Day 4 at the CDTC

Good morning, says Alan Jans. Good morning, we all response, almost eagerly, awaiting the next words that will come. We will be receiving extra points for our team? Is there a summary of the days events? Will he surprise us all with a clever joke or perhaps a long lost nugget from the PADI treasure trove of instructor development? A tip that he has withheld for the last 10 years? The holy grail of marketing that will cause all dive business within a 100 mile radius to flood your doorway? Perhaps today is the day he has waited for soooo long. He patiently bided his time all these years, perhaps there was no one worthy enough, no one deserving. Many had been close, many shared his passion but alas, had fallen short some small way or another.

Alas, it was but a dream, nothing more. Instructor Development Presentation workshop, which of course was a gem in it’s own right. We paired off again and worked on teaching presentations that we will give later in the week. This was followed up by James giving part 2 of the Marketing pitch. Social media! If you are reading this, then you my friend are our #1 target…Do you want to learn to dive? Do you want to partake of the diving lifestyle? Like a child being lured by candy, be warned. One breath underwater and you may be hooked.

On to lunch at the very lovely Beach Grill with the proverbial perfect Caribbean view. Faithful reader, this is why we dive. This is the picture that launched a thousand vacations. Forget about 6 pack abs and a perfect body, what I am selling today is what all people want. I can take your deposit as soon as I get home. But nothing gold can stay and we soon head back to our conference room. Nothing like a little Risk Management to settle your stomach and remind of what can go wrong.

The rest of the afternoon was spent giving and evaluating classroom presentations. Some Rescue Diver, Divemaster, Project Aware, Advanced and of course the old standby of Open Water. Needless to say, we rocked it!

PADI CDTC Day 3 July 4

Other then the American rubbing their Independence Day celebrations in the face of the Brits, the day went very well. As with every morning, it was breakfast in La Cuna (the main eatery where we breakfast and lunch daily) followed by a 8am start. The first topic of the day was Instructor Development Standards followed by the Prescriptive Teaching Workshop. Standards are what guide every class a PADI instructor teaches. These are the “how, where and how many” questions that we answer every time we hit the classroom or pool. As Course Directors, we are looked at as experts when questions arise regarding interpreting standards. We don’t need to know all the standards but we do need to know where to look to find them. Our second seminar covered Prescriptive Teaching. This is a technique we use when teaching almost all of our classes. With so much of the classroom knowledge the student needs being delivered via their books and videos, we don’t need to get up and teach EVERY little detail. Prescriptive teaching covers the little details that students may have missed or need further clarification on. We teamed up with other candidates and worked on our own presentations that we will give later in the course.


Our lunch break is usually 1 1/2 hours. This gives you time to prepare gear or materials for pool or class presentations that afternoon. James Morgan began the last conference session of the day with Marketing. Obviously, we need students if we want to teach. He also unveiled a challenge to each team. We need to prepare a marketing plan to sell a fictitious Divemaster (James Morgan) on taking his IDC with our team. More on this after we present (you never know what other group is reading this!!) Enough to say that this blog is part of it!
That afternoon we jumped in the pool. It was time for our first confined water presentation. We had been assigned a skill for the Open Water Class. Yohan had alternate air source use, Barbara had the CESA, Sascha had mask remove and replace, Alex had reg clearing, Thierry had full mask clear, Milo had partial mask clear and Dave had neutral buoyancy-oral inflation. We also had the pleasure of evaluating each other during our presentations. Needless to say, we rocked it!!

PADI CDTC -The First Two Days

So Chris Langehaug and I are attending the PADI Course Director Training Course in the Dominican Republic.  Basically we are learning how to teach people to teach people to blow bubbles, becoming Instructor Trainers.  Here are some of our adventures...


DAY 1
And it came to pass that instructors were gathered from near and far told to meet in the Dominican Republic. And thus it came to be that we band of brothers, we happy few started our CDTC! We were met at the door of the conference room and given our assigned group. 6 groups with 7 candidates in each. From the four corners of the globe-Russia to the Caribbean and Japan to Italy. After introductions and an orientation, lunch and a review of homework, we jumped in the pool for the first part of the skill circuit and some rescue practise.
The end of the day brought a very pleasant cocktail hour as ice was broken and friendships begun.

We were placed in 6 groups, each with a color.  Our first assign, find a team name-thus the GreenGos were born!!

Barbara-Italy’s favorite daughter is the beauty behind the GreenGos. She enjoys long walks on the beach, Marcello Mastroianni films and cave diving.


Stadomir-From the cold northern waters of Norway, Milo is at home in warm water, cold water, wetsuits, drysuits and no suits!!
Yohan-A Frenchman living in Mexico whose favorite dives are in the Indian Ocean. Admired by men, desired by women, be careful with those piercings!
Sascha-He lives on a lake but doesn’t dive there. He listens to Depeche Mode but isn’t depressed. He is Swiss but wears a Japanese watch. He is the most interesting man in the world.
Alex-Bad teeth and football? Think again. A death-defying tec diver with a Oscar-winning actress for a wife, if you think you know the English, you don’t know Brit!
Thierry-Did you know the official recreation of Belgium is scuba diving! Well, it should be and if Thierry had his way all school kids would have Wednesdays off for scuba dives!
Dave- He comes from Salt Lake City, Utah so that means he has a ready made squadron of bubblemakers. Dave dives in a hot spring so don’t mind the smell of sulphur.
John-Aka the other Belgian, John spends his days translating English to French, Italian to British, American to Swiss and Mexican to Norwegian.

DAY 2
During our morning sessions, we were counselled on counseling and critiqued on critiquing. Yes indeed, it was time for evaluation training. The afternoon brought some fun as we headed to the ocean for a little bit of confined water training. With some surge and bad vis, it was an interesting experience that made many of us glad for pools!!




After a quick shower, a bus took us into town for dinner. Dinner was divine as was the wine.

Ice Dive=Nice Dive?

Ever winter we gear up for a day or two of diving under the ice.  I'm always amazed at the looks we get when we mention ice diving.  There are always those who ask an incredulous, "WHY?"  But there are others who are 100% as soon as they hear about it.  I think it is one of the best-"been there, done that" dives in the sport.  Hands down, you will win any battle of the stories when you break out the one about the time you went under the ice!!

 

The experience begins with your Advanced Open Water and continues with some drysuit experience.  That can be done as part of the Advanced class or as a stand alone specialty.  Once you know which way is up in a dry suit (not an easy feat in itself), you are ready for the Ice Diver class.  Yes, you need to have done the class first.  The class consists on one class session where we go over the logistics of the dive.  You need to cut the whole, move the ice, have safety lines and a tender.  Not quite the same as grabbing some gear and hitting the Crater.  We then hit the lake for a Saturday of fun.  We try to have a two weekend "window" so if the weather is nasty the first, we can hit it the second. (and yes, we learned this a few years ago when we froze our butts off at Strawberry in a storm only to have beautiful weather the next Saturday!)

We usually dive Deer Creek but have done Strawberry, Rockport and Scofield in years previous.  We are headed out February 23.  Stop by and see us at Deercreek!!

Indonesia Trip

     Over 17,000 island make up Indonesia and off the island of Sulawesi is located one of the most bio-diverse areas in the world!  Between muck and reef diving, you will see more new critters than you have seen in your whole dive career. 

   

   We fly from LA to Singapore and then to Manado.  A short ride will bring us to our home for the week, Kungkungan Bay Resort.  KBR was the first dive resort in the Lembah Straight and still does it the best.  We can do 3 boat dives per day.  They offer shore diving during the day in their bay.  Since it has been off limits to fishing for over 25 years, it is one of the “fishiest” dives you’ll ever make.

     The resort offers a private jetty with camera rinse tanks and hot showers, air conditioned rooms, a swimming pool with swim up bar, wifi hot spots and 24 hr restaurant service.

     Muck diving?  Just wait and see!!  The Lembah Straight is nestled between the islands of  Sulawesi and Lembah.   Many sites here have black sandy bottoms and hidden in this “muck” are the truly wonderful and bizarre!

    

 Many of the creatures you will see are small but can be found no where else on earth.  Sea horses and nudibranchs are common!!  Not to mention the frog fish, devil fish, lion fish, puffer fish, octopus, ribbon eels and that is just the first dive!!  KBR is a photographers dream.

 

$3399* includes round trip air from Los Angeles, lodging, all meals and 6 days of diving, pre/post trip parties and t-shirt.  Room upgrades and nitrox packages are available

 

*This is the cash/check discount price.  Regular price is $3605.  Price is subject to change and is based on Double Occupancy.  Single supplement will be extra.  Deposits may be non-refundable and cancellation charges may apply.

 

 

 

 

The Winner of the Dry Case

And the winner is......Carl Brewer!!!  Give us a call Carl and we will get you your new Dry Case 801-277-3483!!  Congrats!!  Didn't win but want one of these cases?  Call me for a special 20% discount until December 14.  Don't worry, there are more give aways coming. 

Stocking Stuffer

Wow, just when you think you have seen it all.  Now I'm not one to promote things from big box or online retailers.  Obviously I'm more of a mom and pop/brick and mortar type guy BUT when you see something funny....

This is the "Deep Tea Diver" available on Amazon for only $14.95.  Perfect for the scuba diving tea drinker in your life!!!