The inevitable return of the great white Chris!!!

Weeeeeheeelll, after I had such a f***** up week before, the following one would be way different. I had a few projects that I was heading towards and as the post-title already reveals, I wouldn´t be alone!

First off: business!

I had seriously considered taking the diving to a new level and to follow the path of professionalism, which means: Dive Master.

There were a few hills that would have to be climbed before reaching my goal (EFR Course, Rescue Diver, Dive Master), and so I got to it.

The Emergency First Response course is something everyone with a drivers license has already attended, in my case it was useless as it must not be older than 2 years to be accepted as basis for the Rescue Diver. The book I had to read was of course excessively Americanized and everything was explained 300 times in such a simple language that even my neighbors’’ goldfish would pass with waving flags. The video that comes with it was basically the same crap just within a 90min version. The only funny and exciting part was the practical exercise that I did with two other Rescue Diver Trainees: Michelle (the other surf-instructor and local) and Eugenio (a soon to be Dive Master from Argentina who’ll stay here until June).

With the two of them, our practical training was hilarious, as our mannequin (made of a diving west, wetsuits and some tape), “Puta” had to withstand some really severe and brutal CPR attempts by Eugenio and me. In the end, we ourselves had to be the mannequins for repositioning an unconscious person and almost didn’t get our tasks done as we were constantly afraid the other would apply the same rough CPR methods on us, as we were lying on the floor with closed eyes. All in all we still got everything covered and had a very nice afternoon together.

The following days we had some theoretical sessions with our instructor to cover the chapter reviews of the rescue diver book, which was then followed by the written exam. On a Thursday afternoon, just before my last chapter review, I was sitting in the restaurant on the opposite side of the dive shop and checking emails on my laptop, when I caught Mr. Kaiser online in the FB chat. The conversation was short but cheerful and in essence, Chris said: “I quit my job today, respectively got fired and it might be the last night you’re sleeping alone in Montanita”. I really did do expect him to show up the next day but was still a little startled when the next day around 11am a wide grinning Chris was ready to enjoy his life at the coast. The timing could not have been better, as it was the weekend of the annual Reef Classics Surf Competition that Montanita hosts every year, and the place was packed.

I unfortunately was scheduled to go diving Saturday and Sunday and feared that I would not enjoy the time with Chris as much as I could have, under different circumstances.

To clarify plans, I stepped by my dive shop and asked Beatrice, who gladly told me that the two dives had been postponed to the weekend after.

GREAT News, that screams for celebration. Chris, beer me, let’s get plastered… :D
Which, once again, we did as graceful as possible. I remember drinking a lot of beer (and of course cocktails) that day and since I had a little cold the previous days, which I had just overcome, my battery was sucked empty by 2am at night. Chris though, continued to party hardy and came to my place around 5 in the morning.

The next day, after grabbing breakfast somewhere I was surprised by a friend who works as a manager at the restaurant across the street from my shop (Hola Ola) and whom I had been helping a bit with managing the place during previous weeks. I usually was paid in free coffee, tea and little snacks, but this day she smiled widely as she approached Chris and me and told me she had gotten me a VIP ticket for the big Surf-Party-Concert-Thing at the beach that night. After telling her that Chris needs one as well, she performed absolute magic and got another VIP ticket for the Kaiser, just a few hours later.

That night was EPIC, I tell you. Two bottles of rum were captivated that night between Chris, Jana (yes, she was back in the sweet spot), Andre (a Portuguese Dude who Jana had met while traveling) and me. After this we crushed the party and somehow Jana pulled another two tickets from somewhere so the four of us were in together and had an absolute blast. I remember that Chris and I got home that night around 4 and left the Hostel again around 5 to go back to the party, as it took us only about an hour to overcome hints of tiredness…

At some point it was just inevitable to go to bed and when we again woke up around 3pm on Sunday I suffered like I haven’t before in a long time. Chris didn’t feel as bad as I did, but still had hints of “hangover” hanging across his face. He left that day for Puerto Lopez (about an hour north of here) to have another day sipping cocktails at the beach before heading back to Quito, and I headed back to bed.

The next day I passed my written exam for the Rescue Diver with waving flags (96%) and already got my study equipment for the Dive Master theory, which is even more comprehensive as it entails:

-         Dive Master Manual (written exam after)

-         Encyclopedia of diving (written exam after)

-         Instructing Cards (for practical tests)

I seriously cannot tell you how glad I’ll be when I finally get that bitch out of my life and don’t ever have to study this stuff again. So long, let the studies begin and let it be over fast, please… :-/