Why would you choose an e-learning course when it could be more expensive than the standard course after paying the fee’s?

The reason is simple, for more convenience, you can complete all the classroom portion of the course at your own pace prior to arrival, so no classroom whilst on holiday. All you need is a high speed internet connection.

At the moment you can do this for the Open water, Advanced open water, Nitrox or enriched air specialty, Digital Photography, Rescue diver, Dive Master and Dive Theory. There is even the Scuba Tune up on line.

have also introduced the e-learning gift pass, you can customize this for special occasions, such as birthdays, holidays, weddings etc, as you are even able to provide a personal gift message to the recipient.

So if you are trying to think of a different present this may be the answer.

Friday….

The IE starts I have Finlay on the table, the Shark Project Aware mascot, (I had kinda stolen it during the IDC), the surroundings were beautiful it was the first time I had ever done an exam with flowers on the table and a table cloth, time and effort had gone in to making this a nice place to do the exams.

Finley

There were some speeches and some motivational stuff then we were given our folders with our skills for the next couple of days, I don’t really get that excited about things but when I saw the skills I had to present I really could of jumped in the air and shouted YESSSSSSSSS

Knowledge Development Presentation

• Dive Master Manual, Knowledge Review Chapter 5 Q8

Confined water teaching presentation

• Demonstrate Rescue Breathing Using Pocket Mask only

Open Water Teaching Presentation

• Mask removal and replace
• Knot Tying Sheet Bend
• Rescue Demonstration Mouth to mouth

And 5 skills from the skill circuit.

First exam

OPEN BOOK STANDARDS

Question one, I knew the answer, and didn’t need to look it up, but I did anyway just to make sure many of the answers were like this, still I reminded myself not to assume I was right and double checked. I finished handed in my paper and got told take 10 have a break then come back, so off I went had a drink (coffee) then came back.

Second Exam

DIVE THEORY

I finished with a lot of time to spare, I did not go back and check my answers I find that when I do that I end up doubting my original answer and getting it wrong so last box ticked and I handed it in I waited while they marked it finally ….. Congratulations you passed I had scored high on all of them lowest mark was 85% I scored 95% on standards too.

Relief now all I had too do was prepare for the next day,

I went back to the classroom with Roy and Marc and prepared for the next day’s class room presentation, and our slates for the pool.

Saturday

Confined Water

Red team (that was us) were first in the pool, I was relieved I wanted this over with, I swore that if I screwed up on the skill circuit I was just going to grab a load of weights and not come up ever, no way was I going to go back to Big Vin and say I failed, it was going fine until I did remove equipment and replace, I missed a release and yes the examiner saw it… now with Vin that would have been a 1… shiiiiit still just keep going.

Confined Water Presentation :  Mouth to pocket mask. I did my demonstration then had the students do it, 1st mistake pocket mask upside down spotted and corrected in about 5 seconds flat, second student dunked the head, I saw it coming next thing I know I was given the cut and skill over.. Fastest cut of the day … I knew that was a pass…

Scores were 4.8, and 23/25 not perfect but high.

Back to the hotel (Kata Beach Resort) ….

Knowledge Development presentation

I went second out of our group. This was not my best subject, lots to remember and lots of places to get it horribly wrong, but Sarah and Sean had done their jobs well Point by point I hit the critical attributes , Passed second highest marks…..4.6

That was it for Saturday that left Sunday, I knew that the game wasn’t over there was still time to screw up.

Open Water

Sunday again we were first in but first time to do an awesome briefing, this is where it matters almost more than in the water, while nobody wants a bad score it can happen, but a good briefing and de-briefing can save the day, I wanted points on my side just in case, I had been prepared well during the IDC by Sarah and Sean now all I had to do was apply it , briefing went well so as I swam out to the dive site I was hopeful but still mindful that almost anything could go wrong. One of my team mates was talking about skills, I told her shh you know it don’t wind yourself up, yeah but… no shh I started singing she joined in and chilled we got to the patch of sand laughing dropped the line in and were as ready as we could be.

Rescue Scenario

All was going well then a release on my victims BCD wouldn’t release; damn I missed a breath, immediately gave two breaths, no prompting and carried on….

Score 5

 Under water

I had dived this site and knew how much space wasn’t there, I swear it’s the teeniest patch of sand you have ever seen especially with 5 of you in it and skills to do.

People took their goes then it was my turn, 1st guy fumbled with his mask, cut redo…

Remember … damn he did it again… redo oh crap this isn’t good and again, stress levels are going up, am I wasting time? Have I nailed it? I could almost see it falling apart right here… stop breath focus, briefing was good just get this guy done and move on…job done, next one mask replace upside down… stop redo… remember… he got it right second time…. Up to the surface back to the beach

Swimming back I knew in my heart I had done enough, but I had to sit on the excitement I still had the de-brief to do. Stress levels around me got higher, I stopped listening I needed to focus on my de-brief I wanted a 5 that mask thing was bothering me.

On shore, I wrote up my debrief. De kitted and packed my gear…then it was time

I listened to the others then gave mine…. Well done Ivan you passed 4.8

Passed - The Red Team

That night I got a text message from BIG VIN… a man of few words, he did not disappoint ….”Well done mate welcome to the club”. Praise indeed.

IE Over and I passed it was the 25th of March 2012 and I had been at this since mid way through January. Final Hurdle the IE Party at Molly Malones………….

I stayed in Phuket until May team teaching and guiding, I also took some Speciality Instructor Certification with Scuba Cat.

It’s been one hell of a journey, and many people to say thank you too.

So I’ll just say thank you to every one that has added to the experience and knowledge I have acquired, ALL the Instructors and Dive Masters at Scuba Cat.

To Big Vin, for giving me all those 1’s and for sharing his knowledge…  If you ever want to become a DM I really don’t think you could ask for a better Instructor anywhere in the world.

Little Vince, For showing me more about how to help the qualified instructors during my Divemaster training, from setting up bouylines to accounting.

Kiwi, for being a mine of information and having time to answer even the dumbest of questions.

To Sarah and Sean for giving us hell and preparing us to go through the IE with the highest scores.

To my partner Cameo, for making it possible for me to be here and keeping our world running at home.

And to my Dive Buddy, Patience that sat and helped me go through all the e-mails and number crunching at the beginning and had faith in me during my journey.

IDC Phuket Thailand March 2012

The IDC is two weeks of intense learning, it takes the skills you have and teaches you how to teach them, instills the standards that are expected of you by and prepares you for the Instructor Examination.(IE)

If Vin gave me the ability to demonstrate the pool skills then Sarah ( Course Director) and Shaun ( Master Instructor) taught me how to Teach the skills.

Confined and Open Water presentations

Rule 1 ….Never Ever Ever loose contact with your students… ok to dive master, ok to students have 1 student come to you, have the Dive Master hold the students that are left, damn I got turned, oh look one has quietly swam off and the others drowned (theoretically) and the dive master is on planet zorb…. 1

Here we go again with the 1’s if you hadn’t guessed by now 1 is a fail….

Back to class let’s do a presentation on ow confined 1…. Write it up present it… yep you guessed it 1.

Wait for Sarah and Sean to stop laughing, be told how to do it properly.

Do another get a 3.5  yaaaaaaay it worked (bout blooming time)

More Physics, more theory aced every thing with one exception….. physics;  now physics is actually a subject I like, It really isn’t complicated but I was failing and just couldn’t figure out why, as Sarah kept saying RTFQ, problem was I was reading the FIN question and totally not understanding it, ask me the question and I could tap my calculator and give you the answer no problem give me it written in form well I might as well of been reading Chinese, finally I cracked it 95%.

Class Room presentations

These turned out to be the hardest yet simplest of things to do, hardest because you have to learn how exactly to put over the information that you need to but done to a formula laid out by , once you understand what is needed it becomes easy

Standards preparation

Standards are exactly what the word means, it is the bible of what you are and are not allowed to do under rules, two books are used in this exam, Sean goes through it lots and lots by the time he’s finished if you don’t actually know the answer to a question you will know where to find it.

AI exam

I woke up in the morning the sky was blue and I knew I was going to pass which felt kind of odd because Physics still wasn’t going right but I knew that I knew the answers to any thing that was asked and that today the questions were actually going to make sense.

Went to the class room sat down got the exam, and away we went box after box to be filled in, I finished Roy my class mate was still doing his, If I failed this I would not be going to the IE it was make or break time, I got up gave my paper to Sean he asked if I was sure it was done I said yep just mark it please, and then went down stairs for a coffee.

You have to understand that going to the IE for me was a journey that could end at any moment, I could of failed my Divemaster and now I could fail the AI exam, its most definitely a one step at a time journey, I finished my coffee and Sean came down, well done mate an easy pass I had scored out of the exams 2 100%’s and physics 95% I was going to the IE.

Pressure…..

The night before the IE, I was on facebook I posted some music and a couple of comments, Big Vin posted …. “You should save your Energy for the Job in hand Ivan” the truth is that’s exactly what I was doing, trying to stop my head from making mountains out of mole hills, The IE if you let it can be a stressful time, 3 days of exams; first is the written exams on the Friday, physics, physiology, standards etc, Saturday brings pool skill circuit and your demonstration of a skill or two, Sunday is rescue and open water skills.

I was sitting on the balcony of my apartment reflecting on the journey so far and the three days that were ahead, my phone went Big Vin ….. Don’t let the others stress you out just do what you have to do good luck mate.

To say I wasn’t nervous would be a lie, but I was if not confident then hopeful, I knew that all I had to do was not be a Muppet and just do what I had been taught, as for the exams there wasn’t a question I didn’t know the answer to or couldn’t work out, I just needed to RTFQ and do it.

People get stressed about exams but this was the first exam that I wasn’t stressed about, a thought came in to my head and it stuck and everything became easy, An exam is really just a bunch of questions you already know the answer to…

A big thank you to Ursula Scheid who completed her IDC with us in February 2012.

Sarah Kench Course Director

“I believe the reason I passed the IE was in part due to Sarah Kench’s beliefs in my abilities no matter how difficult I thought it was or how much I doubted my own abilities! She was a solid support for me from day one! I walk away from this experience with a heavy heart as I will miss the strength of Sarah’s professionalism, knowledge. care, positive spirits and endless energy. I couldn’t recommend an IDC or Course Director more highly. Thank you ”

By the time it came to the IE we were all in different stages of readiness. Bruce and I had gone over his physics so many times he was talking about gasses in his sleep.  The Friday afternoon came and at the appointed hour we joined around 50 other candidates in the exam hall. The examiners were later than we expected but they tried to calm us down with some chat. Maybe it was just me but all I wanted was the exam paper, the time to do it in and to get out.

"Before"

All the practice, revision and the discussions helped as we all got through the papers. Some scraped a pass, some passed with high marks, and one of us had a resit to do the next day. But after the first day we were all still in with a chance to become Open Water Instructors.  Even coming out to torrential rain would not dampen our spirits. A couple of guys went for a relaxing massage, but most of us headed to the school room to chat about the day and begin preparations for the morning. We had been given our skill set to teach and after an hour or so some of us went for a beer, (Its sociable to spend time together!!!)

"Beer O'Clock"

Next morning we met at seven, in various states of readiness.  But we knew that this session in the pool would be easy.  We had been taught well.  We had practiced teaching skills and knew what would be expected of us.  Separated into two groups we were all having side bets as to which group would have the highest average score. As it turned out we scored well, better than every dive center there. Why – because we had worked hard to make sure we got it right. Our Course Directors knew we would do well, because they knew that they way they taught us was the right way.

"Time to get wet"

Presentations in the afternoon flew past. We had been given our subject to present about on the Friday night and had worked examples into the presentations well. For Project AWARE, when the group were asked to suggest something old, someone suggested their Grandfather! Even the examiners loved this example.  3 parts gone and tomorrows Open Water session was to be the last. Would be Instructors nearer their dream as our resit man had scored over 90% in his resit. Christophe’s  lunchtime session paying dividends again.

Sunday morning at 7 we arrived outside the “Scuba Cat front shop”. The confidence was high but you could feel the nerves. Maybe one or two beers the night before were not the ideal way, or the Disco crowd were coming down from the dancing high, but we jumped into the pick up more subdued. Bruce and Christian had their sea sick tablets as we headed off to Racha Noi for our last session.

"Day 3"

Staying in our groups of four, we were delighted to see that one group got off to the best start by floating through the Rescue Scenario. Again all the practice had paid off, I was remembering my Instructor in Scotland’s voice pacing me through the whole thing. Didn’t matter though as Christophe told us to get out HIS ocean. One more session and the dream was reality. All 8 still in the game and now buzzing.

We went down to around 10m to be met by Jim our examiner.  Going through each of our two skills, when I surfaced with Alfredo after the CESA – Jim said we were in the game and that’s all we needed. When our second group joined us, the hilarity took over. Some other centers had pupils in the water re-doing their Rescue Scenario!! We couldn’t believe it. Some of them seemed to be doing it for the first ever time. Looking at them struggling to remove equipment made us realize that we were good Rescue Divers, and that our practice had paid off.

"Team Dec 2010"

Thanks again Ceri, Find out the result tomorrow……………..