I'm a dive instructor!

Guess who's a dive instructor!!!

After nine days of training and two days of examination... I'm a dive instructor!

It was a pretty big ordeal. During the course, we worked all day for nine days doing classroom presentations, skills demonstrations, pool presentations and open water presentations. We learned how to teach, what to teach, went over mass amounts of theory, skills and paperwork. We learned risk management, marketing and sales to boot.

It was a lot of work, a lot of studying, but it paid off because when it came time for exams, we all passed! The exams took two days. The first day was our pool session, where we demonstrated a number of underwater skills, like mask removals, regulator recovery.... things like that. We also had to teach a skill in the pool with the other instructor candidates acting as students. Then we had our 6 written theory exams that night in physics, physiology, dive planning, equipment, general skills/environment and standards. Woo. The next day we had a full day out on the boat to demonstrate teaching in an open water environment and we also had to demonstrate the rescue of an unconscious diver on the surface. We did also manage a fun dive! The last bit of work we had was a classroom presentation on dive theory and THEN... drumroll... four new dive instructors were born!

Me and my instructor-mates. Joe, Luke and Anna. 

Other than dive classes, there hasn't been much else going on in my life. Diving has taken over my life for the last two weeks, but the last few days have been much more chill. Just been hanging around Exmouth, sleeping by the pool and letting my body recover from 11 days of study and stress. 

Today I went on an adventure with Anna, the other girl in my course. We went into a national park nearby and went to check out some of the beaches, gorges and some of the terrain. It was a really great day, pictures to come soon (as soon as I get them off my camera) but its really really beautiful out here. Very very different from Cairns, much more desert-y terrain. Lots of red dirt.

I'm staying in Exmouth until Thursday. Hopefully in that time I'll be going on the whaleshark boat tomorrow and diving Tuesday and Wednesday if everything works out! Then I'll be in Perth, a city in southwest Australia until next Saturday, hanging out, exploring and visiting friends. Then its back to Cairns to try and find a job as a super duper dive instructor!

Love and fishes! 

Whalesharks and mantas and dugongs, OH MY!

Hello from the West Coast! 

I arrived in Exmouth last Thursday... not even a week ago, but SO much has gone on. I'm out here primarily to do my dive instructors course, making me eligible to teach diving (once I pass...). The other reason I'm out here is for the amazing marine wildlife. 

So I got into town on Thursday, but my course didn't start until Monday. In the meantime, aside from studying course work, I was also able to volunteer on some of the shop's boats including.... the WHALESHARK BOAT!!! 

We went out on Sunday and from the beginning it was perfect. The sun was shining and warm (which has not been the norm since I've been out here) and the wind was calm (also not the norm...). On the way out to the reef, before we even got in the water, before we were even at the reef, we saw a dugong, which is Australia's version of a manatee... they're not quite as fat as Florida's sea cows and more brown in color. I've been wanted to see one since I've been out here, so right off the bat, I was ecstatic. 

We first did a small snorkel, just to ensure everyone was comfortable in the water before we started snorkeling with the whalesharks. After ensuring everyone was confident, we set off to find our sharks! On the way to find the sharks, we saw three manta rays feeding in some shallow water, so we decided to get a little sidetracked and jumped in the water! It was incredible, when we got in the water, there was only one of the three hanging around, but it was amazing. I've been waiting to see a manta ray since I started diving and have had some pretty unlucky misses over the years, but finally, FINALLY got to swim with one. 

After our manta ray adventure, we all got back on the boat and went to hunt down one of those big spotty fish... 

Basically, there are spotter planes cruising around looking for big giant sharks. The planes call the boats, and the boats go to the sharks. One of the crew jumps in the water with the shark and after the boat works its way around in a good direction, everyone else jumps in and swims along side, a few meters away. The first shark we found was about 5 or 6 meters long (15-18ish feet) We were able to get in with it for quite a while, it was really cooperative and didn't dive away into the depths. A little later we found a few bigger sharks, closer to 8 meters (22 - 24ish feet). These weren't as cooperative and after a few minutes they dove into the deep blue sea. But still AMAZING to see. 

Now, if a dugong, one manta ray and a total of four different whalesharks wasn't enough, we found an area on the reef where there were about A DOZEN manta rays feeding. We jumped in the water with them and unlike the first manta in the morning that bolted pretty quickly, these ones were not even slightly bothered by our presence. Some of them got so close, one even bumped into me! I'm not sure who it startled more! The most I could see at one time was five. Whenever one swam away, you would turn around and find two more swimming in from the other direction. It was the most incredible moment, something like you would see on Discovery Channel, but in real life. 

Since then, its been a little less fun and excitement... I've started my dive instructor course. It's going to be A LOT of work, 8 or 9 days of classroom and pool training followed up by a very scary two-day exam. It's a ton of theory, mock student training, rescue scenarios and classroom presentations. Like I said, its going to be A LOT of work, but hopefully it will be equally as rewarding. It's been going well so far, but this is only the beginning (cue ominous music...). 

Hopefully I'll have some more amazing stories to add to the not quite as exciting dive training this week! 

Love and fishes!!!

Goodbye Cairns (for now)!

Well, after 7 awesome months in Cairns, its time to see some more sights. I'm off today for Western Australia, a town called Exmouth. There, I'll be doing my dive instructor course. That means I'll be allowed to teach and certify people in scuba diving! Also in Exmouth there's some amazing reefs and best of all, there are WHALESHARKS. Big, beautiful, plankton eating sharks that can get almost 60 feet long and I'm going to swim with them!

I'll be in Exmouth for about three weeks, then I'm going to spend some time in Perth, which is a city about a days drive south. After that I'm looking at coming back to good old Cairns and trying to get a job with my new dive instructors certification!

The last few days in Cairns have been pretty crazy. I had my last day of work two days ago, which was a blast. There's a tradition that happens on boats around here... on your last day of work you get thrown in the marina! The Cairns marina is pretty gross. All those boats in such a small space, I'm sure there's plenty of chemicals... also some crocodiles, dead fish and other horrible things. And I got thrown into it! Twice! It's a tradition forged out of love... or so they say... But its been a great last few days here, making it even harder to leave! The good news is I'm coming back!

So its goodbye to Cairns for now... This has been such an amazing experience so far, I've met so many amazing people that I love to death. I've found such a great little family out here! It's sad to leave, but for now its only temporary. I'm off to new adventures! So expect more blog entries soon, because a lot will be going on that I can tell you about! And hopefully lots of amazing pictures!