Part 3 – the Rec 1 / Fundies / Performance Diver ITC

A large proportion of my stay was dedicated to completing an intense 7-day GUE Instructor Training Course (ITC) with Dorota and Andrea, as part of my eventual future desire to become a Rec 1 / Performance diver Instructor. Having completed my Instructor fitness test “just for fun” in Deep Dive Dubai in February (with the dream that in a few years I could partake in an ITC); being able to do one this May was simultaneously amazing and terrifying! GUE divers transition from being GUE Interns (subject to other requirements) to GUE Instructors via gathering sets of signatures on: their personal diving level, academic knowledge, fitness, land drills, and demonstration-quality, in-water teachings. When one collects enough signatures on each skill, they can then take a final Instructor Evaluation (IE). This IE is an actual class - and at the end one can eventually become an instructor! Signatures can be gleaned via taking other courses as internships, diving with instructors, sending away online recorded materials as proof, and also spending dedicated periods of time to develop these skills - like on this ITC! Real talk - I came into this ITC feeling like a complete underdog, knowing that my trim and buoyancy are simply not up to the level of Instructor yet. Having also just completed my doubles and drysuit primers in February; I knew I lacked the foundational skills and experience to be at the top level just yet. However, it was one of my goals for the GUE Scholarship year to learn more about the education process – so here I was! Find out more here about the ITC process.

Of course, having the perception that this course was wayyyyy out of my current level and comfort zone, I came with nothing to lose / everything to gain. So, I came away pleasantly surprised! A large part of this course was dedicated to the teaching process, lectures, field drills, and surface clinics – as we practised how to disseminate the various drills, equipment set ups and foundational skills (trim and buoyancy) to impart our knowledge. Personal skills were important yes, however I was able to focus on my strengths (ie speaking and demonstration quality signs) – and came away with more signatures than I ever dreamed of ascertaining. Base 1 was also amazingly useful in terms of the ease of access to the dive locations. We were able to easily walk with our twinsets (well myself with more difficulty hehe) down to the beach, to our secluded training dive spot. In addition, the new classrooms made for perfect lecture rooms (and biscuit breaks) for when we were practising our dive de-briefings. I left the course with the tools to know how I can improve and progress, and a disbelieving-but-quiet confidence that I could actually make it one day as a GUE Instructor!

Of course, a large part of the success I think was (as always) down to a good team. There were altogether eight of us: myself, students Martin, Jordan, Joey and Lu; Doro and Mara, and Fran even came from LA to intern the Instructor Evaluators on how to be a Trainer himself one day! We were like a family, for we all had different strengths to play on (although I did keep joking that they could do the diving, and I could do the topside teaching :D). My other teammates were SUCH GOOD DIVERS - some being GUE tech / cave divers, and some being technical / other instructors from different agencies. (With that - shout out to JA Technical diving!). Some of our best memories of the ITC were trying to drag each other out of very steep shorelines (using rescue grips) in our “teaching rec 1 skills” underwater and surface sessions; dancing in the rain, eating mountains of hummus late at night whilst reading over dive lectures, and of course, hiding in the new crate boxes not wanting to go back for more lectures!