The Amazing Things Interns Say….

Dive training is not all serious work. There’s always a great deal of levity thrown in. And as the pressure ramps up near the end of an internship, it’s amazing the things interns can end up saying and doing:

• “This may sound like a stupid question,” one intern recently asked during his IDC Prep Course, “but does Partial Mask Flood mean we fill our masks only partially with water?”
• In a rescue scenario, there are specific steps you go through to get it right. And one intern seemed right on track as he began removing his and the “victim’s” equipment:”Set my buoyancy, set his buoyancy. Remove my weight belt. Remove his weight belt. Remove my mask. Remove his mask. OK, now listen for breathing. . . BONK!!! Oops, that’s right: Remove victim’s regulator. (Ouch! My ear!)

Aquanauts interns don’t have the corner on the market here, though, as witnessed outside the written exam room at a recent PADI Instructor Exam:

• “Hey guys, where you from?” another school’s intern asked a couple Aquanauts guys. “Oh, Aquanauts, huh? Wow, you really should have went where I did. They’re much better.”"Oh really?” the Aquanauts guys replied.”Hey, by the way, what skills did you get?” the other intern continued.”Mask removal and replacement,” one of our guys replied, only to be dumbstruck by the reply.

  “Wow, I had that same skill the first time I took the instructor exam”

  The real kicker came two days later though when the very same intern failed the IE for the second time.