Kris hadn't surfaced by 10.30am, not that I was surprised. Happy to have a day to myself again I wandered off to the beach. I was relaxing in my now perfected side browning technique, when a European guy came up to check I was OK. Well I was lying in the recovery position so I could see his point. We sat and chatted for ages. His name was John and he had just retired after a life of working in places like Algeria. He was a helicopter something or other, I didn't quite understand but he flew and maintained them for a private company or had done until his retirement earlier that year. Now he was just wandering.....
We talked and swam, then talked some more. Eventually the sun was too much for both of us. We agreed to meet again on the beach at some random point in the following week, should we find ourselves there at the same time and said our good byes.
To be truthful I cant actually remember what we did the rest of the day as I didn't write notes past 'met Kris for late lunch, had takeaway for supper - watched films!'
But it was Kris's day off and it passed the way he wanted. Quietly - to help with his hangover.
Sunday 12th April
It is so surreal having your own son as a teacher. First test – swim 200 meters and tread water for 10 minutes and I taught him to swim! OK the first test actually happened in the classroom. Having watched two DVD's on Chapter 1 and 2 we were given a quiz to see if we were paying attention. There are three of us doing the PADI Open Water over the next three days, Angel and Tobias with Joe and myself with Kris. Quizzes completed it was off to the pool for some skills.
The swim was easy as Kris knew it would be, Joe wondered about his two clients as they breast stroked, side stroked, sculling for a bit, their way down the pool. With 4 lengths of the 50 meter pool to do they were going to be a while. I was just finishing my 10 minutes of treading water when they began theirs.
Joe and I had been discussing how long scuber divers, who are never suppose to hold their breath, can hold their breath for. (One has to do something while treading water for 10 minutes!) Kris, he said, was the best out of them all, but it was close. I suggested they introduced a length swim, underwater, of the pool as an induction to any new instructors joining their ranks - once they had learnt to do it themselves that is. Kris said I could go first. I got ¾ of the way up. Kris got 10 foot further, blaming the cigarette he had just smoked for his lack of distance! With the proficiency tests all finished, we began our lessons.
How to set up your regulator. Do check the 'O' ring. Mine looked a bit frayed but without my glasses I couldn't tell if it was the O ring or the metal that looked wrong so I said nothing. It blew one minute later as I picked up the completed rig to take it to pool side! I wouldn't have minded but I had just finished attaching the BCD jacket and Regulator and had to do it all again! Regulator off. New O ring, change the bottle and all back on again. Practice makes perfect they say so I smiled and carried on.
The pool work was brilliant and I had no problems, apart from lifting my kit to carry it to pool side. Those things are heavy full! I did get a fit of giggles when we were doing the levitation exercise which just made me bob up and down under the water more wildly. The idea is to grab your fins so you sit in a sort of lotus position, then with your lung capacity, you control your buoyancy. Unfortunately when I grabbed my fins I fell over, not that you can fall over under water, but the sensation of falling and trying to correct it, which is just as pointless, got me giggling. The giggling made me breath deeper and not exactly with control, which in turn made me float and sink faster. Kris wrote in the film covering the tile on the pool wall 'LOOK HERE' meaning for me to stay level with it. As I passed it repeatedly in both directions, my laughter increased until Kris abandoned the whole exercise and we did something else until I calmed down.
The mask removal exercise made water go up my nose which gave me a coughing fit followed by the biggest underwater burp going. This got Kris laughing and the teaching disintegrated further. We had however finished all the skills within an hour, including the optional bubble ring blowing lesson! I was at home under the water and Kris was happy with my abilities. He went over to Joe to help him with his students while I stayed close and perfected some of my skills – fin pivots, levitation and no mask breathing (without the laughter) being the ones requiring the most work.
All the pool work was finished by 3.30pm, the mini bus was called and we returned to the dive shop to find out Simon had arrived back a day early. He was fine about me starting the course early and was rapidly trying to catch up on what had gone on in his absence. Kit was washed and stored, we were given our home work for the evening and I headed to the beach with my books to wash away the smell of chlorinated water.
Half way through my studies that afternoon on the beach, I realised I didn't have a RDP chart. I was nearer to the dive shop than Kris so I went to ask Simon if I could buy one from him. He said to save my money as Kris was bound to have one somewhere I could use. I went off to find Kris. He didn't have a clue where his chart was but Joe offered me his and Amanda offered me her instruction booklet. Armed with my new supplies I went to sit on my balcony only to discover that Joe's RDP Chart was in Meters and Amanda's instruction book was illustrated in Feet!! I tried converting from one to the other to check my answers but after half an hour abandoned the whole thing and returned to find Kris. He checked my workings and confirmed my answers.
Kris, Joe and Matt were on their way out for the evening leaving Amanda ensconced in front of the TV with a pile of DVDs. Her first choice was a film called JUMPER, one I had heard about but never seen. Kris said I was allowed to stay up and watch it IF I had finished all my home work!! I promised to stay up late instead! This was just getting too weird!!
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