Well, at last!
I've been back from Maui now for about three weeks (Big Adventure IV) and finally, I've finished the divemaster certification. Hooray!!!!!!
I started the process last spring and have been working on it a bit during each trip.
This was really a working week for me -- not too many purely 'sight seeing dives' I interned with several different instructors and worked with a bunch of students. In general, the students were fun--and it was really neat to see their excitement as they got to experience the underwater environment. I think my favorite was a Mom who was pretty nervous, but decided to do an intro dive while her
adult daughter was starting her certification class. "Mom" is a plus size woman, and I could see her relax when she saw me and realized that I would be diving with her. She did GREAT!!! At first, she was very nervous to be breathing underwater, but after a moment or two, you could see her visibly relax. By half way through the tour part of the dive she was actually demonstrating some pretty good form! I'm making a wager that the addiction may have started for her, and we may
be seeing her underwater again! Go "Mom"!!!!
I completed the mapping project. I chose a site that has not been mapped and isn't commonly thought of as a dive site. I had a great time exploring it. It is actually a pretty small reef but that seems to mean that the marine life is especially concentrated. It was fun making an informal inventory of some of the animals there. In the narrative part of the map, I suggested that this might be a really fun site for a mixed group of snorkelers and divers.
The "HELL Dive" was particularly grueling. Three instructors and one dive master from the shop that I've been training with took roles as my 'simulated' dive customers. One played the role of the Nervous Nelly and slow poke( I think she got some great sea urchin photos), another was a roamer who refused to stay with his buddy and did his damnedest to sneak away from the group (also, just for the fun of it, he sexually harassed the other guy on the dive - who happens to be his boss in real life), the third was some one who claimed to know it all, but was really unfamiliar -- and ultimately panicked, and finally the fourth diver was really obnoxious on shore (so obnoxious, in fact that strangers on the beach stopped and stared at him -- he was so embarrassed that he went around to the people staring to tell them it was a role play and that he wasn't really a jerk) and he pretended to be overweighted underwater. It seemed that each time I solved one problem, they created another. I chose to overlook some problems, simply because they were not as serious as others. In the end, I didn't lose any divers, I kept a careful eye on air consumption, I handled a panicked diver, I resolved many problems, nothing that was potentially serious or hazardous in that particular setting happened. I learned that I can multi-task. I also learned that if omeone is particularly aggressive or obnoxious I am likely to want to distance myself from them, and I may overlook a potential problem because I wasn't interacting enough to find it. So, that means, when I'm with someone I don't like, or someone who "rubs me the wrong way," I need to be especially vigilant of checking on their progress.
On a different dive, my instructor and I practiced a buddy breathing emergency ascent. It went smoothly, and was a confidence builder that I could handle that. (not that I ever intend to need to use it.).
The task that almost did me in was the complete gear exchange while buddy breathing. I swallowed more air and breathed more water than I care to think about, but eventually, I managed to complete the task. My instructor said I did well, she even was impressed with my 'problem solving' -- I still think it was pretty ugly!
Throughout the trip the whale song was wonderful... I heard it on almost every dive!
So watch out world! Another dive master is loose!
Liz
I've been back from Maui now for about three weeks (Big Adventure IV) and finally, I've finished the divemaster certification. Hooray!!!!!!
I started the process last spring and have been working on it a bit during each trip.
This was really a working week for me -- not too many purely 'sight seeing dives' I interned with several different instructors and worked with a bunch of students. In general, the students were fun--and it was really neat to see their excitement as they got to experience the underwater environment. I think my favorite was a Mom who was pretty nervous, but decided to do an intro dive while her
adult daughter was starting her certification class. "Mom" is a plus size woman, and I could see her relax when she saw me and realized that I would be diving with her. She did GREAT!!! At first, she was very nervous to be breathing underwater, but after a moment or two, you could see her visibly relax. By half way through the tour part of the dive she was actually demonstrating some pretty good form! I'm making a wager that the addiction may have started for her, and we may
be seeing her underwater again! Go "Mom"!!!!
I completed the mapping project. I chose a site that has not been mapped and isn't commonly thought of as a dive site. I had a great time exploring it. It is actually a pretty small reef but that seems to mean that the marine life is especially concentrated. It was fun making an informal inventory of some of the animals there. In the narrative part of the map, I suggested that this might be a really fun site for a mixed group of snorkelers and divers.
The "HELL Dive" was particularly grueling. Three instructors and one dive master from the shop that I've been training with took roles as my 'simulated' dive customers. One played the role of the Nervous Nelly and slow poke( I think she got some great sea urchin photos), another was a roamer who refused to stay with his buddy and did his damnedest to sneak away from the group (also, just for the fun of it, he sexually harassed the other guy on the dive - who happens to be his boss in real life), the third was some one who claimed to know it all, but was really unfamiliar -- and ultimately panicked, and finally the fourth diver was really obnoxious on shore (so obnoxious, in fact that strangers on the beach stopped and stared at him -- he was so embarrassed that he went around to the people staring to tell them it was a role play and that he wasn't really a jerk) and he pretended to be overweighted underwater. It seemed that each time I solved one problem, they created another. I chose to overlook some problems, simply because they were not as serious as others. In the end, I didn't lose any divers, I kept a careful eye on air consumption, I handled a panicked diver, I resolved many problems, nothing that was potentially serious or hazardous in that particular setting happened. I learned that I can multi-task. I also learned that if omeone is particularly aggressive or obnoxious I am likely to want to distance myself from them, and I may overlook a potential problem because I wasn't interacting enough to find it. So, that means, when I'm with someone I don't like, or someone who "rubs me the wrong way," I need to be especially vigilant of checking on their progress.
On a different dive, my instructor and I practiced a buddy breathing emergency ascent. It went smoothly, and was a confidence builder that I could handle that. (not that I ever intend to need to use it.).
The task that almost did me in was the complete gear exchange while buddy breathing. I swallowed more air and breathed more water than I care to think about, but eventually, I managed to complete the task. My instructor said I did well, she even was impressed with my 'problem solving' -- I still think it was pretty ugly!
Throughout the trip the whale song was wonderful... I heard it on almost every dive!
So watch out world! Another dive master is loose!
Liz
I wish you hadn't used the phrase fat broad though as all I can picture in my mind is the fat broad in the comic strip B.C.(one of my favorites)
