Gabriel is the intstructor for my divemaster training course. We met today for our first session. We covered the duties of the divemaster, interaction and supervision of student divers. Gabriel has a very conversational style, covering a lot of content without any notes, just discussing one topic after another and providing tips as he goes along. For example, don´t give negative commands to divers. Don´t say "don´t go deeper than me", because that's the firt thing they will be tempted to do. It's like if I tell you "don´t look behind you". Instead, say "stay shallower than me". Same meaning, but better results.

We also did a review underwater of the 20 basic diving skills. I´m not quite used to my new equipment yet and I'm having trouble staying vertical because of the way the weights are arranged in my BC jacket. Something to get used to.

As a bonus, we did a dive which ostensibly was to work on my breathing. After a little while underwater, I started hearing some clicks and pops that seemed unusual. Underwater, you can't tell the direction sounds come from: our brains are used to calculating direction based on the speed of sound in the air and the small difference in timing between our two ears. Because sounds travel five times faster in the water, our brains just get confused and sounds seems to come from everywhere at the same time. So I wasn't sure what they were, but they kept getting louder, and then suddenly I saw three dolphins playing with each other underwater. A sight to behold.