Straight In At The Deep End

By Simply Diving Instructor Becky Wood

Well, it’s a few months now since I arrived here in sunny Spain from Australia, and its been a pretty hectic summer…  so far!  My first day was a big jump into the deep end as there were nine Discover Scuba Divers – not something that we ever came across in Australia as our primary dive site was a wreck in 28 metres!

The other big adjustment is from all boat diving to mostly shore diving… certainly makes you very fit running up and down the beach in full scuba gear and a 5mm wetsuit carrying the buoy and about 10kg of lead weights in 40 degree heat!  All I can say is welcome to the “Simply Diving Diet” – this should be marketed!

However the biggest advantage of shore diving is the lack of vomit… Very few people manage to get seasick on a shore dive (although there are a couple that have managed it so far, but that’s another story!)  Whereas back in Oz it was guaranteed that someone on each boat trip would get sick and no matter what we said someone always locked themselves in the toilet, refusing to come out leaving us to clear up the mess after… not something that I am missing!

So good at her job that divers send her flowers!

It’s safe to say that I settled in with the Simply Diving lads pretty quickly and easily… to the point that it makes me wonder how concerned some of the customers are when we are all bouncing around (literally) in the front of the van en route to the dive sites. Although a little calmer now that I am driving one of the vans as some of my excessive amounts of energy go in to concentrating on the road and my now very Spanish style of driving!

The courses that I have taken so far have been an interesting combination of everything from PADI Scuba Diver (and obviously Discover Scuba Diving) right up to PADI Rescue Diver… my first course after starting work here on the Costa del Sol was a Rescue Diver course, and I don’t think I will ever match the look on my student’s face as I was simulating a panicked diver underwater… So much fun!

Although I was obviously too nice to my student as he got very upset when he discovered that the other PADI Specialty courses he was signed up for were to be run by Simon the boss. He even sent me flowers on his return home to Poland!

Then there was the 11-year-old boy who had the biggest mouth and attitude out of the water… but the personality change in the water was incredible – he actually became a nice human being! (It probably helped that his mother had given me permission to ‘do whatever I wanted to ensure that he behaved himself’, and the threat of ‘If you don’t do what I tell you to, I may not find the shipwreck when you have completed the skills.’)

Let’s hope the remainder of the summer is as hectic as it’s been so far!