The months ahead

I'm in gainful employment again – yipee!
I am Dm'ing for a dive centre along with my man – well once his hand and knee heal after he fell over a few days back. You see it's not only me!

We have a few weeks scuby-doing, then I am back to Freedive Dahab to do Leif's old job as the Slave – god help me! Leif meanwhile will be preparing for his Instructor course and can expect the same support he afforded me during mine. He was fabulous and I couldn't have done it without him.

Leif's ticket is booked for the 17th of December, and I guess mine will be around the same time. Back to Blighty, back to the Christmas lights and a mad dash to get presents bought, wrapped and sent to Santa in time for the 25th! More importantly back to family and friends who I have missed dreadfully and can't wait to see – get the wine in the fridge ;)

Plans are in place for 2010, but I'll fill you all in once they are finalised. For now I intend to live life here in Dahab to the full. There's plenty of scuba and freediving to be done yet. There will be BBQ's to have, quiz nights to attend, and suntans to work on.

We've had a few visitors including parents on both sides, all very welcome, but a few that had planned to come and play have been unable.

We have the whole house now and are making the most of it. But if you're over this way, pop in for a dive or a steak. You'll be made welcome; even more so if you're carrying a bottle of decent wine or Bombay Sapphire Gin. Coleman's English mustard and Sarson's vinegar are also welcomed with a smile :))) Given enough notice we might even find you a bed. It's still early to mid 30's (that's the temp not my age, we all know I am only in my 20's) and the water is 26 degrees – just right for you pale Brits (and the German contingency) I have plenty of suncream in various factors.

AIDA Freediving Instructor Course

What they told us was expected of us:

AIDA 2,3 and 4 star exams, at least a 90% pass rate in each exam.
Final Exam Part 1 and part 2at least 75% pass rate on each part.

Performance requirements
1 dive to minimum 40m maximum 50m
1 dive to 30m lasting for a minimum of 1.30 minutes
1 minute breath-up, diver descends to 15m and hang for an unknown time (45 sec-1 min, which is determined by the IT), then they have to rescue a freediver from BO from that depth
Stamina test- max 1 min preparation, 5 dives to 20m with 1 min surface interval.
Rescue from 25m followed by recovery at surface and 50m tow
Static breath hold – minimum 4 minutes
Demonstration of other disciplines; DNF- no minimum requirement
Demonstration of other disciplines; CNF- no minimum requirement

Practical Teaching Exams :
Classroom
Confined and Open Water
Breathing
Stretching
Set-up and Knots

20min Oral Presentation plus 1500-3000 word handout

They didn't warn us that during the 3 weeks there would be times we wanted to quit, lots of tears, moments of confidence that could be squashed in the blink of an eye and despite it all, a lot of laughs!

We're through the other side now, I got here with 2 lots of tears, a middle ear barotrauma and a crushed thumb nail. Others had blackouts and LMC's so I think I did quite well considering.

I passed everything except 2 of the water performances, but now I can get back in the water I will train for those and get the full qualification very soon. For now I am known as a Pool Freediving Instructor, amongst other things :)

Triple Depth 2009

Each year Freedive Dahab holds a competition covering the 3 main deep freediving competitive disciplines; Constant Weight, Free Immersion and Constant No Fins. This year was no different and I was lucky enough to be involved.

Whilst I finished my last couple of days at Dive Urge in the office, Leif was official camera for the Static competition (i) (stationary breath hold in water) that also took place in the run up to the main comp.

One of my fellow instructor candidates, Josie, had her first coaching experience here too. Shall we just say that she now knows the signs of a static Loss of Motor Control (LMC which can indicate an impending Blackout B/O) much better – never mind John, no brain cells damaged!

The only floating pyramid in Dahab took it's journey from next door to our house to the Blue Hole – Dahab's infamous dive site; a 90m plus hole in the reef table with an arch way at 57m in the reef wall that leads to the open sea (check out Will Trubridge on you-tube for a spectacular freedive through it without fins!)

With the platform in place we had 3 wonderful days of competition. Dean, Katia, Leif and myself took turns safety diving (ii) for the competitors and on the platform taking official video or adjusting the depths.

In between times we enjoyed many a “Disco Break” with the Israeli competitors – see the film Don't Mess With the Zohan and you'll understand. These were mainly led by the saintly and satanic duo, Lotta and Linda, who's official job along with running the show....

(who am I kidding, it was really run by Mr Peter, long suffering husband of Lotta, who kept everyone in line, shepherded all the competitors and made sure it all ran like clockwork!)

…. was Judging (along with Katia) and deep water safety for those lunatics who insisted on diving between -60m and -90m. They also managed to include a acrobatic display (iii), much to the confusion of the scubies passing by!

We had many national records smashed and only a handful of B/O's – 2 of which were divers that Leif and I did safety for. My first ever B/O recovery left me shaken; I had hesitated before grabbing her and knew I shouldn't have, but she was fine and very thankful to us for the assistance to the surface.

The days were long and hot, but totally worth the sun burnt neck and the crispy salt filled hair.

What really topped it all off was the after comp party where the satanic one eventually got married to one of the competitors! We think John may have been a bit oxygen deprived during the static incident from before, but seemed quite up for the whole thing.

Despite all the energy expended during the comp there was no rest for the wicked, Josie and I had the impending instructor course to prepare for........