Back in the shop again 9am start, 1st practicing DM skill circuit in the pool with Candy. Her demonstrations are very clear and precise and its good to practice what I learned again. Demonstrating skills is quite important and I have seen it done very well and not so well in the past. Both Candy & Giel's demonstrations are very polished. Also we have a new character today Vig, he is another DMT just starting his training today so I have a partner in crime and am no longer the newest kid in town! One nice dive out from the beach with Candy & Vig not much to see a little swell and poor visibility off the beach.
Second dive we have a group of 5 all beginners with Rene, an instructor. There is a french boy and girl, a Australian bloke and his Russian Girl Friend. Last but not least a Japanese girl also a beginner and girl friend to Renee. Followed by a short briefing Renee demonstrates the required skills and the squad copy his actions one by one. Few hiccups but a few do overs, all I can tell are fairly new except the Australian but he has not done any diving for 15 years and needs a refresh also. After a quick swim around the pool its off to the beach.
We swim out, it's a little rougher than the morning still not to bad but as we swim out the waves are a little disturbing to most of the group who has not dived. Eventually past the waves and swim out a bit. The visibility is worse than the morning and once we are safely on the sandy bottom I help with some minor adjustments for buoyancy and after the frenchies take some photos proceed with the dive. Its very murky today and after a very short time the french boy started to indicate a problem with his mouth, by this time I had lost sight of Rene. My dental patient indicated he wanted to go up, I tried to get him to wait a second so I could deploy an SMB(Surface Marker Bouy) but he would not wait and shot up, I could not hold him as he was starting to panic a little. Lucky we are only at about 5meters and no boats or Jet skis. Vig was with the French girl and had lost Renee very quickly also and came up with us. We waited on the surface for Renee for a couple of minutes and elected to cancel the dive and the four of us swam back to shore. Thank you Giel for the warning about not coming out near the rocks, I was listening! Renee eventually surfaced after continuing the dive for about 30 minutes with the remaining divers.
So at least I am starting to see what handling a group on your own will be like. Also different instructors, slightly different approach is what I noticed today. I think it will be good for me to dive with a few other instructors to see the difference in experience and style.
Second dive we have a group of 5 all beginners with Rene, an instructor. There is a french boy and girl, a Australian bloke and his Russian Girl Friend. Last but not least a Japanese girl also a beginner and girl friend to Renee. Followed by a short briefing Renee demonstrates the required skills and the squad copy his actions one by one. Few hiccups but a few do overs, all I can tell are fairly new except the Australian but he has not done any diving for 15 years and needs a refresh also. After a quick swim around the pool its off to the beach.
We swim out, it's a little rougher than the morning still not to bad but as we swim out the waves are a little disturbing to most of the group who has not dived. Eventually past the waves and swim out a bit. The visibility is worse than the morning and once we are safely on the sandy bottom I help with some minor adjustments for buoyancy and after the frenchies take some photos proceed with the dive. Its very murky today and after a very short time the french boy started to indicate a problem with his mouth, by this time I had lost sight of Rene. My dental patient indicated he wanted to go up, I tried to get him to wait a second so I could deploy an SMB(Surface Marker Bouy) but he would not wait and shot up, I could not hold him as he was starting to panic a little. Lucky we are only at about 5meters and no boats or Jet skis. Vig was with the French girl and had lost Renee very quickly also and came up with us. We waited on the surface for Renee for a couple of minutes and elected to cancel the dive and the four of us swam back to shore. Thank you Giel for the warning about not coming out near the rocks, I was listening! Renee eventually surfaced after continuing the dive for about 30 minutes with the remaining divers.
So at least I am starting to see what handling a group on your own will be like. Also different instructors, slightly different approach is what I noticed today. I think it will be good for me to dive with a few other instructors to see the difference in experience and style.
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