PADI IE

Gaffa, Team Yellow & The PADI Examiners

Guess what? I am now officially a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor! =) =) =) YAY for me!!

Over the past 3 days I completed the the PADI Instructor Examination, which is the final step in become a PADI OWSI. It's where you show off your skills to the PADI examiners.

Officially an Instructor! YAY

Day 1 (Friday evening) was the Theory Exams and Standards Exams. The Standards Exam was 50 multiple choice questions, and open book - Instructor Manual and Guide to Teaching. The Theory Exams were 12 multiple choice questions in each subject of Physics, Physiology, RDP, Skills & Environment and Equipment. 1.5 hours for each exam.

The Standards Exam was a bit harder than the previous ones I'd done. Usually all the answers were found only in the Instructor Manual, but some of the questions were in the Guide to Teaching this time. One good thing though, was that there was no referencing of answers in this exam (the IDC Standards Exams had a few questions where you were required to reference your answers). So if you couldn't find the answer, you would've had 25% chance of getting it right, or 50-50 if it was a true/false question. I managed to get 96%, meaning only 2 questions wrong! Not sure which ones though.

The theory exams were alright. There were a few questions that I hadn't seen before. Even after doing the Divemaster Exams A & B and IDC Exams 1 & 2 about 3-4 times each as practice. I scored 100% in the first 4 subjects, and got 2 questions wrong in Equipment. Quote by the examiner when he was marking my exam, "100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, and just to show that you're not perfect, 2 wrong...". =( And I wasn't even allowed to check the exam paper to see where I went wrong.

Day 2 (Saturday) was the pool session in the morning with Skills Circuit and the Confined Water Presentations, then the Knowledge Presentation in the afternoon.

For the Skills Circuit we had to demonstrate:
Remove & Replace BCD on the surface
Neutral Buoyancy
Alternate Air Source - Stationary
Mask Remove and Replace
CESA - Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent
I got full marks in this section! Yippeee!!

My Confined Water Presentation was CESA. I got 4.8/5 (24/25), dropping the mark because my positioning during my demonstration wasn't the best. I should have positioned the students half way down the line, instead of at the beginning, so while I was doing the skill the students could have seen me swimming, instead of just seeing my back.

For the Knowledge presentation, my topic was Open Water Course, Knowledge Review 4 Question 14. Which was a questions about using the RDP Table and finding the pressure group at the end of 2 dives. Fairly easy topic, and I scored 4.8/5 (24/25). Thanks to the Manly Ferry timetables that Gaffa got me from the Ferry Wharf, so that I could use them in my opening contact. Also the giant RDP Table (in Japanese) and the map of Shelly Beach, which helped me score points for my non-diving training aid. We weren't told where we lost the marks, but I had a sneak peek at his marking sheet and it mentioned something about the 'board'. I assume it was because at times I was blocking the screen projector or the whiteboard. Since they were next to each other, it was a bit hard to avoid.

Day 3 (Sunday) was the Open Water Presentation and the Rescue Assessment.

It had been pouring down rain all night and was still raining when we arrived at Shelly Beach. We were unsure if they would call off the IE, or change the dive site. Thankfully they changed it to Little Manly, as half of Shelly Beach was underwater, and conditions were abit rough. Little Manly was abit calmer but still only had 1-2m of visibility. For the Open Water Presentation I had Partial Mask Flood & Clear, and Navigation reciprocal with Compass. I spotted a small problem in one of the students for the Partial Mask Flood and Clear skill. But during the Navigation skill I couldn't find any real problems so had to make one up to do with buoyancy. But I managed to score a 4.8/5 (24/25) and 5/5 (25/25) for the two skills. Not sure which score for which skill though.

For the Rescue Assessment I had mouth to mouth. Going first is always, hard and thankfully I went second and got some tips from the comments the examiner gave previously. My 'dead body' had 2 weight belts on by accident, (as we were just wearing blank weight belts during the scenario) And when I had finished removing my gear and his gear, the examiner pointed at the second weight belt (which I didn't notice until his gear was fully removed). I was so scared for a second, but then remembered that I had definitely removed his and mine at the beginning. Thankfully he said "as long as you remove one weight belt, I'm happy."

PADI IE - March 18-20 2011

There were 17 candidates on this IE, and we all passed! My examiner was so nice and laid back, which made the whole experience alot better, and I didn't feel as nervous as I thought I would be. I was so relieved for it to be over though. I've been training and studying so hard since we came back from Vanuatu, and for the past 2 wks since the IDC especially. Special thanks must go to Gaffa, the time and effort he has put into making sure we were the best we could be is indescribably. It was very very much appreciated, even if he didn't feel it. All the people that have been trained by Gaffa will know the vast amount of effort he goes to, to ensure that our learning is top quality - and it always exceeds expectations. One day he'll be a great Course Director! =) x