I was fortunate enough to have completed the Rescue Diver Course with ScubaCat Diving over the last 5 days with 3 other trainees – Noel, Josh and Kasper. Patrick and Sean were our brilliant instructors for the course.
Sitting through hours of dry, boring videos is never an easy task – I was struggling to keep myself awake at times. However, the lively discussions that we had with regards to the subject as well as the mock scenarios we were given to remedy made the day so much more bearable. It also helped that our instructors shared many of their real-life experiences, making the knowledge fed to us a lot more relevant and memorable.
Day 2 – Pool Session
Day 2 was our first taste of the Rescue Diver Course. In the training pool, we learnt how to deal with, and pretend to be, a panicked, tired or unresponsive divers on the surface and in the water. Despite the training being serious and extremely draining, there was never a shortage of laughter throughout the day. Of course, Sean, being our instructor was the one who always had the last laugh, and an extremely sinister one in fact – in Patrick’s words “a bit of a mix between that of a Dracula and the Devil”. Midway through our training we even got to meet Sean’s hairy ‘son’ (Jasmine, I think he was called)! Towards the end of the day it started to drizzle. A sign of things to come the next day.
Day 3 – Practice Exercises @ Paradise Beach
The day began beautifully. The air was nice and warm. It was also the first time we got to see the Sun in days. We were on MV Scuba Sport in less than 30min after setting off from ScubaCat’s back office.
The objective for the day was simple; we were going to do what we did the previous day in the pool, except this time we would be subjected to the sea condition. We didn’t think much of it since the sea conditions seemed rather favorable that morning. Our instructors, of course, had very different ideas. Sean and Patrick casually mentioned that it would be a lot more beneficial to us trainees if the sea was choppier and winds were stronger. They then proceeded to summon a thunderstorm (which came within 5 minutes) with their secret mutant powers. Sean would later pretend that he had no hand in the sudden change of weather by humming to ABBA’s Mamma Mia!
As rescue diver wannabes, we were all getting more and more comfortable with the drills and routines we were supposed to do. Pretending as panicked or unresponsive divers, we were all getting more and more comfortable with having seawater go up our nostrils and into our eyes.
The 2nd day out at sea started early at 7.00am. We headed to Chalong Bay where MV Scuba Fun was already waiting for us. It was Christmas Day so there were no surprises when we found Santa Hats on board. The videographer Johnny B. was a strong advocate of them hats and spent a good 15mins trying to convince others on board to put them on as he did. The journey to Rachai Yai wasn’t the most comfortable one as the ship took a good beating from the angry sea. However, once we got into Bungalow Bay of Rachai Yai, everything was nice and calm again.
Today was the day we became extremely proficient in getting into our diving gear and jumping into the water. I think we may have gone in and out of the water no less than 15 times. Working together, we found out how much easier things could be if we established good communication during our rescues.
The highlight of the day came when we had a real search to carry out – fortunately, not for a real case of a missing diver – after it was discovered that one of the customer’s fin was knocked into the sea just as the boat was moving to another dive site. Eventually, we managed to recover it rather quickly.
Day 5 – Knowledge Review and Theory Examination
After 4 tiring days, we concluded the course with Patrick going through our knowledge reviews and then sitting for our theory examination, which all of us aced. We were now newly certified Rescue Divers! A bittersweet moment for me since although the course being absolutely exhausting, it was also extremely fun and insightful!
Posted on July 21st, 2011 by admin-scubacat-dw | Comments Off on Another Scuba Cat Diving Certificate of Excellence 2011
Another big thank you to Jelena Rsumovic who completed her internship with us during 2011. She completed all courses with Scuba Cat Diving from Divemaster to Instructor.
“I had a very professional and organised environment where I completed my divemaster and instructor internship. The divemaster course was the hard one, but today like an instructor, I feel very confident about the skills that I had learnt. I had the opportunity to guide customers on the boats, assist courses etc. I have 200+ dives now, and I am thankful to Scubacat, Vince Callaghan my instructor on divemaster, Christophe Pace, my course director on my IDC and Sarah Kench – general manager of Scubacat for providing me all the support, experience, excellent education and made me the dive instructor I am today. should be very proud of this Dive Centre”
Posted on July 19th, 2011 by admin-scubacat-dw | Comments Off on Another Scuba Cat Diving Certificate of Excellence 2010
Another big thank you to Geraldine Richard who completed her internship with us during 2010. She also completed all courses with Scuba Cat Diving from Divemaster to IDC Staff Instructor.
“Scuba Cat Diving Phuket provides the best facility to accommodate any candidate who is interested to go pro. All team members in the organisation demonstrated high professionalism and provided a strong support line. I had the most remarkable time and gained so much going pro and I find myself loving each minute of this career. Could not have happened without the strong and wonderful support of the folks who invested their time, personal time and energy.”
Posted on July 19th, 2011 by admin-scubacat-dw | Comments Off on Scuba Cat Diving Certificate of Excellence 2010
A big Thank you to Andrea who completed his internship with us during 2010. He completed all his courses with Scuba Cat Diving from Open Water to IDC Staff Instructor.
Andrea Piantanida
“It has been a superb journey from doing my OW in 2009 to my OWSI in 2010. I’ve worked with many international and corporate teams in my career but nothing comes close to what I have experienced at Scuba Cat Diving. A dedicated, trained and professional team. They are to share my every bit of success today. Scuba Cat Diving is obviously a good training ground for any future instructors. Congratulations on an excellent course. I look forward to my continued education in your program, heading to MSDT and there after IDC Staff.”
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