Camille
Jack & me shaking our maracas!!!
P.S. A little postscript to today’s entry. Had my EFR instructors course today which was interesting, and I learnt a few things about how to promote the courses I’ll be doing back in Okinawa. I also got a provisional schedule for the rest of my courses here in Thailand. They are as follows:
20/8 - Deep Diver Specialty & Naturalist Specialty
21/8 - Navigation Specialty & Search and Recovery Specialty
22/8 - Day off
23/8 - Deep Diver Specialty & Digital Underwater Photography Specialty
24/8 - Gas Blender instructor (TBC)
25/8 - Day off
26/8 - DAN O2 Provider + instructor
27/8 - Gas Blender Specialty & Equipment Specialty (TBC)
28/8 - Gas Blender Specialty & Equipment Specialty (TBC)
I also want to try and fit in the Resort Management, Sales & Marketing Seminars and the Business of Diving workshops before I leave. No rest for the wicked! But those courses will be lots of fun and it will mean I’ve got more specialties under my belt. That’s it from me for now. Take care and dive safely.
PADI IE - mission accomplished
Well, after over a year of planning and preparing, 10 days of IDC work and a 2 and a half day IE, I have finally got my Open Water Scuba Instructor licence. And boy, am I relieved about it. Whoever tells you that IE stands for “It’s Easy” must have had a very different exam than we had. It was pretty tough, and marked fairly, but very strictly.
We got to Koh Tao on Tuesday morning and settled in before our initial meeting with the examiners at 3pm. That lasted about an hour, and then we went straight into dive theory exams. They covered the usual 5 topics (Physics, Physiology, Equipment, Skills & Environment, and the Recreational Dive Planner), plus a 50-question open-book exam on PADI Standards. Some of the theory questions were pretty difficult, but I managed to find the answers in the Standards exam pretty quickly. I got 92%, 100%, 100%, 100% and 83% in my theory exams, and 98% in my Standards exam. So I came out of those pretty relieved, but satisfied with my performance. I was definately in no mood to get complacent though, as we had confined water presentations, a skill circuit and then a knowledge review presentation on the Wednesday afternoon. So Tuesday night was spent preparing for those presentations, and by about 2230 I was shattered and ready to call it a night.
Wednesday was a day of mixed fortunes. The confined water presentation went pretty well, with me getting 4.4 out of 5 - a good score, if not perfect. But it was enough to pass. On the mini skill circuit, we had to do the following skills: mask removal & replacement, fin pivot, regulator recovery & replacement, BCD removal and replacement, and a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent. All went well up until the CESA - as I was swimming along my knee touched the bottom a couple of times. The examiner saw this and consequently I was given a 2 for that skill and had to redo it. The pressure was on but the second time I made sure my buoyancy was spot on and I passed it. A slight brush with failure there but I managed to pass and live to fight until the afternoon. In the afternoon I had a knowledge presentation about emergency oxygen delivery systems. This type of presentation was my forte, and I was ready to impress. It came to my presentation and it went exactly as I’d planned, with me including everything I had wanted to. My presentation finished and then with a satisfied feeling I went to get my evaluation. What I got was a complete shock to me. I was told that my initial contact with the students was not elaborate enough, and so consequently I couldn’t score more than 1 out of 5 for the introduction. Then he said he didn’t like the way I was talking about the course generally, and that I should be more specific. My final mark was a meagre 3.7 out of 5. Now taking into account that the passing mark was 3.5, I had barely scraped through. I was in 2 minds about it though - in one mind I was annoyed that I’d got such a low score (I saved the lowest marks for the IE), but on the other hand I had scraped through and passed without needing a retake. So in the end I decided that I’d passed and I should be satisfied.
So then we got to today, and the open water presentation and resuce demonstration. My skills that I had to present were: using an alternate air course, and tying a sheet bend. The nerves couldn’t have been higher today as all our hopes were pinned on these last couple of hours of evaluations. I thought that my briefing went pretty well, and when we went into the water I didn’t notice myself making any major mistakes. If I had done something wrong, it had been pretty subtle. And then the debriefing went as flawlessly as I could manage. Everyone gave their presentations and then we were given our final evaluation marks. I was so relieved more than pleased when I’d got my mark, mainly because if I had failed I wouldn’t have been able to take the course again for at least another year. The pressure had definately been on, and I felt a huge weight taken off my shoulders when the examiner shook my hand. My only wish is that everyone in our course would have passed. One guy was doing well up until the open water evaluations. They made a couple of mistakes which got them automatic 1’s on both presentations. He was gutted, and we all felt for him. The other guy who failed had done so mainly due to a lack of preparation. He wasn’t the most confident person in the classroom, but knowing that he should had put more effort into that part of the course. He didn’t do so, and consequently failed. I also felt for him, although sympathy was pretty thin on the ground from other members due to the way he had treated the IDC.
So here we are - finally I’m a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, and my aim of getting a foothold in the diving industry has taken a big step forward today. It’s a strange feeling, as I thought I’d be more happy about it than I do. I suppose at the moment I just feel it’s a job well done, and it will sink in over the next few days. At this point I should definately give credit to my Course Director, Camille Lemmens, who has helped me over the past year by email and who ran an excellent IDC course. Without his help I certainly wouldn’t have been where I am today. I can highly recommend him to anyone who is thinking of doing an IDC in Thailand - I doubt you’ll find a friendlier and helpful guy. If you put the work in, he will do everything he can to make sure you succeed. Secondly, I’d like to thank a couple of people from Okinawa - Brian Parker (my friend, first & foremost, but also my instructor and mentor in Oki), and Heather Lilly. They’ve dived with me over the past year almost every week and I’ve learnt a hell of a lot from them both. Hopefully I can start to pay them back for their help now. And then I’ve got to mention Lindsey - a dive buddy and good friend who unfortunately won’t be able to see me as an instructor as she’s left the island. It’s a small world though and hopefully she won’t be a stranger for too long.
Well that’s it for now. Take care, dive safely, and I’ll be in touch again soon.