Tales from a divemaster candidate (Part 1)

More challenging than I could have ever imagined, my journey toward becoming a scuba instructor opens my eyes with each class I observe. As a former high school teacher, I feel confident about the teaching end of being a scuba instructor. If anything, scuba diving is rekindling my love for the teaching profession.....my classroom, my office will be open and wide....filled with water, fins, tanks, dive logs, and regulators instead of desks, dry erase or chalk boards, and books. With each observation I learn something new, experience a different perspective under water....part of the evolution possibly of becoming a scuba instructor.

Today I evolved a little more.

During my previous visit to Athens Scuba Park to work with a class I tagged along with Reneé, a Scuba Source Divemaster. She showed me the Athens set up routine and showed me how to run and tie the guide ropes for the OW student’s check-out dive. Today, for the first time I was on my own. The rope was tied off at the initial platform where students do their OW skills so I did a surface swim to the next buoy which marked the sunken DART bus approximately ten feet below. I began to submerge when I realized my tank had come completely out of my BCD. Great. I surface and yell out to Mike what had happened.

“Fix it!” he replied.

OK, I thought. I totally suck at this whole tighten your gear up in the water thing.

“Oh, but be careful because you are weighted.”

Uh huh. No room for babies here. (Even though I was resisting the urge to cry)

So I began the task. Inflated my BC and crawled out of it. With a reel of rope in one hand I began to feel around the bottom of my BC to see if this might be an easy fix. No such luck. I needed the other hand. I had a line of rope floating in the water and I couldn’t rest the reel on top of the inflated BC because as I would slightly drift, the reel would fall off creating more problems. So I stuck the rope reel between my knees. Now, I can tread water like a champ, but imagine only being able to tread water by only circulating the lower part of your legs.......remember I have ten pounds of weight around me. (It is definitely time for an integrated BCD.)

Getting the tread part down, I place the regulator in my mouth and head under the BC to start fixing the unruly tank. After a few minutes, it was back in place.

Cool.

Feeling quite proud of myself, I get my gear back on only to realize that my regulator hose is now coming over the top of my head.

Damn it.

So now I have this treading with half my legs down pat, I go through the whole thing again this time turning the tank to make sure it is in the proper position. Only then do I discover that the plastic piece on my BC which helps hold the tank in place is missing. Hmmm....... yes.....time for a new BC. I tighten the strap until I am sure this tank isn’t going anywhere and then submerge to complete the initial task.

As I followed the guide rope back to the platform, my mind was racing. Only then, during that challenging moment, had I realized the true importance of having a dive buddy....and a good one at that. More importantly, for the first time I began to realize that as an instructor with a student, that the student really isn’t a dive buddy...he/she isn't even certified yet, so essentially you are alone. As an instructor, you are required to be skilled enough to handle loose tanks and the like on your own.

A lesson worth learning somewhat the hard way.