I started diving in 2009 when a friend of mine said he has diving in Atlanta Aquarium on his bucket list and wants to get certified. So we both signed up. He had work came before the first class and he bailed out, I continued and by end of 2009 I had about 100 dives and had Rescue certification. Later I did my DM and helped at LDS a bit now and then as DM. Last year I finally decided to take IDC/IE and after much research I settled for Gary Miller a CD at Barefoot Divers on Roatan. Signed up, paid deposit and Feb 1st I landed on the island. Did a couple of fund dives on 2nd, and prep week started Monday 3rd of February.
Prep week was intense but nothing too stressful. More fun than work, that is for sure.
Come next Sunday 9th we started IDC in the afternoon with paperwork and overview. In-water, and classroom works followed daily with homework in the evenings. Until 19th we did IDC, EFRI, EANxI, and O2I. Lots of work and knowledge packed into 10 days, that is for sure. It was the most intense learning experience in my adult life.
Come Feb 20th it was IE time. Two days of nerves. Our group of 8 was half of the IE candidates and were on average the most prepared, organized and used to team work. We passed theory and standards with the highest percentages and had people with 100% on all theory parts. We had an hour to prepare for classroom presentation and we had 4.4-5.0 there.
Feb 21st was in-water works. We all did initial briefings for confined water and open water portions before we hit the water. Half of IE candidates hit the pool for confined water and other half, we hit open water. We were lucky we had two examiners, which cut down time on classroom presentations as well as in-water works for 16 candidates, that is for sure. Nobody in our IDC group came even close to being on the edge, with 4.3 as the lowest score on in-water activities both for confined and open water. After open water we hit the pool for confined water works and 5 skills (one of them is CESA and we were told all confined water skill demos include CESA). While we were doing open water, second group finished pool and Rescue scenario #7 and they hit the boat for open water portion. After our pool session we went to the beach once again and did Rescue scenario #7 (all in our group passed in first attempt).
I am glad this experience is behind me. It was intense and little stressful at certain points but I've learned a lot and once PADI processes paperwork I'll be OWSI. I like the fact how Course Director was not only teaching for IE but expanded with good advice for real life. This was his 9th IE in a row with 1st time 100% pass for his IDC students.
Prep week was intense but nothing too stressful. More fun than work, that is for sure.
Come next Sunday 9th we started IDC in the afternoon with paperwork and overview. In-water, and classroom works followed daily with homework in the evenings. Until 19th we did IDC, EFRI, EANxI, and O2I. Lots of work and knowledge packed into 10 days, that is for sure. It was the most intense learning experience in my adult life.
Come Feb 20th it was IE time. Two days of nerves. Our group of 8 was half of the IE candidates and were on average the most prepared, organized and used to team work. We passed theory and standards with the highest percentages and had people with 100% on all theory parts. We had an hour to prepare for classroom presentation and we had 4.4-5.0 there.
Feb 21st was in-water works. We all did initial briefings for confined water and open water portions before we hit the water. Half of IE candidates hit the pool for confined water and other half, we hit open water. We were lucky we had two examiners, which cut down time on classroom presentations as well as in-water works for 16 candidates, that is for sure. Nobody in our IDC group came even close to being on the edge, with 4.3 as the lowest score on in-water activities both for confined and open water. After open water we hit the pool for confined water works and 5 skills (one of them is CESA and we were told all confined water skill demos include CESA). While we were doing open water, second group finished pool and Rescue scenario #7 and they hit the boat for open water portion. After our pool session we went to the beach once again and did Rescue scenario #7 (all in our group passed in first attempt).
I am glad this experience is behind me. It was intense and little stressful at certain points but I've learned a lot and once PADI processes paperwork I'll be OWSI. I like the fact how Course Director was not only teaching for IE but expanded with good advice for real life. This was his 9th IE in a row with 1st time 100% pass for his IDC students.
