finished my advanced open water course a few days ago. as we got back on the boat after our second dive, the skies opened up and rain began sheeting down. cold rain. i took a deep breath and went back to take my gear apart. the rain was coming down so hard that it knocked one of my contacts out of focus, so i was blinking and trying to dismantle my regulator setup all at once. the one good thing is the rain meant i didn't have to rinse my gear off when we got back to shore.
ventured out that night for dinner with my buddy (adam, most awesome buddy ever - he had to leave today..wah..), his girlfriend and her buddy from open water class. huge puddles had taken over the streets and we literally waded our way out of the hotel. had gotten a recommendation of an awesome bbq place from our instructor and headed there. on our way, a little kid about 5 years old or so, comes running by us with a plastic bag completely over his head and yelling. it was probably the funniest thing i've ever seen. thankfully, he didn't seem to be suffocating - whew!
yesterday, started the rescue diver phase of my training. took emergency first response and went over CPR, rescue breathing, injury assessment, etc. watched a video in the morning where all sorts of terrible accidents befell people - the scene would open with a close-up of some saw blades lying on a wood shop counter, then pan to a guy using the saw and then move to a blurred reflection in a nearby metallic object. then you'd hear this awful noise and next thing, the guy would be bleeding and a nearby person, who happened to be an emergency responder would perform textbook care. or an elderly man would be gardening with a sharp hoe (specifically zoomed in on to show it glinting), suddenly have a heart attack and collapse on the hoe. thankfully, his neighbor also was trained in EFR and saw the whole thing happen. whew! the afternoon was spent practicing all the skills - i saved my buddy's life about 8 times and risked dying myself about the same number of times.
today was the first day of actual rescue diver class and the weather was finally nice once more. again, we watched a video where all sorts of divers were just having a terrible time. then we got to practice in-water skills with our instructor and two divemasters. they definitely had fun play-acting panicked divers and would randomly start "drowning" or "collapse" suddenly and we'd be expected to save them. sort of makes one a little paranoid to be walking around the dive shop. we have another day of class and skills tomorrow and then on thursday, we go out on the boat for our open-water session, which should be a riot, as i'm guessing every possible thing will go wrong and we'll be expected to manage the emergencies. will let you know how that goes..
