Jamie’s course

Jamie was well aware that the instructors thought 10 was too early to certify which just made her more determined to do so.

Day One: J handled the morning theory (pressure, volume, density and some golden rules) and the dive briefing very well but I thought we were going to have a serious wobble when kitting up. Jamie had to wear both a long and a short wetsuit which were difficult to get on and put a lot of pressure around her throat. Finally however, we got to the beach and she began her first confined dive – 1.5m, 40 mins. The tasks of putting on fins, hood, mask and BC in water distracted Jamie from the discomfort and the exercises during the dive and her success with them (regulator recovery, clearing mask, buddy breathing etc.) inspired her to keep going.

Day Two: The theory focused on what happens to you underwater – sight, hearing, heat loss, breathing, movement – and the confined dive exercises took the workload on a stage, both in their difficulty and Jamie’s ability to do them independently.

Day Three: Jamie's first 5m+ dive and a boat exit and entry. By this time, she was confident and eager and wasn’t letting any irritations with kit get in her way. My job now was to ensure that I didn’t help her because Jamie’s ability to handle her kit and do her checks competently on her own could be the difference between a fun dive and a serious accident. In the water, Jamie impressed her instructor with her ability to “hover” with legs crossed in Lotus position using just her breathing to maintain attitude.

Day Four: Dalton and his partial pressures, nitrogen narcosis, decompression sickness etc. For the first time, we left Jamie completely alone to dive and took Alex to a water park. I don’t think she really noticed our absence – had I mentioned that Jamie had developed a tendre for Nassos...?

Day Five: Dive tables in the morning: Nassos dropped a couple of “tricky” questions in to fox Jamie and failed to do so. A boat dive in the afternoon: Chris accompanied Jamie and Nassos to get Jamie comfortable diving with him. The sea was pretty choppy and some of the more experienced divers on the boat were apprehensive. Jamie, used to jumping off boats by now, was completely unfazed. However, it was 5pm before the boat party returned so we postponed her exam for a day.

Jamie got 94% in her final exam having got 97.5% in her mini-quizzes the day before – ‘nuff said.

Pictures: Diving with Dad, Certification Photo with Nassos