Into the Blue
Its been a while since the last post- i can only apologise for the gap, but its been a really busy last week or so. My travels have now taken me to Utila, a small island off the North coast of Honduras with lots and lots of Dive schools- for the next 6 weeks or so ill be training to become a divemaster, the first professional level in Scuba Diving.
Over the last few days my time has been taken up doing the courses you need to begin the Divemaster course- the Emergency First Responder and the Rescue Diver. The Rescue Diver was especially interesting, a real contrast to the first levels of training you have to go through under the Scuba system, with a real increase in difficulty and challenge. When you start out Scuba diving its really pretty easy, all you have to be able to do is use the equipment and not get freaked out when you realise youre 20 metres down; when you start out Rescue Diver then you actually have to be able to do something. The course aims to model what would happen in a range of emergency situations, going from someone panicking on the surface to having to locate an unconscious diver somewhere underwater, then bring them back to the boat. My favourite situation though was the panicked out of air diver at about 20 metres down- in this case the instructor would swim frantically towards you, his mouthpiece out and his hands trying to tear yours out so he can get some air. You then have to react, jam your alternate air supply into their hands before he takes your source of air- by the end of your course you feel much more confident in your ability to handle things down deep.
Its been a fun time Scuba Diving here, its also been really nice to meet some people who i know will actually stay around for a time after the continual social changes of the last few weeks. Ive heard a few good stories from the longer serving divers, probably the best one so far is from a guy who´s been diving for over 20 years. The story goes that one time he was on a boat searching for Whale Sharks (a beautiful, harmless fish) , when the captain though he´d spotted one and told this guy to jump overboard to prepare to guide the customers . He proceeded to go over the side, turned around in the water, only to find himself face to face with a 30 foot Tiger Shark (definitely not a harmless fish). It swam languidly over, took a look at him, then dove on down to the deep blue. Lets just hope i never have to face that kind of thing myself. Tomorrow will see me moving into a house with a few other of the people working at Altons (my dive shop), for the rest of my time on the island i should be sleeping in this nice little house on the ourskirts of the main town- my room is called the ´princess suite,´i may tell you why in the next blog. Until then though, and expect a few photos up soon.
Over the last few days my time has been taken up doing the courses you need to begin the Divemaster course- the Emergency First Responder and the Rescue Diver. The Rescue Diver was especially interesting, a real contrast to the first levels of training you have to go through under the Scuba system, with a real increase in difficulty and challenge. When you start out Scuba diving its really pretty easy, all you have to be able to do is use the equipment and not get freaked out when you realise youre 20 metres down; when you start out Rescue Diver then you actually have to be able to do something. The course aims to model what would happen in a range of emergency situations, going from someone panicking on the surface to having to locate an unconscious diver somewhere underwater, then bring them back to the boat. My favourite situation though was the panicked out of air diver at about 20 metres down- in this case the instructor would swim frantically towards you, his mouthpiece out and his hands trying to tear yours out so he can get some air. You then have to react, jam your alternate air supply into their hands before he takes your source of air- by the end of your course you feel much more confident in your ability to handle things down deep.
Its been a fun time Scuba Diving here, its also been really nice to meet some people who i know will actually stay around for a time after the continual social changes of the last few weeks. Ive heard a few good stories from the longer serving divers, probably the best one so far is from a guy who´s been diving for over 20 years. The story goes that one time he was on a boat searching for Whale Sharks (a beautiful, harmless fish) , when the captain though he´d spotted one and told this guy to jump overboard to prepare to guide the customers . He proceeded to go over the side, turned around in the water, only to find himself face to face with a 30 foot Tiger Shark (definitely not a harmless fish). It swam languidly over, took a look at him, then dove on down to the deep blue. Lets just hope i never have to face that kind of thing myself. Tomorrow will see me moving into a house with a few other of the people working at Altons (my dive shop), for the rest of my time on the island i should be sleeping in this nice little house on the ourskirts of the main town- my room is called the ´princess suite,´i may tell you why in the next blog. Until then though, and expect a few photos up soon.
posted by Viajero Nuevo at 7:41 PM
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