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Return from Mauritius
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- Written by Bryan Coetzee
Mauritius
The SCUBA industry calls on its instructors to spend a lot of time on the road doing courses, dive trips, collecting stock and other little bits and pieces. Most instructors even have a full time job and time with the family becomes very important. We try to include our families on these trips but they are never truly “HOLIDAY” experiences.
Just before departing for Egypt on our annual Red Sea trip, I received a call from Rainer Schimpf who heads up SSI Southern Africa. They were looking for an Instructor Trainer to go to Mauritius to train up a group of candidates, some for Dive Guides, one Instructor X-Over and one new Instructor. The instruction was also given to win some more SSI Dive Centres on the island.
After lengthy discussions with Sharon, the decision was made to accept the offer. This was a chance of a life time. From a young age, Mauritius was always the place to want to go when wanting to dive.
Arrangements were made, flights booked and one week after returning from Egypt I was again heading out of South Africa to the northern city of Grand Baie in Mauritius to a dive centre known as Dive Tribe...this time, 6 weeks.
Dive Tribe was as the name suggests. This is a local dive centre where the dive leaders have a passion for only one thing...diving! Once settled in, we used the mornings for diving and the afternoons for lectures. The candidates were at a disadvantage due to the language barrier. Although they tried hard, these courses were going to take the toll on them.
Off time was used finding more dive centres that wanted to make a change in the industry. It was becoming clear that the SSI philosophy was one of a high standard. SSI has excellent materials and a world known network. Who else can ensure a new instructor work within 7 days worldwide? Within a few days, SSI had won Sea-Urchin and Ticabo Diving in Flic en Flac as well as Just Diving in Cap Malleroux. All these centres were dedicated on making SSI work. Just Diving added another instructor to the upcoming ITC course and this brought about us having to fly in some more materials. Due to the urgency in getting them in time for the ITC, I decided to let Sharon bring these across, thereby allowing her to see some of the island in my off time.
Most of our off time was spent in the North. We watched the Springboks Rugby World Cup opening game at Beach house. This pub famous amongst expats and rugby lovers as it belongs to ex-Springbok Kabouse van der Westhuizen. It was good to eat some biltong and talk some Afrikaans “KAK” with someone. The Botanical Gardens in Pompelmouse was a must see and Sharon and I spent her last Saturday wondering around this awesome garden. The large tortoises, water lilly’s and...hang on...this is a SCUBA website...
Diving...well...to be honest I was pretty disappointed by the constant return by dive centres in the north to the same spots. The majority of the dive spots in the Grand Baie area reminded me of the rocks in Miracle Waters with good visibility and a few Pulsating Xenias. Only later in my experiences did I find that the diving closer to Le Coin de Mere and Round Island provided some awesome dives. Just Diving had a dive with over 20 sharks on a day that I had to complete the ITC evaluation. You win some and you lose some...But East Rand SCUBA will be back in 2012.
Anyway, back to the story of the trip. Sharon returned to South Africa on the 13th September after 10 days. This gave us chance to view the southern parts of the island while heading back to the airport. After a sad goodbye, the work had to go one. I got busy in wrapping up the loose ends. Olivier, Xavier and Katharina’s X-Over courses were all complete. Time was now used to complete the ITC and get the Evaluation underway. Unfortunately, one of the ITC candidates decided that the course was too much and withdrew. Only one candidate left for the Evaluation.
Thursday the 23rd the evaluation got underway. A three hour written examination followed by presentations and briefings... everything has to be 100%...this person has to be trusted to train our future divers. Friday 24th...more presentations, this time both in the water and the classroom...and in the end...WELL DONE Martine Etienne!
The good news earlier that week of Lynn Erasmus also passing her evaluation made the celebration even better. We are putting well trained instructors back into the industry.
Saturday the 24th. Time to wrap up the last X-Over for Dive Tribe. The pool session was still outstanding and off we went to a local pool. Everything went well. Another successful Instructor for SSI. Later the afternoon saw Tony Topize qualify as a Dive Guide. Well done guys!
With everything wrapped up, I took a chance and found that my return flight date could be moved. With Sharon not expecting it, I can be assured that she would be surprised. Having missed our wedding anniversary while here, and not seeing the girls in such a long time, home will definitely be where the heart is.
The beer in Mauritius was good...the rum in Mauritius was good...the local cuisine in Mauritius was good (the first week)...but at the end of the day...no one beats a good home cooked meal from an awesomely beautiful South African wife! We still have the best meat and the most beautiful woman...en AFRIKAANS bly ‘n lekker taal!
