The first day of the Dive Master course was quite hectic but heaps of fun. There were five or six other students in my course, most of whom I gotten my rescue and advanced open water certifications with. The training that we were doing required us to all work together. Diving after all is a highly social sport even when youre underwater.
After getting our gear together and loading everything onto the truck we drove off to one of Manlys local shore dive sites called Fairy Bower. Its located just off of the ocean walkway that stretches between Manly Beach and Shelley Beach about midway between the two. The name comes from the fairy penguins that occasionally can be seen in this area. They are the smallest penguins that exist, adorable little creatures.
Our first challenge of the course was a team-building exercise. Our Instructor presented us with two concrete blocks with metal handles attached, one standard diving reel, and then another larger reel with a thick line attached to it. He then told us to take out our new Dive Master slates and flip to the one with a grid covering most of it. We were supposed to make a map of the bottom complete with depths and any noteworthy objects that were on the ocean floor.
Now I wont tell you how exactly we did this because that would ruin the point of the exercise for people who will be doing it in the future. I can, however, say that a task like this one required a lot of coordination between the various members of my course. Once we completed the exercise successfully I was exhausted but felt quite satisfied. Going into a dive with a set objective and then doing the job at hand well is a very good feeling. That is what diving is all about.
