My shark is bigger than yours

It was an early morning dive with the sharks for the advanced course students to complete both their deep and first nitrox dive. Several days later, I would discover that this dive was significant for me as well since this was my 100th dive. With all the requirements and daily activities, Jeff and I had become very behind on logging our dives. Down the line we went, into the blue, hoping to see sharks and manta rays too. It started out amazing seeing a thresher shark circle in the cleaning station from the time we descended. The shark was quite content and circled around for awhile, then it left us so we moved to another site along the line. To keep the thresher sharks comfortable, there is a line along the cleaning stations that divers can not pass. During this dive we saw many Thresher sharks and some circled very close to the line to allow us a good look. The happier the sharks are, the more they stay around and get closer which makes for happier divers. This was by far my best Thresher shark dive yet, at one point we had 3 sharks in view at the same time. It is a burst of adrenaline when it seems as though the shark is coming right at me than at the last moment it turns to continue its cleaning ritual. At times I am not sure if the burst of adrenaline is from excitement or maybe just a realization of how small and exposed I am in this giant ocean. Towards the end of the dive we even got to see a devil ray off in the distance. Both rays and sharks are marine animals made mostly of cartilage and enjoy the cleaning stations of moon and blue wrasse fish. These cleaning stations lay right at the deep drop off, which almost seems bottomless, one never really knows what kind of creature may pop up out of the darkness. Once on the line to start our ascent, I noticed the boy was holding his hand and seemed preoccupied by this. Later I found out he got stung by a jelly fish which is not poisnous but uncomfortable. The instructor explained to me that he was doing great on air supply until the sting and then perceptual narrowing and anxious breathing set in which depleted his air supply in a hurry. The instructor was aware of what was occuring and kept the dive safe with the boy still returning to the boat with adequate air. Back on the boat we all shared our stories and decided we saw about 5 different sharks and one quick devil ray. We had constant shark action throughout the dive which was impressive. With diving and how light is refracted in the water differently than air, it gives the diver a scientific reason for always overestimating how big and how close the shark was. It is not an overexaggeration but actually how our brain interperted the encounter therefore it is not my fault my shark was always closer and bigger than yours.

My next dive for the day was the navigation dive with the advanced students. It is interesting that right as the instructor submerges under the surface the dad always comes up with a question for me regarding his confidence in the equipment or something else. It never fails, yet I have found all of his concerns very manageable. He really just wants reassurance which I confidently provide him with. One thing this course has taught me is that diving is very much mind over matter. The dad must have had an issue in the past, possibly with his descent right while breaking the surface and now, every dive he is very apprehensive at this point. With just a little reassurance, he is off diving with little concern. After I had fixed this dives surface issue, we were off to complete some navigation skills at the lighthouse wreck where I have dove many times. It was nice that the instructor allowed me to work with each student during the navigation of both the reciprical and square while the instructor stayed in place. Then they both completed the natural navigation which relies on distinctive properties of the reefs and coral heads to navigate in one direction and then back to the starting point. The boy basically lead this skill and pointed at different anenomes with different species of clown fish and other distinctive properities to make his way back. They overall did well in all the navigation skills. Now it was my turn to lead them around for a bit and then navigate us back to the boat while the instructor collected our dive set up tools from the bottom of the ocean (ok maybe bottom is a relative term, it was about 5 meters deep). I thought the instuctor would come back quickly but it appeared he was taking his time. I showed the students a dog faced puffer, baby nemo, pipe fish, sweet lips (very fluttery brown fish with white poka dots), and much more until finally I knew it was time to complete our safetly stop and return to the surface as they both only had 50 Bar of air remaining. I went to the edge of the wreck to see if the instructor was in sight. With him just barely visible, I motioned they had 50 Bar and we were heading up. He gave me the ok and off we went.

Jeff's day unfortunately did not go as planned, he was supposed to be assisting on the first dive of an open water course. This becomes a little hard to do when the student does not show up for class. Once again with the last minute change of plans which has become far too common. Now instead of working towards checking off needed activities he was given the morning off. At this point Jeff found out that 2 of the other interns were going out to practice skills so he decided to join in. Mack told Jeff that the student may show up and they would go on the dive in the afternoon, if the student didn't show up there was a discover scuba session he could assist with. By the time Jeff and the other 2 got ready and swam out to cemetery, Jeff only had about 45 minutes before he had to head back. It was enough time to get half of the skills done then he left the group and headed in. Upon returning to the shop he discovered that the student had not shown up and the discover scuba had been given to another intern. This basically turned Jeff's attempt at a productive day into a complete waste. Oh well if the open water student shows up tomorrow we can try again.

Later that evening back at the dive shop bar my advanced students and I discussed many topics. The dad is very talkative and well versed in history it seemed. We discussed why America uses the imperial system, driving on the right side of the road and writing dates as month, day, year versus day, month, year like the rest of the countries. He explained how there was a huge debate if America should be English or German speaking and English won out. They asked us about 9/11 and how the son was taught in school that after this disaster the emergency phone number was 911 and not before. All in all it is very interesting to hear another countries point of view as long as it is done over a couple beers in a friendly fashion.

The town scene keeps picking up in preparation for the festival. Everyday there seems to be more people on the dirt roads. Instead of disco a couple days a week it was now disco everynight. As I walk around my normal route from the place we stay and the dive shops, I have found many more smiling faces and waves. Every now and then I also hear, Disco... being muttered under their breath. I think my couple of disco days have made me quite a few new friends in the villages. Disco and dancing seems be on the minds of many of the locals lately. There are many children groups just in my short transit that are practicing daily for the festival dance competition. One group practices right next to the dive shop which allows us to glimpse over the fence and watch the dance routines as we clean up our gear. This group has about 15-20 boys and girls ranging in age from 7-14 years old. The leader of the group is what has been termed a lady boy which is what Americans would call a cross dresser. Regardless, the leader is quite intense when critiquing the group and making them start over often when one child gets out of sync or does not put enough attitude into the moves. The routines are fairly long including many large movements and mixing it up by changing the childrens order and formation throughout the routine. Another dance team we encounter on our walk home has about 15 boys in the group. Both groups seem to practice for many hours a day. Besides dancing, other locals have been spending a lot of time sweeping off the dirt paths around their homes with what would resemble a short homemade broom. It is odd to see them sweep off the dirt paths as we would our household floors. It does actually make the paths look nicer to remove any leaves or garbage from them. Locals also use the brooms to clean up the grassy areas as well. By the time of the festival, the normal paths and places we pass did have a noticeably cleaner or tidy appearance.