GUE Recreational ITC

By Dorota Czerny

January 2010 Hurghada, Red Sea
Colona Divers @ Magawish Hotel
It all started almost a year ago. Kirill said that he has some instructor candidates so maybe we could organize something in Egypt. Well – the place is there, the logistics also, sea is at hand – it was only a question of getting support from one of the Instructor Trainers. The idea was brought to attention of one of them, he agreed with the plan and so it came to life. But from a small ITC with few candidates we arrived in January having 12 candidates from 6 different European countries ranging from Ural to Portugal and from Norway to Italy. There were 3 Instructor Trainers and 3 Instructor Trainer Candidates.
As usual the schedule was busy. Before the ITC there was an Instructor Examination with 3 of the candidates as students – which allowed them to assist a full Fundamentals class. The IE went good – we can welcome among us a new GUE Instructor – Bartek Cyperling, a Pole living and working in Hurghada. The other candidates that arrived earlier had a chance to make a beach or boat warm up dive and get a feeling of the Red Sea a bit. On the 15th of January, 8 am in the conference room of Magawish Hotel - the course was officially opened. The ITC program has been divided into 4 theory days (lectures from the ITs and lectures given by the candidates) and 3 diving days (field drills and dives from both GUE Fundamentals and Rec1 classes). The candidates worked in three groups: Russian speaking (with candidates from Ukraine and Russia), Scandinavian (candidates from Sweden, Norway & Netherlands) and a South European team (with Italians and Portuguese). The work has started – from now on the days were fully packed with knowledge and practice, the evenings busy with preparations and nights definitely too short.
Within these 7 days of work all of us gained new friends, were confronted with own weaknesses and encouraged to hard work and commitment. But except the hard work, there was also an adventure – a thunderstorm in Hurghada (first one that heavy in 10 years!), missed flights, lost luggage with all equipment and night rides to airport. We would like to thank all candidates, instructors and supporters for coming and making this event possible. Congratulations to all and hope to see you soon back in the Red Sea.

IT: Richard Lundgren, Richard Walker and Jesper Berglund
IT candidates: Hassan Adly, Kirill Egorov and Dorota Czerny
Instructor candidates:
Palmira Sa (Portugal)
Domingos Cruz (Portugal)
Antonio Bresciani (Italy)
Stefano di Cosimo (Italy)
Maarten van Baal (Netherlands)
Mattias Vendlegård (Sweden)
Björn Opperud (Norway)
Martin Baade Karlson (Norway)
Andriey Dimitriev (Russia)
Andy Vorobyev (Ukraine)
Alex Baystruchenko (UKraine)
Denis Khrustlev (Russia)