I walked into Skin n Scuba at 8:30 this morning, confident that I had studied and prepared myself well for part two of our written exam for dive master certification. What I, and everyone else, didn't realize was that we were also being tested on using old-school dive tables to calculate things like pressure groups and surface intervals. Not a big deal, except that I hadn't even looked at a dive table in over four years, and have always go with the computer to calculate all that for me.
Math stresses me out. I feel like I am always the last person in the room to "get" it. And I hate being put on the spot when I don't know the answer, and i'm struggling. So this morning was very frustrating. I really had to work to keep my internal tension from being too visible. But, in the end, what Sam always says is correct: he may be crude, but he damn sure can teach scuba! After our review, we took the test, and I got all those dive table questions right.
I only missed two questions on the test today, and they weren't things that I had studied, so I just had to guess. I had also missed two questions on part one of the exam. The perfectionist in me that I try so hard to keep at bay wants to be frustrated, however, I am thankful that I got 116 out of 120 questions correct!
Sam shocked us with his story of how a large moray eel nearly took off his middle finger while he was spearing lionfish in Belize. He had nearly 30 stitches in that one finger, and it was still quite swollen several weeks after the accident. He's lucky he still has it!
In the Caribbean, divers have been spearing lionfish and feeding them to the eels, because lionfish are not indigenous to the area, and they are killing all of the native species. Problem is, the Eagles have started associating the flash of us here with food, and sometimes they strike first and ask questions later. Ouch!
After the test everyone started packing their things to leave. Wally came in and asked for a volunteer to lead a Scuba refresher session, and no one spoke up. I had expected to be at the shop all afternoon anyway, so I said I'd do it. This was my first refresher course to lead. And the two guys in the class, Monte and Kevin, were great. Though neither had been diving in a few years, they both took right to it again, so it made my job easy. A perfect time for me to practice my teaching skills!
When all was said and done, I drew a shark on Wally's dive slate, and headed home to enjoy a nice dinner and some champagne to celebrate. Now all I have to do is pass the skin diving exercises, and the open water scuba work, and hopefully by June I will be a Divemaster. Or a mermaid. Or both!
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