On Saturday May 5th, we all met at the dive centre and the students got watching the last of their videos quickly. As they were watching the videos Jen, JoLeen, and I got their gear setup. Jen had to leave early, so JoLeen and I got to work with the students on their buoyancy. They all did really well. After the pool session the students went home and prepared for their last ocean dive of the course. After that class, Jen came back and we all got our gear together and prepared for the Night Course and an Advanced Open Water Night Dive. We were taking Francois out for his first night dive. We loaded the van and went to Taejongdae. We got there around 7:30ish and started to set up the gear that we needed for the dive. We met Francois and his wife at the dive site and we talked about his trip to Guam. It was very interesting, but it was sort of eating up our time, so we politely hurried the conversation on. We talked about what we were going to be doing in the water, and then headed to the beach. We got in the water and there were a couple of times that Francois flashed his LED torch in our eyes, but that is a given when someone is new to night diving. We went down 10m (~33ft) and we were down there for about 47mins. The water was 15C (59F), but it didn't feel that cold for some reason. Well when we got to the bottom, Francois and Drew went off to do his compass exercise, so Jen, JoLeen, and I just waited for a bit. When they go back we all took off and started to swim. The girls were paired together, and I was paired with Francois. We when you are paired you should try to stick close to your "buddy" especially when the visibility is 1-2m (3.2-6.5ft). Since it was Francois's first time to go night diving and since he really doesn't know the site that well I stuck really close to him. Everything started off really well, but there were times that he started to stray off from the pack, so I had to guide him back. Well about half way in the dive he started to act very strangely. He started to loss all spacial awareness and he started to roll around while he was swimming. Well in doing so he didn't stay in the line formation that we talked about in the briefing. He was all over the place, and I had to do a lot of chasing after him. At one point he punched me in the face as he was messing around doing I don't know what. I was also not the only one affected with his antics. The girls were also subjected to his antics. There were numerous times that he kicked Jen and JoLeen both in the face with his fins. JoLeen was trying to get her night navigation done, so we were to be following her. Well as she was doing that, Francois was out infront of her just swimming. It was if he didn't have a care in the world and nothing else existed except him. He also forgot all the signals that Drew talked about with us. At one point we were going to hold the lights to our chest and see if we could see the bioluminescence. Well he did the opposite he started to check his gauges, so they weren't as strong as they should have been. Well we all started to head back after that attempt and on the way back he again was all over the place. Once we got to the line, Jen and Drew stayed down to do one last exercise, so JoLeen, Francois, and I started to ascend. By this time both JoLeen and I were frustrated with him so we started up the line. Well he had no clue what was going on, and he came up last. At the surface we tried to get his attention. He turned around and flashed his light in our eyes, in-fact he did that a lot of times while in the water as well... Well we got out and I waited on the beach for Jen and Drew. The waves were kicking up, and Jen doesn't fare so well against them. When Drew and Jen surfaced I went back into the water and helped her get out. After she and Drew were out we got packed up and headed home.
Sunday marked a bright new day!!! It was the Open Water student's last dives of the course. We all met at the centre around 9am and were in the van by 9:45am. We got to the centre at the beach and got the gear all unloaded. We started to brief the students on what they would be doing for the first dive, and the girls and I got the gear setup. Actually Jen, JoLeen, and Mike got their earlier than we did, so they set out the gear and started to dry the suits out from last night. It was really nice of them to do. The students also worked on their basic navigations skills in the parking lot, because they had to work on that in the water. Well after that we got all our gear on and headed into the water. Since there were four of us helping (Jen, JoLeen, Kostyantyn, and I) the girls would work with the students first, and the guys would work with them on the second dive. Well Kostyantyn, was going to be late as usual, so I went into the water to help pull the students out of the surf zone. The waves were medium in size, but it was a problem for the students. Anyways, we got all of them in the water, and they headed out. I went back to the centre and waited. Well when I got back to the centre he was there setting up his kit. He got all of his stuff together and we talked about what we would be doing. He was in charge of leading, and I was in charge of counting the kick cycles. Well we got into the water, and we went down about 8m (26.2ft). When we got to the bottom, the visibility was 2m (6.5ft) and it was 17C (62.6F). Well we headed off on a 300 degree line. Well we made 5 passes and recorded the kick cycles and depth. Well we were down about 27mins and then we surfaced, because it was our time to work with the students. Well we got onto the beach and by that time the students were at the surface. We walked over to where they were and we helped them out of the water. We asked them how it went and they were all in a foul mood. Well unknown to Kostyantyn and I, they were all doing their surface exercises and they all got a mild case of seasickness. They motion of the waves were a little too much for them. They all made it to the centre and they sat down. We let them rest a bit, and get their stomaches settled. Once they were back to normal we got them back into the water for their last dive. This time I was working with the guys and Kostyantyn worked with the girls. We got out to the buoy, and the guys went down first. Kostyantyn, went down with them, and I waited with the girls. They started to get restless at the top, so we went down. Once at the bottom Drew had them do some skills and after that we swam around. This time we went down 9m (29.5ft). The visibility and temp were the same as before. We swam around for about 24mins. It went really well. I was really proud to see the progression of the students. It was really good to see them progress so far in such a little time. At the end of the dive we were suppose to practice a safety stop, but the students just wanted to get out of the water, because they all had enough for that day. We all got out and headed up to the centre to change and get dry. The students worked on their logbooks, and after they were done we went out for a celebration late lunch.
It was a good weekend, and I am glad it went really well. Congradulations Nick, Mike, Sarah, and Vickie!!
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