Man I don’t even really remember what my last post was about, but I do know it’s been one hell of a ride since then. The past two weeks have been an absolute blur. It started with divemaster week, so everytime we went out on the boat, we were acting as divemasters, helping the other team and any customers in and out of the water and trying to catch any problems we saw.
The highlight of that week was by far the night dive. We got to the reef and into the water around 5:15 so we could create a plan for the dive once there was no sunlight. The goal was as a group of four, to take one of the instructors down as a customer and then one at a time lead them through the dive. Needless to say, as soon as the sun was down our plan went to hell. We didn’t find the right start point and then we were all over the place, BUT… I did get to swim with and pet a big old turtle, saw a couple of gian green moray eels, saw a spotted moray free swimming, two squids, a stone fish, pufferfish, slipper lobster, a big nurse shark and the highlight of the trip….a 4 foot barracuda charged me and hit me in the arm. It felt like someone punched me as hard as they could.
Another fun part of that week was leading a dive on the Thunderbolt, a wreck dive in 110 feet of water. Of course as soon as we got down there, my instructor swam off from me, so needless to say that was a stressful dive.
But I’m now a divemaster, certified on Nitrox (a gas mix with more O2 added to it), certified to teach O2 use, CPR, CCPR and First Aid.
Next week begins prep week. We’ll be getting ready to actually instruct students the next week. So they’re going to be throwing all kinds of problems at us to see how we handle them.
I’ve only got less than a month until I’m a certified instructor and that’s kind of crazy. I also got a new mask today. It’s incredible.
Here are a few pictures I stole from the dudes who posted them on facebook. (I’m huggin Kyle cause the instructors where making fun of him getting his picture taken).
I’m the one with the yellow arm in the last picture.
in the bottom picture of all of you in the water, that guy without the equipment on looks so much like dad! doppleganger!