So, I tried to do a blog post title based off of "Lions and Tigers and Bears" close enough, right? Anyway, today we can celebrate my survival of my second week as Scuba Sur's DMT. It's been an interesting week to say the least but in my own opinion, crossed with the words of others and the lack of bollockings from my mentor towards the end of the week; I do believe I'm starting to show some improvements. I certainly haven't blown any O rings off of cylinders this week and I've remembered my weight belt everyday *Insert fist pump here* (Sorry, Mum.)I should probably tell you all what exactly being a DMT involves. Let's just roll this back a bit, a DMT stands for Dive Master Trainee. Now as a trainee there are lots of things I have to be able to do to gain the magical mystical title of a Dive Master. There's a few main elements so just allow me to explain them all briefly:
Timed Swims:
It's probably not much of a shock to you all but you have to be relatively good swimmer in order to become a Dive Master. You have to swim 400m without any scuba equipment and then 800m without the use of your arms but with fins, mask and snorkel. During the 800m your face must be in the water for the whole of the exercise, unless you are taking a quick look up to check your direction. It took me a couple of attempts to get my 800m time down but after nearly killing some poor old gentlemen because he swam directly in front of me even though he had the whole beach to himself. I'm happy to say I've ticked off both of these timed swims. The only thing left for my time swims now is a 100m rescue tow, sounds easy but when you're in full scuba gear, I can assure you it's exhausting.
In addition to the timed swims there is also a treading water exercise but I was given full marks for that; Thank you RLSS for putting me through the 15 minutes of treading water sessions with arms extended.
The Stress Test:
If I called the equipment exchange exercise where you trade mask, fins and BCD with a buddy then you would probably look a me and say it's not stressful. However, there is one very important element to the stress test. There is only one "operational" regulator. You are sharing a regulator with your buddy. And this is the point where I would like to formally apologise to Ryan for ever so nearly drowning him by taking too many breaths. I hated this exercise when I first did it but after some practice attempts with my mentor of just taking the BCD off and him being in control of my regs I can hopefully say that the next attempt Ryan and myself make should be much better.
24 Skills Circuit:
Skills tests, if you're a diver on any level you will know that in order to complete a course you have to complete a certain amount of skills so you have the appropriate training for your appropriate level. Mine consists of 20 open Water course skills and 4 PADI skin diver course skills. I wouldn't mind just having to do the skills but it has been over a year since I've had to perform some of the skills and I have to get them up to demonstration standard before I can pass. So by hell or high water (and with the help of my mentor and some youtube videos) I can and will get there.
Including all of the above being to satisfactory standard you have to have at last 60 dives to pass but we've nearly surpassed the half way mark for 19 days of being here so that's not too bad really. Then there's also a theory element and a final exam.
So apart from practicing all of my DM skills, timed swims and the notorious stress test this week has been fantastic for me in terms of breaking down some serious walls in terms of my anxiety. About three days ago my mentor announced to me I would be giving the pre-dive briefing to customers about a dive site called Bahia Lila. I was terrified, I've usually been pretty good with public speaking but this was different, or at least it felt that way. But the time came around for me to give my first briefing and it was going well until I sat down on the boat afterwards. "Shoot, I forgot about lost buddy procedures." I was lucky in this instance because we were diving with experienced divers and they had been warned this was my first briefing. The next day came around and I gave the briefing again and this time I'm pretty sure I covered everything because so far neither the boss nor my mentor has pulled me up for missing anything. Brownie points for Goodwin.
The other wall I managed to smash down was my fear of night dives, when I was doing my advanced open water course last year I had the chance to do a night dive but the fear of getting disorientated was too much and I opted to do something else. So after skipping last week's night dive due to a confidence crisis, it took 3 instructors to convince me to go for the experience and I'm honestly so glad I did because after a few minutes of working out my buoyancy I loved it, the sighting of a grand puffer fish and a massive sting ray just absolutely had me made up. Ever seen an over excited marine biologist before?
Just as a side note to my fellow divers, be aware of your tank positioning because if you should slip and fall down a set of near vertical stairs into the water below, it could save your back, I was very lucky that my tank took the full hit. Also make sure your jacket has some air in it too, so you just float back up to the surface. In other words, just don;t be as clumsy as me if you can help it.
I think I'm gonna leave it there for this week guys, I know his as been a long post but I can't put into words how stressed, how exhausted but how truly happy this job makes me. Yes, you have bad days in this industry but with a team like mine I know that even if I have a bad day they are there for me and they never fail to make me laugh with their antics.
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