Diving is Fun – even for PADI Examiners!

The chances are than many of you reading this article will have dived with one of us at some time in the past. Even so, it may not have been the most enjoyable dive of your professional careers; kneeling on the bottom at around 6 meters depth, with often very little to see other than a row of equally nervous Instructor candidates in front of you!

Between the members of the PADI Europe Examiner team who attended the last Examiner meeting, (Tommy Sobottah, René Bos, Nicole Detry, Yme Carsana. Jordi Atienza, Micky Thomas and Roberto Raffaeli) we have a total of over 73 years of experience running IEs, during which time we have probably examined around 27,000 PADI Instructor candidates between us. That’s a lot of hours at 6 meters with the PADI Evaluation slates in your hand. So it was with great expectation that we set off after a weekend at our respective IEs to make our way towards the recent Examiner meeting held in Aiguablava, Spain, where we had arranged to do a couple of fun dives all together.

The first morning we set off to the “Furió Fito”, a short boat trip from Begur, where even those of us who dive regularly in the Maldives or the Red Sea were pleasantly surprised by the wide and interesting variety of flora and fauna.

In the afternoon we started the Examiner meeting itself, run by Roberto Raffaeli and assisted also by Marco Gervasi from the Instructor Development department. We talked about the differences in the Instructor Development market in the various countries within our territory, any possible problems and their solutions, and discussed how to better support the membership in this area in the future. We also commented on the IE schedule planned for 2009.

The following morning we dived at the “Canons de Tamariu” and were equally impressed. For some of us it was almost unusual to be using fins again to move around under the water instead of our evaluation slates; without these and the usual pencil to take notes, our diving equipment felt somehow incomplete. Also, the fun factor and the really relaxed atmosphere underwater were a bit different from a lot of the dives we regularly do!

That afternoon, for the second part of the meeting we focused on specific assignments and skills which come up during the IEs. It’s very important to know that between all of us we have exactly the same criteria for evaluation, and also to make sure this is the same standard used worldwide in all the other PADI local area offices. After a review of various administrative issues and an open discussion, we closed the meeting.

Even so, that was not the end of the fun. The following morning a third dive awaited us, this time in confined water, but not as you might think to practice our dive skills. No, our destination this time was the Aquarium in Barcelona where we got the chance to dive in very close contact with some animals that often make people even more nervous than a PADI Examiner does! Even so, the sharks didn’t seem to be scared of us at all (but they did have excellent buoyancy control and we didn’t have our slates with us!) Finally, a very enjoyable and profitable 3 days was brought to a conclusion with a meeting with the Aquarium staff to discuss possible collaboration in the future with Project AWARE, especially in relation to our “Protect the Sharks” campaign, a topic they are also very much involved in.

It just remains to say thanks to all those involved in the meeting; especially to Jordi Atienza for his excellent organization, José Luis Casals and the staff of Gym Sub Aiguablava for a couple of fantastic dives, and all those at the Barcelona Aquarium for what was definitely an unforgettable experience.

Finally to all those of you who are busy working so hard and with little time to go for a fun dive: stop, think and act! Take it from me: Diving really is fun. Find a moment to remind yourself why you got into this in the first place – go out for a great dive and really enjoy yourselves. And to you Divemasters out there who have yet to dive with one of us – what are you waiting for? It could be the start of something wonderful – we look forward to diving with you soon - and remember, we don’t bite.

Micky Thomas