Day 61: Trial By Fire

Today was, in the nicest possible terms, an adventure. Technically it was my day off, but as I'm about 22 dives short of the required 60 for Divemaster certification, I was bound for the open seas. Or at least, Oak Park.

Michael and I set out from home a little after 8, to meet Cem and his Open Water students, walking along the Esplanade to get a look at the ocean. In the Divemaster course, we've been learning to assess the ocean conditions and how they'd affect our diving. The crashing waves and howling wind suggested that the diving today would be a real son of a bitch. Michael was a bit apprehensive about journeying forth into Poseidon's hissy fit. I on the other hand was more concerned about getting my dive numbers up than my personal well-being.

Cem met us at Oak Park, took one look at the ocean, and decided it was too rough for the new Open Water students. He reminded us that we'd be Divemasters soon and said—in essence—that today's diving would put hair on our chest. With a devious smile, he left us a trailer full of dive gear and tanks, and departed for greener pastures. Michael was feeling much more confident by now, and joined me in gearing up for the first of three dives.

Turns out, my initial assessment was dead on: diving in these conditions was in fact a real son of a bitch. We managed to snorkel past the breaking waves and dropped down, following one of the reefs out into the ocean. There was a massive current under the surface, which whipped up an underwater dust storm, reducing visibility to about ten meters. We managed to find a few giant cuttlefish and made it out to the cave I've heard of but never seen. We turned around shortly after so Michael wouldn't run out of air and made as best an exit we could in the waves.

After waiting an hour on the surface, we donned our gear and headed back in. By this time, storm clouds were brewing and the wind was picking up, making for a truly beautiful day. We timed this entrance better than the first, and descended without incident. Our luck didn't last long though. Along one of the reefs at Oak Park, there's an old rocking horse on a spring. In the vicinity of the rocking horse is a coral encrusted sword known quite originally as Excalibur. Michael felt quite confident that he knew the way to Excalibur from the rocking horse, and took the lead. Things got fun very quickly.

We headed in what was supposed to be the direction of the sword. Five minutes of watching nothing but sand pass by, I called off the search and turned us around. A small highlight of our detour was finding a miniscule pipefish, which looked like a tiny, straightened-out seahorse. I felt bad for the thing, as the tide was surging and it was tossed around like a farmhouse in a tornado. It swam off after a while, leaving us to our navigation adventures. I led us back in the opposite direction we'd taken out, and we found ourselves looking at Excalibur. While it was cool to have found it, we'd used up most of our air going out and back. Preferring to have a bit of a swim over having Michael die of air starvation, we made our way to the surface.

As it turned out, we had gotten miserably turned around underwater. Upon surfacing, we found ourselves in front of the surfing beach neighboring our entrance point. For those of you unfamiliar with Oak Park, this is not a good situation to find yourself in. We swam half a kilometer back into the beach, involuntarily catching some very choice waves. After the surf was done having its way with us, we crawled onto the beach, and headed up for a rest. Rain was coming down by now, and Michael was ready to call it a day. Luckily for me, he changed his mind after our hour surface interval.

I decided our last dive would be a bit more conservative, and we mostly stuck around the first part of the reef by the entrance point. The only hectic part of the dive was the loss of my snorkel, which I recovered later thanks to my blind-luck navigation skills. We exited after half an hour, worn out and ready for a beer.

Instead of kicking back with a brew, I hopped on the train to Miranda to see a doctor about my dive medical. Not much else of note happened for the rest of the day, and I'm beginning to yawn between sentences. After today's excitement, I'll definitely be sleeping well.

Yours in Shaming Magellan,
Robert

Day 53: Don't Call It A Comeback

After spending two days dreading my appointment, and the likelihood that I'd hear bad news, I hopped on the train to Miranda. I showed up a bit late, and ended up waiting an agonizing half hour to be seen.

Finally, Dr. Flanagan called me in to his office. Without much chitchat, and without so much as an invitation to dinner, he inserted the surgery camera into my ear. In high definition, I could see my ear drum. One whole, slightly scarred, but intact ear drum. Dr. Flanagan had me equalize my ears, just to check that it was structurally sound, which I managed without issue. I looked to the good doctor hopefully.

"It's fully healed."

I couldn't help but smile because I was pretty sure I knew what that meant. But before I got carried away, I made sure to ask if I was cleared to dive. After assuring my the eardrum was waterproof, Dr. Flanagan shook my hand, and asked where I'd be diving that afternoon. I didn't any more convincing than that. I walked back to the train station, ringing my mom and Rachael to share the good news.

Cem had taken my tub with him on the Open Water course that day, so I met them at Oak Park, for my first dive in almost two months. We geared up, and found that in my excitment, I had forgotten to pack my wetsuit. Awesome. Very put out, I packed my stuff and got ready to head for home. Cem jokingly offered to let me wear his fullbody Lavacore suit, which is a bit like long underwear for divers.

They say that Lavacore is equivalent to wearing a 3mm wetsuit. "They" are liars. But I braved the cold, wearing this Lavacore and a pair of boardshorts. I lasted all of twenty-five minutes. But I've gotta say, probably the best twenty-five minutes of my life.

Yours in Calling It A Comeback,
Robert

Day 50: An Update

After nearly a week of silence and lack of witty writings about average days, I've managed to find the time to give proof that I'm still alive. This past Tuesday, we moved into a new apartment and have yet to sort out the internet. Once we do, I should be posting regularly again.

Yours in Having a Ton of Make-up Posts To Do,
Robert

Day 42: "And How Would You Like to Pay for That?"

A fifth of my time here in Australia is gone, my dear readers! This calls for even more adventures. I sneezed today and felt my ears pop like they should and without the whooshing sound of air passing through my eardrum. This is a good sign, and hopefully I'll be blowing bubbles again soon.

Today was a great day. I made my first sale(s) at the shop! It was a cargo bag, and I'll never forget it. The shine of the plastic bag it came in, the strange plastic smell of the material, the five minutes I spent swiping the customer's card the wrong way; I can remember the magic even now. I also sold a torch (flashlight for Americans). Far less exciting, but I did pull of a pretty sweet split payment, which I never learned in my EVE training. I just fly by the seat of my pants, no big deal.

The rest of the day was quiet. I'm off to bed now, as these past couple days have taken it out of me. But on my day off, I'll come back and embellish some of the things I did.

Yours in Being Short and Sweet,
Robert

Day 39: All the Live-Long Day

Another day in the dive shop! This one was a bit more exciting than the last, for several reasons. The big one was that I made a total rookie mistake, and left the compressor's freezer on. In context: a pipe carrying air from the compressor runs through the freezer, causing the water in the air to condense out. Except when you leave the freezer running over night, water freezes in the pipes, making compressing a lot harder. Which translated into me checking the freezer every hour or so, looking for progress. It was almost as bad as waiting for Popsicles to freeze.

I also got to continue my work on the batch of valves from Sunday. This is the best way to stave off the urge to sleep, as I'm more afraid of killing somebody with valve-maintenance negligence than I am tired. I spent much of the day with a toothbrush in my hand, scrubbing. If I ever get punished in the Army, I'll be ready.

Later on, I started up the now-thawed compressor, filled tanks for tomorrow, and washed gear. The washing bit is perhaps my favorite, as the others pop in from time to time. Cem usually joins me for the gear wash, and gives me advice on how to wash gear, kill with my bare hands, and woo the ladies. This must be how Luke Skywalker felt.

Not too much going on tonight, and I'm hitting the hay early. I have to be up early for a secret maritime missio... I've already said too much.

Yours in Hyperbole,
Robert

p.s. Tales of debauchery, forests, and Sydney are on the way!

Day 36: "We're Getting Lois a Yard Glass"

It's Lois' birthday! Knowing how much she parties on non-special occasions, I spent my lunch time drafting a will on napkins, just in case. The fact that she'd be receiving a glass that would encourage her to drink a yard-worth of beer in one go didn't help.

Work before was dandy, as usual. I started servicing a huge batch of tank valves, cleaning each one meticulously to ensure that anyone renting a tank wouldn't meet a watery end. It's a bit of a gross job because over time, the lubricants in the valve collect dirt and salt from the ocean. This either corrodes the insides or fills them with oily black goo (a technical term), and eventually makes the valve unusable. But I get to pull them apart and scrub everything down with a toothbrush. That's dedication.

Fortunately I don't have to use a toothbrush to wash gear, so the afternoon chores flew by. It helps that the Open Water students learn to wash everything on the second day of their course. It was Day Two for Teagan and the other Open Waters, so I mostly filled tanks.

Afterward, I got dressed for the night and walked to the pub. Lois and Sam were already working on filling The Yardglass when I arrived. The table around it was filled with empty bottles. I knew it would be an interesting night, hopefully without the loss of any eardrums.

I spent much of the night wandering from group to group. I had a chance to talk more with Lois' parents, some of the nicest people I've met on my trip so far. Her mum all but adopted me, and in true motherly fashion, scolded me for having an untidy room.

Throughout the night, there were games of sort. At one point, it was deemed a good idea to give Lois a plastic bat, spin her unnecessarily, and blindfold her. She managed to break the bat before the pinata, so we roomie-tagteamed it, and I brought a chair down on top the paper mache fish. And after, we got gift bags!

As the affair was open-bar, things got a bit loud early in the night, so the party dispersed. Teagan and I got a ride home with Pix and Tara, one of whom hadn't been drinking (the details for the later part of the night were a bit hazy). We waited up for a bit for Lois to arrive, and after saying our last Happy Birthdays, we all turned in. Tomorrow is my day off, so I'm shooting for not being up before noon. I get the feeling I won't have any trouble sleeping tonight.

Yours in Saying Happy Birthday to Lois,
Robert

Day 35: "Hell yeahhh, it's Saturday"

Dear readers, I hope you are not living vicariously through my blog, for although my adventures here in Australia are thrilling and well... adventurous, today was not very exciting. Tomorrow night is Lois' birthday though, so I should be able to make my story quota for the week.

Emma gave Teagan and me a lift, so that she could spend the day learning to breathe underwater while I filled tanks and washed gear. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good day of washing and filling, but it doesn't tend to make for good reading.

After work wasn't all bad though. We came back to the accommodation, and I got to have a brief conversation with Uncle Max, who is apparently a very important figure in local aboriginal society. He told me of his experiences freediving back in the day when their technique consisted of holding on to a rock until they reached the sea floor. A very interesting man, and like everyone around here, incredibly friendly. After deciding to save the excitement tomorrow night, Teagan and I watched Monsters Inc. before I crashed. Lois, who's in Jervis Bay with Sam and Caroline, totally missed out on the fun.

Yours in Planning More Adventures for Your Entertainment,
Robert