Becoming a Divemaster
My first stop in my scholarship year took me to Cornwall on the south-west tip of England. .I was offered the great opportunity to do my PADI DiveMaster internship/course at the Cornish Diving Centre, in the beautiful maritime city of Falmouth.Since I have a whole year ahead full of diving adventures, I thought that getting one step closer to the professional diving by acquiring this certificate in the first place would allow me to get skilled up with my abilities underwater and feel more confident with my new gear that I will be using during the scholarship. Not only that, but also to be comfortable enough planning and leading a dive safely and independently.
I had never visited England before, but I must say that what I saw really captivated me. The southern coast of the country, with it’s green hills falling into the sea, is truly charming! And the diving is great too! There are lots of ship wrecks to discover and rocky and sandy bottoms full of interesting marine life. From giant spider crabs to camouflaged flounders and skates and plumose anemones, these waters seem to be plentiful with different organisms despite the sometimes reduced visibility.
The PADI DiveMaster course has allowed me to understand more about the recreational diving industry, from the daily functioning of a diving centre to how to prepare and conduct safe dives with groups in a professional way. I had the pleasure to be under the supervision of a very nice group of people: Keith Dimond and Mike Bailey the two directors of the centre, who guided me and helped me patiently to develop and learn all the skills that I need to dive safely and efficiently, and of course, I had also lots of help from other divemasters and instructors that gave me constant invaluable advice!
During the DM I dived a lot and I was assisting in different activities: from assisting in Open Water courses, Rescue courses, iniciating people to diving in the swimming pool… And we also did some dives for fun, like every Wednesday afternoon, when all the members of the centre gathered to do a dive together.
It was an eye opener for me to conduct guided dives which I never did before. It was interesting to see how the whole diving experience changes when you have to pay full attention to the navigation and orientation in a place where you have never dived before.
One of the parts I enjoyed the most doing was the mapping project. My buddy Rahul and I we recorded more than 240 depth points along one of the most popular dive sites in Falmouth, Silver Steps. After we created a 3D model with Surfer. It was a lot of fun and teamwork!
Another very special moment for me was when I conducted a PADI Bubblemaker course with a 9 year old who was just discovering scuba diving. We went through all the basic skills in the pool and he then tried being underwater for the first time. I could see in his face, while breathing from the regulator, that he was experiencing that “WOW” moment when you realise that it is possible to breath underwater, that you can become a fish! It was so inspiring seeing he was just enjoying it so much and knowing that I probably contributed to make him a future diver who could discover the wonders of the submarine world by himself later on.
After almost 2 weeks of intense and hard work, plus quite some diving, this training has defenitely had an impact on me as a diver. A huge thank you to Keith, Mike, Liz, Sophia, Rahul, Jake, Meri, Chris, Lucy, Shannon and Harrison for all the experiences we have been through in such a short time. I learned lots from each of you!
To anyone who wants to dive in the UK I would definitely recommend exploring the south west coast! And if you go diving with the Cornish Diving Centre you will not be disappointed. The personal treatment is amazing and the facilities of the centre are also wonderful. They even have a small swimming pool at the back of the building to conduct confined water activities! How cool is that!
First Aid at Work Training at the DDRC in Plymouth
After completing the Divemaster training in Cornwall, I thought it would be a good idea to get more extensive training for dealing with possible emergencies that might occur while diving. Since now I am allowed to organize and supervise group dives I felt the urge to be more prepared if something was to happen and to know how to deal with the situation. I was offered a fantastic opportunity to do a First Aid at Work course at the DDRC facilities (The Hyperbaric Medical Centre) in Plymouth (UK) at the end of June. During the intense 3 day course, the instructor and paramedic John Dillingham gave us invaluable knowledge on how to proceed with different first aid situations (from small wounds to serious traumas) and also trained us to conduct CPR and emergency oxygen administration in a secure and efficient way. In a personal level I realised how important is to have this kind of training as one day you might be saving someone’s life. It was also an eye-opening experience that made me appreciate so much the work that the paramedics do, always prepared to act and deal with many different situations! Thank you so much John and the DDRC for the amazing time and I hope to visit your amazing centre again!
I am extremely happy and grateful with all the diving equipment I have been provided with for the scholarship year. Fourth Element has provided me with the amazing Argonaut 2.0 drysuit and the Arctic Expedition system down layer to keep me warm and dry in cold waters! I love it! It is extremely light and it gives me lots of movement. I also want to thank APEKS for sending me the amazing MTX-R regulator set which is carefully crafted and designed for cold water dives which I intend to carry out during my scholarship year. This cutting-edge technology piece of gear is used in the military to avoid your regs freezing up and free flowing! And also, I love the RK3 HD fins they gave me in a super bright orange colour. I also want to thank SUUNTO for sending me the new EON CORE Black which is very intuitive and easy to use! And finally, thank you to Reef Photo & Video, Nauticam and Light & Motion for all the underwater photography equipment that I will be using to document my scholarship year.
Although I was accepted to participate in the European Scientific Diver course for the middle of July in Germany, unfortunately it was cancelled due to the lack of participants at the last moment. But I had the great opportunity to visit the Red Sea and had some unique experiences!! Follow my next blog post to know more about the wonders of the coral reef communities!
Thank you to ROLEX and the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society for supporting me in this experience. I also want to thank the support of PADI, the Cornish Diving Centre and the DDRC for the training provided so far and I am looking forward to putting it to use.
