IDC

   Last night, Sam, who is finally back in town after three fabulous trips (Truk Lagoon, Cozumel, and Belize liveaboard), and to return to us with pneumonia, conducted our first IDC session in weeks. Scott has done a great job working with us in the pool on our confined water presentations and demonstration quality skills. But we had not practiced physics… Like, not since Divemaster class a year ago.

   My brain is not hardwired to remember how to solve math problems that I haven't practiced in a year. I was in danger of my synapses melting together, causing smoke to pour out of my ears. Fortunately, as Sam loves to say, "I may be crude, but I damn sure can teach scuba." And he used his "redneck math" wizardry to get us back on track. Turns out that redneck math is quite similar to art school math, and things got even better once Sam started passing out beers. My kind of class! Before long I was flying through those physics calculations.

   Michael, who has been commuting from Illinois for these classes, stayed with me last night. Which was good, because otherwise I would not have returned home at 10:30 PM, raring to go on filling out my dive slates for the skills I had to teach this morning. We worked on them together and had a chance to catch up.

   This morning, we had a quick breakfast and headed to the shop again. It's probably a good thing that I didn't know what we were in for: 5 hours of confined water presentations and skills circuits in the pool. Consecutively. 81° water. I was freaking freezing (and hungry!). But that which does not kill you makes you stronger, right? Riiiight. And then nearly 5 hours in the classroom, reviewing required materials and searching for answers to get accustomed to the instructor manual. Looooong day.

   But I keep thinking about what an accomplishment it will be for me to attain my instructor certification on May 31. And that is driving me. Along with the camaraderie of my fellow students, Scott, and Sam. Felt good to score 4.8/5.0 on both of my confined water presentations. Overall, I am beat, but it has been a great day!