Happy last day of the month, getting ready for the next month of adventures and teaching. I’ve returned from Envision festival a happier, brighter, healthier, stronger person. I wont take too much time on the topic, but the festival was life changing. I know that through the healing and growth I experienced at the festival I will be a better more patient teacher. I attended a few yoga classes, one of which I’d like to share a little from. The first was a class with my first ever male teacher, Troy, he had us focus on time, taking things slowly. This relates to scuba with breathing techniques and also affective diving. It’s very important to have proper breath control for buoyancy, air consumption, avoiding decompression and for a more relaxing enjoyable dive. Troy had us focus on not rushing through poses but to slow and focus to connect mind, body, and breath.
As I mentioned in my last update, Mel, Tyler and I were working on our MSDT training. I can never express how grateful I am for the other instructors here. We had the pleasure of training with Brad and JT, who pleasantly shared their knowledge with us. I finally got to dive with a pony bottle, which is a lot more to handle then I thought. It also made me appreciate my molded mouthpiece on my primary regulator. Its been a long time since I used a generic one, and it is just not the same. After our navigation skills we were able to go on a little exploration dive. I got to see my first ray buried in the sand, it was amazing, but slightly scary. It’s times like those that remind me how important it is to respect the ocean and all the creatures that call it home.
This week I’m looking forward for more teaching opportunities to further grow as an instructor. I was working with two dive masters today, explaining problem areas on the second exam. I remember taking this exam myself last year and feeling like I didn’t have a clue what I was doing now I’m teaching it. I’m building the confidence needed for this industry and am very excited to see where it can take me, thanks Georgia at Go Pro Costa Rica and all the staff at Oceans Unlimited, you’ve changed my life.