Octopus Diving: Students... Students... Students

I'm sorry that it has been so long since my last blog. So much has been going on and I have been neglecting my duties :(

There is so much that I want to say, but this blog is going to be about some of the new divers that have been created at Octopus Diving in February...

I would like to congratulate Sonny, Joel and Andrew. All three are medical students at the American University of the Caribbean and they came to us for their open water certification. I was lucky enough to be their instructor as they are... well... special. Under the surface of the water they were great, real naturals. Above... well... as I already said, they are special. For me the course was super fun, there was loads of laughing, joking around, but also some serious moments too. Sonny, Joel and Andrew did give me a pretty hard time, but it was worth it. They are definetely a bunch on divers that I will never forget.

You can see them here celebrating the end of their final exam with a couple of beers.

Here are their mug shots for their certification cards.

Andrew.... (just kidding, I used the other photo for the actual picture identification card, Andrew didn't want to seem like a boozer on his diving certification.)

Sonny...

Joey...

They did a really great job and make fantastic divers. Congrats Guys!

We also did a few advanced open waters. There was Madam J, Mark, Darlene and Mark. The advanced class is always fun, but on this particular group I really enjoyed the underwater navigation part where the students must navigate a square underwater using only their compasses and measuring their fin kicks. We do this at Creole Rock because it is nice and shallow so if the students get lost they can just surface and start again. The moorings at Creole Rock are secured to the sea bed by these huge concrete blocks. These blocks get covered with a thin layer of algae which makes for a really great writing surface. So I simply write N, S, E or W on the block to tell the students which direction I want them to go in. If you aren't an advanced diver I should explain that in the first part of the underwater navigation adventure dive you must navigate in a straight line, and then back again. So I indicate when we are doing the square excersize by drawing a square and then the direction that we are going in. When I went with Mark and Darlene I drew the square and then wrote an "N" so Mark would begin his square by going North. Then for Darlene I wrote a "W" indicating that she should start her square by going West, and she looked at me like "what the heck?" After a couple minutes of confusion everything was cleared up, but Darlene told me afterward that she thought that I was making her do some sort of zig zag, and she didn't think that was fair as Mark only had to a square. It was really funny at the time.

Here you can see Darlene and Mark below. They are both from Boise, Idaho and did a great job!

Madam J and Mark are both members of Les Fruits de Mer, an extreme shallow snorkeling club that is based in Brooklyn, New York. For them I believe they deserve their own special blog, so I will save that for another day.

We also certified Ed and Michelle as Advanced Open Water Divers. They are the crew from Tradewinds - a boat charting company - that is always sailing around Saint Martin, Anguilla and St. Barts.