Safety Safety Safety

Today I had to demonstrate teaching an Adventure Dive—navigating an obstacle course (Peak Performance Bouyancy) and how to use a lifting device to safely rig and bring it to the surface. During the dive, I felt pretty good about the dive except that I took too long with the obstacle course.

During the debriefing, Warren gave me only 1 point for the skill of safely rigging and lifting an object to the surface. Why? When Maziar lifted the bag, he ascended above me while I was watching him below. His ascent sped up til it was too fast to safely keep up so I slowed down. He made it to the surface while I was still below him making my way up. The problem was that I left a student alone unattended, a safety risk, a big no-no. I was quite upset with my score (or lack of a score) but better I learn this now than when it really matters. It’s becoming more apparent to me that I learn from doing the exercise and from my mistakes.

For the rest of the afternoon, Warren lectured about diver retention programs and adaptive teaching. Adaptive teaching involves changing one’s teaching methods to accommodate people with disabilities or children.

After class, I went to the Point bar for a much needed drink from a rough day.


- jason