Remember when sex was fun and diving was dangerous? Me too, but more and more technological advancements are being made to make diving one of the safer 'extreme' sports. I was talking with Sharkboy about an incident that happened a long time that ended in the death of a student, and I was reminded how easy it is for an instructor to lose focus. The problem is that the student is only as trustworthy as the instructor, and if you place your trust in the wrong people, this is when accidents happen. PADI tells us that the majority of accidents happen because of 'diver error', but I fear that the case is more like 'instructor error'. It is worrying how many stories you hear about instructors messing up, usually to save face or to seem cool; an example springs to mind of a girl telling me she will never dive again because for her Open Water Dive 1 the instructor took her on a tiger shark feeding dive. I wouldn't dive again after that either.
For those of you who don't dive, but are thinking of starting, the moral is this - do the research and find a recommended instructor; don't go automatically for the cheapest or the nearest option. For those of you who do dive and wish to continue doing so - trust your instinct above all else; if something feels wrong, it probably is.
Week Six in Utila - Diving Up A Storm
Gosh, doesn't time fly when you're having fun, only a week and a bit left of my mission here - not sure I'm ready to come home yet between you and me, but don't really have a choice at this stage!
Have been doing my IDC (Instructor Development Course) for just over a week, and finished today an Assistant Instructor. We have our Mock Instructor Exams tomorrow and Saturday, then I'm doing my EFR (CPR) Instructor exams on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, get Monday off for revision, then IE (Instructor Exams) on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning - then I'm getting very, very pissed!!! The good news is, there's a Level 4 (out of 5) hurricane expected to hit on Monday and Tuesday, so maybe the examiners will go easy on us?! We have an independent PADI examiner who comes over from California especially to audit us on those 3 days, so hopefully we won't waste his time!
2 people have already dropped out due to malaria, which is rife at the moment, but another girl from the US has joined halfway through because she was already an Assistant Instructor. At the moment we are 5 girls and 5 boys, which works out quite well, and both of our Course Directors are male (and one is very nice). Am starting to get a little bit nervous now, they were harder on us today than they are most days, because we have our mocks tomorrow, and everyone scored 1 out of 5 for their confined water presentations, apart from me and another girl, who got 4, so that's okay!
The IDC consists of 7 parts - Dive Theory Exams (Physics, Decompression Theory and Dive Planning, Physiology, Dive Environment and Skills, and Equipment); an open book PADI Standards exam; confined water presentations (where you have to demonstrate a skill in the pool, then you get students with problems which you have to catch in time and correct); open water presentations (same as above, but in open water off the boat, and you have 2 skills to present); prescriptive teaching (where you run through quizzes in front of the class and elaborate on any questions that were missed or answered incorrectly); lecturing; and rescue scenarios. You have to get a score above 3.5 in everything in order to pass, 85% on the standards exam and 75% in all the other exams. So far I haven't scored below a 4, 80% in the exams, and 90% in the standards exam - so fingers crossed!!
After all this is done, I have the grand total of 2 nights off to enjoy myself before I have to come home :( Can't believe it's all gone past so quickly. I've made some amazing friends here and met lots of weird and wonderful people, and I know now that diving isn't just a fad for me, I can really see myself doing this, maybe not full time until I find my feet, but definitely part time and at weekends, maybe around a recruitment job somewhere - but it's a good feeling to know that you are good at something that you love as well!!
Well, will try and write more, maybe next Friday, as am going to be stupidly busy next week. Cross everything for me and wish me luck!!!xxx
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