October 27 - Thailand: Koh Tao
Dive Master in Training - Day #2
Believe it or not, Jon and I were separated the WHOLE DAY! This is the first time this has happened since June 3, 2001 which was Alicia's wedding and I was away all day doing bridesmaid stuff. Since that day we've been together practically every moment - give or take a few. So I don't know how we got through today, but we're still alive.
We've each written up accounts of our days, so click here for each entry or just read down the page:
We woke up and had peanut butter and jelly cracker sandwiches for breakfast, and then Jon went to meet the Open Water course he was going to assist. I didn't have to be anywhere until 9:15 so I hung about the room.
Scuba Review
At 9:15, I went down to the Dive Center to find out who was running today's Scuba Review which I was to assist. A Scuba Review is for divers who haven't dove in a while and want a quick and easy refresher. While I was in the Dive Center, Theresa (the Dive Master I dove with yesterday) walked in and said, "So you're going to help me with the Scuba Review today, huh?". She and I went to the restaurant where she had her breakfast and we chatted about the review - which was only for one person.
At 9:45, Daniel was introduced to us. He's from Israel but lives in Dublin and has Advanced Certification but hasn't been under for a few years. So Theresa went over the Scuba Review worksheet with him, which is an informal "quiz" he'd completed before. She reviewed the things he was unsure about and answered any of his questions.
Then we went to the equipment room where we got our equipment and showed him how to assemble it and do a buddy check. After that we walked to the shore and into the water, where we swam out about 150 meters where the depth was about 3-4 meters deep. There, we submerged and Theresa demonstrated the skills that Daniel was to do. He did a mask-clear, mask-removal, regular recovery, scuba unit removal, and alternate source breathing with me. Then we swam around the coral for a while. I was amazed at the amount of coral and fish that were within arm's reach of the shoreline. I'm so used to the US where you have to take a speed boat 30 minutes to see anything noteworthy. I could live here. Definitely.
After the Scuba Review, Theresa showed Daniel how to disassemble his equipment and we were done. It was about 11:40 and I was going on the afternoon Fun Dive at 12:30 so I barely had time for lunch. I went up to the room and fixed a few more Peanut Butter and Jelly Crackers and ate it outside on the porch so ants wouldn't come in the room. Jon came in from his class and asked if I wanted to go to lunch, but I had to get to the equipment room.
Dive #1: Fun Dive at Twin Peaks (Mapping exercise)
Depth: 18 meters
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Visibility: 20 meters
On the first Fun Dive, which was at Twin Peaks, I didn't assist in the dive. Instead, Ela and I did our mapping exercise. This is an exercise for Dive Master certification which requires that the trainee does a full map of a dive site. Since we'd been to Twins before and knew the precise layout, we figured this would be a relatively easy task. Ela counted kick cycles between the 3 pinnacles and I measured depths. We got a bit turned around at one point, but our compasses and a few landmarks helped us out. Theresa followed us around (she wasn't leading any dive) just for fun and most likely to laugh at our antics. One of which was us sitting on the ocean floor having a discussion via our slate boards at to whether we were at the eastern-most pinnacle or not. In the end, here's what our map looked like:
After the mapping, we had an hour's surface interval as the boat made its way the short distance to White Rocks. Many of us went swimming to pass the time and I talked Ela into jumping off the second level deck into the water, which she decided not to do again.
Dive #2: Fun Dive at White Rocks
Depth: 16 meters
Bottom Time: 35 minutes
Visibility: 8 meters
I went down with the fun divers for the second dive, and this group was led by Aaron - a DMT who is almost done with his certification. The current was really strong, so this was inevitably going to be a shorter dive because we use more air in stronger currents. While I'm pretty good with my air conservation on normal dives, I still don't have the hang of it in powerful currents. But this was no worry, because there was a novice diver in the group who used his air very quickly. Aaron had told me about him before we went down, and since I'm the lowly DMT it's my role to ascend with him when he gets low so the rest of the group can continue on the dive.
But the dive was still nice (I mean really, how can someone ever complain about a dive?). At one point, I rounded a corner and saw Aaron swimming backwards away from something and motioning everyone back. There was a pretty big trigger fish eyeing us warily. These fish are very territorial, and I hear that it doesn't feel good when they go to defend their turf. So Aaron was clearing everyone back. We hung out and watched it for a while and then continued on. The new diver did pretty well on his air this dive and we got a good 30 minutes in before Aaron buddied us up to ascend. Our safety stop was a bit of a problem because this guy didn't have very good buoyancy control, but we worked it out.
After the boat moored back at Ban's, Ela and I dove in for the 400 meter swim back to shore. My time actually got WORSE than the previous three swims. This is very annoying.
Today I am assisting with an Open Water Diver course that Mark is instructing. This means the first day will be the confined, or pool, session and review of some homework and some videos.
We met the group at 8:30 and introduced them to the gear they would be using. The class is five guys: three Brits (Dean, Mike, Dave), one from Sweden (Andre), and one from Austria (Johannes). There was a bit of concern that Mike, one of the Brits, might not be able to do the class as two days earlier he got stitches in his hand. It seems that he was "a bit pissed and fell in the bathroom and put his hand through a mirror." It was OK though because he said he doesn't really remember it. Must've been a fun night!
Once we got everyone sized up for gear we lugged our gear up to the pool and Mark showed everyone how to set up their BCD and regulator, get into their wetsuits, put on their weightbelts (right-hand release), and finally masks. Since the first half of the confined session would be in the shallow end of the pool fins weren't necessary. Before entering the pool Mike put on a surgical glove and wrapped duct tape around the loose end in the hope of keeping his hand dry. Mark and I didn't really think this would work but Mike really wanted to get certified with his buddies. Mark also nicknamed Mike 'Michael Jackson' for the rest of the course, since like Michael Jackson, Mike was wearing only one glove.
Dive #1: Confined dive #1
Depth: 2 meters
Bottom Time: 35 minutes
Visibility: 20 meters (it's a pool!)
The first dive serves a few purposes. It gets the divers acquainted with breathing from the regulator and they also begin to learn skills such as dealing with a partially flooded mask, a fully flooded mask, breathing without their mask on at all, and signaling to their buddy when they are low on air and how to use their buddies' alternate air source. When we were all done we took a 15 minute break to warm up (the pool is about 28 centigrade which feels cold after a while).
Dive #2: Confined dive #2
Depth: 5 meters
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Visibility: 20 meters (it's a pool!)
Everyone did well with the first dive so after the break we got back into the pool and the class learned how to put on their gear while in the water. With our fins on this time we headed into the deep end of the pool and Mark demonstrated some additional skills to the class. Another partially flooded mask exercise, ascents, tired diver at the surface, etc. When we were all done the class brought their gear back down to the equipment office and took a break for lunch.
After lunch came some fun videos and we were all done for the day at 3pm or so. I headed to the office to work on our next set of Knowledge Reviews for our DMT course. I got through the entire assignment just as Heidi's boat was getting in from her afternoon dive. I know this will drive her crazy because now while she is working on the assignment I'll be reading a book or something!
Later, Jon and I went to dinner at AC's where they were showing the Manchester United game on the big screen. We also went to the internet cafe to upload, but the disks weren't working well for us so we just read and sent emails instead.