Early days

Done a couple of classroom sessions now, had a go at the mapping task and done a skills session in the pool. The equipment lecture was interesting but all the various types of regulator passed me by although the facts obviously stayed in my short term memory long enough to score 100% in the test.

The pool session was a nice intro to the skills aspect of DM - in some cases the first time I'd done a skill since my OW training... CESA anyone? Thinking about the skills and breaking them down to be able to demonstrate them effectively is something I'm looking forward to developing.

The best bit so far was the mapping exercise. Tim, fellow DM in training, and I went to Vobster one icy day to map a site just off the 6m platform. Two chilly dives later and all the bearings distances and depth were transferred from marker board to paper. While at Vobster I bought some of the Fourth Element gloves everyone says are so good. They look cool and it's easy to don kit and handle gear, including marker pens underwater with them but I can now safely say that, despite assurances, the 3mm gloves do NOT provide the insulation that most 5mm gloves do!! Perhaps running my frozen fingers under the hot tap in the changing room contributed to the agony of returning circulation but whatever the cause it hurt. Now looking for a pair of their 5mm gloves and in the meantime back to my old faithful Seac Sub gloves.

Later at home, on transferring the data onto a sheet of paper I produced a map that will probably do but isn't all that accurate - the wreck of a 6m boat is, when plotted to scale only 4.5m long. Some might call it anal retention, I prefer stickler for accuracy, but I want to go back and check the bearings again and add more detail including extending the map to include one of the aircraft sections nearby so it makes the map big enough to cover a decent route for a whole dive... hope I chill out on some of the other tasks or I'll be of pensionable age before I finish the DM programme.