I've only gone and done it ...

That's right folks - I've done it !!!

I'm a PADI PRO !!!

I'm a Divemaster. 

Many thanks to everyone who helped me throughout the course - you know who you all are - too many to name here. 

I said way back in January that I wanted to get it sorted by the time I go to Bali (Nov. 2013). And I have !!  

D(M) Day

Well tomorrow (Oct 12th 2012) is D-Day. Hopefully after a hard long slog I will become a divemaster !!

Just have to navigate my way through the skills circuit then I'm done - and on course for my deadline of November 9 (when I'm off to Bali)

I shall blog more after I'm a DM (with all the thanks etc !!!). 

EAP

I cheated a little on my Emergency Action Plan - I used the EAP I used for my Resuce Course (but obliviously added more detail to it)

I was impressed !!!

Assessments

Part of the DM Course I had to have several assessments of a variety of things

Assisting with OW students in confined water

Assisting with OW students in OW

Leading certified divers,just to name 3. 

I learnt a lot from these especially the OW students in OW as we were in Stoney Cove and the viz was shockingly sh*te (under 1m in places). I has to be on the ball there !!

Waterman Skills

Ok the biggest things I wasn't looking forward to were the waterman skills

400m swim

800m swim

15 minute tread

But I passed all them with ease !!!

The swims weren't as bad as I thought and the last 45 seconds in the tread were the worst !!!

Other skills were 100m tired diver tow and kit exchange whist buddy breathing. 

Nearly There

Well not updated this blog in a while so here is a big update after a weekend of divemastering !!


Last bank holiday weekend I was up at Capernwray doing my divemaster stuff !!!


Started on the Saturday with  bit of DLD - Discover Local Diving with fun divers

On sunday it was a bit of Assisting certified divers on ConEd

This bit was fun !!! It was assisting on the Rescue Course ... Love assisting on that course. 

Skills Signed Off

This past Saturday, myself and 2 other DMT's got a lot of skills signed off by scoring 4 and 5's

The skills were

• Equipment Assembly
• Buddy Check
• Deep Water Entry
• 5 Point Decent
• Equipment R+R on Surface
• Equipment R+R underwater

More skill sessions to come and a chance to get even more signed off

Another 5 !!!!

Got another 5 points on the 15m tread water skill on the DiveMaster course. So that's 2 skills done both scoring maximum points.

All I need now is 5 points out of the 3 remaining skills (400m swim, 800m swim and Equipment exchange whist buddy breathing)

My next skill will be the equipment exchange whist buddy breathing (5 points please) then the killer swims wont be crucial to success,

So how bad was the tread water .... hard work - especially the last 2 minutes with hands out the water.. wouldn't like to do that again in a hurry !!!

Weekend of DM things

Ok so this past weekend I was up at Capernwray and got a good few things sorted on my DM Course. 

Dive Site Set Up & Management 

Sorted this ( I think)

Dive Site Orientation 

Gave my first Dive Site Orientation to loads of students and loads of divers and all the instructors came over too. 

Enjoyed it but got a few points to add next time 

Next I was assisting on an Open Water Course, so I could gain an knowledge of what goes on under the water. 

So a valuable weekend. Missed out on leading certified divers on a dive but that's next time !!! And next time will be for FUN !!

More progress

Well today I've been at the glorious Stoney Cove doing DM stuff. 

We had a crack at 

Dive site set up and management

Dive Site Orientation

Search and Recovery Scenario 

and Rescue Scenario 

Although I had previously dined these I did then again to get better practise. 

Had a better time tying knots this time. 

Next week is Capernwray  where I will let loose with real students on a dive site orientation. 

Following that its more theory on chapters 6-9 and a HSE presentation. 

Followed by more skills !  

See you next time 

Loads done this weekend

What a weekend. Done loads on the DM course.

Search and Recovery. 

This involved tying knots and lifting an object with weight bags. This also involved giving a briefing on tying a knot and a search pattern. 

I had to use the U shape search pattern and tying the Bow Line knot. 

 

Rescue Scenario

 

For this I had to "rescue" an unresponsive non breathing diver who was face down in the water. 

This brought back memories from the Rescue Course. 

Not the best rescue but it was ok for this part of the course. 

Mapping Project
 

Myself and Jay were tasked with a mapping project at Capernwray. We had to find and then mark the saucer and the pigs with SMB's and then take bearing to and from these points to other fixed objects (like the heli2, plane or Diving Bell)

To be honest it was easier than I thought it would be. The only trouble we had was to find the saucer !!!

Tired Diver Tow

 

On your marks, set .... Go

3 of us DMT's attempted our Tired Diver Tows at Capernwray and it was a good tow!!
I done this in 1:53 plenty of time to score 5 

Only another 10 points to find out of 400m swim. 800m swim, equipment exchange and a 15minute tread water. 

Happy Days!!

Loads done today !!! More tomorrow

Well my DM course is going good now !!!

Today (sat) done and got signed off the following. 

Search and Recovery

Rescue Scenario

Also went in with students on Dive 2

Tomorrow (Sun) will be doing the Mapping Project and Diver Tow. 

More info to follow. 

Also I tied the knot today !!!

 

A good session today

Divemaster training continues ...


A very good session today, alot of skills done today - top marks on Mask removal !!!

I just need to have more sessions like this

Back to it

After a long period of inactiveness on the DM course, managed to get some stuff done.

So on a wet miserable Bank Holiday Monday, Jason, Rob Y, Sarah and myself were at Capernwray working our way through a couple of workshops

They included Discover Local Diving and Discover Scuba Diving.

We also had a try at Dive Site Orientation. And I took on the Dive Site Set Up.


Jason and myself had the Discover Local Diving workshop and had to plan and brief a dive in Capernwray for 2 qualified divers, whist Sarah and Rob Y had the Discover Scuba Diving workshop to plan and brief.

Then we went to put them in to practice on the 6m shelf - that was harder than it looked !!!

More soon ....

DM course continues

Back to the DM course later this week ... at Stoney in the bloody cold !!!

Lets hope is doesn't snow like it did this past week (at least I wasn't there this week - some think I chickened out)


What will I be doing this week I hear you ask .... well its a bit of

• Workshop A - Dive site briefing and orientation.
• Workshop B - Dive site set up and Management
•  
• Workshop 4 - Discover Scuba Diving in Open Water (dive 1)
• Workshop 5 - Discover Local Diving in Open Water

All sounds interesting !!!

Will blog all about it next week !!!


until then keep diving safe !!!

Skills ..... Skills and more Skills !!!!

Knowledge Review 3 complete today (2/3/13)

Knowledge Review 4 next time ... Date TBC


Pool Session

It was time for skills again today this time at Stratford Leisure Centre.

It was Dive One skills again ... but this time we were signed off with scores of 4/5's

The skills today were

Kit assembly
Kitting up
Buddy checks
Deep water entry
Partial Mask clear
Recover and clear regulator using both methods
Out of Air alternate air source use

All complete successfully !!!

Roll on next time !!!

Getting back on track ...

So after a few weeks off, the DM Course is getting back on track. Course schedule confirmed (although a lot of TBC's again my name - due to my love of holidays)

On Saturday 2nd March (the day before my birthday!!!)  we get things rolling again in Stratford with Knowledge Review 3 and yet more skills - good job i've been practicing them !!!

During the Feb break I read through a few extra chapters in the Divemaster manual and managed to get Knowledge Reviews 4 and 5 complete - so I'm ahead of the game.

As for the Emergency First Responce Instructor course I was thinking of doing ... I decided against it for the time being so I can concentrate on getting the DM course out of the way.

Know your kit !!!

EFRI

Emergency First Responder Instructor course.

Do I or don't I ?

Actually I was thinking about this for a while and kind of got a invite via email to the next course in March.

It would be good to do, although I've got a lot on my plate at the moment with the Divemaster course.

Reply to this blog below and let me know your thoughts.

Thanking Twitter

Well this weekend I was Surface Cover at Stoney Cove, and on the whole it went well - with one exception.

A diver on their Deep Adventure Dive part of the Advanced Open Water course bolted to the surface from about 22m after panicking on a free flow. Luckily a well trained Rescue Diver was with the diver at the time and successfully brought him to the quayside where I was positioned to get the diver out and de kitted. The diver was conscious and breathing .... and talking so that was a good sign.

We ended up at the base camp where emergency o2 was provided to the diver. The diver recovered all most straight away.

Luckily for me I follow

Divers Alert Network

@DAN_America

on Twitter and they recently tweeted about dive emergencies. That prompted me to refresh myself with Dive Emergency procedures and emergency o2 administration.

So if you have a twitter account here are a few twitter accounts you can follow

@Dan_America   https://twitter.com/DAN_America (Divers Alert Network)

@Dan_Europe   https://twitter.com/DAN_Europe

@DivingMDC   https://twitter.com/DivingMDC (Midland Dive Chamber)

@DiversEmergency   https://twitter.com/DiversEmergency (DES-UK)

@Scoobaboosta   https://twitter.com/ScoobaBoosta

and of course you can follow me @robmayor77 https://twitter.com/robmayor77

 

I could of .... but didn't

Well today I was at Stoney Cove assisting on an IDC, playing the naughty student - deliberately doing the skills wrong hoping they would be corrected !!! - they were.

Another part of the IDC, the candidate, (Neil) had to do a rescue assessment .... and I had an opportunity to do mine (part of the DM course).

The water was under 5 degrees and I was already too cold after assisting Neil on his Rescue Assessment that I decided to give it a miss.  It was a wise choice !!!

Gives me more time to practice

For those wondering the Rescue Assessment is responding to an unresponsive, non breathing diver by

• Locating diver
• Turning the diver face up and establishing buoyancy
• Removing divers mask and regulator, open the airway and check for breathing
• Calling for help
• Giving 2 initial rescue breaths, and continue with rescue breaths
• Tow diver to safety whist protecting his airway and continuing rescue breaths
• Remove divers kit as well as own
• Exit the water with diver

Whats coming up ?

As there is a few weeks break before the next session (Chapter 3 - Assisting with Student Divers)
I thought I'd look through the manual to see what was coming up.

Chapter 4 - Diver Safety and Risk Management
Chapter 5 - Divemaster Conducted Programs
Chapter 6 - Specialized Skills and Activities

Now the above chapter (6) sounds interesting it includes things like

• Floats, Marker Buoys and Signalling Devices
• Mapping
• Search and Recovery
• Deep Diving (though I have the PADI Deep Diver Speciality)

Chapter 7 - Business and my Career
Chapter 8 - Dive Environment Awareness
Chapter 9 - Dive Theory

Chapter 9 - This sounds hard !!!!

This includes things like

• Pressure Terminology
• Gasses Underwater
• Responses to Nitrogen and Inert Gas
• Circulatory and Respiratory Systems
• Thermal Change Responses
• Decompression Theory

and much more.

But I'm sure I will succeed ..... with the help form David, Lee and the team at Scoobaboosta

Course Chart

Where are you?

No reason not to follow

Just added some gadgets to this blog - you can now "follow by email" and Subscribe.

See the right hand side of the blog !!!

One of the reasons to get into shape

To successfully qualify as a PADI Divemaster I will need to do the following Waters skills with a combined score of 15 (as well as the other criteria - Obviously !!)
.

400 Metre Swim
This needs to be non-stop and without any swimming aids.
To score 5 points this needs to be done under 6:30 minutes
To score 4 points this needs to be done between 6:30 and 8:40 minutes
To score 3 points this needs to be done between 8:40 and 11 minutes
To score 2  points this needs to be done between 11 and 13 minutes
To score 1 point this needs to be done over 13 minutes.

15 Minute Tread
A 15 minute tread water with hands out the water during the last 2 minutes.

800 Metre Swim
800 metre swim face down, using mask, snorkel and fins. But without using hands.
To score 5 points this needs to be done under 14 minutes
To score 4 points this needs to be done between 14 and 16:30 minutes
To score 3 points this needs to be done between 16:30 and 18:30 minutes
To score 2  points this needs to be done between 18:30 and 21 minutes
To score 1 point this needs to be done over 21 minutes.

100 Metre Inert Diver Tow
Tow (or push) a diver at the surface with full scuba kit for 100 metres non-stop.
To score 5 points this needs to be done under 2:10 minutes
To score 4 points this needs to be done between 2.10 and 3.15 minutes
To score 3 points this needs to be done between 3.15 and 4.20 minutes
To score 2  points this needs to be done between 4.20 and 5.30 minutes
To score 1 point this needs to be done over 5.30 minutes.

Equipment Exchange
In confined water demonstrate the ability to exchange all scuba equipment with a buddy whilst sharing a single regulator.

With the above needed to be done - I really need to get in to shape !!

Who's Who ?

(not sure why this has jumped to the top of the posts ... I blogged this ages ago !!!)

Throughout this blog I shall be referring to many people, so I though it best to introduce everyone.

First off the Dive Master Trainees (the important people)

Rob (me) and Dan and Jason

Me in Dahab, Egypt

Secondly the Instructors and Hangers On !! (DMT's DM's and Rescue Divers and a few people to practise on)

David (course director) Lee  Kent Matt Neil Rob, Sarah, Rob, Nic, Chris, Lewis, Steve, Liz & Adrian and possibly more as the year goes on.


Big thanks to all the above in advance for getting me qualified !!! Couldn't do it without you.

Week 2

Knowledge Review 2 - Supervising Certified Divers.

Only Jason and myself tonight, Dan called off sick.

All satisfactory completed with Course Director David Fitzsimmonds.


Pool Session - KH8 Coventry

Started this week with logistics, unloading the kit to setting up kit for 3 new students on Dive One on the OW Course.

After this there was a junior fun diver that we had to supervise as well as completing all relevant Dive One skills.

The skills demonstrated today were

• Breathing from Regulator (for the first time)
• Partial mask clearing
• Recover and clear regulator using the 2 methods (blast and purge)
• Responding to "Out of Air" system including alternate air use from buddy
• SORTED Decent
• STELA Ascent

A few things to work on but on the whole a very good productive session.


Next time .... Knowledge Review 3 Assisting with Students and more than likely Dive Two skills.

A reminder to check out my website for more diving information www.robmayor.com/scuba.php

Cheerio !!!

 

 

 

Week 1

Well, just completed Knowledge Review 1 ( Divemaster Role) with Jay and Dan (fellow DMT's) all went as planned.

Pool Session One - Rugby

Once we were pool side the skills learning commenced.

First there was the kit assembly and the weight belt assembly. If I remember correctly I scored a 4.

Once in the water we started looking at the following skills

• Buoyancy Check at surface
• Regulator recovery and clearing
• Mask clearing
• Mask removal, replacement and clearing
• Air depletion exercise and alternate air source use

I found demonstrating these skills harder than I thought, I must remember to add the little things that will get me extra marks. On the above skills I scored either 3 or 4's - Not bad for a first attempt.

Well that's it till next week where its more skills and Knowledge Review 2

What I have to do !!!

To get the PADI Divemaster Qualification I will need to complete all the things below.

SKILLS

1. Kit Assembly
2. Buddy checks
3. Deep water entry
4. Buoyancy check at surface
5. Snorkel / Regulator exchange
6. Five point decent
7. Regulator recovery and clearing
8. Mask removal, replacement and clearing
9. Air depletion exercise and alternate air source use (stationary)
10. Alternate air source assisted ascent
11. Free flowing regulator breathing
12. Neutral buoyancy
13. Five point ascent
14. C.E.S.A
15. Hover motionless for 30 seconds
16. Underwater swim without mask
17. Remove and replace weight system underwater
18. Remove and replace scuba unit underwater
19. Remove and replace scuba unit on the surface
20. Remove and replace weight system on the surface
21. Vertical, head first skin dive
22. Swim at least 15 metres underwater on single breath whilst skin diving
23. Snorkel clear using blast method after ascending from skin dive
24. Snorkel clear using displacement method after skin dive

KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT

Knowledge Review 1 - Role and Characteristics
Knowledge Review 2 - Supervising Dive Activities
Knowledge Review 3 - Assisting with Students
Knowledge Review 4 - Diving Safely and Risk Management
Knowledge Review 5 - Divemaster Conducted Programs
Knowledge Review 6 - Specialized Skills and Activities
Knowledge Review 7 - The Business of Diving and Your Career
Knowledge Review 8 - Awareness of the Dive Environment
Knowledge Review 9 - Dive Theory Review

FINAL EXAMS

Part 1
Part 2

WATERSKILLS EXCERCISES

Exercise 1 - 400m swim
Exercise 2 - 15 tread water
Exercise 3 - 800m snorkel swim
Exercise 4 - 100m diver tow
Exercise 5 - Equipment Exchange

PRACTICAL SKILLS

Skill 1 - Dive site set up and management
Skill 2 - Mapping Project
Skill 3 - Dive Briefing
Skill 4 - Search and Recovery
Skill 5 - Deep Dive Scenario (OR PADI Deep Diver)

DIVEMASTER CONDUCTED PROGRAM WORKSHOPS

Workshop 1 - Scuba Review in Confined Water
Workshop 2 - Skin Diver Course and Snorkelling Supervision
Workshop 3 - DSD Program - in Confined Water
Workshop 4 - DSD Program - Additional Open Water Dive
Workshop 5 - Discover Local Diving in Open Water

PRACTICAL ASSESSMENTS

Practical Assessment 1 - Open Water Diver Students in Confined water
Practical Assessment 2 - Open Water Diver Students in Open Water
Practical Assessment 3 - Continuing Education Student in OW
Practical Assessment 4 - Certified Divers in OW

After all the above and maybe one or two other things I will become a PADI Divemaster.

Things are moving

Got my hands on the PADI Divemaster crew pack today including

• PADI Instructor Manual
• PADI Divemaster Slates
• PADI Divemaster Manual
• Training Log
• Scuba Tune Up Guidebook
• PADI bag
• The Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving

A few dates have also been set so this weekend (26/01/2013) it starts in Rugby.

Me and My Diving

OK here I am about to start the DM course, so I thought I'd share my Diving Experiences with you.

 

Me Diving at KH8 - Coventry

 

I started diving in 2006 and completed my open water dives in Crete, whilst on holiday.

After qualifiying I then decided to take a trip to Egypt in early 2007 and completed a handful of dives. After this I didn’t do any diving until late 2009 when I was going on a cruise to the Caribbean.

In June 2011 I wanted to get into UK diving and started looking for a local dive centre and found Scoobaboosta. Since then my diving has gone from strength to strength.

In the last 18 months I have completed the following Courses

·         Advanced Open Water

·         Rescue Diver

I also gained the following Specialities

·         Dry Suit

·         Nitrox

·         Equipment Specialist 

·         Deep Diver

·         Emergency o2 Provider

With the above complete I attained the Master Scuba Diver rating.

I've dived some amazing sites and here are 10 great dive sites / loactions / wrecks that I have dived

1. Thistlegorm, Egypt.
2. RMS Rhone. Tortola, BVI.
3. Bells to Blue Hole. Dahab, Egypt.
4. Shark Dive. Blueplanet Aquarium. Cheshire. UK
5. Canyons. Dahab, Egypt
6. Caves. Dahab, Egypt.
7. Porthkerris. Cornwall. UK
8. Scallop Drift Dive. Weymouth. UK
9. Mullion’s Cove. Cornwall. UK
10. Capernwray. Lancashire, UK

For the geeks out there reading this here are some geeky stats

Dive Count: 100  (as of Jan 6^th 2013)
        2012 Dives =60
        2013 Dives =0

Longest Dive: 64 mins.

Deepest Dive (Wet): 35.0 m 
Deepest Dive (Chamber Awareness - Dry): 50.9m

Total Dive time: 59hrs 51mins

 

You can follow my diving on my webpage www.robmayor.com/scuba.php  

Signing Up

So it's January 5th and I have decided to enrol in the PADI DiveMaster Course with Scoobaboosta - a local dive centre in Warwick.

Loads of hard work to come ... hopefully I can get it done by end of 2013.

Go Pro !!!