7.18.08 - Divemaster/Assistant Instructor Log

Hello everyone.

Friday night, July 18th finds the Video Dude in the pool again at the Pompano Aquatic Center for the final pool session for this class of students. Once again I am working with Bobby James of Scuba Network Deerfield Beach and independent instructor Chuck as we finish up the student's skills in preparation for the beach dives tomorrow. Tonight we are working on taking the students to the deep end and teaching ear equalization skills, removing and replacing gear, free descents/ascents, emergency swimming ascents and underwater communication.

Once again we split the students into groups and begin rotating them through the "skill stations" until the skills have been completed. This would often mean a student would have to perform a skill in the deep end, then head for the shallow end for another, then back to the deep end for yet another. We stressed very highly the importance of equalizing their ears and made sure everyone was equalizing as they were moving from station to station.

After the skills were completed, we had everyone head out to their cars with gear in place and begin to disassemble and clean gear, then we gave a briefing on the upcoming beach dives tomorrow ( more on that in the next blog posting!). It was another fun-filled night of teaching and evaluating skills. Perhaps I WILL finish my instructor training after all! :)

Having fun in the pool in Paradise (on SCUBA),

The Video Dude