Today was a very busy day…with no pictures. The morning was
my practice search and rescue for a missing diver. The diver in this case was a
weight belt. This was almost as frustrating as neurobio lab (though more fun).
I could not find the goddamn belt. The first time was my fault, my hatred of
compasses overcame me. The second time we started too far in and missed it. And
after that we kind of just tried to pin point it and failed. Eventually it took
a line of four of searching together to find it. I was the one who found it. I
talked to Wayne, the instructor after. He explained that with the type of
visibility (about 18 inches) we would have used a much more complicated search
pattern only taught in the hardcore search and recovery specialty course. So
that makes life hard. Meanwhile, Jonah saw a shark on his dive.
Then I went diving and was supposed to show some helping
those under duress under water. I did a great job…when I noticed. But sometimes
I got distracted by fish and eels and maybe even a sunfish. It was far off, but
it looked like it, it’s a pretty distinct shape. So that was that. It was a fun
dive. We got up close and personal with a turtle, saw some squid, and found an
eel. It shot away into a small structure so I tried to find it on the other
side. It ended up coming out right beneath me. It was fun
Third activity/second dive (unless search and recovery
counts as a dive (I was under water for ages). This one I just got to do fun
stuff, look at fish. The coolest thing we saw were garden eels. They just stay
in little holes, with their heads sticking out of sand. I enjoy watching that.
I could have stayed there all dive…but for some reason people wanted to move
on.
Once we surfaced I was to do Rescue Exercise 7, helping a
nonbreathing diver on the surface. It was fine, except I when I took off the
victim’s mask, I stopped paying attention to it and it sunk. Wayne had to go
fetch it and says I now owe him at least one beer. I guess that’s fair enough.
If I pass the course after tomorrow’s big final practical I’ll buy him all the
beer he wants. Also worth noting is that while I was doing this the waves were
of an almost surfable quality. So more challenges to overcome. Another new
thing was that there was a couple from Canada diving, David and Jennifer, who
were diving as well. They had some fun stories involving dry suits, whale
sharks, the flu, and other things and places. Meeting people like that is
always fun. The dive community is a great group plus friendly and welcoming to
those with the same interest. And it’s always fun to dive with new people who
wont kick you in the face. So for prospective divers, we’re nice and fun…
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