Hello world, you are now looking at a motherfucking PADI Rescue Diver. On Wednesday afternoon, I did the last set of skills and thus concluded the Rescue Course. It was also my 50th dive. Everything is intact for this Dive Master thing. We have even received a parcel from PADI with Dive Master crew packs. There’s this ugly book bag, some basic slates, some manuals. Lotta shit to go through, lotta theory to absorb and about the same amount of skills to master. The saga continues. Oh, and I did practically no photos last week. So sorry for that, gonna try to do better.
Before we move further, let me just send some positive vibes to the world and to the Czech Republic in particular. Yesterday, the number of new daily covid cases broke 8000 mark over there and shit is not looking very optimistic. More infected, more deaths, more bans and restrictions, not much light to look up to. Canary Islands are still quite deserted and all the hopes for any kinda getting back to normal are six feet under at the moment. I have tackled on this topic many times before so I’m not gonna go too deep with it; I’m no expert anyway. But it seems it is going to stay around. Businesses are going to go bankrupt, people are going to struggle, some people are going to die or suffer some long-term consequences off this shit. I’m happy and grateful that all my people are doing okay. And I hope that sometime soon, we’ll look at this whole thing as some distant memory while drinking beer together somewhere. The only thing is... I’m really sick of half-ass approaches and solutions. And that goes beyond this. Everything is connected. This virus is basically Earth slapping us in the face for the way we treat it (in this specific case, animals). On Friday, we took the day off diving focusing on specialty courses linked to AWARE project. It’s a great movement trying to promote environmental issues, protect endangered species and stuff like that. It is actually one of the reasons why I have developed such a strong thing for diving. But I’m confused... How do you promote saving sharks by advising on eating other seafood? Part of the presentation was dedicated to explaining how to take local habits into account when explaining how to treat your surroundings better. Now, from where I’m standing, some random island locals eating turtles for ages is not a problem at all. We (as in West) need to educate ourselves, we need to treat places we colonize and use for money, resources or tourism with respect. We are by far the most accountable and responsible for the state this world is in. How are we to better the world by not eating shark but keeping our stakes? I mean, look at the bigger picture for Christ sake. How are we to better the world by eating different seafood and talking about plastic straws while drinking our coffee from disposable plastic cups and water from plastic bottles wherever we go? How are we to save anything over here if we do not connect the dots? None of these things are isolated issues. All of them are connected and we should really recalibrate the way we approach them. And don’t even get me started on all of this and the links to politics and human rights. Cause I strongly believe that that shit is connected as well. So yeah, I’m happy I got through the lecture, it made me a bit sad (not that I did not know but the figures are really depressing as fuck) but I don’t know... I feel that the machine is so strong, even people who mean well often neglect essential parts of potential solutions. Shout out to everybody raising these issues among friends, shout out to everybody changing their daily habits, shout out to everybody leading by example, shout out to everybody fighting the good fight. It might seem we all fight different unrelated battles to some but in my eyes, it is all the same one. We are losing big time but I it ain’t over till it’s over, right?
Well, back to my life here. Apart from Friday (theory), we dived every day. And apart from Saturday (1 dive), it was always 2 dives a day. Getting progressively better and more comfortable with everything. We still do vast majority of our dives in Abades but I don’t mind. The other day, I grabbed a beer with one of the instructors at Ivan’s which is a café we go to when we wanna discuss something or when we just feel like chilling for a bit. Go-to place in the town. On Saturday, we spent the afternoon doing some surface skills. Had to swim for 400 meters. Now, in order to score 5 points, you have to be under 6 minutes. I feel that’s kinda doable in the pool, not in Abades’ waves. Made it in about 8 minutes, which means 3 points. Still the fastest of my group (I mean, I still feel I’m a way better swimmer than I am a diver). The other skill was staying afloat with no gear for 15 minutes with the last 2 of them with your hands up. That was a piece of cake. If I don’t dive, I teach. If I don’t teach, I go out for a swim, listen to some music or try to do some reading for my courses. All of it is fun. I’m absolutely favored given the circumstances. Recently, I’ve been having dreams about my Shanghainese gang. That’s probably the only thing that fucks me up a little. I can’t wait to reunite with all of them. For real.
Weather has been nothing but amazing (except of shitty cold rainy Monday – wtf was that?!), my hosts are still great and their meals are still bomb. The other day, I gave the guy money for another month over here. So that’s happening. Apart from teaching, I get quite a lot of transcription jobs still. Diving is covered from my savings but I’m pretty sure my everyday life is somewhat supported by what I do for living. Not getting rich over here but I’m managing. It’s Saturday, I got some new rap in my headphones, I got an amazing view on the sea right from my window. World looks nice from here. To everybody out there, stay safe, keep your head up and keep it going. And look at the bigger picture. It always looks different depending on who’s looking but think out of your comfort zone, think out of your box. I’m a firm believer that that’s where important shit happens. One!
Highlights:
- Diving again. And being a Rescue Diver and all.
- Swimming. Trying to do it a bit more in the pool. Great workout.
- Minnie, the dog. Forgot to mention her. It’s the dive school’s owners' rescue dog found in Madrid years ago. She usually sits next to me in the car every morning and she is like almost like a mascot of the center to me at this point. So shout out to her!
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