Luke Evans continues his Divemaster journey, and gets more briefing/guiding experience under his belt, gets out to dive sites beyond Buddy Dive Resort, and also helps out with scenarios for an IDC.
Day Seven
Day seven started with breakfast at the usual time and then down to the dive shop for around 7.45am and, instead of being on a boat, I was actually going to be helping with an Open Water Diver course with instructor Alvaro.
This course would start at 8.30am, so in the mean time, we both helped with loading and helping guests onto the boats that were going out that day, but after this the two students arrived and we got talking to each other while they checked in and completed their PADI Knowledge Reviews. We then ran through setting up and disassembling the gear by the pool, and after doing this three or four times and after some talking about skills, we were able to get in the pool for the first session.
This went well, as I was able to not only demonstrate a few skills like reg retrieval for real-time guests, but also watch the other student while Alvaro completed one skill with the other one, so not only helping with the course but also with my knowledge and skill.
After the pool session it was time for lunch, and after a quick stop at Blennies we changed from the pool to the dock, as the next dive would be more skills but also in one of the training areas of the Buddy Dive house reef, so in the open water.
This again went well, as said before, but also for the two person skills for demonstration, having me there really helped with Alvaro’s teaching but also with my skill to actually demonstrate.
After the skills it was time for a quick tour of the house reef, so this meant more guiding for me, where we spotted a rare Goliath grouper, at the end of the dive we all arranged to go for drinks after the day was done so after some more helping unloading boats, it was again time for some food and drinks, but with company this time.
Day Eight
On day eight, I was again not on the boat for a change, but helping with a course, Advanced Open Water this time, which meant being able to dive outside of the Buddy resort, so same morning routine of breakfast, then help with the departing boats till the Advanced students were ready.
We then travelled to Angel City, which is a dive site located just up from Salt Pier. This would be their deep dive as there was a sandbank at around 30m which would be perfect to show how colour changes at depth.
After this dive and seeing my first eagle ray, we then had a small surface interval and travelled to the other side of Salt Pier to the dive site Invisibles for the Navigation Specialty, where I was able to help with guiding and be a buddy for one of the students.
After this I asked some questions to one of the students as she was a part of the Reef Renewal Project going on around the island – and also knew all of the best beaches and places for food. When we got back to Buddy Dive, I was ready for lunch!
After eating my fill, I moved on to the next part of my day, which was practising a scenario for the IDC Rescue course, which was first how to take a casualty up a staircase with just one-on-one. This was interesting to see how everyone else as well as myself participated.
After the stair scenario it was onto the main rescue scenarios, which were mainly recovering an unresponsive diver and taking them to the surface as well as administrating rescue breaths and slowly taking your victim’s gear as well as your own off inbetween rescue breaths. This was a great safety reminder but was also great to watch the IDC, as they not only had to carry out the scenario but also show it to demonstration quality.
At the end, I as a DM had to put I all it all together, so finding somone on the bottom, then bringing them up and starting rescue breaths while taking off both sets of gear and towing the diver towards the stairs, which when I reached them I had to carry the victim up the stairs to a safe place to finish the scenario.
So, a nice fun way to end day eight as well as talking about all of this after with some laughs and drinks…
