Scuba Diving - Random thoughts and stories

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This one sent by a friend, Tim Aukshun, a few months ago. More for the dive pros, but entertaining read for all...

Another why me day!!

The wind is blowing around 19 knots per hour. The salt spray is stinging my eyes, the rain is running down my back under my wet suit, and the waves are splashing over the bow. The boat is rocking heavily; and then I realize we haven't left the dock yet. IT LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THOSE "WHY ME DAYS"!!

You never think about those why me days when the ocean is like glass, the sun shining and the sky so blue. Small waves gently tap your boat and the beautiful topless guys and gals walk by, their golden brown skin shining with suntan lotion and soft music coming from their boom boxes.

These are NOT why me days. NO sir, these are the days we became Scuba Instructors for. This is why we took up the career. This is what we deserve! This is the life we live for!

We don't live for those days when some diver from South Dakota puts his BCD on upside-down, or when the good looking person on board to do a deep dive cannot add two single digit numbers together without a calculator. Maybe it is one of those days when your Divemaster decided to get a little more sleep because of the late night revelry and just makes it to the boat as it pulls away. NO, NO, NO, these are NOT the days we became Scuba Instructors for.

Ever blow an o'ring just as the class was ready to descend? Or how about the high pressure hose that begins to leak on the new regulator you just paid enough money to finance a small country for a year? Is this going to be a why me day? You can bet on it!

I know we should be happy with the beautiful days we have on the ocean, days when the class doesn't make you miss your lunch, just because they saw a small shark behind their buddy; or when someone decides they can get the knife they dropped in 58 meters if they just go down and right back up quickly.

BUT days like that happen so seldom that we tend to just sit back and enjoy the moment because we know they won't last.,

Ever notice how people come to you when the water is like glass, the sun out, and the bosomy beautiful tanned girl with the string bikini is in the class and say' "Gee, I wish I had your job" So do I buddy!

I'd love to see them chase after a diver in a current that didn't hold the descent line; or handle a panic diver at 100 feet because he didn't watch his gauge and ran out of air.

To be fair, though, as I look around I see people stressed out every day from their jobs. The rent is due, kids need shoes, check hasn't arrived yet, can't get the car parts locally, and the peso exchange rate dropped again. I look at this day, and I figure, I'm not doing so badly.

I lead divers who insist they need ten kilos of weight when they are 5 feet 1 inch tall and weigh only 41 kilos soaking wet. I see divers jump into the water then try swim back to the boat to have their air turned on; and divers who secure their tank so loosely it falls out nearly killing the Divemaster. Ah just mere inconveniences.

All these events and many more like them, make up the Why me days. But then, I look around and see the people trying to have fun for a few hours on the water; trying to cram a whole lot of living into a few minutes under the water. I hear the excitement of discovering scuba. I see the enjoyment on their faces after their first open water dive. I am so proud when one of them I took on open water dive one becomes a Course Director and I think, "Why me"?

And I figure, "I'm just lucky, I guess."

Tim Aukshun
PADI Course Director 1982-present
Ocean Deep Diver Training Center
www.oceandeep.biz
 
Over a few beers (this is when most moments of "clarity" and insight about our lives come) I and some friends of mine came up with the idea of the 1:4 ratio. For every 4 dives, you have one good dive, 2 so-so dives and 1 bad dive. The theory may have to be refined to add that the ratio is applicable only to the same kinds of dives, this has not yet been worked out...

What do you think? I know that I saw seal pups playing uw on my 4th local wetsuit dive of this year (2 days ago) and the ratio does seem to hold true for my drysuit dives as well. You could find other subgroups as well, what do you think of our theory?

It seems fair that you have to earn your good dives, paying your dues...
 
Grazie - I think the ratio improves when you live on the beach and 3-4 dives a day, 7 days a week is the norm :) and a bad dive is always offset by a nice walk home with the sunset on the background and the feel of sand between your toes..
 
"Summertime! We're going to the beach!" This was always what was in store for me as a kid come may. As a kid, i usually ended up going to soccer training during the summer months and the idea of going to the beach was always a welcome one. I had practice from 2pm - 4pm at Don Bosco Mandaluyong, before that, i always was in front of the tv watching the Cousteau documentaries aired on local tv during mornings. This was the earliest sign of my amazement and curiosity of what lies beneath the deep ocean waves. An amazement that had to be put on hold for the 16 years. I always wondered if i would ever get to actually be 100ft deep underwater. In the meantime, I was busy with other sports, I was into bowling, basketball, running, table tennis, tennis, swimming, baseball, jai-alai, billiards, volleyball, mountain biking and badminton. Never in those 16 years did i have any inkling that i will ever have
the chance to live a childhood dream...that is, being a diver ala jacques cousteau.

May 2002, i was walking along the beaches of boracay when it struck me..."damn, the're are a lot of dive shops here, there should be a lot of divers around!". true enough, 4 days on that powder sand saw me pondering of the possibility, however remote, that i can in fact be a diver. I woke up early to catch the first dive boats leave the station 1 area, hoping that when they get back i'll be there to see them disembark. Sounds too stupid but that was how much i was impressed with those wearing wetsuits. I started pondering again on the possibilities. I did went snorkelling around the island, but i mostly saw small fishes...not enough to trigger interest on my part.

April 2003, Alegre Beach Resort, Cebu...we were on vacation. Doing mostly the pool which was on the most part occupied by just us it again struck me. "Alegre has a dive shop...i'll check it out!" In fact the dive shop was there but no divers. I pondered on the dive site maps, pictures of fishes, the gear...the gear! This was the closest i got to dive gear, it was right in front of me begging to be touched! Man was i so excited! I asked if there was an instructor available for a "lesson". The guy was on leave and the dive shop staff told me i should have informed them in advance. There goes my first real attempt.

We took the sunset cruise and to my shock i saw a dolphin! This was the first time i got to see it in the wild, not in some fancy dolphin show like those in Ocean Park. This was the real thing, about 150meters from the boat!

The Cebu trip again opened up my eyes to a very possible reality...i think i can do this
diving thing. It was then that i started reading about diving in the philippines...got to
know about Anilao.

Early April 2005, we were at La Luz Beach Resort in Batangas and were planning to go
snorkelling. True enough we did and to my amazement there were 1ft long fishes there, better that what i saw at boracay a few years back. This diving thing was really getting closer, or so i thought. Besides, since some of my high school buddies were into it, i could easily join them. But it was not to be, all 5 moved out of the country mid April...i was crushed...there goes my dream. I couldn't imagine diving with a group of strangers...if in case i did get certified. You see, i always thought of divers as highly disciplined/military like in character...they were different, they were elite, they smile because they're jeering non-divers.

I started googling every single website i could find about philippine diving and by the end of April was on my way to OW certification at Aquaventure. About the same time i found scubaboard...and the rest as they say is history. A question begs to be asked, have i fulfilled my dream? Figure it out my friend...figure it out! :wink:
 
Axua:
Grazie - I think the ratio improves when you live on the beach and 3-4 dives a day, 7 days a week is the norm :) and a bad dive is always offset by a nice walk home with the sunset on the background and the feel of sand between your toes..

now that's courting DCI hit....:D



.
 
paolov:
now that's courting DCI hit....:D



.
really? do copious amounts of alcohol help?
 
paolov:
now that's courting DCI hit....:D

.

walking with the sunset on the background can give you DCI? :lol: nah I think in most dive destinations (at least in PG) they follow a schedule that allows at least 2 hours break between dives (9-12-3) and always start with the deeper dive and succeeding dives to the 60 foot mark only. Its probably only in anilao that people try to cram 4 dives in one day and try to catch the 8 pm movie at glorietta :)
 
4 dives/day are standard for me on tropical vacations...Those who live there and dive less don´t really deserve to...
 
grazie42:
4 dives/day are standard for me on tropical vacations...Those who live there and dive less don´t really deserve to...
hahahahah

Bitterness will get you nowhere...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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