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.
or Discuss this Article
Careful hon, that’s beginning to sound like one of my rants - and you don’t want to end up like that! x