August 13th 2011

Wow... Its crazy busy here...

First, let me apologise for the lack of updates. Jen and I have been manically busy teaching.

During the last several days, we have both been conducting DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) courses. Then after that we were teaching a 7 person Open Water Course.. This was eventful...

The students were from different countries, 2 x Austrian, 2 x Dutch, and 3 Chinese. I knew it was going be one of those times, when 1 chinese student dropped out at the beginning due to illness. For the 1st day, there were 6.... Then the next day, the "sick" student decided she was feeling better and wanted to catch up. This mean't alot of reorganising, extra working hours for me etc etc.

After completion of the academics, we went to set up equipment for the pool session. Unfortunately, our tank compressor had broken down, and I had no tank available to me until 4pm... Usually I would start a pool session at 1pm... At this point , I called Jen and asked for help in the pool as it would be quicker with 2 instructors... thankfully she came to help...!

The pool session went generally ok, apart from my ear becoming painful about 30 minutes into the pool session, but with no choice but to carry on, I pushed through. 3 hours later and light fading, we had completed all the required pool skills.

The next day we went out to Mango Bay for their 1st dives. Dive 1 was not very fun. I took 4 people and Jen took 3. The plan was to all go together. When everyone was down the line and we started swimming, Jen and I got separated... no problem I thought... Unfortunately for Jen, 1 of the students she was with... was a nightmare... going up all the time, unable to stay below the surface.

When we got up, Jen was pretty cheesed off, and I felt a little guilty as she was only helping me out...So for the 2nd dive, I made certain we were all together and gave them a long briefing about buoyancy etc. Dive 2 was much better.

The final day, and up super early to do 2 morning dives, the boat headed to White Rock. On the students 3rd dive of the course they do a skill called Fully flooded mask. All the students were fine, apart from 1, who was stressed out to the max. During skills, as an instructor, I have to maintain contact in case they panic or something goes wrong. The student was fighting me off due to her slightly panicked state, but Jen and I held her down and  reassured her that she was fine... It took 25 minutes to get her to perform the skill... By the time we had completed this and the other skills the dive was over. I felt a little sorry for the other students but what could I do?

Before the last dive, I gave another strong briefing, and we jumped in. Things were much improved and after this dive, both Jen and I were happy the course was done... my ear was also happy that it was over... It had been increasing in pain over the last couple of days.

Coming home after the paperwork, office duties photos taken and the video was shown, I was looking forward to a day off, but then the Operations Manager collared me and said that I was going to have to work the next day conducting 14 x Discover Scuba Dives! I was not a very happy bunny...Jen was also scheduled to start yet another course with 2 x Chinese and 2 x Dutch... So we went home and straight to bed, where I had a terrible nights sleep cos of the ear pain.

The next day, a rather stressful morning getting 14 people kitted up and in the pool with me and 1 other instructor, and then herding the people to the boat for their dive experience in the ocean. In the ocean, an instructor teaching DSD is only allowed 4 students, so more instructors came aboard to take some DSDs. I had 4 Spanish people who spoke barely any English!

During the dive experience, I carried 4 extra weights on top of my 4 weights... in case anyone needed extra weight during the dive. I ended up giving 7 weights out! Having only 1 left for me was pretty tough! Lots of breathing out and not much breathing in.!!

They all enjoyed the dive, and 2 of them ended up paying for a 2nd dive on the boat. Strangely, my ear actually improved after the dives!

Returning to port, Jen was still conducting her pool session with her new students... Another long session which finished as it was getting dark, so I helped her put kit away... we then had a couple of well deserved beers before going home and collapsing in bed..

Today, even though the UK office is closed for 2 weeks, I have had a barrage of emails from clients who suddenly want everything done in the next few days even though they were informed of the shutdown period. All I can do is get stuff ready for when Martyn is back, and put up with some unhappy clients..... So UK work for me while Jen takes her new students for their first dives... fingers crossed!!

xx