Congratulations ReefRaff!!!

[juls64]

Quote:
Originally Posted by juls64
There is an IE going on this weekend ! ! ! !

Has anyone seen ReefRaff?

I survived...and passed. Look out world!;)
Now I'm going to bed. For a week.

[do it easy]

Congratulations!!!!

:2730:

[Atlaua]

Way to go Stephen!

[nauifins73]

Way to go - now the fun can begin.

[Captain Caveman]

I seen him at orland park ds and he sure had alot of books (-;.. he was realy busy so i realy didnt get to talk.

congrats

[DeepDiverBob]

congrats!!!!!!!

[MgicTwnger]

Yeah, Steven. You da MAN!

[nitroxbabe]

Good job Steve! Congrats!

[reefraff]

Thanks, folks. To borrow a phrase from the '60's, it was a trippy experience. I've always been kind of neutral on PADI - I think you have to respect the concept of breaking scuba training into bite-sized chunks for student to absorb at a rate they can handle but it sometimes leads to divers being in the water before they're ready. Becoming an Instructor was a really big bite from the apple of knowledge, however. I definitely have a new respect for the amount of information the Instructors have absorbed and the skills they have learned in order to pass the Instructor Exam.

Perhaps the most satisfying surprise of the weekend was how serious the Examiners took the process. We had some fun (well, not so much the first day - even Buddha would have been stressed on Day 1 :eek: ) but they were both stone cold serious about the standards and didn't hesitate to bump the few that couldn't demonstrate them. Good on them. It was also interesting how much learning went on during the exam. Being exposed to a bunch of freshly trained Instructor Candidates and interacting with the Examiners was a very valuable experience. All-in-all, I didn't have to redo or retake anything, despite getting some assignments that seemed targeted at my weak points. Most importantly, I passed and they're going to send me my upgraded black card.

On a less-than-happy note, there was an incident that happened at the quarry that caused a huge disruption in my concentration and took some of the fun out of Day 2, though it also served as a great object lesson. One of the last items on our schedule was a demonstration of our ability to recover an unresponsive diver and tow him to shore while administering rescue breathing. It a fundamental in-water rescue skill that gives some folks trouble but I'm a long-time Red Cross First Aid/CPR/AED/Water Safety Instructor and my confidence in my ability to knock the demo out with no problems was very high. Remember that old adage about don't count your chickens till they hatch...as I was finishing my tow, all hell broke loose and four of us candidates ended up involved in a real-life rescue of a real-life near-drowning victim. Despite having completed all the components of the drill, I hadn't received the "cut" signal when I mentally switched from ersatz rescue to the real thing and I was afraid that I might flunk for cutting my demo short. After the ambulance left I got a nice little pat on the back for having my priorities straight and helping with the real rescue - and for a "text book" rescue demo. My post-dive briefing was marked down a little bit because the adrenaline buzz I had going made it a little stressed and unfocused - it was and, like I said, they were grading hard. Good on them.

Whew. I'm still concerned that in a year I'll look back and think it wasn't worth the price - it took a lot of time and money and teaching will probably need to be more fun than a pantsfull of ferrets to "recoup" that investment.

It's going to take a day to clean out my truck and scrub the gear after a week of divemania. That's OK, because it's going to take at least that long to mentally wind down from the experience, too. I self-medicated with beer and lasagna last night and I'm looking forward to Noon when I can start a second course of therapy. :D

[nitroxbabe]

Wow. What happened with the near-drowning victim??? Do you know if the person was alright? Kudos to you for being there to help - I know what scary stuff that is.

[reefraff]

Wow. What happened with the near-drowning victim??? Do you know if the person was alright? Kudos to you for being there to help - I know what scary stuff that is.He was concious and breathing (O2) independently when the ambulance transported him. If you're going to have a bad day, he picked a good time and place for it.

[theskull]

. . . Whew. I'm still concerned that in a year I'll look back and think it wasn't worth the price - it took a lot of time and money and teaching will probably need to be more fun than a pantsfull of ferrets to "recoup" that investment. . .

I hear that! I came quite close to making the dreaded step myself this year, but repeated analysis of cost vs. benefit vs. cost vs. time commitment vs. cost vs. barrel-load of required manauals to buy vs. cost . . . I came back to my original conclusion that "It's GOOD to be the Divemaster!"

Of course, there's no need for the Divemaster without the Instructor, so I'm grateful that some of you do go for it. Hope you get your pantsfull of ferrets!

theskull

p.s. Regarding the COST, you would think that since as an Instructor you get to add to the income stream of the entire PADI organization that they would make it less of a shocker--the other agencies do a better job on this. Also, PADI is the only agency that requires you to pay an Instructor Trainer AND an Examiner, effectively adding 50% to the cost--and they claim that this is a FEATURE of the program . . . and they were around before Microsoft "invented" the "problem as feature" argument.

[juls64]

p.s. Regarding the COST, you would think that since as an Instructor you get to add to the income stream of the entire PADI organization that they would make it less of a shocker--the other agencies do a better job on this. Also, PADI is the only agency that requires you to pay an Instructor Trainer AND an Examiner, effectively adding 50% to the cost--and they claim that this is a FEATURE of the program . . . and they were around before Microsoft "invented" the "problem as feature" argument.

Thats one advantage of doing just AI first, you can stretch out the cost a bit.

[Atlaua]

Thats one advantage of doing just AI first, you can stretch out the cost a bit.

Only if you do the AI with a CD. Otherwise you're not stretching the cost, you're increasing it...

James

[juls64]

Only if you do the AI with a CD. Otherwise you're not stretching the cost, you're increasing it...

James

Why is that?

[Atlaua]

Why is that?

If you don't do your AI with a CD, most of the CD's will make you repeat that portion of the IDC.

James

[juls64]

No, my instructor has done a lot of IDC's with our CD. If the CD thought I was poorly trained, it would definitely reflect poorly on him. I could see that if I were to go somewhere else though. We have had a few AI's go through the same way I am doing and it shouldn't be a problem.

Definitely a good point though. I didn't think of it that way.

J.

[nitroxbabe]

He was concious and breathing (O2) independently when the ambulance transported him. If you're going to have a bad day, he picked a good time and place for it.

That's great - sounds like he'll probably be OK.

Do you know what precipitated the accident????

[reefraff]

That's great - sounds like he'll probably be OK.

Do you know what precipitated the accident????
No, I don't.