Thursday, 28 February 2013

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 !!!

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

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.



Sunday, 17 February 2013

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


 

Sunday, 10 February 2013

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


Friday, 8 February 2013

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

Saturday, 2 February 2013

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 !!!