7.19.08 - Divemaster/Assistant Instructor Log

Hello everyone!

Saturday, July 19th dawns bright and beautiful as the Video Dude finds himself getting a group of students organized and ready for their first venture into the "big pool" - the open ocean! Once again, Bobby James of Scuba Network Deerfield Beach, myself and Chuck are leading the pack. The students have their gear laid out and I have them start assembling everything. Today is the day they show us how much they learned this past week and we get to evaluate them on their skills. After everyone has their gear assembled, and after a beach briefing from Bobby, we all pack our gear down to the water's edge and set it carefully in the sand so as to not get sand in the crucial components. Then it's mask fins and snorkel out to the first reef to do snorkel skills and tired diver tows. Everyone demonstrates their ability to perform the snorkel surface dives and the tired diver tows, and then it's back to the beach to put on SCUBA gear.

After getting geared up and having a briefing at water's edge, we head out to the first reef again (this time underwater) and find a nice sandy area for skill evaluation. Bobby, Chuck and I run everyone through mask removal and replacement, regulator recovery, and navigation. Then it's back to the beach to switch tanks for SCUBA dive #2.

After everyone has changed their gear over and each buddy has checked each other, we head back to the water and our sandy area for more skill evaluation. This time we are doing emergency swimming ascents, alternate air ascents, gear removal and finally, a new skill - unconscious diver rescues at the surface. Again, Bobby, Chuck and I run everyone through the various skills until we are satisfied they are comfortable. Then it's back to the beach for gear breakdown/disassembly and cleaning.

Now it's time for the afternoon class to arrive and the cycle starts all over again. This time there are some divers who had taken a resort class with Scuba Network in the mix, and since there were so few students from our pool class in the afternoon session, Bobby had me take the resort class out for a tour of the reef in the area where he was working on the other students' skills. This was lots of fun for me because these kids had only been in the pool to this point, and everything they saw in the ocean was exciting to them. It always reminds me why I got into diving in the first place! After the tour was done, I said goodbye to the resort class and assisted Bobby with the final afternoon dive.

Tired, but having fun in Paradise!

The Video Dude