June30

Warning! This entry is a long one to make up for the delay in posting.
It’s been two weeks since the end of all the craziness. I’ve been taking it easy, having a few fun dives, catching up on my sleep and had a sneaky trip to London.
June 16th was the day all the hard work paid off and I reached the goal I’d set for myself. I’m now certified as a PADI Instructor.
But I get ahead of myself; I last wrote on after the end of day 4.
The IDC continued, my scores continued to be crap both in the water and in the classroom. I kept missing one element or another resulting in scores I was not happy with.
Next was a session in the pool with Jilly and Gemma, (a previous intern, now instructor, read her blog here). These two ladies are trouble when they are together. They played students while I attempted to teach them. It was hilarious as well as frustrating. Apparently they did nothing to me that they’ve not see a real student before. Geez there’s a lot to look forward to when I start teaching – makes me wonder if I’m ready for it all.
Once again we worked on demonstration of skills with one had. I had a good giggle watching Gemma and Jilly do knots, imitating me using their forearm and a hand. It’s easy!
Lift bags and weights lead to more fun and games, but I was ready for the silly student antics this time.
The next day I was back at the beach with Alina and Stephan. More practice on briefing and open water skills. Once again I got the skill with more than one student, so crap! It was supposed to be so simple, make them swim in a circle, kick, kick, and glide. Once again, like “herding cats”. After day 7 I was dreading getting any skills like this for the instructor exams.
Day 8, I was back in the pool with Jilly and Gemma. Focusing on rescue skills and a discover scuba diving workshop. Oooh what fun I had I with the muppet students again. I think every real student I’ll have I’ll sit there with a slideshow of all the silly things the terrible two did going through my head. I guess I’m more prepared now, thanks to the muppet show – though I wasn’t thinking that at the time.
Last day of the IDC was spent at the beach, with a last chance to practice teaching skills in the open water as well as the rescue skill that is part of the IE. There was a final wrap up presentation from Jilly, telling me what to expect over the following two days. I think I was too tired to even think about being worried about the next day. Stunned mullet is an expression that comes to mind. Jilly had a few last words and a hug for me and that was the end of the IDC.
Day 10, the IE begins at a hotel conference centre. Exams, prescriptive teaching, confined water presentation, skill circuit, open water presentation and rescue skills. Everything is based on points, with a pass of 3.4 being required with 5 being the highest score achievable.
08:55 – First up is the two written exams. I started with the PADI Standards exam. This is open book and just requires you show you know how to find things in the book. I found it relatively easy. After a 10 minute break it was time to take on the Dive Theory exam. Dive theory has been my main concern, but the extra time I spent studying the last few weeks ( I can vouch for the PADI dive theory e-learning) helped as 10 minutes after I finished the second exam, I was told I’d passed the exams. Yay! 4 sections left to go.
15:30 – We next moved on to Ocean College’s pool at Ocean Club (home field advantage for me) for the confined water presentation and skill circuit section. All candidates had to demonstrate the same specific skills (regulator recovery, free flow regulator, alternate air source, fin pivot and CESA) as well as one extra skill (regulator clearing by two methods) that were to be briefed and performed as if the other candidates in my group were real students and a divemaster. This section went well for me. I only messed up a little on the regulator clearing de-brief, but I did well enough that the loss of points did not affect my final score.
18:30 – It was then time to go back to the conference centre for my Prescriptive Teaching session. I’d spent the spare time in the afternoon preparing for this. I had everything I needed props, equipment, spiel. I was nervous, so much that I actually forgot to pick up the equipment I was supposed to be “selling” and show it around. I scored low for this, but I still passed the section.
That was day 1, thankful it was over, I went home happy. The day was not completely finished. I still had homework to do which was preparation for the open water presentation. I was tired and a little worried. I’d been assigned a descent skill – uh ohh!
Day 2 of the IE.
08:45 – today we were at the Red Sea College. Only two sections left to go, rescue and open water.
The day started well, I covered everything on my briefing and was able to nicely tie a bow line as a demonstration. Then it was off to the water.
We all had to perform a demonstration of how to rescue an unconscious diver at the surface. I got the short straw and had to demonstrate mouth to mouth, which is harder for me compared to the pocket mask method. I was up first and had Alina to demonstrate on. After all the practice we had during IDC, I was able to do the demo really well – I was surprised at myself actually. Another pass mark for me.
Once the rescue was completed, we had to wait a bit for the examiner to come along. I was just chilling in the water going over the skills, it was a last minute chance to review what I was going to do.
The examiner turns up and we have a long paddle on the surface out to the descent line which sits 7m deep in the water. I have two skills to perform/evaluate as an Instructor, descent on a line and bow line. I get my pretend divemaster and students (the other candidates) ready to descend. And then it gets interesting. I do the 5 point descent check and catch a “student” still with their snorkel in. I get them to switch to the regulator and start the descent. I stopped everyone once they were half a metre under the water and started my double check all students were ok. Uh ohh. One has popped up to the surface. I get my Divemaster to stay with the other students and surface to see what the problem was. The student on the surface, the one that was caught with the snorkel at the surface, had switched back to the snorkel for the descent. This was maybe a bit of confusion between the student and the examiner. (The examiner gives the students a problem for each candidate to spot and correct as would happen in reality.) With a regulator in the student and I descend and we all continue the controlled descent skill. I forgot to “congratulate and remind” students at the end of the skill and went straight into the next skill.
The bowline skill was cut short, only one student got to give me problems before the examiner signalled cut, time to move on to the next candidate.
I know the bow line skill went well, but for the next period of time, while in the water with the other candidates and the wait while back at Red Sea College, about 2 hours, I was stressing that I’d failed. If you do anything that is deemed unsafe to a student, then you automatically get a score of 1 and do not get certified.
When the examiner was back, it was time to de-brief the descent and bow line skills. I was so nervous and stressed, still thinking I’d failed – until the examiner leaned over and said “congratulations, you’re now a PADI Instructor”.
Woo hoo!

(more photos are on my facebook page )
Phew! All the work and study I did over the past few months came down to this moment. It seems that Jilly knew that I wasn’t failing, but chose not to tell me, thinking that it would be all the more sweeter after all the sweating.
The day wasn’t over yet. There was a wrap up talk from the examiners and then the handing out of certificates. Each candidate that passed was called out to the middle of the gathering to be congratulated and receive the certificate of completion.
Then it was on to celebrations – mojitos, the funnel test, Russian style suicide tequilas and dancing on the bar until 2am. A good way to end the IE.
I have to thank Jilly for her hard work, helping devise the best way to demonstrate skills one handed and drilling me hard on everything she could. Amr, I also have to thank for his unique method of teaching me – he (and any of his past students) knows what I mean. The combined knowledge and experience these two have were a great benefit to me.