Week 2 of my divemaster training- being a panic diver is quite an exercise
The past week I have been assisting on a rescue course. When I heard that Georgia, a fellow DMT, was starting her rescue course, I told Bryce that I would really like to assist on the course. I had no idea how much of a workout I had signed myself up for.
The course started out easy enough in the pool. I was a tired diver being towed around with the different towing techniques. Next up was panic diver at the surface. I splashed around with big movements trying to stay afloat with a deflated BCD while Georgia practiced the different approaches. After 5-6 rounds of being a panic diver, I was getting out of breath and pretty tired. Luckily there was just a few more rounds to go before we moved on to unresponsive diver at the surface. Perfect! I thought to myself, rest time for me. I just laid at the surface, motionless, while Georgia removed my equipment and lifted me out of the pool.
The next 2 days were spent out in the open water, full of different problems and scenarios for Georgia to solve. There were buoyancy problems, out of air situations, masks flooding, dropped fins, gas narcosis, I become a missing diver and there were lots of panicking, both underwater and on the surface. The course was a lot of fun for me and a good refresher, but I can imagine it was a bit stressful for Georgia.
Other than the rescue course, I have had my first tries at guiding, giving dive briefings, assisting on a discover scuba dive, watched the open water videos, read a few more chapters in the divemaster manual and passed my first exam!
Assisting on the rescue course was the last activity I did for my divemaster training in Lembongan. Now I have moved up to Bunaken and will have the next 3 weeks of my training there. I look forward to see what I will learn from my stay in Bunaken.