2 years ago I had to give up full time teaching due to ear problems, last year I discovered Oceanic’s ProEar 2000 and headed out for a season of fun in southern Italy.
Once I’d dusted down my kit and worked out that my Isotherm had obviously shrunk – a lot – since I used to be a full-time Instructor, I checked out the resort.
There were two pools, one for really little people and their (not-so-little) Nannies and one for everyone else, the aqua-aerobics, the incontinent and the water-polo; and once I’d checked out the boys’bodies at the Waterfront – I knew it was going to be a good season.
I approached my first try-a-dive session with some trepidation. The previous year I had worked in Corsica and had been struck down by ear infection after a matter of days. As I have the unenviable pleasure of already being deaf in one ear, I was forced to take a week out of the water.
Watching the rest of the team kitting up and heading off to the blue sea was intensely frustrating and as my mission for the day was to enrol new divers, I did what any sensible girl would do. I grabbed a sunny spot by the Dive-Shack, put on a little pink bikini and covered myself in Hawaiian Tropic!
Sales for the PADI Open Water Course went through the roof, so this year the team set out with the same ‘professional’ attitude to enrolment; proving it was fun, easy and given the right attitude, absolutely 100% achievable for everyone if they give us some dedication (and homestudy) back.
As was the case last year our work was generally to involve Bubblemakers, Discover Scuba Diving, Scuba Diver and Open Water courses, a lot of these were conducted for Juniors.
Rarely we had a few guests who just needed guided dives and we had recently found a Roman galleon, which was littered with amphoras and coral crusted plates, it was also at 20m, which is quite a thrill when you’ve hardly left Pressure Group F all season.
On Sundays, we conducted 20 minute "Introductions to the Underwater World". These were what worried me – I think I can leave it to your imagination what state the pool water was in after a few months of tireless 3-18 year olds dive-bombing us, when the nearest toilets were a mere 67 steps uphill.
This year, the ProEar 2000 kept my ears clean, dry and infection free.
However teaching "mask removal & replacement" with the mask is not quite such an effortless transition, for the first week I found it nigh on impossible to conduct this module using the ProEar 2000 and during this skill returned back to my trustee Target.
I did dream of shaving my head but this wasn’t really a serious option, particularly as the job was only a 2 month placement and I would very soon be back at my job in London. I only have one recommendation for improvement, that they issue these masks with proper slap-straps; I lost half my hair with the plastic strap ripping through my hair like a lawnmower as I readjusted the sealed skirt around my ears.
So a huge thank you to the creators of the ProEar2000, with the help of this little invention I was able to experience the thrill of teaching again. It has also given me the chance to return to my dream job.
I am now heading off to teach in a sea filled with fish, less than 5 hours from London with year round sun and a bountiful supply of fresh food and stunning wines. The Canary Islands let me at you!
