Thought someone might be interested in my journey through my Divemaster training, so here goes:
Day 1
I had been wanting to take my Divemaster training for a while now, and had dreams of diving for free, or moving to somewhere tropical and instructing scantily clad coeds. First, though, I would need to complete my training, and then continue up the PADI professional career ladder. I hesitated to spend the money and time to sign up for the course, but eventually was won over by my instructor, who had an OW class coming up and would have me come out to assist.
After purchasing the divemaster book, PADI wheel, knowledge workbook, and eventually the Encyclopedia, I managed to read chapter one before meeting up at the dive shop on a hot saturday morning for a trip to Ginnie Spring for the first day of OW checkouts. I had learned from chapter 1 that DM would require a slight mindset change, that I would have to start acting like a role model, adhering to padi standards, and just generally being friendly and helpful, somethings many divers give up quickly. Nevertheless, I was up for a challenge, and so I started by talking to the students, and tryign to make sure they were having fun, and didnt have any concerns, then off to the dives we went.
Ginnie springs, as usual, was packed, and there were a few OW classes going on, and the myriad of divers that is always present. I helped some of the students to get their gear set up properly, and then, with direction from the instructor, waited in the water to keep an eye on the students until we were ready to go down. Once we had everyone in the water and ready to go, we did a fun dive and took a loop around the basin. Right away, due to some kickign up of the bottom, and the large amoutn of divers in the water, I lost track of who was who, but everyone managed to stay together and enjoy their first dive.
Next up we started the drills, with the instructor runnign the gammit from bouyancy drills to clearing your mask. I attempted to keep the students from wandering off or getting bored and pointed out some flounder that were keeping an eye on us. Everythign went smoothly, and so we broke for lunch, then headed down to the Devils cave system at Ginnie for the second dive. My role was to continue to pull up the rear and make sure no one got lost or in trouble. Like the first dive, everything went smoothly, and we ended the first day with no problems.
Day 1
I had been wanting to take my Divemaster training for a while now, and had dreams of diving for free, or moving to somewhere tropical and instructing scantily clad coeds. First, though, I would need to complete my training, and then continue up the PADI professional career ladder. I hesitated to spend the money and time to sign up for the course, but eventually was won over by my instructor, who had an OW class coming up and would have me come out to assist.
After purchasing the divemaster book, PADI wheel, knowledge workbook, and eventually the Encyclopedia, I managed to read chapter one before meeting up at the dive shop on a hot saturday morning for a trip to Ginnie Spring for the first day of OW checkouts. I had learned from chapter 1 that DM would require a slight mindset change, that I would have to start acting like a role model, adhering to padi standards, and just generally being friendly and helpful, somethings many divers give up quickly. Nevertheless, I was up for a challenge, and so I started by talking to the students, and tryign to make sure they were having fun, and didnt have any concerns, then off to the dives we went.
Ginnie springs, as usual, was packed, and there were a few OW classes going on, and the myriad of divers that is always present. I helped some of the students to get their gear set up properly, and then, with direction from the instructor, waited in the water to keep an eye on the students until we were ready to go down. Once we had everyone in the water and ready to go, we did a fun dive and took a loop around the basin. Right away, due to some kickign up of the bottom, and the large amoutn of divers in the water, I lost track of who was who, but everyone managed to stay together and enjoy their first dive.
Next up we started the drills, with the instructor runnign the gammit from bouyancy drills to clearing your mask. I attempted to keep the students from wandering off or getting bored and pointed out some flounder that were keeping an eye on us. Everythign went smoothly, and so we broke for lunch, then headed down to the Devils cave system at Ginnie for the second dive. My role was to continue to pull up the rear and make sure no one got lost or in trouble. Like the first dive, everything went smoothly, and we ended the first day with no problems.
. Then we jumped in the water and I went out to mark a spot divers could surface navigate to. Everyone did pretty well. After that, I headed to the deep side and marked a spot for the instructor to finish the drills. Viz was 10ft, with no current, which was nice, but the low viz made me keep a wary eye on the students. 2 were pretty confidant and so willing to play around, but everyone else was pretty attentive. I tried to keep them entertained with showing them a shrimp digging out its hole, while the instructor ran the drills. 
