January 30 - Australia: Cairns

PADI Assistant Instructor Course - Day 2    

Ant Lines

We both went for runs this morning, and when I returned from my run I noticed a line of ants crawling along our hallway wall into the kitchen.

I HATE ant lines.  

Jon says that ants are to be expected in a tropical environment, and I'd be inclined agree if there were only one or two.  But a line of ants means that they've found a source of food and the entire colony is traipsing about my kitchen.  THAT is unacceptable.  So I went about my business squashing them and putting RAID over their entry and exit points.  I tend to become a bit vocal when dealing with ant lines, as if they can hear my grumblings and whatnot.  "Where do you think you're going?....There's no open food in there!... You little @($)#!)#  I've had it with your measly little colony!".  For what it's worth, I feel much better when I grumble at them.

Knowledge Development Presentations

We got to DSDD at 8:30 to finish up preparing for the morning's presentations.  Group B stayed in the classroom to present to Chookie, and Group A went into another room to present to Vic.  Here were our presentations:

Tom - Comfortable Ascents

Me - Decompression Sickness

Sauf - Boat Orientation

Jon Connal - Site Briefing

Jon - Under Water Briefing

Vic debriefed us after each presentation.  The scores we got were pretty harsh, but this is to be expected as it's our first presentation.  Also, Vic and Chookie are scoring us much the same way the PADI Examiners will when the Instructor Exam (IE) comes up on Feb 15.  As hard as it is to listen to criticism, they're preparing us for the big IE weekend.  We'll get lots of practice, so this is a good thing.

Lunch

We had a nice 2 hour break for lunch because we were done pretty early.  I dropped Jon off at home and went to the grocery story.  There, I ran into Tom and gave him a lift back to DSDD because it was pouring rain.  When I got back home, the entire house smelled of Jon's pizzas.

At 1:30 we were back at DSDD for lectures on Demonstration Skills and our Confined Water Demonstrations.

Skills Circuit #2

At 6:30, we suited up for the second half of our skills circuit.  We started off the circuit with equipment assembly and disassembly.   This basically means that we have to talk our way through the assembly and disassembly as if to a group of students.  No problem, but God forbid you call the Yoke Screw on the primary stage a "screw thingy".  Incorrect terminology reduces the score.  Then we talked through the buddy check and hopped in the water for more skills.  We did Buoyancy Check, the No-Mask Swim, Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, Alternate Air Source Breathing, No Air Demo, and the Buddy-Breathing swim.

DSDD Pool

At 9:30, we went home and gave Tom a ride on the way.  Despite my efforts of the morning, the line of ants into the kitchen had been restructured.  Little schmucks.  What proceeded was more cursing, mumbling, grumbling, and squashing of ants.

Dinner was leftover pasta sauce and noodles.  "The Terminator" was on the television, so we watched about 10 minutes of it and then went upstairs to sleep.