See you in 10 minutes

It was time to get focused and save the Thresher sharks by getting petitions signed. This lead to an early start of the day so that we could approach divers around 7 AM after they returned from the morning Thresher dive. Unfortunately when we arrived at the dive shop around 7:45 it wasn't open yet so we couldn't get the signature sheets. We took this opportunity to start talking to divers that were around the shop cleaning their gear and getting ready for the next dive. Once the shop opened we had our start of petitions and down the beach we went. When we approached groups of people along the beach, I would first ask if they had a minute which everyone politely approved my taking a minute of their time. My script "Do you have a minute (pause), have you been out diving yet (pause), have you had the chance to see the Thresher sharks (many people at this point would light up and tell a story about seeing them or express their enthusiasm to see them). We are here today getting petition signatures to help protect the Thresher sharks so that divers can continue to see them in their natural habitat" I explained. Where the discussion would go from here was dependent on the groups questions and inquires. Jeff usually jumped in based on the discussion topic. We were prepared to discuss how rare Thresher sharks are, Project Aware, and futher details regarding the threats of over fishing and shark fining practices. This tactic worked quite well to get many signatures. It did get a little dicey in the beginning when the group was trying to figure out what we were trying to sell them. Once they realized we were only after a signature their tone softened up and many people actually thanked us for taking the time to do this. At one point while talking to a small group of people on the beach, we were appoached by a male wearing a manager badge. I was a little worried we would be in trouble for bothering guests which lead me to choose my words wisely. He actually was with a group of dentists and Korean volunteers that were cleaning up the beach. The manager thought this was a great cause but we were a little taken back by his response that he would "make his group sign the petition". A few people from his group of nearly 25 started slowly lining up to sign the petition, he then ordered them to "cooperate". One of the other volunteers that seemed to have more authority seemed irritated that we were taking people away from cleaning the beach. His disapproval quickly turned around after I started to pitch in and clean up the beach while Jeff helped people fill out the petition form. Another young couple we met owned the nice, expensive catamaran anchored near shore. They invited us to a sunset cruise, all you can drink for 700 PHP. They made us feel like we were in this elite small group that was invited. I guess this is definitely one way to finance a sailing trip around the world. Meeting people while walking up and down the beach was very entertaining yet the heat was making us perspire profusely. Soon we reached our dive shop again and many of the operating staff had already heard of our early day accomplishments with petition signitures. As we took a break from our beach walking, Mack one of the instructors asked me if I would join the dive with the open water children and help play defense on the 6'9'' dad. This would help Mack have some time with the children to complete some skills. Of course I said yes, excited to get into the water. Shortly after, the operations manager Dan asked Jeff if he could also join in on an afternoon dive. I think our hard work and positive attitudes with petitions just got us some spots on the already crowded boats. The daily plan once again shifted. Being an assistant on a dive is completely different than anything I have dealt with in diving yet. I was responsible for making sure everyone in my group's crates were on the boat which entailed double checking that all the necessary gear was there and then carrying the crates to the boat. With crates containing a BCD, regulator, fins, mask, weights, sometimes a wet suit and any other gear, this makes for some very heavy lifting. I also have to be prompt at the dive briefing and not forget to make sure I have all my gear. It is a bit of scramble to get done on time. Once on the boat, Mack gave the dive briefing which left me leading 2 open water certified divers for 10 minutes to allow Mack time to check off the childrens skills. Mack informed me where to led the group and the plan was in about 10 minutes Mack would find my group consisiting of myself, the children's dad and one other diver (Rebecca). He also stated that if he did not find me, no worries, just take the group on a fun dive for about 50 minutes and we all would meet up on the boat. No worries? I have not led any dives yet on my own, not even practiced with the other interns therefore I was surely going to find Mack. Right before we reached the dive site, it started to down pour, brilliant. This made the jump into the water a little less organized with groups scattered everywhere. I watched my divers get their gear on, both did well with doning their equipment except I needed to turn on the air for both of them as they had forgotten to prior to getting into the gear. After I got my two divers ready to go with a buddy safety check, I had little time to toss on my BCD/tank, fins and mask. This was the first time that I was not only not diving with Jeff as my buddy, but I was also leading a dive, and had no one catering to me to help lift my equipment up for a speedy and easy settle into my gear. The learning curve is steep to say the least. Once in the water, we submerged. Rebecca was a small female that took off in one direction with her camera, the children's dad (Jack) was a little slower to get moving. My first task was to get both of them somewhat on the same page and to take over the lead of the dive from rapidly swimming Rebecca. All of a sudden I look back and Jack has this regulator out of this mouth, I quickly swam to him. motioned if everything was ok and politely motioned for him to please put his regulator back in his mouth! Eventually I gained control of the dive lead and everyone was happy, regulators in mouths, but now I had gotten very turned around by all of the comotion. It was 8 minutes into the dive and I knew we were not where Mack was coming to get us. At this point I thought to myself how silly it was that I was left responsible with very little training. I gave myself a quick "suck it up" pep talk and started thinking. Ok, we are at the wall of the island, we need to get closer to shore which would be shallower water. We are already in quite shallow water so this did not help. Ok so we are at the wall and I only have two choices of directions, east or west. Remembering that when we are determining current we look east of this island peak since current comes and goes from the east, this led me to be certain the shore would be west. I checked by compass and off we went. Just then Rebecca questioned which direction we were going and seemed to be signaling we should go the other way. I stuck with my decision and motioned for her to follow me and I pointed her in the direction I was changing my course to. A few swim cycles later which felt like an eternity I saw bubbles. Bubbles meant I had found our group. This was the most amazing feeling. The rest of the dive I lead my group next to Mack's group and I tried to leave a proper distance between us since the children were on their very first dive and trying to get their bearings on bouyancy. Proud dad was taking lots of pictures of the children while Rebecca swam around with her camera taking pictures of virtually everything. I had gotten her to slow down a bit which was helpful. I then look over to 6'9" dad with his fin strap off and he was trying to reclip his fin in place. I went over and stabilized him by holding his sides to give him the support necessary to secure his fin. If he was more my size I would have just cliped it but this seemed like the quicker fix as if he moved around I would have been chasing my tail around a sizeable tower just to reach the clip. Jack was the first low on air and I surfaced with him as the others finished their dive. As we reached the surface, Jack's first comment was "man, how many dives have you done". He said in an impressive tone. I took this as a huge pat on my back that I pulled it off and responded back to him stating I have completed 85 dives prior to the internship and now should be close to 100. Rebecca later on the boat stated I had great under water communication and she knew exactly what I meant by my motions. I would have to say the dive was well played and a huge confidence boost. Jeff was supposed to be assisting with a group from Luxemburg that had just arrived today. The initial plan was that there were 10 divers and 9 of them were supposed to be diving on nitrox (a higher oxygen air blend), Jeff's task was to buddy up with the person diving regular air. When diving Nitrox, it greatly increases the amount of time you can spend at depth and Jeff was to keep the guy with air from staying down too long. When the group actually showed up, it turned out there were only 7 divers not 10 and only one of them wanted to dive nitrox. This basically made it a simple follow and assist for Jeff. As they got on the boat and started getting their gear together it was almost unbelievable. Two of the guys had the the oldest scuba equipment Jeff had ever seen and they basically refused to listen to the divemaster when he tried to give the predive briefing. If this wasn't bad enough the group mostly consisted of over weight males who all felt it apropriate to wear speedos (it later turned out they not only wore them on the boat but also at the bar). After they got everybody suited up, the divemaster and all of the guests jumped in the water. Jeff being the assistant is always the last one in the water. Just before he got in 2 of the guys yelled "1 more kilo" they needed more weight on their weight belts. The boat boys grabbed some weights for the guests and it was not 30 seconds and 3 more guys yelled "1 more kilo". This continued until the boat no longer had any extra weights left. Fortunately, they had just enough weight that they could start the dive. The dive actually went rather well, it turned out that they were experienced divers and had no real problems underwater. They saw lots of creatures including an ornate ghost pipe fish and pygmy seahorses (they only get about 1/2" long). At the end of the day we both had unique diving experiences to share with each other. It started out as what we thought would basically be a day off and ended up being one of the most educating days so far. We finished the night by eatting burgers at a local eattery called "the other place". July, the waitress/cook/bar girl, can make a great burger and nicely salty fries. Only hamburgers were available since they have not restocked the cheese alotment from the main island. No cheese, there is no place like home is what I was thinking. A burger joint in Wisconsin out of cheese, it just would not happen!