I'm home sick from work today, so I figured now is good time to write up my course report. This was the second time I took fundies. The last time I took it, I walked away with a provisional and failed miserably every time I attempted an upgrade. Passing fundies became a sort of quest for me. I felt a need to prove to myself that I could do it. I have really bad performance anxiety and seem to do better in a learning environment as opposed to an evaluation environment. So the decision was made to re-take the course, this time with Osama Gobara. Good decision I think.
Since I had done the course before (and couldn't book an extra day off work), I missed the first day of theory lecture. But I was given lots of pre-course homework and had to read all of the worksheets as well as answer all the various math problems to make sure I understood how to figure out SAC, minimum gas, MDLs etc. I'm pretty good with the book-learning, so I managed to finish it all a week prior to the course.
On Friday, I set off from London at the ungodly hour of 6:15 am to arrive at Vobster around 8:20am. Leaving this early meant I was able to miss the M25 traffic and the crazies headed to stonehenge for the solstice. Since I was early, I set up my kit and had a bit of breakfast and diet coke. Shortly after I arrived both Osama and my fellow teammate arrived. I knew I shouldn't have set up my kit completely. First thing we did was to dis-assemble our kit and check fit, make adjustments, etc. on our harnesses. Once that was done, we had a quick dive brief, went through the gue edge, and into the water we went. First dive we worked on maintaining a stable platform (buoyancy and trim), then moved onto frog, flutter, modified flutter, and modified frog fin kicks. First dive seemed to go pretty well. Had a few things to work on with each kick, but got them sorted out.
Second dive of the day, we worked a bit more on fin kicks, then moved onto the back kick and helicopter turns. I had issues with my back kick, which were sorted by day 2. My feet seem to be a bit floaty, so if my knees are bent at a 90 degree angle, I'm very unstable in the water. If I straighten my legs slightly, my stability is much better, and i'm more comfortable in the water. Once we were done with finning, we moved onto the basic 5. It was during this I discovered in addition to having performance anxiety, having to do it over a platform increases it (maybe this is why i'm a theatre technician as opposed to an actor. i hate the stage). Once I moved away from the platform and into mid-water, I could do it no problem. Osama found this to be very interesting.
Once on the surface, we quickly changed and headed to Frome leisure centre for the swim test and de-brief from the dives. I hate the swim test. Mainly because I don't consider myself to be a strong swimmer. I never took swimming lessons as a kid because I floated into the deep end one day and didn't drown. My parents decided that negated the need for swimming lessons. But anyway, even though I'm not a strong swimmer, I swim a few times a week at David Lloyd, so I was able to complete the swim in about 9 minutes. That ended day 1 (well 2 really).
Next morning was another early start. I arrived at Vobster around 8:30, and thankfully booked parking when I made the decision to take the course. Vobster was quite busy, especially since the entire south coast was blown out. I picked up my twinset from the gas shed and found myself a bench to plant myself on. Once again, i completely assembled my kit. I should have known better because first thing we did was field drills. Time to disassemble and cable tie my regs to my backplate for the s-drill land drill. Off we went to a quiet area for some practice. First Osama demonstrating with our video diver, Matt. Then Jon and I were up. Once we had run through the field drills, our kit was re-assembled and off we went to get into drysuits. We had a quick dive brief, once again followed by a gue-edge. This dive was to consist of a descent with a stop at 3, more fin kick practice, and the s-drill. I was instantly more stable once I remembered to straighten my legs slightly. Jon was up first and did a few lengths of back kick along the platform. Then myself. I struggled for a while. But then things eventually fell into place, and i managed quite a good back kick. But, still struggling a bit with being over a platform. I hate the platform. I also hate being watched. S-drills went fine, and we ascended. Quick debrief and lunch and back to field drills. This time, it was the valve drill. I was familiar with the gue valve drill from my doubles primer i did last october, but it's always good to have a refresher. Osama demonstrated and walked us through the valve drill before we each attempted it ourselves. We were both given feedback on things to remember.
After the dive briefing and gue-edge, it was time to hit the water again. This time, there was some more skill refinement from previous dives and the valve drill. I tried to be a bit cheeky and do mine off of the platform. Os let me get away with once. I had to do it again, over the platform. Grrr, but it went well. We ended the dive with an s-drill/air share ascent with 2 stops. The dive followed with a de-brief and then off we went.
Sunday was the last day of the course. Once I again, I was the first to arrive. Everyone arrived shortly after. Unfortunately, Vobster had been broken into the previous evening and both Os and Matt's kit had been stolen from the gas shed. But Martin, Amy, and the rest of the crew were able to hook up the two of them with some very nice looking hire kit. Once Os and Matt had their kit sorted, we started the day with some more field drills. Off we went to work on DSMB deployment. Once we had gone through the field drills, we all kitted up, had a dive briefing followed by a gue-edge. This dive we would do some helicopter turns, the no mask swim and, dsmb deployment and ascent with 2 stops. All went pretty well. I had to deploy my dsmb twice. It happens.
After a de-brief and some lunch, we kit up for the final dive of the course. This dive would include an s-drill, valve drill, then dsmb deployment, followed by an OOG ascent while winding up the dsmb. Can you say task loading much? Once we did all that, we would do an unconscious diver recovery. This dive started a bit shaky (we were cold and tired and just wanted to be done), but we managed to pull our **** together and have a successful finish.
Once we were changed, we went over the final exam and discussed what we answered wrong and made sure we understood why we got it wrong. Then it was evaluation time. I finally passed the course with a 'very strong' rec pass. My biggest criticism (and what Os said to me throughout the course) was that I needed to trust myself and trust my skills. That was the main thing keeping me from a tech pass. Hey, I'll take it. I'll eventually upgrade, but for now, I think I'm just going to go diving.
Since I had done the course before (and couldn't book an extra day off work), I missed the first day of theory lecture. But I was given lots of pre-course homework and had to read all of the worksheets as well as answer all the various math problems to make sure I understood how to figure out SAC, minimum gas, MDLs etc. I'm pretty good with the book-learning, so I managed to finish it all a week prior to the course.
On Friday, I set off from London at the ungodly hour of 6:15 am to arrive at Vobster around 8:20am. Leaving this early meant I was able to miss the M25 traffic and the crazies headed to stonehenge for the solstice. Since I was early, I set up my kit and had a bit of breakfast and diet coke. Shortly after I arrived both Osama and my fellow teammate arrived. I knew I shouldn't have set up my kit completely. First thing we did was to dis-assemble our kit and check fit, make adjustments, etc. on our harnesses. Once that was done, we had a quick dive brief, went through the gue edge, and into the water we went. First dive we worked on maintaining a stable platform (buoyancy and trim), then moved onto frog, flutter, modified flutter, and modified frog fin kicks. First dive seemed to go pretty well. Had a few things to work on with each kick, but got them sorted out.
Second dive of the day, we worked a bit more on fin kicks, then moved onto the back kick and helicopter turns. I had issues with my back kick, which were sorted by day 2. My feet seem to be a bit floaty, so if my knees are bent at a 90 degree angle, I'm very unstable in the water. If I straighten my legs slightly, my stability is much better, and i'm more comfortable in the water. Once we were done with finning, we moved onto the basic 5. It was during this I discovered in addition to having performance anxiety, having to do it over a platform increases it (maybe this is why i'm a theatre technician as opposed to an actor. i hate the stage). Once I moved away from the platform and into mid-water, I could do it no problem. Osama found this to be very interesting.
Once on the surface, we quickly changed and headed to Frome leisure centre for the swim test and de-brief from the dives. I hate the swim test. Mainly because I don't consider myself to be a strong swimmer. I never took swimming lessons as a kid because I floated into the deep end one day and didn't drown. My parents decided that negated the need for swimming lessons. But anyway, even though I'm not a strong swimmer, I swim a few times a week at David Lloyd, so I was able to complete the swim in about 9 minutes. That ended day 1 (well 2 really).
Next morning was another early start. I arrived at Vobster around 8:30, and thankfully booked parking when I made the decision to take the course. Vobster was quite busy, especially since the entire south coast was blown out. I picked up my twinset from the gas shed and found myself a bench to plant myself on. Once again, i completely assembled my kit. I should have known better because first thing we did was field drills. Time to disassemble and cable tie my regs to my backplate for the s-drill land drill. Off we went to a quiet area for some practice. First Osama demonstrating with our video diver, Matt. Then Jon and I were up. Once we had run through the field drills, our kit was re-assembled and off we went to get into drysuits. We had a quick dive brief, once again followed by a gue-edge. This dive was to consist of a descent with a stop at 3, more fin kick practice, and the s-drill. I was instantly more stable once I remembered to straighten my legs slightly. Jon was up first and did a few lengths of back kick along the platform. Then myself. I struggled for a while. But then things eventually fell into place, and i managed quite a good back kick. But, still struggling a bit with being over a platform. I hate the platform. I also hate being watched. S-drills went fine, and we ascended. Quick debrief and lunch and back to field drills. This time, it was the valve drill. I was familiar with the gue valve drill from my doubles primer i did last october, but it's always good to have a refresher. Osama demonstrated and walked us through the valve drill before we each attempted it ourselves. We were both given feedback on things to remember.
After the dive briefing and gue-edge, it was time to hit the water again. This time, there was some more skill refinement from previous dives and the valve drill. I tried to be a bit cheeky and do mine off of the platform. Os let me get away with once. I had to do it again, over the platform. Grrr, but it went well. We ended the dive with an s-drill/air share ascent with 2 stops. The dive followed with a de-brief and then off we went.
Sunday was the last day of the course. Once I again, I was the first to arrive. Everyone arrived shortly after. Unfortunately, Vobster had been broken into the previous evening and both Os and Matt's kit had been stolen from the gas shed. But Martin, Amy, and the rest of the crew were able to hook up the two of them with some very nice looking hire kit. Once Os and Matt had their kit sorted, we started the day with some more field drills. Off we went to work on DSMB deployment. Once we had gone through the field drills, we all kitted up, had a dive briefing followed by a gue-edge. This dive we would do some helicopter turns, the no mask swim and, dsmb deployment and ascent with 2 stops. All went pretty well. I had to deploy my dsmb twice. It happens.
After a de-brief and some lunch, we kit up for the final dive of the course. This dive would include an s-drill, valve drill, then dsmb deployment, followed by an OOG ascent while winding up the dsmb. Can you say task loading much? Once we did all that, we would do an unconscious diver recovery. This dive started a bit shaky (we were cold and tired and just wanted to be done), but we managed to pull our **** together and have a successful finish.
Once we were changed, we went over the final exam and discussed what we answered wrong and made sure we understood why we got it wrong. Then it was evaluation time. I finally passed the course with a 'very strong' rec pass. My biggest criticism (and what Os said to me throughout the course) was that I needed to trust myself and trust my skills. That was the main thing keeping me from a tech pass. Hey, I'll take it. I'll eventually upgrade, but for now, I think I'm just going to go diving.
. I won't have to worry if someone asks for my card now... I did get a lot out of taking the course a second time around, but not anything that's necessarily going to make my diving easier or more fun. It was more proving to myself that my skills were there and that I could do it. I have nerves of limp spaghetti when I'm being evaluated, and during my re-eval attempts, it was nerves that were beating me. I was determined not to let them win. Also, I want to do tech 1 at some point in the future, so I really needed to pass. I finally passed and know that the only thing I really need to do is have a bit more confidence in myself to upgrade that to a tech pass. It gives me something to work on. I've always struggled with self-confidence, so I'm not surprised. But, now I do have a bit more confidence after this weekend 
