Just Call Us Instructors! (Nov. 29/09)

Woooooohhhhhooooooooo!!! We did it! We are officially open water scuba instructors!! WOW! That was an incredibly busy/stressful/packed few weeks. After finishing our divemaster program we went into the Instructor Development Course (IDC) with Will Welbourn of Coconut Tree Divers (www.goprocaribbean.com) and he proceeded to teach us how to teach others. What an incredible learning experience! I don't think we could have asked for a better course director and we are supremely happy with the results. The Instructor Exam (IE) was two days of nerves and worry but we came out ahead. There was definitely a big contrast between those candidates trained by others and those of us trained by Will. He is heads and tails above the rest. In short, he is a star! The same can be said of the instructors at CCD. They showed us everyday (by example) what great instructors are. We can only hope to have their mad skills one day in the future because they are truly incredible.

For those of you who don't know what the IE entails, I'll inform you. It starts with testing in the subjects of dive theory, physics, equipment, physiology and dive skills and the environment. Your skills are then tested in open water. After that, rescue skills are examined. Following that, a pool session ensues for confined skills. Moving along you take a 90 minute exam on the general standards and procedures of PADI certification. If you make it through that, you are able to give a knowledge presentation for the group. WOW.

I haven't been that nervous in....well....ever. During the examiner's opening speech he asked us to define professionalism. I couldn't even move. My mouth hung open while my brain tried to grasp at an answer. It was no use. I was paralyzed with fear. Looking back, I shouldn't have been. My marks were close to perfect and I walked away a happy woman. Kevin rocked it too! He was an absolute rock during the entire thing and brought his A Game! Woot! Anyway...enough about diving for a bit.

We are leaving Roatan on Dec. 24th. I found a great deal for a flight from Houston to Cape Town on the 26th. Finding a great deal from Roatan to Houston, however, is proving more difficult. UGH! I'm not sure if we'll be back this way...depends on where we'll get instructing jobs. The plan is to go to SA for two or three months and then follow the working trail. Hopefully we'll land in Thailand or Malaysia for a while. You just never know where the road will lead. Although we miss everyone terribly, this adventure isn't over...not yet!

Oh, and before I forget, let me wish a million congratulations to Jenny and Luke Brunham on their adorable new bundle of joy Ava!!! She was born on November 25th - happy and healthy! Way to go guys! I can't wait to meet her. Jenny is holding up incredibly well and has confirmed my suspicions that she's superwoman. A day after giving birth, she was walking around the Crystal Centre picking up Christmas crafts!!! If that isn't superhuman, I don't know what is. Anyway, miss you all! Big hugs and lots of love.

Whoa! Time is flying! (Nov. 18)

Thought I'd warm you up with a few diving pics to make you jealous out there in the cold!!

I am totally stunned that it's been so long since I last updated the blog. Wow. Sorry about that everyone...I'll try and get my act together! Much has happened since I last let you sneak a peak into this crazy adventure we now call life.

First of all, we finished our divemaster course! YAY! It was an incredible learning experience that was so much fun. Coconut Tree is definitely one of the best things that has happened to either of us. The attention to safety, training and fun makes it the top-shop in my opinion. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. The instructors here are fabulous times a thousand. Anyway, we did our course and survived our snorkel tests (barely). We had about a week to do some fun dives and rest a bit afterwards. During that time we had a few very interesting dives...

One of those dives happend to be the shark dive (with a different shop because ours doesn't do them)! Wow! What an experience. Being surrounded by eight or nine Caribbean Reef sharks is pretty cool. The problem was that the bad divers were more frightening than the sharks! There was an incredibly strong current so we had to use a descent line. It was SUCH a struggle to make it down. I have never experienced such a current in my life. Anyway, we made it down and almost immediately two people ran low on air. Without a divemaster to take them up (one was feeding the sharks...the other was videotaping) guess who took them up? Yup....

Anyway, the rest of the dive was great. We were supposed to crouch by a coral formation so that we wouldn't have the sharks behind us. Our group, however, was huge so there wasn't enough room. I, of course, was at the end so I was pushed into the open. There were a few very close encounters (sharks are extremely curious...or at least these ones were) but I had a great time.

On the ascent a lady let go of the line and was thrown into the blue with one fin. That part was frightening but Kevin swam out there and used all his might to bring her back to the line!! Awesome. Once we were back on the surface we boarded our tiny boat (all 16 of us) only to find out that the battery had died. So there we were, stuck in the open ocean with 16 people from a lesbian cruise (including a transvestite who "came along for the experience"), on a tiny boat with sharks circling below. At that moment my only thought was, "Good God..how will they explain this to my parents if I die?" Luckily, that didn't happen!!!

As of this Saturday past, we are in our instructor development course (IDC) and we are learning a TON. It is so informative and hands-on. I highly recommend anyone wanting to do the IDC to do it with Will at our shop. He is the best. It is such an organized and well-planned experience and he really knows what he's teaching. Anyway, so far so good on that. The Instructor Exam (IE) is a week from tomorrow (Nov. 25) and runs over two days. It involves open water, confined and knowledge presentations as well as a skill circuit and rescue demonstration.

So that's life on Roatan...I'm sure there are a million interesting stories I'm forgetting but it's almost 1 a.m. and my writing is starting to not make sense anymore!! Better get to bed. We miss you and love you all...