Second Life in Training??

Have any of you heard of Second Life? Some of you more game-geek enthusiasts out there (and I include myself in that number), will undoubtedly have heard of it. And some of you CSI afficionados may recall a few episodes of CSI: NY, which included a ridiculous story involving an assassin who also had an "avatar" in Second Life, an avatar through which the intrepid team of bad actors tried to corner and capture her with.

Anyway, Second Life is an online and free alternative reality. Free in the sense that it is "free" to join and generally "free" to continue to interact with, but which eventually you need to pay to use for various attributes and accessories that the game engenders.

Basically, the concept is that you create an "Avatar" (which is an interesting use of the word, as it actually means a manifestation or incarnation of a deity. I think, in fact, that it's origins are Hindu [someone can check this as I may be marginally off] and refers to the earthly embodiment of Vishnu, so its weird that you create a character to represent you in a virtual world and use a word meaning a godly incarnation in doing so....taking "for the love of God" to a whole new meaning). The avatar then gets to wander around and "live" in a virtual world. This virtual world is simply crazy to people who aren't into gaming worlds that much, but it is so popular that many institutions have created online presences in the Second Life world (including embassies, companies [BMW, Cisco, Caldwell Banker...etc etc.] and organizations).

PADI has decided to jump on board. In fact, they've even created a PADI centre on an island they've specifically created for people to go virtual diving from:

And you can indeed go virtual diving:

From what I have seen, the world that you can virtually explore is, however, a tad dull.....I know there's some crappy diving to be found, but that terrain above looks awfully boring. I think it is kind of creepily interesting though that someone feels the need to include a nitrox tank on a virtual dive....

What is even stranger is that I found out today that PADI is now using their Second Life presence as part of the continuing educational updates that all PADI instructors are expected to complete on an annual basis! I was completing one of the sections of the update online today. The updates used a few hypothetical scenarios wherein a hypothetical instructor took certain actions. The point was to highlight some of the do and do nots that instructors must be cognizant of from a risk management perspective. Well they used avatars in Second Life to demonstrate the scenarios!!

I'm of two minds....it was such a cool idea and a novel use of technology as a teaching aid. It was also sort of surreal, obviously artificial and easy to lose focus. So I don't know if I love it or hate it. Would you find it easier to learn when you are being taught by a virtual teacher? The voice overs were also incredibly lame and totally didn't fit the characters they used as the avatars...

The dive world is getting cooler and weirder.....

Keep it reel (spelt wrong on purpose, all you pedantically-minded vultures) ... or is that, "keep it virtually real"?

Carbon Footprint Diving?

Ok....I'll get to the subject of this posting in a minute....but before I do, I just wanted to get a shout-out to Will and George for storming through their Open Water class and pool two weekends ago; Chris for completing his e-Learning course this past Thursday; Lorne and Daniel for simply acing their class and pool this past weekend; and, Susan and Tom for showing me they already knew what they were doing! And on top of all, our Advanced weekends are filling up fast....six of the guys mentioned above are all in for the fun and games next summer!

Here's what we'll be having a look at!!

Ok.......so on to Helicopter Diving. I just read about this. Basically, you get to go diving like a navy SEAL would. You gear up (obviously not putting on your fins) and get in the chopper. Yup, fully geared, mask, snorkel, wetsuit, BCD, regs and air on. You clip your fins to your BCD and sit in the back of the helicopter. The chopper then ferries you out to a dive site, you hang of the step-rail on the bottom of the helicopter, held by a dude inside. On the opposite side your divebuddy is doing the same. Simultaneously, the guys in the chopper release you and your buddy about 7-10 feet from the water (it has to be simultaneously so that the chopper doesn't tip). You hit the water, fin up and off you go. When you finish your dive, a zodiak zips out and picks you up. I assume that either you are expected to be within a short distance of the dive site or they have some sort of GPS on you.

Sounds cool, right? Sounds very exciting. It also makes me shake my head in wonder and amazement, but from disgust, not from envy.

Now scuba diving isn't a massively environmentally impactful sport (except when divers attempt to take bits of coral, or smash into corals or generally act inappropriately), but it does have some impact. At the same time, scuba divers who believe in green diving and trying to promote a healthy reef system usually do more than anyone else on that conservation front. I know that I highly encourage diving clean-ups, whereby we pick up trash from boaters, fishermen or whoever else thinks that our oceans and waterways are handy refuse tips. And if I see sea life being damaged or injured by a man-made material (i.e. fishnets), I usually try to alleviate it if I can.

So, when I hear of helicopter diving, I can only shake my head. One helicopter, burning how much fuel, to take two scuba divers out to a dive site? And then a zodiak being sent out to pick them up? I can't even fathom how much bigger a carbon footprint a person is making by engaging in such sport. Sure, I think it sounds cool, but I'll not do it because of its impact!

I seriously hope other people think of it in the same way, but I have a nasty feeling most people will simply not care enough.

Ah well, enough of a rant for today....

One quick note, we're running a Rescue Diver Course on Dec. 19/20...if you're interested in getting your Rescue Diver, let us know!

Last but not least, congratulations to my 10 year old niece, Sarah, who just finished her Junior Open Water Diver certification!!! I'll come dive with you soon, Sarah!

Death And Taxes

As the French would say, "Le Big Sigh" (shhhhhh all you French speakers out there....what they don't know won't hurt them). Although it is not tax season, the Toronto Scuba Club is deep in the midst of preparing its taxes. Our accountant, a lovely man, is heading off for the winter to the warmer climes of the southern U.S. Yes, he has become the quintessential snowbird (and no, not the daredevil flying kind). Accordingly, as he buggers off at the beginning of next month, the Toronto Scuba Club must have all of its paperwork and excel spreadsheet of tax pain in order prior to his departure.

Can we say procrastination? Well, to be fair, no, we can't. We can say working on some awesome ideas for our avid dive fans. We could also say working on some new plans for various educational institutions. Regardless of the various pots on the boil, the outcome, nonetheless is the same.....I haven't got our taxes finished and the clock is a-ticking down. Time to buckle down and get 'em done.

Thus.....

Le Sigh.

A few more people working their way through the scuba world in the last few days, congrats to Will, George and Chris. Also a big warm welcome to Danielle, our new DMT (Divemaster in Training, for those who were a tad confused there) and a congrats to surviving her first OW sit-in and assist. A few more congrats will be shortly forthcoming over the next few days.

And I have hit a conundrum....One half of the Toronto Scuba Club principals is off for some fun in the sun in January. The initial choice was Honduras, but then the Toronto Scuba Club's good friend, Scott (famed by Departures) suggested Brazil ... now I really want to go to Brazil! The diving there is simply fantastic:

.....except in January!!! Dammit.

Look like it is back to Roatan.....still not too shabby:

Bumbling Along

A new week, a new challenge.....

Second week of the e-Learning course and first week of a throat infection...yeah, H1N1 meets Toronto Scuba Club diving.....

Ok, ok, I don't have H1N1, but I do have a poorly throat.....breathing pressurized air still sucks (ha, sucks, get it...ok, I have to stop that) with a rough throat. Ah well.

And it looks like we'll be running a rescue diver course soon. If you have an interest in the course, let me know soon.....

As I mentioned yesterday, Peter and I have been working on updating the website, but we also have our eyes set on a few new projects....unfortunately, given the small size of the industry here in Toronto, we have to keep hush hush for now....

Of course, you all know about our Papua New Guinea proposed trip, so there is that I can mention.....please remember to let me know if you are interested...

Other than that, just a quick look-see posting today....will be back in a couple of days....

It's a gorgeous day today, so don't forget to try and pop outside to see that little stingRay of sunshine......

Happy Children and Online Learning

Hello, hello,


Sorry for the delay in posting....this past week was very very busy. First of all, we made some changes to the website over the first part of the week. Challenge of the new week for you: see if you can figure out the pages we made the changes to!


I also spent a fair bit of time making the presentation for the kids at Bloorview Kids Rehab as good as I could, but in the end a massive amount of props goes out to my two greatest heroes of the week (who saved my bacon).....Danielle Spenard and Christina Dabrowski!!


Christina not only helped me working on my presentation, but on top of that she made the most AWESOME boxfish you can imagine....well, why imagine? Here's the proof:


Seriously, COOL fish. Thank you sooooooo much, Christina!! You were awesome and thanks for all of the support in the last couple of weeks. And thank you for the little diver dude too, the kids loved it.


Danielle. Well, what can I say? She was a superstar. Danielle helped me co-present the whole thing. Not only that, but she met me on the Thursday for three hours to iron out some of the wrinkles; she made an octopus cake which her mum and dad decorated while she was at school all night; then she made more cake and decorated it at 1:00 a.m. when we found out we didn't have 6 kids to present to, but any where from 14 to 21; and, then we headed up to the school at 9 in the morning on Friday to set-up for the show.


Time was precious too on Wednesday and Thursday....Wednesday I had meetings galore (oh yeah......we have new stickers for the tanks!! These ones look great and they actually look like they'll stand up to the wear and tear of training and diving)....


Thursday was also our inaugural week-night class and our first e-Learning course candidate! It went great. E-Learning is definitely the way of the future, but I have to admit, it's a little odd getting used to it. The student turns up and is ready to go....but it's hard to tell exactly where they are in their understanding of the materials that they have covered. It's almost like a leap of faith for the instructor....you have to hope that they know what you are talking about as you start their pool session. Or perhaps it is more like testing the waters (ha, get the pun?)? I felt like I had to frequently probe the student as I proceeded from skill to skill to make sure they understood the material that covered the various attributes that the skills related to.


Anyway, e-Learning is undoubtedly going to be the way that the sport progresses, but the transition from knowing the student's level of understanding through classroom interaction to hoping they get it from their online studying, is simply strange. Regardless, our first class went well.


Then I got to go home and work late into the night finishing off the presentation.


I think the kids loved it. If you haven't popped onto our facebook page, you won't have seen the pics, so here are a select few......we could only take pictures of a certain number of the kids due to privacy concerns, so unfortunately you won't get to see the whole class:




I think Danielle also had fun....but more than that, she covered my butt when I needed a segue. We made a great team and there was a ton of interaction with the kids. The teachers were overly grateful (I've always felt shy receiving thanks) and they told us that the presentation was one of the best they've seen. They encouraged us to take the presentation on the road!! Danielle....you know it was your participation that made the presentation work for me.....thank you again!!


The only problem with that is that we left "Benny" the Boxfish in the kids' make-believe underwater reef...

....so if we do it again, Christina get your model-making hands back at it!! Oh....and did I say thanks, Christina?


Ok, I'll leave it there for now, I may have lost some of you about five or so paragraphs back.....


Keep it Eel everyone....