Dividing Time Between “Work” and Studying

Did I say we interns spend long days working? A 7 or 7:30 a.m. meeting starts our work day. That’s when we learn what we’ll really be doing. Things change at a moment’s notice at a dive shop when clients change their minds. Sometimes when you think you’re going to have an easy day, you end up working all day with cruise ship passengers. From what I’m told, if I can work these types of days, I can work anywhere as a divemaster or dive instructor. We sometimes don’t get back until 4:30 or 5 p.m., and then have to off load all the equipment and clean the boat, though we do as much of this on the return leg as possible, do paperwork, and help with the end-of-day base closing. Sometimes we have time to sit down and eat lunch, but we never depend on that. While this is “work”, we’re on a boat, we’re diving, we’re seeing all kinds of marine life, and who can tire of that? Certainly not me.

I have been studying for the Instructor Development course (IDC) I’ll be taking in May--reviewing the physics and physiology from my divemaster course, working with dive tables and a new eRDP/ML, an electronic version of the table that also works for multi-level dives. Our instructor manuals haven’t come in yet, so we’re borrowing what we can. From this I’ve learned is it’s expensive to mail things to the BVIs, and it takes a long time for things to get here—weeks, not days as in the U.S. (We do take our postal service for granted.) We also have practice quizzes to take to prepare us for the exams. They have proved very beneficial.

PADI implemented a new requirement for dive instructors as of 15 April, 2009—to become a CPR/Primary and Secondary Care instructor. I’ve now gone through the Emergency First Response instructor manual because we’re taking that course the last weekend in April. As with sailing, I’m much more proficient at these skills now that I’ve had the additional training to become an instructor. I just hope I never have to use these skills.

There will be five of us going through the Instructor Development course. The three current interns, Courtney from Australia, Barbara from Germany, and myself; Mark, a former intern, from England, and Gustavo from the US but has a strong Greek background. Gustavo arrives at the end of April. It will be fun to be going through this with people we already know. Mark was the first person I met down here, and we dived together the first two weeks I was here. He’s very laid back and a great dive buddy. Courtney has been the perfect intern. She works on a boat back in Australia, and has a great deal of common sense. She’s 21, yet an old soul. She went out of her way to meet me when I first came down, making me feel oh so welcome. She’ll make an excellent dive instructor, and when she came here, she wasn’t sure how much she liked diving. Odd, how someone can come from the Great Barrier Reef and fall more in love with diving in the Caribbean. Barbara is my flat mate and fellow April intern. She plans to work at a dive shop in the Canary Islands starting in June. She’s probably come to know the local culture of BVIs more than the rest of us in between work and studying.

Well, with the mention of studying, this is enough of a break for me. It’s back to the books.

Being an Intern

I love the idea of being an intern at my age. I'm living like Merlin--living my life in reverse. Doing an internship at 55 years old could be intimidating, but hasn't been so far. The other interns are of course much younger than me. They're all been very cordial, helpful and fun to be around. I brought over drinks the first day I was here to celebrate my birthdy, so that helped break the ice.

My first day at work had me doing "surface support" on the boat, meaning I helped divers in and out of the water. The second day had me leading a dive on the bow of the RMS Rhone. I hit the water hard and fast with cruise ship guests as the boats are pretty full in the morning with divers for two-tank dives, then a rush to drop them off and pick up 40 or so snorkelers. Leading the dives is work--setting up the boats, kitting up all the dive gear, then dismantling it in short order to get that equipment off the boat and ready for the snorkelers in the afternoon. Our rest is in the water watching the snorkelers, unless, like the other day, you have to work with a snorkeler who is afraid of water. He finally relaxed, and stayed in the water the whole time with me leading him around with a floaty. It was a rewarding experience. The good thing about these days is we get tips! Now you know I've reverted to being a teenager who gets excited about getting tips.

Leading dives can be intimidating, especially if visibility is bad. I like the Rhone now, both bow and stern because it's so defined. And now that I've done each, I like the stern better because there's more to point out. Even doing these dives in reverse, as I did the other day, still can prompt the question: "Where am I?" or "oh no, I going to have to surface to find out where I am!?!" I've heard every divemaster has had to pop to the surface then re-descend to lead the group back to the boat. Drift diving is easier on the dive master because the boat follows along and is right there when the divers surface. Oh well, I seem to like challenges so am doing moored dives here.

We're also learning other parts of the dive business. There's the retail side--working at the base, and the two remote locations--on Cooper Island and Norman Island. The business side--keeping paperwork for seven years of data on each dive, updating the electronic logs. Filling tanks--six at a time. Boat operations--daily cleaning, weekly projects, fueling two 100-gallon tanks per boat and other misc. chores.

And now I have to start studying lots for my upcoming Instructor Development Course (IDC). I also will become certified to in Emergency First Response, a new critieria for the IDC. This means back to studying physics, chemistry, physiology and more. That's what you'll find me doing for the next month, in addition to my daily work activities.