A long day of listening

A long day of listening

Today we had a lot of presentations to listen to. 

We started with “Teaching in Open Water”, because tomorrow, we’ll be going into the ocean for our Open Water presentations.

David presented everything we needed to know for tomorrow, and we also had a group discussion, in which we got some very useful tips for tomorrow. 
One of the most important things is to try and help each other out, and not make things more difficult for each other, as everyone will be nervous anyway.

So we made sure we all knew who had which skills to do, and confirmed with our fellow candidates that everyone was able to perform the skills.

The next presentation on the list was about the “Open Water Diver course”. It was very enlightening to learn how to actually teach the Open Water Diver course in real life, toreal students, perhaps very soon!

Than we listened to the two very long presentations about “Risk Management”, that were similar to the presentations I listened to on my A.I. course.

To wake us up a bit, we spend the next two hours doing our own Knowledge Development presentations. Mine was about Rescue Assists, which turned out to be a fairly easy subject. There is a lot you can talk about, but you can make clear what you want to say without making the presentation too long.

I was a bit more relaxed for this second Knowledge Development presentation than for the first one, and I felt it went very well.  I was extremely pleased to get a 5.0, as these presentations where the assignments I was most nervous about in the whole IDC.

After that, we only had to listen to “The Marketing of Diving”, which was presented by Phil. He did really well, only he seemed a bit nervous, but I’m sure he’ll feel more confident soon, after doing a couple more presentations in front of the group.

After this long, long day of listening, I am looking forward to go diving again tomorrow, even though it means that we’ll be doing our Open Water Exercises tomorrow, one of the few things we are not allowed to do over, in the unlikely event of (PADI’s favorite quite, you should remember this if you’re thinking of ever doing your IDC course!) failing them!

Keep up to date about my experiences!

Love, Alice

Pool stuff and first presentation

Pool stuff and first presentation

When I arrived at the Dive Centre  it soon turned out we were going in the pool first thing in the morning.

 Everyone was trying to spend a couple more minutes glancing at their slates, trying to make the last few notes and changes. We got our equipment ready, and 45 minutes later we were lined up near the edge of the pool.

First, we did our skill circuit. Tim was with us in the pool, demonstrating every single skill, after which all the candidates were to copy the skill at the same time. There were no problems at all on the skill circuit, and after a 20 minute break, warming up from the cold water, we went back in for the Confined Water presentations.

My ConfinedWater skills were the Controlled Seated Entry and the Five Point Descent. Because of that first skill (the entry is always the first thing..) I was the first up! I had a small issue with my tank in the morning, as I would obviously have to sit down in full kit at the edge of the pool.. Well, that’s easier said than done when your tank is about half a meter longer than you! I am by far the shortest person in the group, which is no surprise and I am also the only female. Luckily, one of my fellow candidates agreed to swap his tank with mine.

After we had all done our briefings, I got my “students” to sit in a line at the edge of the pool, and I demonstrated the skill, that I had never actually done before! I am used to doing the Roll Back Entry and have done the Giant Stride a couple of times, in my previous diving courses and just to practice it. I was relieved to have no problems demonstrating the skill.

Than my students got into the water one by one, and after two people, I got the “cut it” signal, which can mean you are doing really well, or really bad. We’ll soon find out which of the two it was.

My second skill, the Five Point Descent, started off well, I did my demonstration, organized my Divemaster and students, got them to do the skill, corrected any occurred problems and remembered to reinforce them. Then I discovered my Divemaster had decided not to listen to my briefing and stay at the surface instead of staying with us.. So it turns out that your fellow candidates can be your friends, but also your enemies on the IDC! I am a bit wary about my score on this skill.

That afternoon we also did our Knowledge Development presentations. My subject was solution thinking underwater. Although I was very nervous, I didn’t do too bad on my presentation.

Score time!! David announced everyone’s scores on today’s assignments, and I turned out to have scored a 5.0 and 4.6 (out of 5) for my Confined Water presentations! I was also very pleased with my 4.8 for my Knowledge Development presentation.

Tomorrow we will be doing our second Knowledge Development presentation and the rest of the day we’ll be listening to more presentations.

Back soon!

Love, Alice