Well, well,
as I had gone through all the practical tasks for the Dive Master course and
had just passed the theoretical exam before I left for Galapagos, I was now
ready to take on my next challenge in that field of work: Teaching 14 – 19
danish high school graduate students each week how to surf and to dive within
only a couple of days time.
I knew
about this massive booking since the beginning and wondered how we’d manage to
get everything in place to cover all the necessary steps to make everyone happy
and let them have a successful time at the coast.
In fact,
this was the reason why I was summoned back “home” (to Montanita) a day early,
to plan the steps one by one, for each group ahead. It would look like this.
Thursday:
Arrival of the group, everybody relax and hang out.
Friday:
-
Early
Afternoon: Everyone passes by the shop to get an introduction and to pick up
their study books
-
Late
Afternoon: The group sits in the shop and watches the first part of the PADI
introduction DVD; after everyone gets sorted with their gear, including
o
Wetsuit
o
Shoes
o
Fins
Saturday:
-
Early
Morning: Group 1 (7-8 people) gets in the pool for the equipment introduction
(about 4 hours)
-
Afternoon:
Group 2 (7-8 people) gets in the pool for equipment introduction (about 4
hours)
Sunday:
-
Early
Morning: Group 2 goes diving with Victor, Eugenio, Beatrice and Me until Midday
-
Afternoon:
Group 1 goes surfing with Beatrice, Michelle and Me
Monday:
-
Early
Morning: Group 1 goes diving with Victor, Eugenio, Beatrice and Me until Midday
-
Afternoon:
Group 2 goes surfing with Beatrice, Michelle and Me
Tuesady =
like Sunday
Wednesday =
like Monday
Wednesday
night: Big Barbeque Party with both groups, including Victor, Beatrice,
Eugenio, Michelle and me.
We tried to
go through with this plan as good as we could, unfortunately things don’t
always go your way. So it came, that two or three of the girls from that group
had trouble breathing under water, which pushed the timely limit of the first
pool group further back and left Victor, Eugenio and me a total of 10 minutes
between the first and the second group, to get lunch. Within the second group,
there was also some trouble and we finished right around 6pm, which meant that
the three of us spend a total amount of 10hrs in the water that day.
The next
day we visited our common dive spot, El Pelado, in order to get everyone
comfortable with the equipment in the open water. Unfortunately for us, the
swell had been really strong these days, which also led to a very wild water at
hour home spot. Now this was unfortunate for the girls and guys, as the rough
sea increased the sea sickness rate aboard and discouraged a few of the
passengers. We still got everyone in the water and went down to a freezing cold
12meters to conduct our first dive. All went well, so that everyone was back up
after about half an hour and after about an hour break ready to go down a
second time.
After this,
the whole group slept on the busride back into town as if they just ran a
marathon. It was actually cure to see, and we were happy to have the other half
of the group for the surf lessons in the afternoon, as the first group,
possibly would have been to knackered to go into the sea and paddle for waves.
Having
mentioned the strong swell earlier, it was the strong swell again, that screwed
us over a bit during the first surf class with the second group. A big swell
inevitably leads to a strong current in the bay, as the huge amount of water
rushing in somehow needs a way to get back out again, which it usually does in
rips; strong currents of water that pull out surfers and even worse swimmers.
With the second group it came, that two of the kids who hadn’t enrolled in the
diving classes, nor the surfing classes, no wanted to swim around their
friends, as they hit the surfboards. It came how I must have come with this
setup, and within an instant two of the guys, a girl from the surf class and
another boy didn’t pay attention and got caught in a riptide.
When I saw
it, I looked around for anyone who could give me their board, in order to pick
up the boy and get him out of danger. Of course there was no-one around, but in
the wink of my eye I saw one of the Baywatch guys already jump into the water
and paddeling towards the two. I figured the boy would be able to hold himself
above the water until the rescue swimmer with the buoy would arrive, and swam
to the girl as fast as I could, as her eyes were wide with fear and I knew she
wouldn’t be able to get herself out of this mess. Frankly, I told her to hold on
the board as if her life depends on it and started to push her sideways into
the massive waves that now rushed in the bay, which would hopefully bring us
back to shore.
When the
first big wave struck us, I held on to the back of the board to keep it stable
and not let her experience the full sensation of being kicked around by the
waves, although my legs and torso were thrown around like crazy by the 3meter
waves that now hit the coast. With the second wave I gave the board a push so
that I floated in front of the wave and was completely pushed to shore, where
all the others were already waiting and took care of the shaking girl. I turned
around to spot the boy and his rescuer, and found them quite a few meters
further out in the water and turned around to ask if they need some more help.
In the eyes of the rescuer, it was all safe and so I started making my way back
to shore myelf, where the baywatcher in his red shorts thought he’d need to
tell me that big waves are dangerous for swimmers. Of course it was clear that
big waves and strong currents are dangerous for swimmers, but as the swimmer
wasn’t even one of the guys from my group, I though “whatever” and politely
told him “thank you for telling me”. On shore, both of them, the boy and the
girl, were shaking like crazy and were obviously under shock, and everyone was
standing around them watching. Quickly Beatrice and me shared a look and
instantly went into a deeper explanation why big waves are dangerous and why
everyone needs to pay special attention to when they are out in big surf. All
around us were nodding heads and after a short break, we continued with the
rest of the class for another half an hour.
The next
day, it was a similar situation in the water concerning the divers: again a few
guys were sea sick and had some problems in the beginning to get down, but
luckily the water had calmed down a bit and this made it easier for us in the
afternoon to conduct the surf class. The following days we found out that what
both groups had be primarily lacking in diving confidence, they made more than
up with in their surf classes! Almost all students constantly got on their
boards during the classes and even the ones who didn’t catch every wave
perfectly had massive smiley on their faces and were obviously enjoying the
shit out of the sport. And for me personally, this is the best sign, that I got
people interested beyond the classes itself into surfing, and made them hungry
to go, grab a board and surf for themselves to improve.
With all
that stuff happening and the really long days time flew and suddenly it was the
last night with everyone. Unfortunately, the Dude who was supposed to organize
the BBQ is the same dumb, lazy fuck you meet in every other hostel in south
America. He’s managing some cheap place (that he should actually put a lot more
time and effort in), is sitting on the porch all day drinking beer and flirts
with every female guests that comes across his way. But as soon as you need
something from him, he’s always going “Yeah, of course, no problem”, and in the
end nothing is done. In our case it was the same, and telling him 6 days early
to organize a fireplace and enough meet and salad for about 20 people, clearly
was to much to ask and we quickly had to re-arrange food settings. In the end
we went to Jimmy’s place, the Chicken Shed that I’ve been going to since day
one and whose owner (Jimmy) was a small overweight guy from the Dominican Republic
And this
was it, first group gone… Thinking about it now seems like we met and they just
left again the next moment. I do remember that it was tremendously tiring work
that week, and that I had to have a 45min nap between diving and surfing,
otherwise I would have collapsed myself, but right now I don’t recall this when
I think about the group… It was awesome people and I still write a few of them
now, weeks after they’re gone, because it makes me feel like they’re still
around somehow…
I didn’t
really have much time to regain my strength, as Thursday was another ladies
night, which meant big party in my little town. Despite the attractiveness of
another big party in the crazy spot, I decided against going out again and
instead had a nice, relaxed beer with Eugenio on the street and did a recap of
the previous week.
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