PADI IDC - into the OWSI part now
Firstly, apologies for the lack of a reply yesterday. I was feeling really under the weather all day with a headache and just general aches. As soon as I got back from my course I went to bed for 3 hours and the only reason that I got up was that I had to prepare presentations for today. But today I’m feeling quite a bit better although still not at 100%. Not sure what has caused this little blip in my health, but I’m sure tomorrow I’ll be back on top form.
It was a good job we didn’t have any presentations to give yesterday as I was in no sort of state to give one. It was taking all of my efforts to listen to all of the presentations throughout the day. We had no confined water session yesterday so it was lectures all day. People got a little bored in the afternoon, but the lectures were pretty interesting, especially the Risk Management one. I tried to give some input from the PADI forum in Okinawa I went to with Pat Fousak from PADI Americas, and what I’d learnt from it. Hopefully there will be a full PADI Members’ Forum next year in Okinawa that I can attend.
Today was a contrast though, and with plenty of chances to do things. We started the day with confined water presentations, and I had the skill that nobody really likes to do - the CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent). I did fairly well on it, although with the second person I had to evaluate, I missed their problem. They had to make a continuous “aaahh” sound while they were swimming. With this student there were bubbles coming out of the regulator but no sound. I missed the lack of sound and so therefore only got 4.4 out of 5. Not perfect, but then again not a score that I’m really upset with either. We then went straight from pool work into our prescriptive teaching presentations. This basically means we are explaining to students the answers to questions they had missed in knowledge reviews or final exams. The presentation went alright, although I made a couple of mistakes and so got 4.3 out of 5. Again, I’m not so disappointed with that, but hopefully tomorrow I can learn from my mistakes and make it a flawless day again. We had lectures this afternoon, including one on teaching children. That was interesting for me, as it’s very possible that I’ll be doing something along those lines in the future. I’ll probably do some Discover Scuba Diving courses for the students at my school, and maybe for a teacher or 2 if any are interested. As for the other ALTs, I’ll probably go straight into teaching Open Water courses if I can, as they will be much more useful for those guys. Then to finish the day off we did our physical exercise for the IDC, which consisted of an 800m swim. That wasn’t as bad as I thought, although my Force Fins are not too great for surface swims, although I glide along under water.
And that’s about it for now. I’ll report back tomorrow with more news and views. Take care, keep reading and dive safely.
P.S. Thought I’d just chime in with a few recommendations. Firstly is the website of the day, and a must-read for any divers out there. It’s a tragic story about a guy in South Africa pushing the diving limits to retrieve a body at the bottom of a cave. It’s long, but is easily worth it:
http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200508/dave-shaw-1.html
The next 2 are recommendations in Koh Samui itself. First off is a restaurant called La Bodega. It’s located in Bang Rak - if you turn onto the ‘Ghost Road’ at Captain Caveman, it’s about 50m down on your left. A big variety of food, excellent prices and friendly service too. Highly recommended. The second place I will vouch for is Ploy Massage, which is just at the entrance to Big Buddha in the north of Koh Samui. If you want a quality massage at an excellent price, then please head there. You won’t be disappointed.
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Ploy Massage?? Is the ploy to get you in to the establishment thinking it’s a real massage place? Or while you’re under the relaxing atmosphere of the massage do they get you to agree to buy a timeshare??
Hope you’re feeling on top form again soon hon. x.