Wow, how time flies!!! I arrived here to start my DMT a week ago and haven’t stopped since. It’s been very tiring but I am trying to soak up all the information and tips I can from Sandy and Tina, both of whom are excellent instructors so I feel I am in safe hands. It has taken me a while but I think I am now understanding the daily routines of the dive centre.
Sandy even managed to teach me the holy grail of diving, the reverse fin!! I think I was as surprised as her (and the turtle I’d been looking at!) when on a dive I just slowly disappeared from her sight line by swimming backwards!!!! They are also getting used to how accident prone I can be! This weeks accident- slipping on wet boards whilst carrying a BCD and tank and landing on my knees in front of my instructor! It was her BCD so all I thought on the way down is DO NOT DROP IT!!! I managed to keep it off the floor!!
Best thing so far was helping Sandy with a young guest who was doing a Discover Scuba Diving Course. I got to demonstrate three of the skills and went along for the open water dive which was lovely as I was there when she saw her first turtle!!! It was so lovely to watch!!! And to see her improvement in such a short time was amazing.
Sandy has also taken me diving to work on buoyancy and SMB deployment. It was really hard work but good too. My hovering has improved although it took a few go’s. I spent some time in the pool learning how to demonstrate skills to learner divers. It was hard work but the first part was ok. I then struggled with one of the skills, the CESA – I kept running out of breath before I got to the 9 metre mark! Very frustrating but I have been told to practice it on land which should help (although I am already getting odd looks as I wander around saying “Ahhhhhh” randomly!!).
Today I had to contend with my instructor and two of the dive guides pretending to be badly behaved divers and boy did they keep me busy!!! I think misbehaving comes naturally to them particularly Sandy who was having a whale of a time!!!!
This afternoon we are off to the village pier to do a snorkelling clean up of some of the rubbish that gets washed up there before I re-start my reading.
This week has been challenging and VERY tiring for an old boy like me but I am learning so much and am trying my best to retain as much of it as I can.
The staff here are all so friendly and will help you out if need be although you also need to be ready for a bit of friendly joking too!
I’m looking forward to seeing what challenges await me next week! Lord knows it’s making me sleep well!!