A night in the pool

Following our GUE Fundamentals part one course in Northland I have been back in the pool working on skills with students.

Philippe and I joined a pool session courtesy of Global dive to have another investigation into trim, buoyancy and basic skills. over the two hour session we focused heavily on positioning and segmentation of skills in order to build a solid foundation on which to further develop.

Philippe like most keen divers has a great desire to succeed in skilled tasks but the reality is that skills mean nothing kneeling on the ground! you have to perform them whilst holding position and neutrally buoyant. This is the biggest shock of Fundies to most participants, it is uncommon that buoyancy has been looked into further than a 30 second hover in a pool! it is also even less common for there to have been any sort of team awareness and positioning element encountered in basic SCUBA training.

Philippe is a dedicated student and I know he has been practicing when I see the development at each session. It is hard to have such a steep learning curve to grapple with, especially if you are success driven. It gives me great motivation as a potential instructor to invest time in a student when I see them work so hard on their skills. Well done mate! I am sure your dedication will get you to where you want to be in diving, you just have to remember it takes time to develop.

 

learning how to teach AGAIN!

So the weekend just passed saw another part 1 Fundamentals course run again in Tutukaka, The team was comprised of Belen, a well trained and experienced UTD diver, Philippe an enthusiastic PADI advanced diver looking to broaden diving skill set with the intent of starting to explore Technical diving, myself and Jamie.

We met the guys in class at 9am on the Saturday morning and introduced each other. Jamie led the introductions and then gestured to me to start delivering the first module of academics. Right then, I thought, time to put this into practice - all the hours of staring at a Go pro and tripping over my tongue when delivering lectures in an ITC format! This was to be the first time I would deliver GUE content to real life paying Fundamentals students and it was not without its nerves on  the outset.

To my relief as I began to talk WORDS actually came out! Before I knew it I was explaining who we were as an organisation  and how we developed as a group, training methodologies and so on. Jamie assisted when he thought a little more depth was required but on the whole the module went through in the right time with the right material covered. (Happy intern!)

After module 1 we had a quick rest and relief break and I quite happily almost rested on my laurels  

until the realisation came that I was to deliver the first portions of module two also..... Hang on, I have already talked for an hour and done my best to satisfactorily answer questions. You mean I have to deliver another module (most of) for another hour! 

This was to be the value for me this time round. You can deliver as many single lectures as you want and feel confident that they are polished and perfected but it is a whole other animal delivering back to back presentations. These modules are different as well, Its not prescriptive like what I have been used to before! There is an art to making this material work and I am certainly not a master of it yet.

As we went through the two days we mixed theory, field drills and open water sessions. I had the chance to get stuck into all that I was capable of and it was tiring. After two hours in a 13 degree Celsius sea water pool with a leaky dry suit its going to be much harder to deliver a module on dive planning than sitting on your couch rehearsing it with a nice cup of tea. ( N.B. cup of tea was present in both situations!) 

There is a great deal of mental and physical stamina I will have to build up in order to deliver a course for my exam. It has taken me until now to learn this. Everyone said it, just like the lectures but you always think you're the exception and it's all going to go smoothly for you. News flash: you ain't no different from the people who have done this before you, so lose that dive instructor ego and move forward. 

This was a great experience for me and I hope for Belen and Philippe also (students are welcome to comment below should they feel otherwise!). Having actually tackled a real life teaching situation with GUE I am looking forward to the part two section with renewed vigor and fresh goals to aim for. 

Cheers all :)