Libby Daly of South Bay Scuba reports from a combined Open Water Instructor Course carried out under late season sun in Cyprus.
Our Combined Open Instructor Course took place in Cyprus from 21-25 October last year under National Instructors Mark Paisey and Stephen Batt, hosted by Will Stratford at Rec2Tech Diving in Protoras.
Three students attended – me, Libby, from South Bay Scuba; Cheytan ‘Smash’ Chuttoo from Guildford BSAC, and Philip Roehner, from Switzerland. Prior experience varied, with one new Advanced Diver, one new Dive Leader, and a Divemaster crossing over to BSAC.
The first day of our Instructor Foundation Course focused on theory, with the first task being to unpack what makes a good diver and a good instructor. Having thought about this, we were introduced to planning and delivering effective theory lessons, making sure that they were Progressive, Accurate, Visual and Effective. In the afternoon, we moved to the swimming pool, where Stephen demonstrated how to teach a role model skills lesson, breaking it down into small, progressive steps, demonstrating each one and allowing the students to mimic it, correcting if necessary. The pool was surprisingly cold, which provided an excellent demonstration of heat loss in water, one of the theory topics covered later in the week!
Overnight, we were tasked with preparing our own theory presentations to deliver on Day 2, with some friendly competition to see who could come up with the best visual aids to support each point. We then moved into a planning session to prepare our own pool lessons, covering lessons such as mask, snorkel and fins, and controlled buoyant lift. Delivering our first lessons in the pool was a great opportunity to try things out, to nail the safety points, and to make and learn from silly mistakes. We then considered how to translate these lessons into the open water context, in particular how to make best use of open water sites for training purposes and additional safety considerations.
On Day 3, we ventured into open water at Kampouri Beach for the Open Water Instructor Course. We revised rescue scenarios, including controlled buoyant lift, rescue breaths and towing, in advance of the rescue skills assessment, now a compulsory part of the practical exam. I earned a reputation for playing a particularly convincing unconscious diver, while Cheytan delivered a thorough compass lesson on the surface. We all had the benefit of very thorough feedback from Stephen, as well as self-reflection and peer-to-peer feedback. It was very helpful to hear from our guinea pigs for feedback about what had worked or what had been confusing during the lesson.
[L] High morale on the way to a pool session; [R] The trio at Green Bay
The bad viz simulation test
On exam prep day we returned to Kampouri beach and took the opportunity to practise our rescue skills and to try out different lessons, again acting as students for each other. This was a very useful day because we could now focus on polishing our performances, for example, by using a delayed surface marker buoy as a datum to improve the safety of our lessons.
For the Practical Instructor Exam, we moved to Green Bay near the town of Protaras. Green Bay has a rocky entrance down into a shallow lagoon of about 2-3 metres depth, with a narrow channel at the far end. Swimming through the channel leads to a small reef, and beyond the reef, a statue garden on a sandy bottom in about 10 metres. We had recce’d the site from shore the previous afternoon and noted that the lagoon looked milky. When we entered the water on exam day, we found out why.
It is a very busy dive site with chalky stones on the bottom, and the visibility quickly deteriorates. However, this proved to be quite good practice for instructing in ‘simulated’ UK conditions.
Managing distractions also proved more challenging at this site; an elderly man sat down with a mandolin next to the dive van and proceeded to serenade my SEEDS brief and dry run. All three dives seemed to go quite well, with lots of demonstrations and mimicking of progressive steps. After the assessed dives we all had lots of air left, so we managed a short fun dive into the statue garden at about 10 metres, where we saw a pipefish, goatfish and some puffer fish, and Cheytan knocked over a statue – it took three of us to prop it back upright! The theory instructor exam, comprising a theory test and a presentation, were quite restful by comparison.
Site briefing on exam day
All assessments safely completed, we breathed a collective sigh of relief and went out for a well-earned meal and a cold drink or two. This was an intense week with long days, but it was very rewarding because we could all see the development in our own instructing technique as the week progressed. Everyone had a brilliant experience and learnt a lot.
At the outset, Steve had told us that he would not get tired of answering questions and he was ultimately proven correct, although we tried to break him! Thanks to Mark Paisey and Will Stratford for all their organisation, and especially to Stephen Batt for getting us through the week and sharing so much knowledge and experience.
