My First Certification

Dog marking his territory near McJims.

Woke up around 6:30 AM today. For breakfast, I ate a fried egg with canned pork and beans. I planned on doing two open water dives today with Nick where I was leading both of them as the instructor. These two open water dives was all that was left for Nick to finish his Open Water certification.

First dive was to Coral Cove which I’ve never dived before. There was a good current at the surface and Nick had to perform a few skills for his Open Water 3 dive. One of the skills was swimming 50 meters in a straight line with a compass. I went along with him and I was quite tired by the time we got back. We descended promptly.

Skills underwater were orally obtain neutral buoyancy via fin pivot, compass swim, and mask flooding. Lots of current which made it difficult. Alli led the rest of the dive because I’ve never dived the dive site. We encountered several triggerfish that were threatening because they’re notorious for attacking divers. I felt like I was on protective detail for Nick when the triggerfish were around.

Second dive was to Sabang Wreck where Alli didn’t even go in the water with us. Grace led the dive while I supervised it and evaluated Nick’s two skills he had to do—neutral buoyancy via hovering and mask remove and replace. There was quite a bit of current when we descended but I managed to find a nice sandy spot where it was minimum. I had Nick do the hovering there which he did fine. Grace then led us to each wreck into the current. I wanted her to turn around and go with the current after the second wreck but she persisted. Oh well.

There were lots of fish life at the wrecks and we found an orangutan crab and a large moray eel. I then took over leading the dive because I didn’t want to swim into the current anymore and swam shallower. While swimming along I found a nice mantis shrimp walking along the bottom. At a patch of coral, I spotted an octopus leg stick out and then go back into a small hole. I tried pointing it out to Nick and Grace but I don’t think they could see it because of its camouflaged. Nearby on the same rock there was at least a lion fish they could see.

I had Nick quickly do his last skill and then we slowly ascended to the surface. A great dive especially for a training dive.

After cleaning up, Alli told me that I’ve earned the Open Water Scuba Diver credit for instructing Nick. I was so excited to actually have certified my first student. Though, I was quite lucky to have such an easy student for my first class. Regardless, I learned a lot about how to plan, organize, and run a class in a real world situation. It’s the whole point of the internship.

I met with Alli at her office to register Nick’s certification online with PADI. I was so excited.

Lyn, the cook , is responsible for my addiction to McJims food.

I ate a late lunch with Grace at McJims at around 2:30 PM. I was starving. After lunch, we went back to El Galleon where Maziar wanted me to evaluate him while he practiced his 20 Divemaster skills. I went into the pool with him where we went over all the skills. It’s a wonderful feeling of being needed, and I enjoy giving my knowledge and advice to others. It’s all what being an instructor is about.

Ariana and Nick's cousin figure out how to blow out the cake.

Right after Maziar’s skill evaluation, Nick’s cousin had a birthday party along with Alli’s daughter Ariana at the pool. Nick’s mother invited me to have some cake. It was delicious. During the party, Alli had me present Nick with his temporary Open Water Scuba Diver certification papers. The event was probably as important for me as it was for Nick; Nick being my first certified student.

Nick, my first Open Water student, gets his certificate.

After the party, I went up to the Point bar with Grace and Nick where we had some drinks. It was fun to casually talk with Nick and have some drinks with him. After Point bar, I went home to eat dinner. Dinner was corned beef with spaghetti sauce and pasta. I’ve never cooked corned beef properly by frying it in oil until it gets crispy; I usually just heat it up. I have to admit, the salted corned beef in spaghetti sauce was quite a good combination. Definitely reminds me of the cheap style of eating back in college.



- jason