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The SSI Dive shop I am completing my advanced with and recently signed up to do Rescue with on the 30-31st of December with suggested that as a prelim to the rescue course I should act as a "Safety diver" on an OW course, which I did last weekend.
Day 1 involved the pool session with an instructor, 2 DM's, myself and 6 students. My role was simply to act as an extra pair of eyes to spot potential problems and to be the demonstrator for the skills (as in, "Now we're going to do BC removal at the surface. Mark will show you how it's done, then we'll all give it a try"). It was good to go over the OW skills again, and to show me that instructing all day in a pool is actually not that nicer job, but it was a little boring.
Day 2 was the instructor, me and 3 students doing their 3rd and 4th open water dives. The first dive was their "deep" (15m) dive, and no skills were done. I simply buddied with one of the students and we basically did a "follow me" dive with the instructor.
The second dive they did alt air source ascents and CESA ascents from 6m. My role was to sit on the bottom and babysit the students waiting their turn to do the skills. I basically sat in the same spot with them and pointed out things around us to take their (and my) minds off the fact we were sitting still and getting chilly.
I didn't enjoy it as much as just going diving, mostly due to it being new and my confidence level being low in that I'm not all that experienced myself, so having even less experienced people to deal with was a little stressful, although they were all good students.
However, it was a really good learning experience in seeing how I used to be, what a somewhat stressed diver looks like and going back over the basics again.
Do many schools do this kind of thing? to me it seems like a good idea. They said I was welcome to do it anytime in future if I wanted to and I might do it again after my rescue course.
Day 1 involved the pool session with an instructor, 2 DM's, myself and 6 students. My role was simply to act as an extra pair of eyes to spot potential problems and to be the demonstrator for the skills (as in, "Now we're going to do BC removal at the surface. Mark will show you how it's done, then we'll all give it a try"). It was good to go over the OW skills again, and to show me that instructing all day in a pool is actually not that nicer job, but it was a little boring.
Day 2 was the instructor, me and 3 students doing their 3rd and 4th open water dives. The first dive was their "deep" (15m) dive, and no skills were done. I simply buddied with one of the students and we basically did a "follow me" dive with the instructor.
The second dive they did alt air source ascents and CESA ascents from 6m. My role was to sit on the bottom and babysit the students waiting their turn to do the skills. I basically sat in the same spot with them and pointed out things around us to take their (and my) minds off the fact we were sitting still and getting chilly.
I didn't enjoy it as much as just going diving, mostly due to it being new and my confidence level being low in that I'm not all that experienced myself, so having even less experienced people to deal with was a little stressful, although they were all good students.
However, it was a really good learning experience in seeing how I used to be, what a somewhat stressed diver looks like and going back over the basics again.
Do many schools do this kind of thing? to me it seems like a good idea. They said I was welcome to do it anytime in future if I wanted to and I might do it again after my rescue course.
