Under Pressure

Part three of my IDC & IE Report.

Part One: IDC AI

Part Two: IDC OWSI

GO PRO!

What does IE Stand for?

Instructor Exam

Friday May 2nd mid afternoon and we all we climb into the Scuba Med Van & head to Santa Ponsa where the IE is hosted.

Looby & Rina in the van

Dave drives, Clive sits up front, we have spot quizzes all the way down to Santa Ponsa with Clive asking questions from all the DM theory exams to make sure everything is in our heads.

At this point I have no idea there is room in my head for anything else, I am sure anything that is said now will just rattle around in the empty space between my ears.

Caterpillars, no capillary gauges, your gorgeous! no shut up, argh! my head hurts now.

We get to Santa Ponsa and check in to our hotel for the next two nights, the IE is planned to be Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday morning although there have been rumours that due to only eight to ten candidates the examiner is hoping to finish everybody on the Saturday, no extra pressure on us then to get it all right…

We all attend the IE introduction, Jordi is the examiner and he gives a presentation designed to allow us to relax, he explains all the processes and the scores required.

Jordi then hands out the assignments for the weekend and explains that as per the rumours we will be finishing everything on Saturday. Friday night exams, confined water, open water and knowledge presentations all to be done on Saturday.

Classroom I have planning multilevel dives a question from an OW diver Quiz.
Confined water I have the CESA (my nemesis)
The Short Skills circuit is kit remove and replace underwater, mask remove and replace, reg recovery, something else and guess what CESA again. so not only am I having to demo CESA I have to teach it, I start to get worried.
Open water I have AAS Doner and receive for 30 seconds while stationary & a Sheet bend from a S&R Adventure dive.
You can get some make up’s if you fail first attempt on confined water and in the knowledge presentations, also you can resit one theory exam if required. Open water there are no make ups, but scores must average out above the pass mark (3.4 I think from memory)

If you fail any one section

* Exams (theory and standards)
* Confined Water (teaching and skills circuit)
* Open Water (teaching and rescue demonstrations)
* Knowledge Presentation (prescriptive teaching)

You can come back to another IE and only have to sit the components you failed previously.

Its now about six o’clock on the Friday night, we then get handed various exam papers, Standards first, everybody is doing it at the same time, there are eight of us in total here for this section.

Two of the guys are here for exam resits (I remember a random statistic that Clive told us, 92% of people that fail their first IE fail it on the exams, we are all divers, if we can get through the exams we can all do the diving….)

We get 90 minutes to do the standards exam, its open book, everybody seems to have their books all tabbed with various sticky notes and colour sections apart from me and the two folk using laptops with PDF versions of the manuals.

Woosh the clock starts ticking, 50 questions, 90 minutes. tick tock, tick tock…. I hardly opened my book, I am finished and I’ve only used 25 minutes, I marked a couple I wasn’t sure of, double check, 35 minutes in and I hand my paper to Jordi.

He tells me I can start preparing my teaching presentations while the others finish the standards exam, after ten minutes he comes up to me and shakes my hand, says congratulations 98% pass mark. I go outside and sit around in the sunshine, Michelle and Florian join me, then Laura and Ian and soon enough Dave & Clive are back from the pub, Dave seems to be missing fingernails at this point, I think he is worried about us all. Rod appears and talks to his two guys. Jordi Calls us all back in.

Another ninety minutes and five theory exams, which way does the current go , what pressure, what groups, what levels, this equipment, what tide, What PPO2, if an object displaces etc.

I finish this set of exams just after Michelle, we all head outside again, Jordi calls us back in one at a time, hands get shook, people smile, all six of us from the Scuba Med IDC pass the exams, lots of relieved faces all round.

One of Rod’s Guys fails (Stephen) two exams so no make up, he has do to that whole section again, he looks distraught, we can all feel his pain but are all selfishly relived its not us, the two guys doing resists seem to be happy, one has a make up exam to do the other passes and has completed his IE, he smiles and vanishes into the night.

Now we head back to the hotel, I cant even remember its name, all I know is its up a hill and has a mosaic of dolphins in the pool.

We get some food from the place next door and settle into the lounge of the Hotel, Dave and Clive can’t help us but they can support us from the bar.

Laura is not amused, she has a teaching presentation on diving aware, “don’t just dive, dive aware” Comedy, makes us all laugh anyway, especially as she is such an English rose with her posh southern accent.

I am troubled, I have CESA to teach in confined water, I write my slates up for it and my slates for open water, I prepare my knowledge presentation on selecting the next level for a multilevel dive, I try not to sound perplexed as I expand from “look at the yellow box” to try to make the presentation into an interactive fifteen minutes of teaching, I concentrate and decide to use the large teaching wheel, get some extra wheel manuals and decide to use the maps I brought along as my contact and non diving training aid.

Its about one thirty am now and we all head off to bed for a 7.30am breakfast, we have to be kitted up ready to do our briefings for confined water at 8.30 am on the Saturday morning.

I get some sleep, I wake up, I get some sleep, I wake up, I am up at 5.30am I cant get back to sleep, head is buzzing remembering ” I particularly liked”, “the value”, “In Summary” My head is playing PADI Buzzword bingo to itself, its almost like being in a meeting full of management consultants but with only my head as the active party.

Up for breakfast, we all check out the hotel, get to the van and head off to the indoor pool that is being used for the confined water section.

The stench of chlorine is strong, I cant wait to start breathing off my cylinder, the water looks rancid, Milky white, sun cream rancid, the pool is only twelve metres long but visibility is at most 5 metres.

Jordi watches us assemble our kit in silence (exam conditions), we then all head outside and give briefings to each other with Jordi sitting at a table behind us listening and marking scores, we don’t have a name but a colour and a number (Red 5 is me) that way when ever you do anything he can tell who you are and where his scores go on the slates.

I brief CESA, I explain to Jordi I have brought a measured piece of line and some weights, he says no need and shows me what he will consider to be nine metres in the pool.

We all line up in our numbered order 1-8 (Stephen is One, Ian Two, Rina Three, Mike Four, Me Five, Laura Six, Florian Seven, Michelle Eight – the random things you remember sitting at your pc weeks later…)

Jordi explains we will do the skill circuit in two groups (1-4 then 5-8) no surprise really as visibility is that bad in the pool, we all to do the Skill Circuit, I do CESA easily, I think its because the pool is so murky I don’t have to worry about getting to a point nine metres away, I just do it and realise I am about to hit the wall at the opposite side of the pool..

Michelle, Mike are asked to redo the CESA.

After the skills circuit we all surface and Jordi gives us our scores (I get a four on all five skills which is more than enough to pass) I think Florian and Laura get a couple of fives but mostly everybody gets fours and all eight of us get through to the teaching in confined water round. Some smiles and some pressure off as Jordi decides all the surface skills will be done last.

I want to laugh, Laura couldn’t find her own mask so she got a new Mares Liquid skin in bright pink, its horrendous but we all remind her it suits her dive aware, PADI girl look, she could be straight from a promotional video.

We all submerge into the manky pool again and Jordi starts pointing to each of us one at a time, giving us the signal to be instructors.

Rina is selected as a student by Stephen, he demonstrates the air depletion exercise with Ian, he then does the exercise with Rina, Rina gets her regulator back and looks worried, she gives the OOA signal to Stephen, he turns her air back on….

..One or two folk are told to surface straight after their teaching presentations …. Lots of worried looks between the remaining candidates, we all look at each other, subconsciously asking what’s going on?

When its my turn I move the whole group right around and face them on the opposite wall as I want to be on the inflator hose site of the students should they decide to inflate rather than let expanding air out of their BCD’s.

I ask somebody to be my DM (I cant even remember who at this point), I give the signals as I briefed earlier and I get my DM to watch the students while I demo the CESA. I am bricking it, the pressure is on me here.

Anyway I demo it, I then call out Mike as my student. I stay close to Mike, I have one hand round his front checking for the exhale, I have one hand close to his tank to hold him should I have too, wooooa! I have to stop him, he is going far too fast.

I use the signal for remember, I use the signals to redo the skill and I use the slow signal, we go back to the far side of the pool, I check the students air pressures, I check the DM is OK.

This time Mike slows down, we reach the far end of the pool, I remind Mike what he had done wrong then give him the very visible high five to show my appreciation of him doing the skill, Jordi points for me to surface and tells me to prepare my debrief he goes back with the remaining candidates….

I have no idea how I have done, Florian comes out too, he has to do his debrief, Stephen gets kitted back up and goes back in again, he is having a nightmare, I feel for him he is doing his make up.

Jordi surfaces and gets Florian and I to do our debrief, as soon as I have done it Jordi tells me 4.3 a pass, no make up, pack my kit and get ready for my knowledge presentation. More pressure off.

Once again all six of us from the Scuba Med IDC Family pass this section, Stephen throws the towel in, Ian joins us and we welcome him with friendly smiles.

Poor Clive and Dave (they look like two expectant fathers waiting on the news, I am sure Dave has no fingers left never mind fingernails), only Open water and knowledge presentations to go this afternoon, more than half way through the IE!

Back in the van and head off to the Santa Ponsa Marina and the ZOEA dive centre that is running the boat for the Openwater session this afternoon.

Florian, Michelle & Mike

We get to the marina, get our cylinders all handed in to be filled, Dave takes off to try to find us lunch, we all sit down and start going once again through our teaching presentations and our knowledge development sessions.

After a bite to eat Jordi turns up, Laura gets a five for flirting with a Spanish candidate here to do his open water section again.

We all kit up get on the boat and one at a time give our briefings to Jordi.

He explains we will be in two groups, one group doing rescues and being evaluated by the course directors and one group doing in the water doing teaching presentations with Jordi.

Dive 250: PADI IE Santa Ponsa Mallorca 3rd May 2008 Dive time: 39 minutes Max depth: 6.7 metres.

Laura and I are buddied up, we do a text book giant stride off the boat, everybody comes off the boat, we are all told where to descend. Looby and I do our SORTED routine to descend, ever conscious that the whole event is an exam.

We find Jordi settled on the sand, and settle into a row, Jordi gives us signals one at a time to be Instructor, Ian is first he selects me to be his student, I have to do a part mask flood and clear, Jordi points over Ian’s back and tells me to do a full flood instead.

I am so nervous I do the full flood, Ian reminds me to do a part flood, I do a part flood but clear it badly (bloody hood and mask and gloves and nerves more than anything else) this is not going well, Jordi had warned us on the boat that we must do everything perfectly apart from the fault he gives us and here I am struggling to clear my mask, first student to do skills too.

Eventually after four or five attempts Ian congratulates me on doing the skill well enough, Jordi cuts that short and gets Ian to move on to his second skill. Then its Mikes Turn, Mike gets Ian to demonstrate a hover (Ian is in a drysuit with a buddy air2 as his BCD inflater) I think eek not a good choice, but hey it simulates real life and peoples kit choices.

I watch as Mike deals with Ian fault of over inflation (as prescribed by Jordi) I also note that Ian’s right calf has bubbles streaming from it (if your reading this you may have a drysuit leak) .

My turn to be Instructor, I get to do AAS stationary and a sheet bend, nothing bad, Mike tries to donate his primary I spot it quickly and get him to go donate his octopus while he uses his primary. For the sheet bend my student tied the wrong knot, I showed them the right knot and got them to do the skill again.

Rina’s turn she has got Fin Pivot, she gets Laura to do it, Jordi Instructs Laura to over inflate her BCD, Rina is slow Laura goes up, Rina grabs her they both go to the surface. They both return with Rina holding Laura’s hand, Rina get Laura to do the skill again, she then does her second skill.

One of the Spanish guys gets picked by Florian to do the bowline and recovery of an anchor to neutral buoyancy using a lift bag, it goes well, perfectly neutral and well tied knots.

Jordi sent us away buddy pair at a time to go do the rescue evaluations.

Rod evaluates Laura and my own rescues, we get back on the boat and dekit.
Everybody gets back on board and we start heading back to the harbour.

Jordi asks us all to give him our debriefs, I do this “I particaulary liked the way……”, Florian does it “However , remember to do such and such” , Mike Does “the value is…” , Ian too, we all pass this section some relief on our faces. I score a 4.0 and a 4.0, Laura gets her debrief she scores a 5.0 (perfect!), Rina gets her debrief done so does Michelle, Rina is crying, Michelle is now crying and so is Laura.

Three woman all crying and I didnt say anything and Clive was quiet at the back of the boat, so it wasnt him, what’s going on?

We get back to the Shore, Dave is waiting on us, he sees the girls all crying, I still have no idea what is going on.

We start getting the kit off the boat, I manage to find out Rina failed this section for Student safety, Michelle passed but she had been given a talking to about the amount of time it took her to find somewhere to tie her CESA line too and Laura passed too but blamed herself for what happened with Rina..

Rina keeps herself to herself, Dave gives her a hug and tells her to keep herself together so she can do the knowledge development and that means she will only have to sit the Open water section again at another IE.

We all stick together and are called into the classroom for the final component of the IE…

Everything runs smoothly in the classroom, we all teach and interact, I hear the phrases from everybody “key points, take notes, highlight, ask questions, in summary”, everybody manages a non diving contact, Ian used his crocs (bad man!)

Mike manages to use a mobile phone and a digital camera as his contacts(he uses my mobile) so we even manage to get a photograph of us during the Knowledge Development section.

Front Row: Michelle & Laura
Middle Row: Myself & Florian
Back Row: Jordi Attenza (PADI Instructor Examiner)

Jordi gives us our scores as we each finish, its agonising waiting on all the others finishing as Florian can hardly hold himself in his seat, he just wants to bounce around and go get a cigarette.

We all pass this section (4.6 I think I score).

That’s it all over, the IE is done and dusted, Jordi writes up the paperwork for everybody we have a nice presentation of the certificates by Clive, Dave & Rod.

From the Six candidates from the IDC hosted by Scuba Med, five of us are now qualified as OWSI’s and Rina has to go back and do one section. (I believe she has been in open water over the last few days practising and is flying to Alicante on the 16th of May for her remake IE.)

Good luck Rina!

I can’t thank Dave, Jan and Clive enough for all the effort and genuine care they put into running the IDC and supporting us at the IE.

Now onwards to the world..

..Oh I got pretty drunk on Sunday night at the BBQ and Dave had a nice skirt and blouse on.

On the Monday I Chilled and on the Tuesday we did our EFRI Courses with Rod.

Just again…

What does IE Stand for?

IT’S EASY!

Left to Right: Dave, Me, Florian, Michelle,Laura, Mike & Clive.

If you are thinking of doing an IDC & IE then remember to contact Dave at Scuba Med for his all inclusive prices.

Popularity: 72% [?]