The Adventures of Ben: Swim Tests, Guiding and Mantas!
Having welcomed Chris last week, it’s now time to welcome Divemaster Trainee Anna from Zurich. Anna will do her Rescue course before starting her DM Course and as I have my Rescue Assessment in next couple of days, time assisting on Anna’s rescue course will be great for me!
The highlight of this week was leading divers Ben, Audrey and Kurt on two Discover Local Diving dives. On the second dive in Manta Bay the mantas cooperated, the surge and current we’re not too strong and it was a real pleasure to see the skills of each recently qualified diver grow. A big thank you to Instructor Stephanie who supervised the dives and gave me some great advice.
I also assisted Karoline on Open Water dives 1 to 4 with student Diane from Chicago, USA. It was especially good to be able to see Diane develop over the four dives and to appreciate Instructor Caroline’s teaching close-up. Well done to Diane and not too many people get to see a bamboo shark up close on their first open water dive!
Last Saturday I had a very productive morning on the Lembongan House Reef doing my watership tests (400 meter swim, 800 meter snorkel, 100 meter tired diver tow, 15 minute float and underwater equipment exchange stress test), skills demonstration assessment and mapping and diver rescue practice. After a fairly gruelling morning I passed both the watership assessment and skills demonstration assessment making finishing the course seem a lot closer.
On land, Chris and I organised a beach clean up which collected a very large sack of rubbish for recycling and half a dozen sacks of non-recycling rubbish. On the beach we managed to get some of the local kids involved in the clean up, and a big thank you for all those who contributed their time and effort.
I’ve now got less than a week to go before I finish my Internship, so I’ve been swotting up in preparation for the two Exams, I have finished off my Emergency Action Plan, I’m looking forward to my Rescue Assessment and to finishing off my map of the Lembongan Bay House Reef.
I’ll let you know how I get on in my final blog. Fingers crossed!