Well, that’s summer officially over for me. I Returned to Scotland on August 29th.
I have now had my PADI DM application signed off, I completed three months of intense hard graft & great fun, I’ve made new friends, I’ve helped people become divers and I became a better diver myself. What was I doing? Where did I go? How many dives did I do? Well all will be revealed in the following few paragraphs…
I left Scotland on the 15th May on a first choice flight bound for Palma Mallorca & to be met at the airport by Dave Campling PADI Master Instructor and Joint owner of Scuba Med Divers in Son Baulo, Mallorca.
I remember the feeling now, I was nervous and excited at going to work in the holiday resort dive centre.
As I had been involved very little in any PADI training, had never been with a PADI club I had to learn the PADI way of doing things, this meant over the summer I was involved in lots of pool sessions practising the basic PADI 20 Skills, PADI rescue diver training, exams and lots of studying the PADI books especially the excellent encyclopaedia of diving.
I also sat in on lots of classroom sessions (usually video’s, tables and student question & answer session around prescriptive training presentations) I assisted Jan, Dave & Miguel on confined water training sessions for scuba diver courses, open water courses and assisted with continuing education diving, deep, navigation, night dive adventure dives.
I’ve no idea how many cylinders we filled, how many suits we disinfected, BCD’s that needed repairs. Regulators that needed adjusted, consoles that leaked I’ve no idea how many Discover Scuba sessions we actually did over the time I was there assisting, it was hundreds.
I guided and led lots of divers around some nice little dive sites.
Its hard work being at a resort dive centre, working hotel pools, selling courses, picking up the right guests from the right hotels and living in a big brother type of environment, where you all work long days together, everybody shares apartments and you all go out on the town together.
Lots of tempers get frayed, lots of ego’s get bruised and everybody bitches about everybody.
Well to tell the truth every single moment of it was FANTASTIC!
What a way to spend your day, everybody you meet is on holiday and is up for diving. The smiles on people’s faces, the long hot sunny days, the long nights spent playing pool and talking to so many people from so many backgrounds. What a f**ing brilliant lifestyle.
I thank Dave & Jan for having me at Scuba Med & Yvonne for putting me in touch.
Over the Summer I shared a nice apartment with two great guys, rented my own apartment above a club of ill-repute and lived in a garden shed for ten days above a bicycle rental shop.
As for the diving I went away with 139 dives and came back with 231 although 17 of these where in Egypt as I went off on a holiday for ten days (That’s another blog).
If you ever want to try working at a busy, hectic, crazy dive centre with great people and nice, warm clear waters contact Dave & Jan.
Dave is a fantastic instructor and Jan has a heart of gold.
If you ever go to northern Mallorca on holiday, contact Scuba Med, ask them about Cala Ratjada, Fantasia and go enjoy yourself with one of the nicest bunch of DM’s and Instructors I have ever had the pleasure of diving with, never mind working with.
A final closing thought, anybody that says doing a DM Internship is easy, well let’s be honest, you’ve no idea, I earned that qualification under Dave’s watchful eyes & guidance. I honestly had no idea that PADI DM’s needed that much knowledge and experience. Think its easy, go try it!
Anybody that gets a dive qualification at Scuba Med, earns it & I cant wait to work next summer at another dive centre in another country, becuase that’s what being a PADI DM allows me to do, if that aint a great lifestyle, what is?
Josh, Matt, Miguel, Michelle, Alix, Laura, Julie, Rachel, Jan, Dave, Caspar, Carl & Roan it was all my pleasure.
Davie
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