Chapter 750: Professional
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Generally speaking, a diving certification was required for recreational freediving. As Li Du and the others free-dove for work, they were not required to have a diving certification.
Max, who was a very responsible diving instructor, strongly demanded the four of them to get their diving certifications since getting one was not difficult and required only three days.
"With my guidance, you guys won't even need three days," Max told them confidently. "If you guys learn diligently, two days will be enough to get the diving certification."
Just like a driving test, Australia's diving test was also separated into different components, namely the theory test and practical test.
The two days that Max spoke of was for passing the theory test. Although the practical test required a longer time to pass, they could take the opportunity while they were training in water to pass the test requirements.
It was one of the advantages that they had for paying a high price to enroll in a famous instructor's class. As Max was also an invigilator for the diving test, he was able to sign on their diving training sheet.
With that, Li Du and the others didn't even need to specifically go over to an examination institute to take the diving test. By just combining the training sheet with their theory results, they were ultimately able to obtain their diving certification in a straightforward manner.
Even though Max was young, he was very experienced in teaching.
He found a hotel for the four of them. Not only was the hotel good and inexpensive, it was also situated on a beach and had a scuba diving pool.
Max's goal here was to teach them theory lessons. After they were exhausted from the lessons, he could bring them over to the pool for diving, which was also an opportunity for them to master snorkeling and scuba diving techniques.
The class was planned in a one-plus-one arrangement, where they would have theory lessons for one hour before Max would bring them to the pool to train for one hour.
Although such an agreement allowed them to save as much physical strength and time as possible, the amount of physical strength required was still very high as their mind and body had to work non-stop.
The diving theory lessons, which were not difficult, were mainly based on the theories in two books: "Diver's Manual for Open Waters" and "Guide to Planning Recreational Diving".
All four of them had once been university students. Even though Brother Wolf did not graduate, the university that he studied in was the most reputable amongst the universities that the four of them went to. Brother Wolf had studied in a university as it was a requirement for joining the army.
Therefore, the theory lessons were not very stressful for the four of them. After spending only half a day on the lessons, they followed Max to take their test and all four of them passed.
They spent the other half of the day learning how to snorkel. All four of them somewhat knew how to snorkel. However, what they really knew was how to swim. As a matter of fact, other than Brother Wolf, the other three did not know any snorkeling techniques and had no experience snorkeling.
Even so, all the techniques that Brother Wolf knew and the experiences that he had were not enough to pass the test requirements. As the completion of missions was the military's number one priority, the training that he had received in the army was a militarized training and the techniques that he knew of were for military use.
The techniques that Max taught them were survival techniques as staying alive was their number one priority.
Snorkeling was the foundation of all types of diving. As a matter of fact, many techniques in scuba-diving and free-diving were derived from snorkeling.
Li Du had lost control of his body when he encountered an undercurrent because of his poor snorkeling ability. To be competent in snorkeling, one must first be able to swim freely amidst the strong currents in the sea.
Having had two days of snorkeling training, they completed the test on the third day. After which, Max started training them in scuba diving.
Although it was just training, Max still prepared complete sets of equipment and brought along an experienced diver, like himself, as his assistant, who shared the responsibility for the four of them with him.
At first, the training, like before, was held in the hotel's pool, which had sections that were over 100 feet deep.
While standing at the edge of the pool, Max explained to them, "Take note. Before entering the water, you have to understand your equipment first. Your survival in water is dependent on your equipment. The importance of your equipment to you is greater than the importance of a sword to a warrior.
"I explained the goggles, snorkels, and flippers when you guys were snorkeling. Now, I will explain the scuba system in detail.
"When scuba diving, the scuba system is the core that supports your survival in water. It consists of four equipment systems combined together to form one system. The four equipment systems are the buoyancy system, exposure system, air delivery system, and weight system . . . "
He gave the four of them a detailed explanation of the scuba system. In his explanation, there was an unspoken rule when choosing oxygen tanks: the cap of the oxygen tank valve would usually be unscrewed for used oxygen tanks and should not be screwed back on after using an oxygen tank.
If the cap of the oxygen tank valve had not been unscrewed, it meant that the oxygen tank was new and could be used directly.
As this was already a rule in recreational diving, every diver was required to remember this rule and was not allowed to screw back the cap of the oxygen tank valve onto used oxygen tanks for beauty's sake.
Other than the three main life-sustaining equipment systems, there was also a weight system in scuba diving. The weights, which were lead blocks, were used to cancel out the buoyancy of the body and some pieces of equipment. There was a mechanism in place that allowed some or all of the weights to be removed during emergency situations.
As the diving suit used in scuba diving had no life-saving capabilities, the weights had to be quickly released when met with an emergency situation so as to rely on buoyancy to escape the dangerous area.
After first teaching them how to put on the equipment, which was simple, Max explained the equipment to them before finally teaching them how to protect and repair the equipment in water.
Even though the last part was relatively more troublesome, it was a skill that they had to master. Otherwise, when there was a problem with a piece of equipment while scuba diving, it would endanger the diver's life if the piece of equipment was not promptly restored to its normal state.
After the training on the equipment had ended, the next step was to enter the water.
There were three common methods for entering the water: stepping in, headfirst, and from a sitting position.
Max explained to them when and under what circumstances they should use each method. Other than for entering the water from a boat, the three methods could also be used from time to time when entering areas that were at different depths, which might require a change in posture to adapt to the change in water pressure.
While wearing the equipment, they slowly entered the water.
Sophie was like a mermaid. Compared to the others, she had a better performance and a better control of her body's balance when she was in the water, which was an advantage females had in diving.
When Li Du was approximately 60 feet under the water, air suddenly started escaping from inside his goggles—water started seeping into his goggles.
This made him cry out in his heart. He hadn't expected to encounter such an unfortunate incident after having just started training. He hurriedly gestured to Max, who had accompanied him into the water, that he had encountered a problem.
Max was swimming near Hans and seemed not to notice that Li Du was here.
Seeing this, Li Du had no choice but to keep calm, open up the weight system to release the lead blocks, and attempt to swim to the surface of the water.
After he had resurfaced, Brother Wolf also resurfaced, followed by Max bringing Hans and Sophie up to the surface of the water.
When Li Du resurfaced, he told Brother Wolf, who had resurfaced with him, "It's not necessary to always stick to me. There's no danger here, you don't need to carry out your duties as a bodyguard."
After the corner of Brother Wolf's mouth twitched twice, Brother Wolf lowered his head and kept quiet.
As Hans and Sophie also resurfaced afterward, Li Du asked curiously, "Why did you guys stop training?"
With a frown, Max looked at the two of them and said, "Well done Mr. Li and Mr. Wolfgang, you guys managed to promptly discover the problem. The two of you did very poorly and did not remember my teachings by heart!"