IE incredible!..whew

[Divedoggie]

It went really well! :wave-smil

Cudos to Scott Taylor at A1 Scuba for doing a fantastic job preparing us in the IDC. I must say that our A1 goup was totally prepared. He is an incredible teacher and motivator. He's tough, but when we were in the midst of our suffering in the IE, he was our biggest fan and cheerleader.:cheerleader:

I also want to thank Tammy from A1 who kept me smiling, and organised!
Pipefish kept me laughing from afar with her texts. Do you know what she does for her real job?erv:

Dave from UW Phantaseas assisted Scott, and really helped out as well.

Doug and the Instructors at Alpine in Fort Collins were also great teachers and role models, and had us prepared for Scott's tough IDC program.

Doing the program alone would have been really tough.
My friends Matt and Rick also successfully completed the program and IE; and our studying, in water skills practice, rehearsing, presentation practice, numerous Rescue practices, feedback and bouncing ideas off each other, etc. made us truly prepared. John from UW Phantaseas joined us in the IDC and IE. The 4 of us really played off each other for strength and encouragement.

If any of you are thinking about the AI, IDC and IE, drop me a note, and I'll give you my impressions while its still fresh!

Kent (OWSI)!

 

[amascuba]

congratulation!

 

[MtnDiver]

WTG Doggie!

 

[Scuba-Jay]

congrats, now the important question...did you take digital photos of the test....i repeat, DID YOU TAKE DIGITAL PHOTOS OF THE TEST??? PM ME!! (=

 

[knotical]

BRAVO, doggie. Welcome to the dark side.

Since you did your IE in Homestead, you probably saw the three candidates from our shop in the Springs: Sandy, Mike and Bill, who were also all successful. Their CD, Doug is a Scott protégée.

I did much of my IDC under Scott several years ago, but finished in Mexico under the legendary Commander Jim Williams, now deceased. I agree with your assessment of Scott as top-notch. Scott, Doug, and Jim all follow/followed the philosophy of making certain the candidates are more than prepared, so the IE becomes an anti-climax (it didn’t stop me from being nervous, though).

Curious though, is Scott still long-winded during the course, but then ding you if your briefings become longings? I think it was/is a technique he uses/used to add stress/tiredness to the equation. After all, we want to be able to perform even when not at our peak. Or maybe it was just Scott. (He’s a friend, but even friends have idiosyncrasies.) Also, did you know that Scott was the DAN / Rolex diver of the year, in part for his work with the HSA.

Hope your teaching experiences go well. What are your plans?

 

[TCDiver1]

Congrats! Now you need to change your title.

Just out of curiousity, who did your IE?

 

[Divedoggie]

Since you did your IE in Homestead, you probably saw the three candidates from our shop in the Springs: Sandy, Mike and Bill, who were also all successful. Their CD, Doug is a Scott protégée.

Curious though, is Scott still long-winded during the course, but then ding you if your briefings become longings? I think it was/is a technique he uses/used to add stress/tiredness to the equation. After all, we want to be able to perform even when not at our peak. Or maybe it was just Scott. (He’s a friend, but even friends have idiosyncrasies.) Also, did you know that Scott was the DAN / Rolex diver of the year, in part for his work with the HSA.

Hope your teaching experiences go well. What are your plans?

Yes, I did have the pleasure of meeting the candidates from your shop: Sandy, Mike, and Bill. They are really nice folks, and I was glad to see that they were successful. I also met CD Doug and Seth? from your shop. Really good guys too. I'm looking forward to seeing many familier faces from Co Sprgs at Blue Hole now!

Scott has his teaching style which keeps things lively, covers all the bases, but definitely wears you out! In retrospect, it does seem like part of the strategy. If you can perform while you are exhausted and stressed in the IDC, you can definitely perform when rested and prepared at the IE.

Barry Dunford was our examiner. He does a great job of walking the line between hard-*ss and jokester. He certainly knows his stuff! I really respect his attentiveness and enthusiasm.

My plans now are to teach here in Ft Collins. There are some excellent Instructors at my shop who will include me for internship and team-teaching, and then I have quite a few friends and aquaintences who are into getting certified.
Long term? Who knows.
Diving for my own pleasure and escape is really important to me. Locally, teaching has a lot of appeal because it provides a great purpose to dive in what normally may be "not overly exciting" recreational sites.
Diving new or unexplored Colorado sites, or travelling to exotic locations for diving is where I still want to dive for my own enjoyment.

 

[Fort Collins Bob]

Congratulations to all of you !!!!

 

[RonFrank]

Nice job Kent, and Matt! Glad the crew at A1 kept you entertained.

So Pipefish is a photographer? I need to have a talk with that chick!

 

[RonFrank]

Knotical,

What do you look like. I ask because I always seem to run into an instructor from CO Springs every time I'm at the hole. Do you have longish blond hair by chance?