Won the PADI Renewal Competition

Yesterday when I went to check my snail mailbox I was very surprised to see a big packet I was not expecting. My surprise was even bigger when I saw PADI stamps on the envelope, so I've torn the wrapping and saw... PADI Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving - the prize in this years Renewal Competition I have almost forgotten I've entered:). It's not the grand prize (return of the renewal fee) but still niiiiceeee:)

On-line magazines

The end of the year... time to pay the yearly PADI tribute (aka The Renewal Fee). The first one I have to pay (last year I finished the AI course in the last two months of the year so the application fee counted as renewal). But this year you can opt in for an online edition of the Undersea Journal to reduce your carbon footprint. Divers Alert Network Alert Diver magazine is available only online.

I don't like it. I mean it's OK the way PADI is doing it (switching to online edition is optional). I like reading these mags on the bus too much to even consider moving to the online version. Another thing is, that when you have the paper version your kind of obliged to read it, whereas when it sits in your email box you're not.

Finally - plastic arrived

Today I got my Divemaster certification card :D. I've posted the application 1,5 month ago, so it's quite a long time. Fortunately I got my PADI number earlier, three weekse after PADI charged my credit card for the divemaster application. If you want to get your number quick you can try contacting PADI member services, they are very helpful.

The deck is growing...



It's funny that I got the course evaluation questionnaire on paper this time.

Mailing my PADI Divemaster Application :D

Today I posted the divemaster application to PADI. Apart from the filled in application form you also have to send them a recent medical examination stating that you are fit to dive, a recent photo and an authorization to charge your credit card. Don't try sending checks or other methods of payment - credit card is the fastest way. If you don't have a credit card you can always try asking your relatives :) It also doesn't have to be a real credit card (one that allows you to spend money you don't have) - you can try one of the so called eCards (card that pretend to be credit cards but work in a prepaid manner).

Hope the application will be processed quickly by PADI - I must have my c-card before going for the AI course on Phuket in the end of October.

AOWD - finally

Last weekend I finally managed to finish the internship portion of the divemaster course - the AOWD course. This was a lucky shot because I'm running out of time. I have to get through the certification process before our departure to Phuket, Thailand.

AOWD - the course that does not happen

To finish the internship part of the Divemaster course I'm supposed to help an instructor during the Advanced Open Water Course. Seems easy - the course itself is just 5 dives/2 days. The problem is, that almost everyone is doing their AOWD in Egypt, Croatia or some other place with warm, clear water and not in polish murky lakes:/ I don't have the time&money to go to such place (im trying to finish my masters thesis), so I'm kind of stuck. Hope that someone will eventually do this course before our departure to Phuket.

Magda going to Egypt for a wreck safari

Magda has been invited to go for Egyptian wreck safari as a divemaster. During a week on a liveaboard boat she's going to guide dives to: Salem Express, Giannis D, Carnatic, Chrisula K, Kimon M, Thistlegorm, Rosalie Moller and El Mina. This is going to be a great trip for her. And it's good beacause she's been put on 'fasttrack to DM' in our dive center, meaning that she'll have priority to do all the interships needed for the Divemaster course she hasn't done yet.

And in the meantime I'll be finishing my master's thesis. Great ... :/

Rescue Diver training on Piłakno Lake

Wow, Rescue Diver training seems to be as hard for the Divemasters as it is for the trainees.. especially when the divemasters are also helping during Deep Diver speciality... This is basically what me and Magda were doing last weekend.

The RD open water training focuses mainly on different ways of getting a diver having a problem to the shore or other safe place. That is why the future RDs where practicing different methods of towing a tired or unconscious diver (sometimes with rescue breathing). A lot attention is also put on searching for a missing diver. During the training trainees were first practicing, under DM supervision, different search patterns (U-shape, square etc.) and then applying these skills in a simulated rescue action.

Viz in the lake was rather poor (less than 5m) and so we had to keep really close to "our" trainee during this supervision. It was then when I got kicked in the face with to-be-rescue-diver's fin and bit off the mouthpiece of my regulator:/ I had to finish that dive on my octo.

Tropical destination chosen :D

We have chosen our tropical travel destination: it's going to be Phuket in Thailand. We're planning to do PADI Assistant Instructor course with Asian Divers a Polish diving center there, and then start working. Lot's of work ahead of us: finishing our masters thesis, finishing DM course, finding accomodation, visas, flights etc. But I can't wait to get there:D

Open Water course on Piłakno lake

Last weekend we did the OWD course internship. This was kind of hard despite that there was four of us divemaster trainees (DMTs for short), because there were 9 people doing this course and the visibility in Piłakno is at most 5m (that is before the OWDs get in the water:) ). Because of the visibility our instructor split the course into two groups so that each DMT had his own diver to supervise. So we had to do 8 dives during two days (of which one was my birthday:/). The weather was not so good either.

During the dives we supervised the OWD trainees so that they would not get lost or jump to the surface at high speed. One of my divers tried to do that so I had to catch him and bring him down. This was harder than I thought as I didn't have enough weights on me to pull him with a full BCD down... My bad..

We also helped new divers in practicing their skills, don their gear, answered A LOT of questions on different topics... all in all great fun and a very rewarding experience.

Assisting during Rescue Diver pool sessions

Yesterday we did our internships during PADI Rescue Diver confined waters training. This part of the Rescue Diver course is generally hard work, though it gets even harder in the open water.

This pool session was a total organizational fuckup. The to-be-rescue-divers didn't have any classes, they didn't even get to see the Rescue Diver Video, so we had to instruct them in-water which was a bit awkward.

During the pool session managed to show them various techniques of towing a diver, with and without rescue breathing and that was about it.

Afterwards it turned out that the pool will be close from the next week onwards and so the trainees won't be able to practice surfacing unconscious diver before open water.

Piłakno lake diving

Our dive center, Nautica, finally has it's own diving base in Poland. It is located in Mazury, polish lake district, at lake Piłakno.


Show bigger map

Last weekend was longer than usual because of Corpus Christi holiday, so we went to this new diving place. Although it was raining cats and dogs during the first three (of four) days of our stay there and visibility underwater was poor, we've spent a great time there partying:) We did some diving too, preparing the place for the summer. We laid out some guide lines to the most interesting spots in the water. These spots are: a sailing boat wreck, something called "The Mower", which is supposed to be a wreck of reed mowing machine, and, ofcourse, an underwater platform used for excercises. There are lots of fish in the lake (pikes are the most interesting) and also some crayfish.

As usual, we were hoping to do a little bit of the divemaster course, unfortunately no one (except for one OWD Trainee) came because of the weather...

Doing the OWD confined water session

Last weekend we were assisting during OWD confined water training. This was harder than I thought, beeing a divemaster seems to be a tough work. There were 8 OW trainees doing this course, 1 MSDT, 2 certified divemasters and 2 to-be-divemasters - us:). Each of the four DMs got 2 OWD to supervise. First we had to haul all equipment (weights, tanks, regulators and wetsuits) to the swimming pool. Than make them don it all and make sure everything is connected and strapped properly. I forgot donning gear can be such a challenge:) Finally we had 8 OW trainees geared up and ready to go, and so in the water they went.
Now we had to take them to the other end of the pool. Seems easy but problems started to show up. One guy was staying behind, so I asked if he was OK, and he wasn't - he had problems breathing, his mask was fogging, he just didn't feel allright. It turned out that he forgot to wash his mask after he bought it so we swapped masks, and also that breathing from his regulator was a bit harder than usual, so he got a new one. Despite that he couldn't stay underwater for more than a minute:( What was surprising was that he was able to demonstrate almost perfectly the regulator recovery&clearing and mask clearing skills during that minute:)

During the second session this guy was doing excercises with another Divemaster so I don't know if he managed to finish the confined waters portions of the course. I was assisting some other divers, it was very rewarding to see them learn:) Of course there were some problems, but my superior demonstration quality skills:P allowed them to master (almost) these skills.

Anyways, last weekend I've learned that being a DM or an Instructor is harder than I expected, but at the same time is a much more rewarding experience than I imagined

Divemaster Watermanship and Equipment Exchange

Today we've completed the Stamina and Watermanship and Equipment Exchange portion of the PADI Divemaster course.

The Watermanship and Stamina is just timed swimming: 800 meters with snorkel gear, 400 meters swimming, 15 minutes survival float (last two minutes with your hands above the water) and 100 meters diver tow. For each of them you get 1-5 points (depending on your time), you must have at least 12 to pass. It's easiest to score 5 points on the survival float, to get 5 point for your swimming you must be a fairly good swimmer ( 400m below 6 minutes 30 seconds).

Equipment Exchange, however, is something quite different than what you normally do on PADI courses. Your goal is to exchange all your gear - BC, weights, mask, fins - with your partner while buddy breathing. This task is supposed to be a test of your problem solving skills and ability to stay calm under stress which, in my opinion, it tests quite well.

My advice for Divemaster trainees: try to enter the water wearing each others gear (at least mask), and take as much lead as possible, distributed between your weight belt and BC's weight system (so your BC is easy to hold at the bottom), keep calm, exchange one item at a time and help your partner don the gear. At least that's what worked for us:)

You can also check out this post at ScubaBoard.com.

Diving Hvar, Croatia

A day after the "basic skills demonstration" exam we were on our way to Croatia for 7 days of diving. We hoped to do at least a part of our Divemaster practical training as this diving trip was organized by our diving center, Nautica Warszawa, and there were about 50 people. The practical training is a part of the divemaster training, it is a kind of internship - you participate, under your instructors supervision, in different courses: OWD, AOWD, Rescue one chosen speciality and you must also practice leading certified divers. This is one of the possible ways of passing the practical part of the divemaster course. The other one is so called Practical Training Excercises which basically is just simulation of the aforementioned courses. I think that the internship is a better way of learning because you deal with real divers and their problems and take part in real courses. This way you gather more experience.

It is important for us to get the Practical Training done as soon as possible because this is the most unpredictable part of the course. Our friend that was doing the previous divemaster course got stuck because nobody wanted to do the AOWD course in winter in Poland...

Unfortunately it turned out that nobody wanted to do any courses, they just wanted to dive... As there were no courses we did some diving ourselves.

Nautica Croatia is located in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar in Croataia.

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Sealife in waters around Hvar is not as rich as in Egypt (the water is much colder, around 15 degrees Celsius), but still you can find some interesting fish, like the angler fish below



Apart from that you can find lots of nudibranchs, urchins and other fish typical of the Mediterranean.



Almost all of our dives were boat dives, we did however 4 dives from the shore during the Map Making assignment of the DM course (we had to do something to push things forward!).




Additionaly we did the PADI Deep Diver course, so I'm expecting a new card to my C-Card collection :)

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.

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...

Back to diving business

I've had quite a long sick leave (some damn infection), but now I'm back:) As I wrote some time ago, we've also had a month break due to the fact that our instructor was away in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt teaching technical diving. He was also planning a dive to 180 meters, which unfortunately he did not do because of some formal problems.

But now we've resumed our divemaster training: we're attending lectures, doing homeworks and practicing basic SCUBA skills demonstration at the pool. It turns out that demonstrating a skill is something quite different from just using that skill. At some point in your diving career you stop thinking about all the things you have to do to get water out of your mask, and now you must show this skill step by step, emphasizing the most important phases... it's very easy to mix things up. I hope the good old practice makes perfect still applies...

One more bad thing about being ill is that I've had a break in breath hold training and so I'm forced to put my plan to do 75 meters DYN back:(

Bargain of the month

Yesterday I've traded an old SCUBA unit for an inflator hose:). I got the SCUBA from my uncle who dug it up somwhere. Our diving instructor, Janusz, collects old diving gear (he has a small museum) so I've asked him if he would accept this unit as a "donation" for his collection, and he was more than happy to.
Then it turned out that the Apeks ATX40 regulator I've ordered recently, though it comes with an octopus and an SPG, doesn't have an inflator hose attached. So I asked Janusz if he could "pay" me with an inflator hose. He again agreed. And that's how the contract of the month was agreed upon:)

Apart from trading yesterday we had another lecture of our Divemaster course. We sat from 18 till 22pm and tried to gain some understanding of the decompression theory. We failed, lost somewhere between M-value and halftime...
But that's OK - we have a month to think about it. Janusz, who is also a technical diver and instructor, is going to Egypt to teach technical diving. He also plans to break his depth record by descending to 180m! We're going to keep our fingers crossed!

What it takes to be a PADI Divemaster

In order to qualify for the course you have to:

• Be a Rescue Diver
• Be an Advanced Open Water Diver
• Have at least 20 logged dives
• Be in good health
• Be at least 18 years old (that's in Poland, I'm not sure about other countries)
• Have CPR training, such as the Emergency First Response course

During the trainig, as we've learned yesterday, it takes a lot of reading:) All the books you've read so far and 3-4 more, all the PADI videos plus some more. Apart from that it takes good swimming skills, proficiency in basic diving skills, rescue skills, some instructor training, decompression theory.

You should be able to swim the following distances in given times (that's an average, you can be faster on one and slower on other):

Distance	Time
400m swim	< 11 min
floating on the surface	15 min
800m swim in ABC	< 18 min 30 sec
100m diver towing	< 4 min 20 sec

Basic diving skills include for example: mask removal and replacement, entering the water, breathing from a freeflowing regulator etc.