Finally some diving news!
It has been a long time coming, but I have a bit of diving news to report. The water is warming up, and so on Saturday I arranged an Open Water pool session that has been put off since the water started getting cold back in November. The day was a success on the whole and am now looking forward to getting into the water with those students at the start of July.
The day didn’t start too well, with rain scything down and strong winds on the west side of Okinawa. It was a good job we weren’t planning on getting into the ocean as there is no way we would have done it. Things didn’t improve when I got to the meeting spot and 5 minutes before we were all due to meet up one of my dive students called after being involved in a traffic collision. Not sure what happened exactly, but the main thing was she was physically OK. The car didn’t sound too good, with one of the front wheels not pointing the way it should, but cars can be repaired with money. So from 3 students we went down to 2, and those other two arrived promptly. We got gear and then headed off to the pool at Island Message in Sunabe.
Although we had done some of the skills before, I decided to run the course pretty much from scratch again as it had been a while since we’d done anything underwater. I was really pleased and, I have to admit, a little surprised at how well they did. Neither of them had any real problems, even when it came to the mask skills. The mask skills (filling it with water then clearing it, and removing the mask and putting it back on) are always the ones that could be tough for students. That skill is all psychological too: people often get worked up about water going in their nose and them inhaling it, that when they finally come down to doing the skill, they are so worked up that it happens just like that. The key with that skill is visualization; you have to picture yourself taking the mask off, the feeling of water touching your nose but not entering your nose, you keeping calm about it all etc. If you can picture yourself doing it, then you’ll do it without any problems. And I am happy to report both students did the mask removal first time, without any worries whatsoever. You could see the relief in their faces when they’d done it, along with the realization that it wasn’t nearly as tough as they’d built it up to be.
Once the mask skills are done, the rest of the session usually proves to be a breeze, and this one was no different. Smooth and methodical was the order of the day, and it worked well for both of them. So now I think we all look forward to the start of July (the next time we are all free) and a chance for us all to get into the ocean and see what diving is all about!
or Discuss this Article
This is really annoying. I wrote this huge comment to you asking about your diving courses and explaining why I’d like to do such a course in Okinawa, and lost the whole thing when I came to posting it!
Anyway, like I said, I’d like to ask a few questions about your diving course please.
1. Would I be PADI certified to dive worldwide after doing your course?
2. Do you do pool practices before going out in the ocean?
3. Could you tell me more about the whole course in general: the logistics, programme and cost?
I’ve always wanted to visit Okinawa but have never done so yet, and I’ve also always wanted to do a diving course but haven’t mustered up the courage! Whilst I want to learn to dive, I’m also a bit nervous about the unknown in the deep blue ocean so I’d really prefer to entrust myself to someone reliable and so far I haven’t found anyone reliable yet. However, from all the feedback on your page you sound like a very good instructor so I think it would be good to learn to dive from you!
Jan,
Firstly, thank you for your comments. I will try to answer them as fully as I can here.
1. Yes - the PADI certification is a globally-recognised certification. So if you get your certification in Japan, you will be certified to dive in the USA, UK, and anywhere else that might take your fancy.
2. Yes, pool work is an integral part of the course. The pool is used so that you can get confidence in being and breathing underwater on SCUBA, and it will also give you the opportunity to study some diving skills that will help you be a safer and more competent diver.
3. Sure - I will give you a brief overview. The basic SCUBA diving course is the PADI Open Water licence, the most popular basic diving licence in the world. This is a certification recognised worldwide and would certify you to dive down to 18m/60ft. The course has 3 main parts; theory-based work, session(s) in the pool, and then 4 dives in the ocean. All parts of the course are aimed at getting you conformtable and confidcent in your own skills underwater, and to ensure you have as much fun as possible when you achieve your certification.
If you want any more information about the course, please use the contact me link here or at the top of the page. Thanks again for visiting and taking the time to ask me questions.
Dave
Dave,
Thanks for all the diving info. I’m probably going to email you some time for more details. In the meantime, I better stop spending all my time on your blog and get some work done LOL.