The IDC is now over and we finished our dress rehearsal exam yesterday, which both of us passed with flying colors. My grades, from the top of my head, were something like this (scale of 1 to 5):

Knowledge development presentation: 4.7 (minimum of 3.5 required for pass)

Confined water presentation: 5.0 (3.5 required)

Open water presentations: 4.5 average (3.4 required)

Skill circuit: 5, 4, 4, 5, 5 (Sum of 17 and at least 3 on every skill required)

On top of these there were a couple of exams, namely general standards and dive theory. I scored 49/50 on the former and something like 56/60 on the latter one, passing criteria being 75%. No problems there whatsoever.

Looks like the IE itself will be easy sailing, but messing up is actually really easy. I hope I can keep my concentration during the presentations in order to avoid those easy mistakes. I’m not concerned, but a bit wary. Just in case.

Tags: exams, instructor internship, PADI IDC, PADI IE

The song by Dio keeps playing in my head on repeat, as we’re closing to our instructor examinations. The next two days are about our mock examinations, then we have a day off and then it’s the real thing. The point of no return, so to speak – we’re about to become certified as instructors. Time flies.

I keep on thinking back to home, and the more I dive here, the more I want to dive back in Finland too. Yeah, sure it’s cold water and the visibility is anything you can put your hand through, but nonetheless. I want to take those tanks to our summer cottage, grab a row boat and go dive our fishing sites. I want to go find Oulu 2, the tugboat that sunk over 60 years ago. I want to teach everyone I know to dive (okay, exaggerating but anyhoo). I want to, because now I know for a fact that I can.

One of the things that kept me from diving back home was the fact that I wasn’t comfortable with my skill level in doing so. Sure, there were friends and probably people from the dive club or centre who would’ve helped, but now I know I have what it takes and that I can handle it for sure. Conditions are different, but these months have given me skills to adapt.

So, tomorrow it’s the mock exam open and confined (read: pool) water parts, where we get to demonstrate our abilities in teaching, problem solving and evaluating whether or not the students can master the skills they need to. Lots of fun, and some not so fun. I have one of the trickier ones to conduct, but preparing carefully should do the trick.

Chances are that next time I write, I’ll have a new certification to my name. Wish us luck!

Tags: diving, exams, instructor internship, PADI IDC, practical stuff, time

Yesterday was the local new year, Nyepi, here in Bali. People have been building large statues of evil spirits (ogoh-ogohs) for months beforehand and they were carried around the streets on Monday evening. The purpose is to collect all the spirits in the statues and burn the whole thing, but nowadays many of them are only burnt symbolically and – yes, you guessed it – sold afterwards. Even religion isn’t immune to the laws of supply and demand.

An evil spirit in action

The funny thing is, not all of the evil spirits are religious figures. Some of them depicted tourists and other western symbols, like Mickey Mouse in diving gear or a white drunk with his willy hanging out of his shorts. And one on a jet ski.

At least my shorts weren’t blue and white

It’s funny to see how the ones bringing in most of the income are also the ones that are hauled around with the bad spirits and other such evil ones, but I guess it’s just one of those situations where money talks and so on.

After the parade and sellingburning the ogoh-ogohs, the whole town literally silences down for 24 hours. The Nyepi day (Tuesday the 16th this year) is like there was no one in: all shops and restaurants are closed, the streets are empty and even the tourists are kept inside their hotels. Only emergency transport to hospitals is allowed besides the traditional guards who keep watch.

Anyway, it’s over now and we’re almost finished with our Emergency First Response instructor course. Soon we’ll be able to teach CPR and first aid on our own.

Tags: holiday, instructor internship, PADI IDC, parties, photos, religion

It’s half past nine on a Friday night and the power is out again (see the pattern here? I only write when there’s no electricity). The IDC is going on full force, and so am I. Apart from the standard IDC stuff like giving short presentations, doing pool practise and the occassional open water dive, I’ve also done some extra things for fun – like teaching people physics or writing funny Facebook notes.

Our typical day starts around 8:15 in the morning with classroom sessions, followed by an excellent buffet lunch and maybe some pool learning in the afternoon. The official part concludes around five, but usually we stay for some time to prepare our presentations, surf the net or do some studying. Sometimes we just go out for beers and hang out with people.

The classes are not so much about diving itself anymore, but more about how to teach. The actual subject matter has already been covered during the divemaster course, so we’re able to concentrate on how to deliver that information to our students. We practise giving presentations by doing very compact, but still complete lectures on small subjects such as staying warm underwater or how to avoid ear problems during ascents. Even though the whole presentation may be only two or three slides long, we include a full introduction, the matter itself and a summary in each one. Our performance is constantly evaluated by at least two persons from the staff.

So far the IDC has been from a different planet compared to the divemaster course. We have a schedule, clear objectives and maybe the best educator-mentor-role model the island has to offer. His example sets high standards for the whole course, and that’s the way I like it.

Tags: Blue Season Bali, instructor internship, PADI IDC, teaching

I finally finished the independent learning section of the IDC. The portion consisted of about 340 questions, a couple of dozen articles and about seven centimetres of A4 in the instructor manual. Some of the articles were more than two decades old, but still more or less valid. And if that’s not impressive in these fast-paced times, consider this: although the basics of decompression theory originate from the beginning of the last century, same principles are applied today in the most modern dive computers.

We also got a quick glimpse at technical diving (tec for short) by trying out double tanks and other tec gear, and boy was it difficult. I’ve done a fin pivot (see a demonstration in Youtube) approximately a million times in my own and rental scuba gear, but the buoyancy/weight balance of the tec set was so completely different I didn’t even get close. On the other hand, the additional mass made it somewhat easier to control my depth. That may sound a bit odd to someone who has never dived, but it goes like this:

[a long explanation follows]

Whenever I’m underwater, there are two forces that affect my depth, namely gravity and the buoyant force of water supporting me. When these two are in balance, I can float around in same depth for as long as I want. However, the buoyant force is a bit complicated to manage.

As we know from elementary physics, the buoyant force of water depends on the volume of the object, which in this case is a breathing human. When I breathe in, my external volume changes somewhat. I then displace more water, become more buoyant than with my lungs empty. It may not sound like a big deal, but breath control is actually the most effective way to do depth changes in two to three metre range.

Now, throw in around 10 kilograms of extra weight (compared to my standard equipment), and the situation changes somewhat. The weight has to be countered with extra buoyancy, which in turn makes my breathing relatively less significant to my total buoyancy.

[a long explanation concludes]

Anyway, the experience was fun, and I was still able to control my depth with breathing well enough. The experience was fun, but right now I’m not sure technical diving is my choice. I still find a lot of interesting stuff within the limits of recreational fun diving, so there’s no incentive for me to go there – at least not yet.

Tomorrow we’ll be having a compressor and equipment maintenance workshop. Should be fun!

Tags: diving, instructor internship, PADI IDC, studies

We completed the paperwork for our divemaster certifications today. It seems we’ll have to do a rescue scenario tomorrow, but other than that we’re clear. I got fives (out of five) on all my assists, most of my skill demonstrations and all professionalism evaluations, which is quite well in par with Eeva. We were told that competent people normally get fours on those subjective evaluations, meaning that our hard work is paying off. How nice.

And our deep throat inside the shop mentioned the IDC course director praising our exam results to other instructors on the course. Seems like he’s pleased with our results on the DM course.

This seems like an excellent starting point for the IDC, which starts tomorrow with some pre-course workshops. Let’s try to keep up the good work.

Oh, we also got the new bike:

Don’t you be messing with me, boy!

Tags: divemaster internship, instructor internship, it's good to be me, PADI IDC

As I wrote earlier, we’re now enrolled in the IDC starting in a couple of days. The IDC aims to the PADI Instructor Examination (IE), for which there are som prerequisites. First of all, you have to complete the IDC, have been a certified diver for at least six months and have 100 logged dives.

The original plan for us was to do our IDC in April, which would have given us more than enough time to do the required hundred. We both had some 30+ when we arrived and we’re somewhere around 80 right now. Given that the IDC starts in two days and I’m still overexhausted from last week, I’m going to have a hard time reaching the three-figure mark before IE.

Luckily, BSB is a 5-star Career Development Centre, which allows its instructor candidates to fulfill the requirements out of order. This means I can take the IE with only 60 dives, sail through it and do the remaining dives afterwards.

What a relief. Now all I have to do is stop telling myself that I should somehow match the performance levels of my beloved wife. I guess it’s an equality and pride thing for me to bring in as much competence as she does. Yes, yes, I know it’s stupid, but still something I need to work on.

In other news, we finally have to change our bike. The current one seems to have a bad alternator and a bit of cold start trouble, giving me leg cramps from all the kick starts. Let’s hope we get a better one as a replacement.

Tags: Blue Season Bali, diving, instructor internship, motorbikes, PADI IDC, PADI IE, stress, transportation

Yesterday was one of the most productive days I’ve had here so far. We got our instructor manuals and candidate workbooks, completed the initial exam of the IDC (Instructor Development Course) and got a little bit of studying done as well. I did an 800 metre snorkeling test, a 100 metre tired diver tow and the stress test all in one session, which guaranteed a good night’s sleep. Not that I still wasn’t feeling a bit sore from the strain.

There was also an exam to see where we come from, but I didn’t find the results very conclusive. I aced physics, failed equipment and passed all the others, but many of my mistakes had more to do with the English language than actual knowledge. I sure hope the instructor examination (IE) doesn’t have that many trick questions.

Anyway, the IDC should start next week. More on that later.

One of the reasons for yesterday’s productivity was weather. By the time I had finished the swims, it was raining so hard I could spot pikes swimming on shoulder height. At the same time there was a power cut, so all we could do was to study. The rain caused a bit of a problem by reaching our terrace-like outdoor office (regadless of the roof and straw mat walls), so I had to tuck myself in the corner and face the wall in order to keep my paperwork dry. I have to take a photo of the manuals at some point to illustrate what I was dealing with yesterday.

Finally around seven the rain gave up and we could go home. I grabbed us some McD’s, we ate it in candlelight and crashed to bed. It’s been a while since I’ve slept this well.

Tags: divemaster internship, exams, instructor internship, it's good to be me, PADI IDC, studies