Meet Divemaster candidate number 5! We started day 1 off with his PADI Rescue diver course....
Tom Is originally from London in the Uk but has been travelling around for quite a few years already. He started diving in 2015 with his PADI Open water course in Fiji. After a few years of sucking the scuba tanks Tom discovered the world of free diving and started moving his passion of the underwater world in a different direction. He is now a free diving instructor and wanted to advance his scuba diving abilities to become a PADI Divemaster.
Day 1.
Today Tom takes part in the first part of his training - the PADI Rescue diver course! He has already completed his first aid training through his freediving courses.
After already finishing the online learning for the rescue course before his arrival, we started straight away with testing this knowledge and briefing all of the in-water activities. We also had Jim and Kate joining us to refresh their rescue skills and act as our victims!
First test was the buddy check! Tom learnt quite quickly to make sure his air is turned on!
Which one of you turned off my air!!
We start with a self assessment in the water making sure that you are able to ‘rescue yourself’ before other people! After we were happy Tom can look after himself we started learning about tired and panicked divers and how to react correctly to both and bring them to safety.
Next we went over how to rescue our victims when we aren’t already in the water. Practicing wading, shore and boat assists. Then towing our victims to safety.
The final part of today’s rescues were learning how to rescue someone who is having problems under the water. Our victims were panicked, out of air and overexerted (lucky not all at the same time!!).
After the intense water session we headed back to the shop for some food and refreshments while debriefing what had happened in the water. When the debriefing was over we left Tom alone for a while with the Rescue diver final written exam.
Of course he passed with flying colours! Now Tom has some homework to complete an emergency action plan and we will see him tomorrow for more excitement!!