It's Official!

My divemaster certification card arrived in the mail! See that? Official PADI divemaster! 

So what's kept me busy since I got home? Let's see... went to Les Miserables, shipped Jeffrey off for a year abroad in France, helped babysit a second cousin, assisted with math homework, joined our personal reader's theater of A Midsummer Night's Dream, unpacked, examined the possibilities of repacking (though that's still a couple weeks away), read, cooked eggplant parmesan from an online video recipe, watched a couple movies and a couple documentaries, and snorkeled at the beach looking for leopard sharks (unsuccessful, unfortunately). Among a few other things, of course. 

The water is a lot colder in So. Cal than Utila, for some reason...

Certification Complete!

I am officially a certified divemaster. Everything is signed off, applications filled out, and my diving on Utila has come to a close. This morning, I wrapped up my course by leading a dive at the Haliburton Wreck site. Then, I led a dive for four people at Black Coral Wall without any instructor supervision. Ok, three have dived with me before since two are related to me and the other does a lot of research with me but still! (The fourth was a young man who had joined the girls' Advanced course for their last adventure dive.) The girls have also finished their course and are now certified Advanced Open Water divers. Tomorrow will be busy with packing and trying to figure out where everything went in the two months I've been here. Tuesday morning, we start our trek home. 

In other news, it looks like my chances of seeing hatchling turtles are gone. Robyn and I spent the last three nights on the beach waiting to see if Lindsey's first turtle nest would hatch. It didn't. Tonight, Robyn, Lindsey, and I loaded up the ATV and headed off only to be stymied by the ATV at the first corner. The right front wheel refused to turn. Yes, the ATV is broken again. (Yes, Dad, the exact same problem you encountered when you rented an ATV from the same shop a couple months ago.) At least the battery is working, I hear you say? I forgot to tell you. It's not. Something in the connection for recharging the battery doesn't work properly and we haven't been able to use the normal method of starting the machine since yesterday morning. Fortunately, the last time the ATV was taken in because of starting issues, the owner installed a kick starter as a back-up. Yes, that's correct--we now kick start our ATV. Anyway, we decided the turtles are unlikely to hatch tonight (it's still a few days before they're due) and that the risk of driving the stupid machine to the beach was too high. Besides, we don't mind catching up on some sleep. 

Sea Horses!

Sarah looking for fish

We did two more dives this afternoon. On the first dive, the girls did different adventure dives. Sarah wanted to do a Fish ID dive while Emily decided on Search and Recovery. Sarah's job was to swim around and look for interesting fish to identify in a book later. Emily used a compass to practice search patterns while looking for sea horses. She ended up finding five--three while she was doing the patterns and another two while we were swimming around later in the dive. She also used a lift bag to raise a weight belt from the bottom. 

The second dive was Peak Performance Buoyancy. They practiced skills like fin pivots and hovering and then had some fun while practicing further. We set up PVC squares with a weight in the middle to form an obstacle course. They had to swim through the first hoop, drop down to the sand to knock over a weight with their regulator, and then swim through the second. After that, they did it on their backs. Finally, everyone took off their fins and had a race along the sand before the activities switched to underwater ballet and slow-motion fights. 

Upside-down Jellyfish

Aside from the sea horses, my favorite find was Upside-down Jellyfish. These lie on the bottom with their bells against the sand their tentacles pointing up. At first glance, I thought it was an anemone or maybe a soft coral. I was excited! I've seen these in aquariums but never in the wild. 

Lined Seahorse

Long-snout Seahorse

An enchanting echinoderm!

More of the obstacle course

Emily doing the obstacle course on her back

Not an efficient way to travel underwater, in case
you're wondering

Sarah doing her own stunts

Advanced Adventure Dives

Emily and Sarah began their Advanced Open Water course today. This morning started early and they completed the two required Adventure dives, a deep dive and a navigation dive. 

The deep dive was done at a site that was new to me, too. It's called Black Hills. The site is actually a sea mount just off shore on the north side of the island. The top of the mount is about 30 feet deep. From there, you can follow the side down, probably past recreational limits (130 feet) if you go long enough. We went to 95 feet. 

Emily doing a back roll
entry (aka James Bond roll)
off Octopussy.

Sea mounts are unique due to the number of fish they attract. Especially if the sea mount is further from shore than this one, the mount serves as a refueling station, of sorts, for fish. It is a place to find food, a place where you can get cleaned by wrasse, and a nursery. This one attracts some fish which I haven't seen often on dives on the shallower reefs. We saw Queen Triggerfish (rarely seen above 85 feet or so around here), Black Durgan (another species of Trigger), and more jellyfish than I've ever seen on a dive, among other things. 

For the navigation dive, we went to a site called Ted's Point. The major item of interest at Ted's Point is a boat that was sunk at about 60 feet, creating an artificial reef. It's not big enough to go inside (it looks like it might have been an old dive boat) but you can peer through a couple windows and into other nooks and crannies. We swam around the reef for a little and then the girls had to lead everyone else back to the boat. Highlights of the dive were Brown Garden Eels and a gigantic puffer fish. 

Sarah doing a giant stride entry off the boat.

Sarah striking a pose. I think it's a heart, you'll have to
ask her to be sure.

Robyn and I at Ted's Point

The picture doesn't do this justice. This puffer was
probably a foot long.

No, Emily's not Asian at all! Why do you ask?

Scuba Tune-up

The girls went down to Utila Dive Center this afternoon and did a Scuba Tune-up. They reviewed all the skills they learned back in their Open Water courses in preparation for starting Advanced Open Water tomorrow. For the course, they have Maya as an instructor (the same instructor we worked with for Robyn's Rescue course) and she worked with them today for the tune-up. Robyn and I snorkeled around the dock and took photos from the surface while they worked. I'm signed up to be a DMT on their course and it will knock out one of the last things on my checklist for completing my own course. 

As for my own course, I'm almost done! I took and passed my second exam while the girls were doing their tune-up. I have to complete the map that I started a couple days ago and enter the Coral Watch data. That, paired with leading a dive during the Advanced course, will be all I need to be done!! 

Finding gear

Setting up gear under Maya's watchful eye

Practicing skills underwater

"Go over there and die, deary."

Picture this scenario, if you will: an instructor stands on a dock giving a brief introduction to a PADI course to three students. At the end, she announces, "With no further ado, welcome to the Rescue Diver course!" and four DMTs promptly tumble into the water and begin drowning. 

Yes, that was Robyn and her classmates' introduction to the Rescue Diver course. You'll be glad to hear that they rescued us panic stricken DMTs (divemasters in training, if you've forgotten) without too much delay or hesitation, making good use of flotation devices which had been strategically placed on the dock ahead of time. Yes, welcome to the Rescue Diver course as taught by the Utila Dive Centre (UDC) and especially instructor Maya. 

During a Rescue course, you learn and practice a lot of skills that can help you get yourself or others out of a potentially dangerous situation. While we do practice skills like surfacing an unresponsive diver, much of the value of the course lies in learning to look for warning signs and prevent problems before they happen. Most fatal diving accidents occur when a minor problem, such as a flooded mask, causes a diver to panic, escalating the problem into a situation which causes major injury, such as an uncontrolled ascent while holding a breath resulting in an air embolism. As such, much of the Rescue course is scenario based--practicing these skills over and over again until they become automatic. 

The role of the DMTs on such a course is awesome. While we helped with demos of skills (where we ended up with amazing instructions such as the one in the title), most of our job was to keep the students constantly on the alert. For instance, when a diver wasn't currently practicing a skill, we would swim over and begin a panicked ascent forcing them to analyze whether we were overexerted or out of air and respond appropriately. Or, on the surface, while a couple others worked with Maya on how to approach a panicked diver on the surface, one of us would quietly go unresponsive and see how long it took them to notice and respond. The results of this, other than helping teach, of course, are that the ocean is now short several gallons, thanks to our open mouths as we drowned repeatedly. 

Robyn rescues Nikki.

Mike and Robyn work on saving a drowning DMT.

Nicholas and Robyn practice buddy breathing.

Robyn and Nicholas work on an EFR scenario on DMT Joe.

Robyn surfaces an unresponsive DMT.

Anti-Ninja Turtle

Ariana and I woke up the other morning to find this note from Robyn. I believe it is fairly self-explanitory. We finally had a non-ninja turtle! (Yes, that is what the disappearing turtle has been dubbed: The Ninja Turtle.) This was actually a female which laid just a few weeks ago on our beach. At that time, Lindsey was able to put a satellite tag on her but, due to a disagreement with BICA personnel over when to tag the turtle (during or following the nesting trance), the turtle had left without any identifying flipper tags. So Lindsey was also extremely happy to be able to finally have flipper tags on the turtle which had been wandering about with her high-tec satellite tag on its back. 

Robyn and I are embarking on a new adventure called the PADI Rescue Diver course. I, of course, have already taken the course but am helping on the course she's in as a DMT (divemaster in training). The fun part of Rescue Diver is all the scenarios which you do to learn how to deal with various diving emergencies. The fun part as a DMT is that we get to be the divers in trouble and make it as difficult as possible for the students to rescue us. Stay posted; I'm sure there will be some good stories and pictures.

And now, enjoy a couple more pictures from another beach outing Robyn, Ariana, and I took this afternoon. 

Yes, envy us. We're spending our summer on a tropical
island with 82 degree water.

I promise, we really are working hard!

Miracle #1

My backpack has returned!!! On Friday, my backpack was stolen while we were profiling the beach. We were a bit puzzled by the occurrence since we were on a deserted road, had only heard one vehicle pass (it hadn't stopped), and were never more than 20 m from the spot where three different bags were sitting. Nevertheless, when we took a break after a couple hours, the backpack was unquestionably gone. Most disappointingly, Robyn and I both had our iPods in the pack, along with Robyn's camera. The rest was water bottles and an assortment of gear like sunscreen, some rain gear, and my knife. Today, however, my backpack was returned. Not sure where or how it was found, but one of the BICA workers had promised to make inquiries after it was taken and had located it. The bag was definitely sifted through and, although most the gear was returned, the electronics and knife are still missing. However, we're viewing just getting back as much as we did as a blessing. 

I have officially completed one more phase of my divemaster training. I have now assisted with an Open Water course. Three observations from this experience:
-First, the new divers will improve by leaps and bounds. I'm talking drastic improvements in skill and confidence in the space of a half hour surface interval between their first and second open water dives. 
-Second, they will have any and every problem you have ever and never considered or even dreamt of. Things that never worried you for an instant will appear as a matter of life or death to them. 
-Third, when setting up kit/gear, expect to run with an answer like, "There were four weights on my belt yesterday," and translate from that and your own memory how many pounds each student in the class of eight needs. That, or they'll come to you holding a belt you know to have the right number of pounds and say, "I think I have too much weight, I only had three weights yesterday."

Heading to the third open water dive with a full boat of
new divers. 

The final festivities of Carnival on Utila.

Another observation, holding a parade on a road just
wide enough for two golf carts to pass, may not be the
best idea every.

This week was also Utila's carnival which wrapped up yesterday with a parade and, I believe, an island-wide drinking party. I made the mistake of trying to leave the dive center just as the parade was in full swing. Took me 15 minutes to make it from UDC to the first road where I could cut up (usually long enough to walk all the way home). Honestly, I'm not certain which direction the parade was actually moving since some trucks and floats were heading one way but horses and a drum corps were going the opposite...

Exams

Well, I have more things I can check off on the list of assignments to do before I receive my divemaster card. Yesterday, the class took turns playing divemaster for a group of certified divers (played by our class, of course), a situation one would encounter if leading Discover Local Diving (DLD). DLD is often offered by dive shops as a way for divers to get a feel for diving in a new environment while receiving some direction from the divemaster. The divemaster's role in this is essentially that of tour guide. As part of this, we each practiced delivering a dive site briefing. I must say, some people in my class had very interesting factoids to share about our dive site. For instance, the dive site, Mike's Point*, was so named because Michael Jackson used to go diving there and the site, formerly known as Black Coral Wall, has experienced severe coral bleaching. Or did you know that Monkey Bay got its name because it was the location where sea monkey's were first discovered by Jacques Cousteau's younger brother, Linus Cousteau? 

We also took our first divemaster exam. You'll be glad to hear I passed with little difficulty. We have been promised, however, that the second exam (to be taken in a few weeks) is much more challenging. 

In other news, I'm starting research in the next couple days! Stay tuned for the adventures of a research intern!

*Yes, both Mike's Point and Monkey Bay are fictional dive sites. Black Coral Wall, however, is quite a nice dive spot where I have already been twice. 

More Training

The last couple days have been busy. First, we learned how to help with the Discover Scuba Diving program. This is offered to non-certified individuals who want to see what a dive would be like. In practice, this looks like an instructor and divemasters leading happy people about underwater, pointing out interesting fish. In reality, this looks like instructors and divemasters hauling about life size scuba dolls underwater. Practicing this, however, is tons of fun. Since we don't practicing with real participants, we took turns playing divemaster and participant to get an idea of what it would be like to escort a person while controlling almost all their equipment for them. To make it as real as possible, we made sure to completely ignore controlling our own buoyancy and even tried stunts like knocking off our divemaster's mask or reg (regulator). Best part of the dive, though, was spotting a pipefish! 

We also had to practice demonstrating the 24 skills that Open Water students are expected to master. This meant not only doing them flawlessly ourselves, but also pointing out everything we were doing and going slow enough that it was good demonstration quality. As our instructors told us to expect, none of us passed all of them. However, I was happy to learn that I passed more than I need to redo. 

Our instructor, Maya (center), demonstrates leading two
DSD participants. 

A pipefish!!!

Relearning to Skin Dive

This morning's assignment was taking/leading the PADI Discover Skin Diving experience. Once we are certified Divemasters, we'll be able to lead the course so today we had to practice and demonstrate all the skills as well as practice instructing others in doing them. The skills themselves were not enormously difficult, most were things that we had covered back in our Open Water courses. It's an entirely different beast to try to teach the skills, of course. 

After that, we did a series of waterskills tests such as a 400-meter swim, an 800-meter snorkel swim, a 100-meter diver tow (complete with full gear on both divers), and 15 minutes treading/floating. For each skill, there was a minimum competence or time requirement. The hardest, surprisingly, was the 100-meter diver tow. The easiest, unsurprisingly, was the 15 minute float. As one of our instructors, Dec, put it, you would either get a score of 5 (perfect) or drown. I'm happy to report none of my class drowned. 

The final skill for the day was an underwater equipment exchange. Both people in the buddy team geared up fully and then descended till they were kneeling on the bottom of the bay. Then, while breathing in turns off the same regulator, each and every piece of gear was exchanged--from the mask and snorkel to the fins. While this isn't a skill you should ever need to use in a diving situation, it does give the instructors a good look at students' competence and comfort underwater.

Mike, Jen, and I gearing up in minimal kit for the skin diver course. 

The water is bathtub warm.

Listening to one of our classmates explain how to correctly
ascend after ducking underwater. 

Getting more practice at instructing others in skin diving
skills. 

The two Michaels demonstrating how to do a surface dive.

Dad out for a fun dive while I'm in class.

Divemaster Training Begins

This morning, we began Divemaster training in earnest. We technically started on Monday, but this morning was the first time we actually hit the water since the first couple days were merely bookwork. There are four other people who are beginning the course with me. In addition to the five of us, there are a number of Divemasters in Training (DMTs) who are already in their second or third week of the course.

Today's lessons were how to help get a boat ready to go out for a dive, fill out all the proper paperwork for reef fees and role call, give dive site and boat briefings, and then some advanced buoyancy control practice while on the dive. While taking Divemaster at the Utila Dive Center (UDC), you almost serve as an intern. We've been taught how to fill tanks, we're expected to prep the boats for dives, and help other students and resort divers pick and check out gear. This especially comes in handy when, later on in the course, we help out with Open Water or other lower level scuba courses. Following the short lessons, we did two fun dives. 82 degrees at 70 feet; such a change from last summer!

Utila, as seen from the ocean.

Lenard, one of UDC's captains, driving Ulysses (one of four
dive boats) to our first dive site.

Gear for six DMTs set up on the boat before our second dive. 

Mike, a fellow first-week DMT, gets an impromptu lesson 
in tying up the boat...to another boat!