15th and 16th March 2011

Our Open Water Course went really well.  It was great to be back teaching again.  I did feel a bit rusty after a few months out of the water, only to be expected I suppose.

We started out with a very large group of 17 but then the next day, the group was split into 3.  I ended up taking 5 students, two Canadian & English and a friend from Motorola who was German.  Simon decided to assist me as he had a slight ear ache and didn’t want to chance starting the course and then not being able to finish,  otherwise he would have taken a group of 6.  Better to be safe than sorry ;-D

Yesterday, with academics, the final exam, confined water skills and swim test complete we took the plunge into the sea.  The visibility wasn’t great, 6 or so metres and there seemed to be divers everywhere but the students did brilliantly. We even had a couple of close encounters with a couple of Titan Trigger fish but everyone kept their cool.   They all got to grip with their buoyancy pretty quickly and we had a great couple of 40minute dives at ‘Twins’

Today we were up at 6am and down at Crystal by 6.30 in order to get the good BCD’s and dive bags as the ones we used the previously were all pretty tatty.

Todays dive sites were ‘White Rock’ and ‘Japanese Gardens’  .....thankfully the visibility was better, thought still not brilliant, maybe 10-12metres.  With only a couple of underwater skills to do, which the students sailed through.  We had a great dive, spotting, barracuda, a moray eel, butterfly, banner fish, a nudi branch to name but a few.  Everyone came up with smiles, so Simon and I were happy.

Having completed log books, paperwork and completed their temporary certification cards, Simon and I picked up a sandwich, went back to our room to eat and then spent the next couple of hours playing around in the pool.

Tonight, we’re going down to Crystal to watch our Open Water movie and celebrating with our students.It will be uploaded as soon as Simon gets the video... so look out for it soon... it should have some nice comedy moments.!

x

J