Nerdy Cat Scuba Travels

Can you really be Nomadic? My attempt traveling around the world...

Category: Divemaster (Page 2 of 2)

Life as a PADI Divemaster!

Divemaster Mapping Project Day

July 7, 2016 /

On Tuesday, we (3 DMTs) all went to Davidsgja to do our mapping project.  The day started off really beautiful. Here’s a snapshot:

davidsgja 2    davidsgja 1

We planned to one person stay at depth of the “Big Crack”, another person holding the measuring tape, and then another person using the measuring tape.  We would measure the width of the crack and then also use a buoy to mark every 20 meters.  We practiced a couple times on how everything would play out in the water.

The water at Davidsgja was about 6-8 deg.C. A nice warm up from Silfra. The visibility was about 15 meters.  I think the visibility at the bottom of the crack (approximately 160 meters from our starting point) was about 20-30 meters. Very Beautiful.

We had a couple of hiccups during the task.  For one, the diveshop didn’t have a measuring tape, so we had created our own from a line and some electrical tape.  This made measuring easy to spot the 1 meter tags, but difficult when trying to reel the line back in.  Consequently, it took us longer to measure out 20 meter increments.  We also had to split the task into two separate dives because of the length of the task.

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Money, Money, Money – Getting Tipped for Scuba Diving

June 1, 2016 /

tips

This week I got my OWN very first tip… $20 from an American couple. It just made my entire day that someone actually appreciated my help while diving.

Icing on the cake, today another dive instructor, CJ, gave me half of another tip (1500/2= 750 kroner) which I then used to by three scoops of ice cream from Valdis.

I have to thank all the guides that split their tips with me. I hope they are happy to give me part of their extra money and that I, in return, have helped them and made their day a little easier.

Ok, before I started I really getting into diving, I didn’t really know if we (customers) were supposed to tip. In Thailand, my local friend said there was no tipping. But then I got on a liveaboard and the Americans I was with told me they  planned to tip everyone working on the boat. Then, I met Patrik, and he told me “YES! You should tip your dive guides!” Insert face palm here. I wish I could tell all previous guides I’m sorry I didn’t tip.  I think I tipped, I can’t even remember. Now I won’t forget. I’ll be sure to bring $20USD from now on all my vacations so that guides can get their own “valdis” ice cream.

Tipping is a great gesture to give someone working hard a little extra props. I don’t expect tips while working. Its not customary in Iceland.  There isn’t a glass jar by the scuba tanks asking for tips.

Since I don’t earn a salary here… the tip helps me treat myself after a hard day. oh that Ice Cream tasted like sweet sweet success. mmm mmm.

So the next time you are debating on whether to tip and extra $5- think about what $5 means to you and how much it would mean to the worker. That extra money might change their entire shitty day to one of the best days of the week.

THANK YOU TIPPERS! Woot woot!I feel like I’m on the top of the world with my Valdis Ice Cream!!

valdis

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