Tennessee Slim
Contributor
I met Suzy and Mark, who run Curacaos The Dive Bus last week on the SB's ABC Islands forum. I dropped in on their shop in person on Friday and did two dives with them today (Ill post more info on their dive op along with my hearty recommendation in the ABC forum in the near future).
On the second dive, we were joined by a Finnish guy who was snorkeling his way around the Caribbean. I dont mean he was snorkeling from island to island but he was visiting major dive locations and snorkeling on the dive sites there, using scuba divers as his safety and support mechanism.
Before the dive, he had coordinated with our divemaster. I didnt get the complete lowdown but the Finn obviously was also a scuba diver. He was instructed that, if he was in a very bad way, he should seek out the divemaster only and they two would buddy-breathe until he could get under control. But it was made clear to him that that was a direst emergency only option and that the divemaster would not could not abandon the dive group for his benefit. And Suzy reminded him in a firm tone that, if the unthinkable happened, he must remember to exhale on ascent.
Mr. Finn agreed with all, and very sincerely.
He appeared fit and trim and dived with only mask, fins, snorkel and weight belt (~6#, I should think). At one point in the dive we were briefly around 70 feet and that was the only portion of the dive when he didnt routinely appear in our midst. Anywhere from 55 feet and shallower, he was likely to drop in on us, especially if we were surrounding some spot and obviously had located something worth seeing. On one of his dives I timed him at more than 30 seconds useful bottom time at a bit more than 50 feet. Twenty-five to thirty feet, he had easily a minute of bottom time.
I was mightily impressed. I knew a fisher-boy who snorkeled deeper on Grand Cayman in the 1970s, but apart from him I rarely have seen such a competent display of watermanship. Mr. Finn never appeared to be over his head and never sought that life-saving breath from our divemaster. I thought him unusually reserved before the dive but I later learned he was entering a sort of Zen state of grace where his heart rate and breathing would be better controlled on his many dives. Afterward, he was as engaging and animated as any one of us on the dive.
He was hoping to get to Colombia and do some diving on their Caribbean coast but was reevaluating because he wasnt finding the transportation by boat he had hoped for (I joked that he must look for an obliging drug smuggler who was on his way back to Colombia for a refill). Flying from Curacao meant traveling through Bogota, and he was none too keen on the place. Even Panama, he said, was difficult to reach from Curacao without going through Bogota.
His complete traveling kit was a mid-sized daypack with his fans lashed to the sides. The backpack was actually a bit shorter than the fins, and narrower than his shoulders. It couldnt have been an ounce more than 20#, snorkeling gear included.
The more I think about Mr Finn, the more I envy that young man. He was bold but not reckless, and he was quite a skilled snorkeler. He was traveling with the barest essentials and living to experience the sea in an amazingly pure fashion. And he had hit upon a compromise to hedge his safety bets without compromizing the simplicity of the endeavor.
I mentioned the Bay Islands and Belize as an option to Colombia but he said he was avoiding going north until later in the trip. He had an airline ticket for home from Cozumel and he was hoping to save Central America for later in his journey.
I think he was enjoying Curacao rather more than hed expected -- and not just the diving and decided to remain overnight and ruminate upon his options. So I gave him a lift to Mambo Beach, where their notorious Sunday night Happy Hour was just about to kick off, and wished him luck.
Godspeed and good diving, my friend.
On the second dive, we were joined by a Finnish guy who was snorkeling his way around the Caribbean. I dont mean he was snorkeling from island to island but he was visiting major dive locations and snorkeling on the dive sites there, using scuba divers as his safety and support mechanism.
Before the dive, he had coordinated with our divemaster. I didnt get the complete lowdown but the Finn obviously was also a scuba diver. He was instructed that, if he was in a very bad way, he should seek out the divemaster only and they two would buddy-breathe until he could get under control. But it was made clear to him that that was a direst emergency only option and that the divemaster would not could not abandon the dive group for his benefit. And Suzy reminded him in a firm tone that, if the unthinkable happened, he must remember to exhale on ascent.
Mr. Finn agreed with all, and very sincerely.
He appeared fit and trim and dived with only mask, fins, snorkel and weight belt (~6#, I should think). At one point in the dive we were briefly around 70 feet and that was the only portion of the dive when he didnt routinely appear in our midst. Anywhere from 55 feet and shallower, he was likely to drop in on us, especially if we were surrounding some spot and obviously had located something worth seeing. On one of his dives I timed him at more than 30 seconds useful bottom time at a bit more than 50 feet. Twenty-five to thirty feet, he had easily a minute of bottom time.
I was mightily impressed. I knew a fisher-boy who snorkeled deeper on Grand Cayman in the 1970s, but apart from him I rarely have seen such a competent display of watermanship. Mr. Finn never appeared to be over his head and never sought that life-saving breath from our divemaster. I thought him unusually reserved before the dive but I later learned he was entering a sort of Zen state of grace where his heart rate and breathing would be better controlled on his many dives. Afterward, he was as engaging and animated as any one of us on the dive.
He was hoping to get to Colombia and do some diving on their Caribbean coast but was reevaluating because he wasnt finding the transportation by boat he had hoped for (I joked that he must look for an obliging drug smuggler who was on his way back to Colombia for a refill). Flying from Curacao meant traveling through Bogota, and he was none too keen on the place. Even Panama, he said, was difficult to reach from Curacao without going through Bogota.
His complete traveling kit was a mid-sized daypack with his fans lashed to the sides. The backpack was actually a bit shorter than the fins, and narrower than his shoulders. It couldnt have been an ounce more than 20#, snorkeling gear included.
The more I think about Mr Finn, the more I envy that young man. He was bold but not reckless, and he was quite a skilled snorkeler. He was traveling with the barest essentials and living to experience the sea in an amazingly pure fashion. And he had hit upon a compromise to hedge his safety bets without compromizing the simplicity of the endeavor.
I mentioned the Bay Islands and Belize as an option to Colombia but he said he was avoiding going north until later in the trip. He had an airline ticket for home from Cozumel and he was hoping to save Central America for later in his journey.
I think he was enjoying Curacao rather more than hed expected -- and not just the diving and decided to remain overnight and ruminate upon his options. So I gave him a lift to Mambo Beach, where their notorious Sunday night Happy Hour was just about to kick off, and wished him luck.
Godspeed and good diving, my friend.
