Semester 13 Chapter IX: Back In The Mix

Hello everybody. It’s that time of the week again. It’s a lovely Monday morning here in Tenerife, the weather is still very summery here, energy levels are okay… Here we fucking go. 

 

Last week, I finally got back into water. I’m still pretty much convinced my instructor career is coming to its end (and I think there’s a good chance I’m not renewing my PADI and SSI memberships for the upcoming year) but I’m gonna give it couple more rounds. I’ve tackled on this topic a few times before so I’m not gonna repeat myself. But unlike diving the activity, diving the business is one of the most depressing and toxic things I’ve ever seen professionally. When I’m all the way out, I think I’m gonna dedicate one blog post going into details but for the time being, let me just say this… All of you fuckers are going straight to hell for the way you exploit your staff. What’s bothers me the most tho, are actually all those fucking shops that pretend they’re different. I’ve heard it so many times. We do shit differently, we are a family business, our instructors get this and that. Nope, false. I’ve seen dozens of shops first-hand, I’ve spoken to myriad of instructors. Y’all are fucking liars. Shit that’s happened around me (not to me exclusively) these past couple of weeks is simply unbelievable. Anyways, diving is still a great thing and I got to do some nice try dives with cool people last week. Happy about that. 

 

On top of that, I’ve been hanging out with some friends for a bit. Spent about two days with the one from Costa Adeje, eventually dropping her off the airport Saturday evening. She’s going back home for a week. 

Saturday around midnight, I hopped in the Pluto and drove close to Medano for another rave. This time it was only me. It was a really nice solo ride, I got myself into a really good zone and I was there for about 8 hours. The only thing that bothered me a little was presence of couple of guys who seemed to be heavily into getting shitfaced, taking their t-shirts of… And generally being quite annoying. But other than that, all good. I drove home shortly after sunrise, got a bit of rest, met up with a friend and then did some afternoon teaching. 

 

Oh, and I took the Pluto for a technical check last Friday. Everything is okay with the car with the exception of front tires. Have to change those. So this is something I’ll try to deal with today. I hope you guys are having a good start of the week, keep it up, keep shit positive and don’t entertain bullshit. One! 

Highlights:

• Back in the water.
• The hangouts.
• The rave.

Semester 13 Chapter VIII: More Adventures

Hello everybody, it’s another Sunday, I got new Mavi playing, it’s still dark outside and I’m back on my shit. Last week has been pretty cool, my sis was around for most of it and we got to do some coll shit together. Let’s get to it… 

 

Tuesday, we went to Motana Amarilla to do some diving. We went to the dive shop my friend is working at to rent the gear and did the dive over there. It was a bit shaky in the beginning but my sister managed. And it was cool. We saw a ray, we did the swim-through, good stuff. Afterwards we took it to Cristianos for some lunch. I left her over there for the afternoon, did some work and rejoined her in the evening for a hangout with some friends from the Czech Republic that were around.

 

Wednesday morning, we met up with my friend in Costa Adeje. It was her birthday too so one more opportunity to make the day count. We drove to El Puertito first and then walked by the shore to a beach. That area is nice. Not really crowded, only nature around. There are some people (most of whom don’t bother wearing any kinda clothes since it’s really remote) but there’s enough space everywhere. And since there are no wave-breakers, you get pretty solid waves. Which is surprisingly fun. We spent some time over there and took it to Crisitanos for lunch at this Poke spot. Not bad. In the evening, we watch sunset from the top of the Yellow Mountain and we wrapped the whole evening up in 33 with my diver friend. Great day. 

 

Me and my sis spent Thursday morning in Las Galletas. In the afternoon, I drove her to the airport. She made it home safe and sound. I’m happy everything went well with her visit and that she enjoyed it. I don’t even mind that I basically stopped diving for money for the time being. Had more time to do some other stuff… And honestly, the whole diving industry has been making me sick to my stomach for a while. I’m sure I’m gonna appreciate the next opportunity to get wet but I don’t feel it’s urgent. 

 

Friday evening, I met up with my friend for a movie and some hangout. Saturday, we took the Pluto and drove up to Guia de Isora for a hike. We pick the Ruta de Guia de Isora trail. About 11km, easy. We spent the evening in Playa San Juan. Another beautiful sunset.

 

So yeah. Lotta good memories, lotta good trips, lotta good energy. I’ve a had a chance to go for a run too, I’ve been on my little workouts too. Everything has been going well. I hope you guys have been good too. Sending love to everybody out there. One!

Highlights:

• The trips.
• The dive.
• The love.

Semester 13 Chapter VII: Pain

Last week, there has been a shooting in Bratislava. An alt-right teen, son of an alt-right politician, took his dad’s gun, took a walk to a gay bar and shot two people dead, injuring one more person and eventually committed suicide. And that shit got me shooked once again. In the aftermath, whole lotta politicians, including all those conservatives, took the social media to express their thoughts and prayers… And I would like to express my sincerest “fuck you” to all of them. Two things. One, if you can’t accept the idea of making LGBTQ+ people equal to everybody else, sit your dumb ass down and shut the fuck up. You’re a part of the problem, you’re the fuel in all the hatred and you words don’t mean jack shit. Two, frustration leads to fear, fear leads to hatred, hatred leads to anger and here we fucking go. We live in the world where the alternative to right-wing liberals aren’t leftist but alt-rights. And this is the outcome. It’s all just heartbreaking. There’s no words left to say here, there’s no sufficient amount of thoughts and prayers to drop here. They simply can’t make up for this and they hold no weight. Unless you’re pushing for real change (let’s start with marriage for gay couples), go beat up your wife and infuse your son with toxic masculinity so the next generation can stay in this gorgeous cycle, maintaining all your fucking traditional values. Rest in peace to all those people who lost their lives to violence or suicide because of this. It’s bad. Real bad. And some extra “fuck you” to the whole Czech government. You guys are fucking clowns. No idea how you can live with yourselves. 

 

 

 

 

Okay, back to this thing. I’m a bit late with the blog because lot of shit has been going on. Last Sunday, I did a really nice hike with a friend up the hills above Santiago Del Teide. We spent the second half of the day in Playa San Juan at the beach. Beautiful day. I also kinda stopped diving. I’ve said it couple of times before and I’m not gonna blabber about it much more, but diving is a nasty business and the way they treat staff is straight up disgusting. And that goes for 99% of dive shops over there. I’m good tho. Don’t let it mess with my energy. I spent most of the week teaching and hanging out with my new favorite person on the island. Happy days. 

 

Saturday afternoon, my sister arrived so since then, it’s been about her. We spent the first evening in Cristianos eating out in the Indian restaurant (awesome) and chilling by the beach. The day after, my diver friend picked us up, we went to get my other friend and we went to Masca to do some hiking. Stopped by in Santiago for some coffee and we took it up the hills. Now, my friend has a Lexus so I was kinda hoping for a strong engine a bit more suitable for the hills then my Pluto. Now, the roads up there a bit tricky. Very narrow, serpentine on serpentine… Not the easiest drive. At one point, the engine died and my friend couldn’t make it running again. At one point we were basically blocking the whole road with whole bunch of cars lining up behind us, hitting a concrete block serving as a barrier on the side. Pretty fucked up situation. The other friend of mine figured it out but it looked pretty adventurous. Anyways, we made it to a small village of Los Carrizales where we started the hike. It wasn’t the easiest one, lotta steep climbing… But the views were absolutely amazing. Nobody around, just us. Afterwards, we drove a bit more up north to Garachico, took a swim in one of the natural pools in the town and got some ice cream. We wrapped the whole day up in the newly opened Chinese restaurant in my town. It’s just across the street from my building, it’s actually Chinese owned, the food is good and prices are real friendly.

 

 

Monday was a chill day. I took my sis to Palm-Mar first and then to Las Galletas where we just basically hanged around beaches. In the afternoon, I left to do some work but we reunited in the evening, eventually got joined by my diver friend, and we had dinner and some drinks together. 

 

It’s Tuesday morning, I got some work ahead of me and we might do some diving afterwards. Tenerife is looking well today. Hope y’all doing great too… Sending some love to everybody out there. One!

Highlights:

• My sister being here.
• Hikes.
• Hangouts.

Semester 13 Chapter VI: New Classes

Okay, here we go again. Another Sunday morning, some new music on deck, another beautiful day outside. Shit’s looking good. Let me start with Kanye. I’m really thinking it might be time to cancel that guy. His latest “white lives matter” t-shirt stunt is just… I mean… This guys has an enormous platform, he’s arguably one of the richest people on the planet and he has without a doubt produced some of best hip-hop we’ve ever seen. But he’s out of it. He just got it all wrong. And watching some of these interviews, I feel I understand where he’s coming from and what he thinks he’s doing, but that ain’t it. He thinks he’s for the people, he thinks he’s pro-black, he thinks he’s pro-freedom. But somehow he managed to become pretty much the opposite. Being all for people while accumulating crazy wealth within this capitalism system, being all pro-black while supporting Trump and wearing MAGA hat and WLM shirts, being all pro-freedom while trying to prevent women access to abortion… He’s got it all fucked up. Unfortunately, his platform (granted, built on very legit basis) is big enough for his insanity and ego to go completely bonkers. And whereas it’s pretty entertaining watching somebody going this ape-shit on mainstream media, it’s getting kinda dangerous. Cause yeah, I can call women bitches arguing that it’s freedom of speech and I don’t really mean it like that because everybody kinda knows that people call each other names and it’s just an expression and everybody knows what the truth is. But that totally doesn’t mean that I’m not hurting whole lotta people on the way and that I even might be doing more harm than good. Which is something he tends to ignore. I don’t necessarily thing he’s coming from a malicious place, I just think his whole shit is so clouded by narcissism, he’s no longer capable of critical thinking. And man… My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 808s, Yeezus… The guys has classics. But as time goes by, we might really consider just canceling him. And I’m honestly curious what the hip-hop community reaction is in the following weeks. It’s bad. 

 

Okay, what we’re doing here. Last week was a whole lotta diving. I did some DSDs, I did some fun diving in Abades and I did a boat dive by Palm-Mar Wall after some time. Feeling good over here. Still enjoying the shit outta diving, still vibing very well with people. Happy days. 

 

I also went out with my diving friend at one point, hung out with another friend of mine in Los Cristianos and even met up with some friends from the Czech Republic who came to the island recently. On my standards, a pretty eventful week. Apart from that, I had a chance to catch up with some of my people online. The usual. 

 

I got a bit more classes to teach and it’s all going super smooth. At this point, it’s really going super smooth. I feel happy for doing something I’m really good at and I also really enjoy. Plus it feels good being a bit more busy. I’m still on my workouts and runs too. Today, I’m about to do some chilled Sunday activities with a friend. Finally a day off. Hope everybody is doing well, hope you keep the negativity out your lives, hope your spirits are high. One!

Highlights:

• Diving.
• Hangouts.
• New classes.

Semester 13 Chapter V: Drip

Wassup everybody. Sunday morning, new EST Gee in the headphones, smell of coffee is filling up the room and I feel good. Last week has shown once again how insane is the world we live in. We got fascists leading Italy, we got Putin on his mobilization shit and his team keep blabbering about nuclear weapons, and honestly, the recent election in the Czech Republic has brought a whole lotta far-right suckers into power too. I guess we can always hope for better but I dunno… Doesn’t look very optimistic. Two of my students from Russia asked me about bunkers they can use in case of nuclear warfare last week. I don’t think that they are super serious about it but I also don’t think they are necessarily joking. 

 

Okay, this thing… I’ve done an Open Water Course with this lovely couple from Italy. One of the good ones. Both of them were cool, we had a good energy together, it was fun and it went smooth. And again… When you get people from being nervous at 1.5 meters to confidently diving at 18 meters in 3 days. It’s a good fucking feeling. The last day, we did Marazul, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Happy I got back into water. My neck seems all healed up so it’s on again. 

 

I spent some time catching up with some of my people online too. With one friend of mine, I managed to do nearly 4-hour call. It’s crazy how normal these internet hangouts have become. I’ve been teaching quite a lot too and starting next week, I’m gonna start working with whole bunch of new people. Some English classes… Pretty excited about that too. 

 

When I wasn’t diving, I was running, working out, writing shit and listening to music. Friday evening, I met up with a friend in Cristianos and we had a fucking great evening watching the sunset, chilling by the beach and vibing out. She doesn’t drink, so no alcohol, which is something I have no problem with. In fact, I kinda enjoy it more and more as I get older. 

I have some more diving ahead of me today, I’m gonna do some pull-ups in couple of minutes, It's shaping up to be a good day. Wanna send love to everybody out there. I’m not sure if we can change shit in the bigger picture… Shit looks fucked beyond repair. But small shit matters too… We’re not gonna save the world but we can still put some good energy out. Which counts. It has to. One! 

 

Highlights:

1. Bullet Train. Fun Movie.
2. New YG, EST Gee. And I love the Babyface & Ella Mai song.
3. Diving.