Both of us have been very busy with high season full moon rush.... but I have found the time to upload this clip from a couple of days ago...
https://vimeo.com/69367452
xxx
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Friday, 21 June 2013
21st June 2013
I've been teaching Open Water and an Advanced course for the last week, while Si's been staffing the IDC .
It's been pretty full on. Both of my courses went really well. I had Brandon, who I mentored through his Dive Master Training and has now qualified as an Instructor a couple of months ago. He was "Team Teaching" with me...
I must say that of all the Team teaching I've done with new Instructors, he's been by far the best and apart from a few tweaks here and there, he did a brilliant job. I really took a back seat and let him run things his way, to a degree :-D ..It's all well and good team teaching to pick up hints and tips from different instructors but having to teach without any back up is a totally different ball game.
Anyway, Open Water finished I was then scheduled for an Advanced course. I only had three students, one English, Canadian and a guy from the States ..all really nice but odd (special) in their own way.
Day 1 on the course we did a Navigation dive which they have to use a compass, navigating reciprocal heading, navigate a square and count/time kick cycles ...I briefed the dive very well, twice in fact, on land and on the boat ..but ended up being rather chaotic. Blank stares not knowing what to do even when i had everything written on a slate ..argh!!!! Peak performance buoyancy on the other hand was great and they all enjoyed it no end and actually understood what they were supposed to be doing.
Day 2, started well and ended well with their first dive being a Deep Dive to 30m, all good, only issue was with one of the guys masks pressing on his bridge of his nose too much, but that was only because he had an odd shaped face and none of the masks on board fit him and as he dived it was bruising and getting even bigger ...shouldn't laugh but it was rather funny. Anyway, moving on, their 4th dive was the Wreck, visibility wasn't good, around 5 meters and we headed down the line which led directly to the bow of the HTMS Sattakut, WWII ship, 45m long, sank in 2011. 10 or so minutes into the dive, I passed my torch to each of the students so that they could have a peek in, then continued the dive to the back of the boat, where there is a massive gun. Looking back I had only one student ..great! ...I then swam back with him to find a few meters away, Jessica and then signaled where is your buddy? She gave me her usual blank look JOY!!!!
I got the 2 student to hold onto a line and told them to wait there, whilst I searched for 1 minute. Martin, the one with the mask issue couldn't have gone far ..it had only been, maybe 15/20 seconds. Swiftly retracing my path, he was no where to be seen. I went back to my 2 students and signaled to go up ...
In diving, if you lose your buddy/group, you stay where you are for 1 minute and then slowly go up to the surface if your not found, which is briefed on EVERY dive. So we surfaced and Martin was nowhere to be seen. I sent the 2 students back to the boat and notified surface cover who looked for bubbles ..on spotting some just by me, I dove down only to find another group. Visibility was bad and I surfaced again. Still no Martin. Argh, by this time I was getting worried. Fortunately another group on the boat surfaced and I grabbed the dive leader as a buddy and two other Instructors on the boat kitted up and jumped in to search for Martin. One team searched the port side whilst the other two searched the starboard. By this time I was pooping myself, thinking of all the different scenario's that could have happened. Did I brief properly? Did he get stuck? Is he unconscious? Has he run out of air? Something seriously bad must have happened seeing he didn't surface after a minute ...
10 mins of searching which seemed a lifetime we called it off as our bottom time (NDL's) were running very low. We surfaced and I was just praying that he'd appeared. Shouting from the boat 'He's OK' ..he surfaced with another group ..Oh my goodness ...I was so relieved ...angry too ..when I shouted at him 'what the hell do you think you were doing? what about the 1 minute rule?' he apologized and made out that he thought he was only supposed to stay still for a minute ...it could have gone oh so wrong ..DONKEY!!!!
It's been pretty full on. Both of my courses went really well. I had Brandon, who I mentored through his Dive Master Training and has now qualified as an Instructor a couple of months ago. He was "Team Teaching" with me...
I must say that of all the Team teaching I've done with new Instructors, he's been by far the best and apart from a few tweaks here and there, he did a brilliant job. I really took a back seat and let him run things his way, to a degree :-D ..It's all well and good team teaching to pick up hints and tips from different instructors but having to teach without any back up is a totally different ball game.
Anyway, Open Water finished I was then scheduled for an Advanced course. I only had three students, one English, Canadian and a guy from the States ..all really nice but odd (special) in their own way.
Day 1 on the course we did a Navigation dive which they have to use a compass, navigating reciprocal heading, navigate a square and count/time kick cycles ...I briefed the dive very well, twice in fact, on land and on the boat ..but ended up being rather chaotic. Blank stares not knowing what to do even when i had everything written on a slate ..argh!!!! Peak performance buoyancy on the other hand was great and they all enjoyed it no end and actually understood what they were supposed to be doing.
Day 2, started well and ended well with their first dive being a Deep Dive to 30m, all good, only issue was with one of the guys masks pressing on his bridge of his nose too much, but that was only because he had an odd shaped face and none of the masks on board fit him and as he dived it was bruising and getting even bigger ...shouldn't laugh but it was rather funny. Anyway, moving on, their 4th dive was the Wreck, visibility wasn't good, around 5 meters and we headed down the line which led directly to the bow of the HTMS Sattakut, WWII ship, 45m long, sank in 2011. 10 or so minutes into the dive, I passed my torch to each of the students so that they could have a peek in, then continued the dive to the back of the boat, where there is a massive gun. Looking back I had only one student ..great! ...I then swam back with him to find a few meters away, Jessica and then signaled where is your buddy? She gave me her usual blank look JOY!!!!
I got the 2 student to hold onto a line and told them to wait there, whilst I searched for 1 minute. Martin, the one with the mask issue couldn't have gone far ..it had only been, maybe 15/20 seconds. Swiftly retracing my path, he was no where to be seen. I went back to my 2 students and signaled to go up ...
In diving, if you lose your buddy/group, you stay where you are for 1 minute and then slowly go up to the surface if your not found, which is briefed on EVERY dive. So we surfaced and Martin was nowhere to be seen. I sent the 2 students back to the boat and notified surface cover who looked for bubbles ..on spotting some just by me, I dove down only to find another group. Visibility was bad and I surfaced again. Still no Martin. Argh, by this time I was getting worried. Fortunately another group on the boat surfaced and I grabbed the dive leader as a buddy and two other Instructors on the boat kitted up and jumped in to search for Martin. One team searched the port side whilst the other two searched the starboard. By this time I was pooping myself, thinking of all the different scenario's that could have happened. Did I brief properly? Did he get stuck? Is he unconscious? Has he run out of air? Something seriously bad must have happened seeing he didn't surface after a minute ...
10 mins of searching which seemed a lifetime we called it off as our bottom time (NDL's) were running very low. We surfaced and I was just praying that he'd appeared. Shouting from the boat 'He's OK' ..he surfaced with another group ..Oh my goodness ...I was so relieved ...angry too ..when I shouted at him 'what the hell do you think you were doing? what about the 1 minute rule?' he apologized and made out that he thought he was only supposed to stay still for a minute ...it could have gone oh so wrong ..DONKEY!!!!
Saturday, 15 June 2013
14th July 2013
Woke up to the sound of rain this morning which was very refreshing. It's been really hot and last night was the first time I think since we got here that I've actually worn a jumper.
What have we been up to? I've been teaching Reef Check to a Canadian and English guy and helping out with ECO..
Si's been doing UK work, staffing his last IDC (Instructor Development Course) as well as organizing a memorial for our friend Emma's birthday, who passed away earlier in the year. So it's been busy.
Yesterday, we both got up and helped out with preparing Giant clam nurseries and deploying giant clams which were sent from the main land. Giant clams if you didn't know have a very important role in the ocean. They're water filters, taking out unwanted nutrients that in some area's have an abundance of algae growing, covering coral and suffocating it.
Later in the afternoon, we'd planned to deploy Emma's memorial, which was a large concrete compass with the wrong heading on, as Emma got lost on a few occasions and we thought it would be quite apt. Unfortunately after a lot of hanging around and waiting to hear from the night boat, we were told that due to low tide, the boat couldn't go out, so this has now been put off until the 16th ...fingers crossed all will go well on that date.
That evening we gathered at Crystal for a bbq to celebrate Emma's birthday and put on her slide show, a happy but very emotional event ...
What have we been up to? I've been teaching Reef Check to a Canadian and English guy and helping out with ECO..
Si's been doing UK work, staffing his last IDC (Instructor Development Course) as well as organizing a memorial for our friend Emma's birthday, who passed away earlier in the year. So it's been busy.
Yesterday, we both got up and helped out with preparing Giant clam nurseries and deploying giant clams which were sent from the main land. Giant clams if you didn't know have a very important role in the ocean. They're water filters, taking out unwanted nutrients that in some area's have an abundance of algae growing, covering coral and suffocating it.
Later in the afternoon, we'd planned to deploy Emma's memorial, which was a large concrete compass with the wrong heading on, as Emma got lost on a few occasions and we thought it would be quite apt. Unfortunately after a lot of hanging around and waiting to hear from the night boat, we were told that due to low tide, the boat couldn't go out, so this has now been put off until the 16th ...fingers crossed all will go well on that date.
That evening we gathered at Crystal for a bbq to celebrate Emma's birthday and put on her slide show, a happy but very emotional event ...
Sunday, 9 June 2013
9th June 2013
Another video for ya...
We had a fun dive at Chumphon Pinnacle the other day, and here is the video...
Click here: 5th June - Chumphon Pinnacle
x
SD
We had a fun dive at Chumphon Pinnacle the other day, and here is the video...
Click here: 5th June - Chumphon Pinnacle
x
SD
Monday, 3 June 2013
Sunday, 2 June 2013
3rd June 2013
Small behind the scenes clip of the new documentary student filming..
https://vimeo.com/67452618
xx
SD
https://vimeo.com/67452618
xx
SD
Saturday, 1 June 2013
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