My First Trip to Changwon Pool.

We had a good weekend this past week. Saturday and Sunday (June 2nd and June 3rd) we went to Changwon pool to do the pool sessions for a group of 10 open water students. This was my first time going to Changwon's pool. It was a nice pool, and it was busy with a lot of people learning to swim, doing laps, lifeguard courses, and of course other divers using the pool to work on skills.

Well like I said before we were there, because we had a group of ten OW students. Six of the ten, where American or Canadian students, the other four were Russian. This situation was unique, because the Russians, spoke and understood very little english. Thankfully we had Kostyantyn to translate what was on the tests and basically communicate with all of the Russian students. The American and Canadian students were mostly all friends that decided to join together there were only two that didn't know anyone, but we all welcomed them into the groups like they were old friends. The instructors consisted of Drew, Mr. Lim, and Walle. JoLeen, Kostyantyn and I were all there to help them out.  

Well on Saturday, I got to the dive shop at 11am and help load the vans. The Russian students were doing their tests, because the other group had finished theirs earlier in the week. Well at 12:30pm we all got into the vans and headed off to the pool. It took us about 40 mins to get to the pools. Once we got there we all unloaded the gear into the pool area. The students seemed shocked by what they saw in the pool area. There were a lot of people doing all sorts of swim related activities. Well we got our lockers and our swim caps, and changed into our suits went to the pool area. Once we all got poolside, we had the students set up there gear while we watched them and helped them get set up. We then split into two groups, the group of friends and the group of Russians, with to Americans. Once the gear was assembled and put on we did a seated controlled entry for their first time. They all performed that very well and soon they were all floating at the surface. It was funny to see them all bobbing in the water trying to steady themselves. Once they all got comfortable breathing with their faces in the water, we took them down one by one. I went down first with one of them and waited at the bottom of the pool for Drew to bring them down to me. The pool was 5m (16.4ft) deep, and there were many other divers in the pool. Once we all got to the bottom they immediately started to work on their skills with Drew. I sat in the back and made sure that the students were comfy and stable. They worked on their skills such as mask removal, mask flooding, taking the regulator out of the mouth, and other such skills. Well after they were all done with the skills we swam around. I worked with them on their buoyancy, and taught them how to fin pivot and hover. Some of them got it right away, but other had to work on it more. Well after that we let them swim around for a few mins then we all surfaced and got out. Once we were out of the pool they were all excited to do it again. Most of their fears had washed away, and they all seemed like they had a lot of fun. 

Sunday we all headed back to the pool. We did the same routine as before on Saturday as far as unloading the gear and getting dressed and then getting poolside. Well today we didn't have to do as much stuff as we did on Saturday. Today the students would finish their confined dives 4 and 5. That ment a lot of free time to practice their swimming and buoyancy. Well the students got geared up, but this time they would have to do the stride entry into the pool. So we taught them how to do that, and then let them try it for themselves. It all went very well, and when they got into the water we told them to go down and we watched them go down slowly. Once on the bottom they did their skills that they had to perform and they all did it with ease. The only skill where they had some hang ups was the free flowing regulator. The hang ups were minor though, so no big deal. After the skills were all done they surfaced and did their surface skills. They went well as well and before long they were all finished and out of the pool. Once they got out they took apart their gear and got showered, but while they were doing that, Kostyantyn,  JoLeen, and I had to do our swim tests for our Divemaster Course.

We had to do a 400m swim with no assistance and no stopping, an 800m fins, snorkel, and mask swim where we could only use our legs to swim, and lastly we had to do a 100m tired diver tow. This is the part of the day I was not looking forward too. I HATE swimming distances. I mean I can swim, but I don't like doing it for any extended period of time. Anyways we made it through the tests, but I still have to do the 400m again, because I started to cramp in my legs after doing the other dives first. Well after the swims we got changed and headed back to the dive shop in Busan. There wasn's much going on as far as exciting things, but it was an over good time with new divers. Next weekend we will be going all of this in the ocean for their first dives as students. I can't wait.