This week I get to practice my dive master skills while diving with Liang at Aldora. I come to the pier half an hour earlier than clients, load the boat, assemble their gear, meet and greet them, help them underwater if need be, throw the line at the pier (this is the most difficult part!). I even guided a couple of dives.
I cannot thank Liang enough for letting me have my first guiding experience at my favorite dive site – San Juan. Although Liang was in the water with me, I did all the guiding entirely by myself. I told the group it was my first guide, and I think they got a little scared, so everybody stayed close and behavedJ. Good! I went in the front and even in the usual San Juan current was able to find some cool stuff: turtles, crabs, and a green moray eel. When I was taking my dive master course, my two concerns about my future guiding were (1) that I'd get lost and (2) that I'd be super nervous. I'm very much surprised that I didn't get nervous at all. This instructor course truly gave me a lot of calm confidence. I'm no less surprised that I didn't get lost! Actually, it was easier than I had imagined – I guess, if the current goes the right way, there's really no reason to worry about getting lost, you just go along the reef. It was so exciting! I also guided the night dive at Villa Blanca on the same day. And that went very well too. Although this time I was completely in the dark. Literally and figuratively – I had absolutely no clue where I was. But apparently it doesn't really matter, as long as you are on the reef, sometimes making little detours to the sandy bottom to find an octopus or two. On the night dive it's even easier to make sure everybody is where they are supposed to be – you can see the lights much better than the bubbles during the day. All in all my first time was spectacular! I wonder how it will feel though when I'm all by myself, without the reassuring presence of Liang in the back of the group…
Dive stories
This week we are diving with a group of friends from Florida. Three guys and a girl. They are all barely 25 years old, super fit (although all of them smoke) and super energetic. One of them has some MS-like condition and from time to time gets fits of not being able to control his muscles underwater. In moments like this he has to hang on to something with both hands and just wait several seconds until it passes. He dives fairly well though and what's even more important he is constantly actively working on improving his skills (unfortunately, not a very common quality among certified divers). On the second dive this Monday though he got completely distressed all of a sudden by the reading of his SPG – 700 psi, but it was at the very end of the dive, and Liang already signaled everybody to start coming up for a safety stop. I was next to him at the end of the group and witnessed his panic grow. His eyes were wide open and he constantly turned to me to make sure I understand that he had "only" 700 psi. No matter how many times I signaled "OK" to him and tried to point out that we were already coming up, he was not really responsive. So I decided to take action, as learned from the rescue course exercise "Distressed out-of-air diver". I shared air with him and brought him up to the safety stop. It was a bit difficult though. He is very heavy underwater, plus when he gets to one of his fits he freezes and becomes even heavier and because of my BCD configuration I had to share my primary air source with him and breathe out of the second stage on my low pressure hose, so it took me some effort to adjust our buoyancy to go up slowly, as I had to take the second stage out of my mouth every time I needed to put or release some air from the BCD. It was all good in the end though. Again, very impressed with my not being nervous at all. And it will never stop to amaze me that people with disabilities possess so much internal strength to not give up on a "normal" active life. In fact, I think they sometimes live a much fuller life than the healthier of us…
On Tuesday, we went to Devil's Throat. It's a deep dive. You come out of the "throat" at about 110 feet and then slowly start coming up. I was at the rear of the group again and witnessed a funny scene. One of the divers (not from the above-mentioned group) swam out of the Devil's Throat right up to another diver and undid the strap on his tank. Naturally, the tank started slipping out. I was right there, so I was able to quickly put it back and tighten it again. But what the hell? It couldn't have been a joke, they are not friends or anything. Was the guy narked only at 110 feet? Strange.
On Wednesday, Laura – the girl from the young friends group – asked me for my email address. She said that they had been talking about quitting their jobs for a while and moving somewhere warm, but it had always been just a talk. Apparently, my "story" inspired them to make their dream a reality. They just want to stay in touch with me in case they have some questions. Wow, I'm honored to be a muse for such an exciting and liberating life decision!
In the PADI instructor course they teach you that as a dive professional you join the "business of transformation". It sounds cheesy. But isn't it so true?
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