Night Diving WOW! Oh and im a Rescue Diver :-)

PADI Open Water - Check

PADI Advanced Open Water - Check
Emergency First Resonder - Check

PADI Rescuediver - Check

PADI Divemaster - Not quite there yet.

Woah, time really flies by here. One of the few indications that I´ve been here for quite some time, is the fact that my pale (practically fluorescent) butt, appears whiter by the minute, whilst the rest of my body is getting a healthy tan!

"Blog icebreaker" - Check!!

I finished my PADI Advanced Open Water this week. Had some truly mind shaking dives. Especially the night dive was one to remember.

We got up around 04:00, zombie walked down to the shop and arrived at 05:15, prepared the kits and drove off into the night. 
Im quite sure that my brain was still sleeping this whole time - but it certainly came back to life the minute i back rolled off "Cometa Chica", and into the chilly blue.

We all meet up by the front of the boat, and began our slow descent into what seemed like nothing at all. The only source of light was our torches and, besides from the bubbly sound in my ears, the water was pretty much as quiet as it was dark.

At one point i actually forgot that I was diving, and that the soft pressure I felt all over, was actually caused by water. I felt like I was flying, weightlessly through space.

As we got deeper, the darkness seemed thicker and more dense.

All of the sudden, out of the darkest of dark, sporadicly illuminated by our torches, came the very stuff that many an old sea-dogs tale is based upon: The biggest Ray that I´ve ever seen, swooped elegantly towards us. 
At moments like this, when you fortunate enough to be around to see these amazing sights, its hard to believe your eyes!

Besides from my night dive, I had an additional 4 adventure dives: Peak Performance buoyancy dive , Navigation dive, Deep dive and Fish identification dive.

The peak Performance Buoyancy dive, consisted of some fairly easy exercises  hoovering for a couple of minutes and swimming through a couple of hoops without adjusting your buoyancy through your BCD.

The navigation dive went great as well. Measuring kick cycles and navigating around yellow mountain in squares and triangles. (What's up with these people and shapes?)

The deep dive was a pretty cool experience. It didnt really feel different that your ordinary 10-18 meters dives, but just the fact that you have been down to around 30 meters, is an achievement in itself - in my book at least!

Before the deep dive, we were presented with a few small tasks that we were to complete while Pete was timing us. Tasks like; write your mothers maiden name backwards, some simple fractions and fit these different shaped (there it was again) blocks into the right of a box. 
At the bottom we had to solve the same tasks again on time, to see if we were affected by nitrogen narcosis (A syndrome occurring when the pressure of the water compresses the air in your tank, and therefore letting you inhale more nitrogen molecules pr. breath than at the surface, causing you to go to "lala-land") Although happy that I wasnt affected at all, I still feel like I missed out on a psychedelia underwater experience (nah just kidding) (Or am I) (Yes i definately am) (Perhaps).
The fifth and final adventure dive, was the fish identification dive. Not much to say really. A dive at yellow mountain equipped with a slate intended for writing up the all the different names of the fish I saw.

Sam left us this week - So now Lydia is next in line to rise to the status of PADI Divemaster. This means that she is doing more predive briefings and leading a few dives here and there. 
We went to Abades one day and Lydia was leading. I think she did an amazing job! 
She lead us in and out of that dive site, taking crazy routes and I really dont know how she could find her way around the place.

After thrashing the place in three dives we headed down to the marina and cleaned the kits.

This week was also the week I completed my PADI Rescue diver course. 
After chewing my way through the big sleeping pill that is my rescue diver manual, we did some confined water exercises. 
It was pretty fun to simulate being a panicked diver, trying to climb on top of the other interns rushing to help me.

We went through procedures for handling everything from panicked divers to tired divers and unconscious divers both at the surface and at the bottom.

A few days later, we headed up to yellow mountain to do the open water scenarios. 
Up until now, the things that I have learned have been things that were nice to be able to do and know, simply because I enjoy doing it. But the rescue diver course have taught me things that makes me able to, potentially, save somebody's life if such a situation ever occurs.

Thats it from me for now, more next week.

Dennis (PADI Rescue Diver)