Luke Evans is taking his first steps into the world of being a professional diver, by signing up for the PADI Divemaster course with Buddy Dive Resort on the beautiful island of Bonaire. He’ll be doing blog posts through the two-week course, hoping to inspire other young people to ‘go pro’.
Day One
For my initial day at Buddy Dive Resort for my Divemaster course, the first step was to meet my instructor Lars Bosman, a very-experienced PADI Course Director, as well as another Staff Instructor who was shadowing him, Robbert van Vonno, also known as ‘Baloo’. They gave me a warm welcome and I immediately felt comfortable with them both, and very confident in their teaching abilities. This was going to be a great two weeks!
After finding a place to store my gear, I was taken to one of the classrooms where I was then given the run down of the PADI Divemaster course and what it consists of, including the 25 core skills I would need to nail down to ‘demonstration level’, and having a look into the process of guiding different skill levels, assisting with courses, giving briefings, and so on. I then had a lunch break, and my ‘staff meal’ was a lovely pesto pasta supplied by the kitchen of the on-site Blennie’s restaurant. Heh, I am a 19 year old – food is important!
In the afternoon it was time for my first dive of my course. We got geared up and went to the training area that is just before the Buddy House Reef, handily located just metres from the steps down into the water. Lars proceeded to show me the 25 skills which I then had to not only perform, but perform in a way that a student could copy and learn the exercise, which in my opinion is harder than actually just performing the skill.
This theory of demonstrating skills also happened before the dive, as when I was setting up my equipment, I had to set up it up again in a way that a student diver would be able to watch and then copy my actions.
Lars said I did well with my first efforts at demonstrating the 25 skills, and I have plenty of time over the next two weeks to really hone my techniques.
