The potential issue I had that might have arisen, has been resolved and it only cost me $35. So, not too much fire, just a lot of smoke. Basically, someone cut a line somewhere and I was there and didn’t stop it, so they thought that I should accept a portion of the blame. I disagreed, but told them to find out the costs that were going to be bandied about. Turns out it wasn’t that much, so rather than lose a friendship over levels of liability, I settled. I’ll just steer clear of Starbucks and Manic for the first week that I am back in T.O.
And I had my first students completely under my control and looking to me for direction in the open water today. As Peter would probably say “yeah, but they’re a bunch of c**ts, so fuck ‘em.” I felt like I should be wearing one of those slapstraps saying “Don’t follow me, I’m lost too”, but I braced for impact and started down the line with my little hatchlings. Well, once we got down the line and started doing the skills, it just all kicked in. No problems really. Sure, a couple of them are probably c**ts, but they behaved underwater and we got through in one piece, so whatev’s. I actually like a few of them, even though the average age is probably 23. I suppose it helps that there are five Canadians on the course (four from Toronto), a Brit, an Irishman and a Dutch couple and a German who speak pretty good English. The other German’s English is shite….like what the fuck man, these fucking Europeans should learn that English IS the universal language.
My only problem on both of the open water dives was that on the first dive, one of the students (not pointing him out, but all I’ll say is tiocfaidh ar la), when we began the ascent decided that 18m/minute was too slow a pace and hit the surface going about 35m/min. I’m afraid I had to ream him out a bit. What actually pissed me off, was that I put one of the DMT’s on him specifically, because he was looking a bit flustered (he’d had problems doing the swim test in the pool) and because he had also had a bit of an odd body position on the swim. The DMT totally didn’t stay near him and didn’t catch him as he shot to the surface like a bullet. Luckily, it was only 10m (although most DCI – Decompression Illness – injuries occur in the first 10m of water) and we hadn’t been down any deeper than 12m and only 25 minutes, so nothing happened. Still, I had a brief quiet “yell” at him, then had them all do a few more surface skills.
And I had my first students completely under my control and looking to me for direction in the open water today. As Peter would probably say “yeah, but they’re a bunch of c**ts, so fuck ‘em.” I felt like I should be wearing one of those slapstraps saying “Don’t follow me, I’m lost too”, but I braced for impact and started down the line with my little hatchlings. Well, once we got down the line and started doing the skills, it just all kicked in. No problems really. Sure, a couple of them are probably c**ts, but they behaved underwater and we got through in one piece, so whatev’s. I actually like a few of them, even though the average age is probably 23. I suppose it helps that there are five Canadians on the course (four from Toronto), a Brit, an Irishman and a Dutch couple and a German who speak pretty good English. The other German’s English is shite….like what the fuck man, these fucking Europeans should learn that English IS the universal language.
My only problem on both of the open water dives was that on the first dive, one of the students (not pointing him out, but all I’ll say is tiocfaidh ar la), when we began the ascent decided that 18m/minute was too slow a pace and hit the surface going about 35m/min. I’m afraid I had to ream him out a bit. What actually pissed me off, was that I put one of the DMT’s on him specifically, because he was looking a bit flustered (he’d had problems doing the swim test in the pool) and because he had also had a bit of an odd body position on the swim. The DMT totally didn’t stay near him and didn’t catch him as he shot to the surface like a bullet. Luckily, it was only 10m (although most DCI – Decompression Illness – injuries occur in the first 10m of water) and we hadn’t been down any deeper than 12m and only 25 minutes, so nothing happened. Still, I had a brief quiet “yell” at him, then had them all do a few more surface skills.
After that, everything went fine…..by the second dive almost everyone had gotten their buoyancy down pat and were swimming in pretty little flat profiles.
Yes, Chris rocks the scuba world! And then we had an afternoon classroom session and the chicklings sat their final exam. Here are my chigden working hard:
Yes, Chris rocks the scuba world! And then we had an afternoon classroom session and the chicklings sat their final exam. Here are my chigden working hard:
Oh, what I forgot to mention is that the morning could have been a lot worse…..I may or may not have had a couple more than 2 beers last night. Danielle and I went down to Ban’s for Aussie Andy’s DM snorkel test. Danielle had her first bucket: 
And then Noé and Célia turned up, along with Mo, Pierre, Alex and half of the DM’s/Insructors/IDC candidates that I have gotten to know over the last few months. So drinks started flowing (luckily I only had to pay for two beers, however)….I know, I felt all moochie, but people kept giving me beers. And then the snorkel test began. Andy was joined by another friend of ours, Elena. The worst part is that her husband was the one who sold her out that she hadn’t done her snorkel previously. Here’s a few shots of Andy and Elena doing their snorkels: 
Oh, and the aftermath for Elena: 
And then, being a little tipsy, I decided it was time for Blue Steel Chris. Here’s a menagerie of Chris and friends all being tipsy and acting like willy-heads:
Oh…and then Noé insisted I kiss him, like the German guy kissed me two months ago after his IE (I didn’t mention this?? Oh, maybe because of the trauma….in any event, a dude kissed me on the lips when I turned around at Lotus bar one night. He was under the impression that he could have my beer, because he had just kissed a woman called Karen for hers. It worked. I gave him my beer to get away. Funnily enough, he is actually a cool guy, totally straight and was on my MSDT. He is currently trying to get in tight with a Canadian girl from B.C. and move to Canada, but still…the kiss haunts me and Noé and Célia love to wind me up about it). So, anyhooooow, I kissed Noé: 
And then Célia insisted on the same treatment: 
Don't go getting all jealous on my ass, Lee, I kissed both the boy AND the girl!!
A crazy night, which actually ended quite early (about 11:30) and I was in bed after a wee call to the missus. Didn’t even have the remotest hint of a hangover this morning. And at least my temporary puppies were behaving this morning:
And I am now set for a fucked up schedule for the next few days. Tomorrow, I assist one guy in a confined session with 10 students in the morning (8:00 a.m.). Then I meet Rich (the instructor I am running the open water with) at 11:30, after which we go for the o/w training dives 3 & 4 and I certify my first O/W students. Then I go to the Ban’s pool party to celebrate my student’s successful completion of their course. On the next day, I go on another set of O/W training dives 3 & 4 with another instructor and get the certs. (11 students). Then I start an advanced (again with Rich and the students from the current O/W) on the Wednesday, finishing on the Thursday. In the meantime, I have been asked if I can co-ordinate my timing with another instructor to assist him on his O/W. Oy vey. It looks like I may have my 25 certs by the 5th!!!But……OH MY GOD!!! Just when I thought I had seen the last of my Castle Party days, the fuckers go and throw one more on before I can get out of here!! Feb. 4 is another FUCKING CASTLE PARTY!! And the worst part is that it is the night before Mademoiselle Alcohol arrives to fuck me up every night on booze…..so there I’ll be all knackered and not in the mood and she’ll be wanting to party party party. Damn.
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