Had fun working with Jake from Australia on his Advanced Open Water certification this past weekend.. It is always fun to meet people from somewhere else and get their view on the world.

On Saturday we did Peak Performance buoyancy and Underwater Navigation.  Having been a diver for years, but only diving occasionally; Jake thought Peak Performance would be a snap. Doing pre-dive weighting estimate, then a weight check in the water found he was actually a few pounds heavy. Jake was also sure the his BCD was just the way he like and it was the he always used it.  Between dives he removed a few pounds and took a few minutes to make some adjustment to his BCD.

At the start of our Underwater Navigation Dive we did another weight check and he was spot on.  His words not mine, we speak two different versions of the same language. It was fun to hear the different expressions. With the BCD adjustments it was a better fit and felt easier to move in the water.  What was hard for me was to think in metric. Jake being from Australia,  his world is all in metric, most of my math conversation were petty close, close enough Jake knew what I measurement I was going for and worked the correction.  Underwater Nav is fun, even funny when you explain the proper way to hold the compass, set the course and you know you are going anywhere by where you had planned.  We where supposed to be diving a square, we ended up on some zig-zag course far way from our starting point, we both laughed. We reviewed the positioning  and tried again. What do you know, we ended up exactly where we started, (even with correction you normally come close, rarely exact). Nice going Jake!

For Sunday we planned to do Deep, Drift and Search and Recovery.  Jakes only request for Sunday was that we do the Deep dive first. He had heard how cold it can be at the plane.  The Cessna plane is at 60 ft. The water temperature at the plane is 44 degrees. It's dark.  But it was a great dive, I could of stayed longer, it was cold but I the quarry has been colder. Coming back up the line the water temperature at the safety stop felt like bath water.

Drift diving is my favorite type of diving, go with the flow, take turns tending the surface marker it all good, if you are in the Keys, Deerfield Beach, Roatan Honduras, Millbook quarry, not so much.  Pick the right section of quarry and is not so bad.  There is just not that much to see. But the job and practices where done.

Finally Search and Recovery is very involved, search patterns, lift bags, knot tying, without gloves, with gloves,  setting up a search area. A very busy dive prep and dive. But as it all comes together, when the student starts finding the lost items, it is all good.  Then they realized why you asked them tie the knots with their eyes closed.  We "found" a cinder block and needed to lift it and swim it to the exit. The quarry has about 10 inches of silt on the bottom the block was sunk in the silt. Shook it a round a little to get the rope around the block. That sent up a billow of silt. Jake could not see the knot he know had to tie, he now understood and did a great job of tying it off. Made the block neutrally buoyant and swam it to the exit point.

Jake did a great job. He found out Saturday night he is going back to Australia in December ( the beginning of their summer) and the Great Barrier Reef will be just a short boat ride away. (bum)

Congratulations Jake on your AOW Certification!