The January IDC is drawing to a close here in Manuel Antonio, and tensions are running high as the Instructor exam draws ever closer. This one has been an interesting one, not aided by the fact that I have been sick as @#$%^& for the past week! For all of you divers out there know the joy of blocked sinus’s aaagghhh! Anyway, moving on. A fun bunch or miscreants have been busy studying hard and practicing all of their confined and open water presentations in hopes of becoming instructor in the upcoming IE. I know everyone will do well, but it is that point, where after 9 days of classes, everyone is tired and slightly stressed, waiting for it to finish. The rewards are obviously well worth the wait, I mean, really, you become an open water scuba instructor +Oceans Unlimited & Go Pro Costa Rica and then you get to teach scuba around the world. Tough life I know!! This course has been additionaly fun as there has been some staff instructor training going on too. The next step up the scuba ladder to allow you to assist during IDCs. fun! Plus it means I get an assistant which is a true blessing.
Tomorrow we are covering the EFR instructor course, lectures in the morning and skill circuits in the afternoon. Practicing first aid skills, emergencies and more importantly how to break down the skills and reteach them. Final day for resits will be wednesday before the exam starts. Thursday is a down time day for me, a sleep in , not that my dogs would let me, its more than likely going to be a visit to a nearby beach day, to give them some much needed attention. Maybe I’ll manage to squeeze a surf session in....would be nice as I have not been on a board once since the beginning of the year!
MSDT classes will be running next week and I have decided with all the news and info now it would be a good time to do the AWARE shark conservation instructor specialty so I am putting that into the MSDT course. It will be a very short break before back into the tec world again as I have a waiting list of students wanting to work on their technical dive certifications. With one Tec deep course already finished by the second week of the year the next is due to start on February 15th. I treated myself to my own technical dive rig now so its sooo much more comfortable to play now!
Maybe we can hit up Veinte seis deep again.....a fun way to celebrate the end of the first IDC of the season!