Divemaster demostration quality skills - passed

Yesterday we've completed the demonstration quality skills part of the divemaster training. It was strange to practice demonstrating the '20 basic skills' - normally you don't think about each step of the skill, you just do it. But now you had to think and emphasize each and every step of the activity (eg. mask clearing), so that it would seem easy to perform. I know it is easy, I've done it a thousand times, but it was completely different to make it seem easy. Moreover you have to score at least 3 point (out of 5) for each skill (you can score better on some and worse on others, the mean has to be at least 3 points). Nevertheless it's done, I even had quite a good score:) Below is a video of an instructor doing 'mask removal and recovery' in demonstration quality.

Hańcza lake diving

This weekend we were diving in the Hańcza lake - Poland's deepest lake (108 m).


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The weather was fair which was very nice as we were diving in wetsuits and the water had temperature of 4 degrees Celsius (39 F). We used 7+7mm wetsuits and still it was pretty damn cold down there. This dive was also a test dive for our new jackets, and a flashlight I bought the day before the trip (Princeton Tec Rage). The BCD's (Magda's Cressi Aquapro and mine Tusa Liberator) turned out to have a bit too small buoyancy for fresh water, apart from that they did good. The flashlight turned out to be total crap, even for a backup light I intended it to be. It didn't give enough light, was hard to turn on in 5mm gloves and died very fast:(

We did 5 dives during two days to a maximum depth of 30 meters. At this depth it was pretty dark, fortunately we borrowed a bigger flashlight from our friends. Nitrogen narcosis kicked in at 30 meters (probably because of the darkness and water temperature), we started feeling a bit anxious so we turned back and started our ascent. Despite that dive dive was great and we took some interesting photos :

My own jacket - Tusa Liberator

I finally managed to save up enough money to buy a BCD (jacket). I've chosen Tusa Liberator (BCJ-3200) mainly because of the price.



So far I've made about 10 dives with it and it seems to be a good and durable jacket. It's quite comfortable and it has an integrated weight system (Tusa's AWLS). The quick release mechanism of the weight system has a rather secure fastening which does not open unexpectedly. The BCD also has some accessory holders and, ofcourse, pockets. On the down side it has few steel D-rings (only one) and small buoyancy (10 kg for the European S size - my size). All in all I'm safisfied with this jacket - I can start saving on the equipment rental :)

Swimming often is... bad or your ears?

I go to the swimming pool quite often, especially now, during the divemaster training. Apart from the divemaster course we also have our regular freediving trainings and try to swim at least once more a week.
During the last two months i've developed some recurring pain in my ear. Initially I thought it was because of the winter and not drying my ears after swimming so I started paying more attention to that. Last weekend my ear started hurting badly so I finally went to see a doctor. It turned out that I had some ear infection because of frequent swimming. And they say that sport is good or your health....

PADI Divemaster exam passed

Yesterday evening we wrote the Divemaster Exam, all 8 parts of it. I must say that this was the hardest PADI exam I wrote so far, probably because of knowledge you have to take in. The exams covered the following topics:

1. Physics
2. Physiology and First Aid
3. Equipment
4. PADI Divemaster Conducted Programs
5. Decompression Theory and the RDP
6. Dive Skills and the Environment
7. Supervising Activities for Certified Divers
8. Supervising Student Divers in Training

For me the PADI Divemaster Conducted Programs was the most difficult one. Despite that I passed scoring rather well:). Magda had less luck, she failed the Equipment part and she'll have to retake it. It's good she only failed one, because if you fail 3 or more you have to write the whole exam again:/

The questions were not very hard, some of them could have been answered with only some common sense and little thinking. That said, if I wouldn't have studied for 3 evenings, I wouldn't have passed the exam...

In the begining of May we're going diving to Croatia and by that time we need to complete the Water Skills and Stamina and Demonstration quality Basic Skills parts of PADI Divemaster course. Otherwise we will not be able to do the Internship part there...