Batteries running low

The next day, Friday, meant that the next group would be popping in and receive their books in the early afternoon, and then watch the DVD a bit and receive their gear. This time we had the great idea that we could use the same equipment for each group, which we didn’t have before. This resulted in some guys having too small or too large wetsuits, which can be really annoying if the water is cold and the suit doesn’t seal. So, this time, group one went to check suits and boots first, and the second group straight after. Every piece of equipment was written down for each person, which was a bigger hassle than before, but in the long run, it made it easier for us to deal with the suits and boots concerning the preparation before each dive.

All was set and Saturday we went to the pool around 7, again at such unholy hour, to make sure, that even with same delays we would still get at least a little break to grab some food.

This time though, we didn’t have as many complications as the week before and the two guys that I instructed and introduced to the gear to, were done after about 3 hours. A miracle!!!
Eugenio was similarly fast and finished about 20minutes after me, and Victor with his 4 people finished about another 30 minutes after Eugenio and we were looking at two spare hours to fill until the next group would arrive.

Eventually they arrived and we ploughed through the material as fast as we did with the first part of the group. It was insane how smoothly things could go, and around 5pm we were already back in town, unpacking everything and getting ready for the next day at sea.

Here we encountered some slight problems too, and although the water was calmer than the week before, visibility was still absolute shit, and only under the thermocline (the line between warm, unclear water and cold, clear water) you could actually see some underwater life. After a while everyone was down and still it wasn’t fun, as the water was that cold, that even 7mm wetsuits made half of us shiver and wish it was warmer. We still managed our 2 dives and everyone did all the tasks required by PADI during the second dive.

This time too, all my students were completely out after diving, and I too felt like I earned a little nap before meeting group 2 for the surf classes. This time it was a bigger group, and we lost Michelle, who injured herself when she slipped of some rocks and cut herself strongly on them. So this day, Bea and I had to supervise 8 students between the two of us, instead of 7 students among the three of us, like the week before. Again we memorized the fatal first day during which two of the guys had been pulled into a rip and despite waling out of it safely, we didn’t want to happen in a group with more people, and less people to supervise.

The waves weren’t that strong that day, so the fear of losing someone in the surf was really unlikely, but still these things work on you, so we were double as carefully this time and spend more time in advance explaining safety rules and rescue procedures.
After a while, Bea and I found out that what this group was ahead of the group from the previous week in diving, they were behind in surfing. It was less people getting up during their classes and less people smiling and having a great time. It was more that they seemed tired of something and didn’t have the energy, neither to paddle sufficiently, nor to get up on the boards when in the wave. Of course there were a few of them who still did this, but the overall impression was that the other group had a bigger personal interest in surfing and was more willing to push themselves for it.

Anywho, again, time simply fleeeeeew by and suddenly it was Wednesday one more time. I do have to say though, that after Sunday and Monday I was really tired and had to push me hard in the morning to get up at that godforsaken unholy hour, and go get the equipment ready for the day. So when Wednesday finally struck, I was unbelievably tired and almost didn’t want to go out for a drink or two with the guys.

After the surf lesson, I even suggested to organize some place where we could eat together, and due to the sheer amount of people, might be able to tickle out a discount for us. I just didn’t want that idiot Colorado from their hostel to try to organize anything, as I was sure he’d fuck that up too. So I walked around town and tried to pull some strings in order to get us a nice place to eat. All the places I went to, didn’t offer me any price reductions, and so I reserved a massive table at the Hola Ola restaurant just across the Surf & Dive Club for 8:30pm and was glad they offered me at least a 5% discount, even on the special offers they had that day. Again you see, that these people do not have the slightest idea of how to run a gastronomy business. And it became even clearer after the night. But I’m getting ahead of myself:

So we arrived there, all nicely dressed and ready to get some meals in before we start painting the town. We sit down, everyone orders something and only one waitress takes the order… I had a bad feeling when I saw this and hoped it would still all go well, somehow. To cut a long story short, that chick forgot about three dishes, of which two could somehow be pumped out within minutes after she discovered she fucked up (the chef must have really been behind it), and about three drinks never made it to the table, despite a permanent reminder by me and Eugenio in Spanish. Because, Of Course that girl didn’t know any English at all, and my little danes were shit at Spanish, but that was why they were here, to improve their Spanish, right, so no blame on them.

My absolute kicker for the night was that when everyone got up individually, to pay individually at the bar, just like all Scandinavian people like to do, the head waitress told me, this would be impossible, on the ground that they had a new computer system, and this one was made for this. If the System had been in English or German, it would have possibly take me 5minutes to figure out how to do it within a few minutes for all 19 danes, but since it was in Spanish I didn’t bother and told her, to collect the money individually from each person. That she couldn’t do either, as she didn’t have any change to work with (central billing by that cunt behint the bar, who doesn’t know her own computer system), and our actuall waitress couldn’t do it either, as she had other tables and was additionally too incompetent to pull such a job. So it was left with me to collect the $187,50 from my peeps and after a tiring 15 minutes of saying “and, what did you have?” I had all the dough in my hat and was ready to pay the bill. There were like 7 bucks in drinks missing, who some kids didn’t name, or forgot about, or weren’t willing to pay for, but the 5% discount on all of it, screwed the total amount due down to $178,blaaaa and thus it worked out evenly.

After I really felt like a cocktail and within an instant Eugenio and I stood amidst the Danish party peeps and rocked the house until 5 in the morning. I still do remember Eugenio being on fire and bouncing through the club like flubber on extacy whereas I had been way too tired to go into full throttle party dancing. Again it was a strong night, and all of the danes rocked on to the early morning until our ways parted and this time I didn’t manage to get up in time to wave them good bye… I simply couldn’t do it and kept lying in bed until 4pm that Thursday afternoon.

That night, again Eugenio and I didin’t care for Montanitas Party night, but hung about at our usual corner, with a few other guys and had a relaxed beer instead of another hard night on the booze. And by around 12:30 at night, our ways parted and everyone slowly moved towards their homes and their delightfully cosy beds...