From Dive Boat, El Nido, Palawan
I’m so glad I finished my first day of my rescue dive course. I’m worried about the next two days, however. There are two main things that worry me. There is a dive called the “hell dive” which is supposed to happen tomorrow. It’ll probably be on the second dive. Then the third day is basically going to be a whole “hell day.” By this, Thomas (my instructor) and other dive masters mean that whatever can go wrong will go wrong (simulation), at any point in time during the day, and I’ll have to deal with it.
The hell dive will be with Thomas and one other dive master. During the dive, they will both be acting like total idiots, apparently, as though they were people who had maybe gone diving after a night of drunkenness and who aren’t sharp and who are accident-prone. I am supposed to be the diver who swims at the back of a dive group and keeps an eye on things, herding the group, and keeping an eye out for problems, and apparently, they’ll throw all the things that can go wrong at me in one dive. Broken fins and masks, weight belts falling off, uncontrolled ascents, tanks falling off, unresponsive diver, panicked diver, who knows what! I am nervous about that. I just hope I can head off the problems before some of them get bad and deal with the bad ones appropriately without freaking out!
And then the next day, apparently the whole boat will be in on some sort of fake emergency that could happen at any time throughout the day! So I’ll have to coordinate a rescue of some diver at some point, and act as though it’s real and everyone else on the boat will know it’s not. (…And that’s not nerve wracking or anything!)
Thomas was telling me that he was near tears after his second day of this course. I really don’t want shit to get that bad! So far, things have been alright. I’ve had to do a few things that make me nervous. I had to take off my kit underwater today. Thomas didn’t tell me we’d be doing that, so I wasn’t really prepared. It’s a great skill to learn, though. I’d done it once before, I think, probably during my advance training, but it’s not something you think of doing very much when you are relatively new at diving. I need to be able to self-rescue, and to fix my own tank if it’s coming loose, that sort of thing. And it does happen – my tank started slipping off during a dive I did in Mallorca and since the divemaster was dealing with a panicking diver I had to wait a while, swimming around holding my tank on by hand before I could get him to help me reattach it. It’s a good skill to have, but it seems super weird to be taking my BCD and tank off underwater, even though the regulator is still in my mouth. I think it’s cause you think you need it for bouyancy (and also cause your air supply is attached to it)! It is kind of useful gear to have!
I also did the rescue of an unresponsive diver from the bottom today. That’s where Thomas pretended to be unresponsive at the bottom and I had to go to him and do an ascent with him, holding his regulator in his mouth, and carrying him to the surface. It’s nerve wracking because if you go too fast, both you and the other diver can suffer lung over-expansion injuries. Ah, the joys of knowing what can go wrong! Sometimes knowing too much is stressful! It reminds me, for example, of how it is for people who have worked in labor and delivery to give birth – we know all the worst-case scenarios, so our imaginations can run wild with all sorts of horrors if you can’t manage to stay calm.
And underwater, it’s important to stay calm. Especially in an emergency. But that’s why I’m taking this course, I suppose, huh? And practice makes perfect (or at least less fumbly)!
Dive Trip, Palawan
The three dives we did today were quite lovely. The visibility was okay, nothing so incredible as Vanuatu, but pretty good, maybe 20 meters or so. I had the chance to work on my buoyancy a bit, and also today, under Thomas’ direction, made some headway towards using my hands less and my legs more for movement. I need to be more hydrodynamic and use less energy when I dive. It’ll improve my oxygen consumption and save my energy in case I need it for a rescue. Also, it helps me be able to stay still in the water, such as when I want to look at something, or take a knee.
Today we saw a bunch of trigger fish, a turtle, a trumpet fish, and a lion fish. We saw several nudibranchs and this cool purple thing Thomas pointed out that looked like some lacy coral, but was actually many nudibranch eggs! We also saw one of those small purple eels, which are colored like those little nudibranchs I like, but look like little snakes. Thomas teased it out of its hole with his stick and it brought nearly half its body out! We also saw an amazing blue and reddish colored scorpion fish along some coral.
The second place we dove, South of Miniloc Island is a place which was originally discovered by Jacques Cousteau during a snorkeling trip! He apparently spent a year of his life here, in three month intervals. It was pretty cool to think that I was diving the same place he had. There was also one of the largest gardens of cabbage coral I’ve ever seen at that site.
With my divemaster Thomas
Thomas also showed me some cleaner shrimp, and while he held still, they crawled out and onto his hand, cleaning his fingers! Cool to see! I saw a fascinating starfish that had a honeycomb design over the center of its body. There’s definitely a lot to see here.
I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t notice very much tomorrow, as I’ll be a bit preoccupied with my rescue efforts. I’m glad Thomas gave me the chance to enjoy the dives today! With my short sleep last night and my three dives today, though, I’m beat! I’m gonna get some rest. It’s going to be a full day tomorrow and I certainly need to be functional!