The Inner Workings of my Schizophrenic Mind

Advance Open Water Diver

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Anilao, Batangas
March 31-April 1

I am now a certified Advance Open Water Diver!!! Woohoo!!! Now I can explore more challenging dive sites. Deep dives, night dives, wreck dives. Sky is the limit, or in this case, the ocean is.

Just a recollection of what happened. Well, let’s start off last Friday.

Like any amazing weekend, it starts off with a lousy Friday. 9 am, had a meeting with the interior designer to review some projects. At 11 am, was supposed to meet a NAMFREL guy to turnover some of my old files. Was a bit late (11:25) and we had a little miscommunication on the meeting place, he got a bit pissed, I apologized but he never acknowledged. He didn’t even thank me for the files, that a-hole! Went to the BA agency to train girls that I'll send to Cebu, then went to Unilever to get the computer set-up and RSAC. Brought the BA’s home (somewhere in Mercedes Pasig) because they have LOTS of things to bring to Cebu—from a computer set-up to a Gigantic Skin Camera, to merchandising materials, to product testers. It was so damned traffic. Hang-out in Anna B's House for a while. Went back home to get my cellphone chargers, then proceed to Roxas boulevard to eat (again) dinner with my family. My dad arrived from the airport a few moments before. We stayed at Grand Boulevard for the night.

Saturday.

Woke up around 630 to drive to Anilao. This is my first time I'm driving out-of-town alone! (Before this, the farthest I drove was Sta Rosa--Monde's Head Office). ANyhow, it takes some guts, courage, and a hell lot of patience (it was so damned traffic in Calamba). I arrived at the resort in one piece (hehehe). Rested for a little while. Met my new advance dive classmates. then went off to the ocean.

Dive 1: Peak Performance Buoyancy.
Sounds too technical. But actually, it is just about your air in your BCD and your lung volume. It's about mastering your buoyancy skills. The whole dive had a spoon with a rock on it. Challenge is never to drop the rock. Sounds easy enough? Nah? We had to do a side view float, a head upside float, and a sommersault! Well, of course, I dropped my rock.
Saw the resident Pawikan during this dive. (The same pawikan Gaile and Onry saw during their check-out). Apart from "Finding Nemo" fishes, saw some unique fishes which I dont remember the names.

Dive 2: Underwater Navigation
If I can't read a compass on land, then I can't read a compass underwater! Geez, I get lost going to work. What more under water. Note: Nel has no sense of direction.

Dive 3: Night Dive!
Apart from the flash light preparation (you have to clean it and all), this is such a cool dive. saw a big round crab, a lionfish, a cowfish, and some other nocturnal fishes. We had to turn off our lights one part of the dive, shook the water a little, and saw the planktons glowing in the dark. They are like fire flies.

Dinner and Inuman.
Had my first cibeci: a costa rican pulutan(made by Renato--a costa rican diver)...It's like our local kilawin. Tanigue soaked in lemon, cilantro, and red peppers. eaten with kethcup, mayo over crackers. Absolutely nam-nam!

Sunday:
Dive 4: Deep Dive
Just went deeper and deeper and deeper. 135 ft max. Dive Site: Steps

Dive 5: Wreck Dive
Forgot the name of the Dive Site. It was a barge with an amazing story, from druggies to interpol, to a Dive master who died when the barge exploded. Wreck dives are fun, but with my extremely short attention span, exploring a sunken barge for more than 40 minutes gives me a bore.

Dive 6: Drift Dive
My favorite dives of all! Why? Because we are in constant motion. Either we fight the drift, or go along with it, its fun and challenging. We covered 2 dive sites...Batoc and something else. It was one of the most amazing coral reefs ever. So colorful. And since it's a drift dive, it's like watching one big moving aquarium.

Then It's time to go home. Good thing Joey and Teddy will hitch a ride to Sta Rosa, therefore they will drive. Went home, then got sick on Monday.

That's it for now...
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I want to be a Dive Master! Para mabawi ang investments ko in diving. GJ was saying, bihira ang DM na girls (as in girls ha!). Word of advice, if I were to be a DM dapat girl na girl. Di pwedeng brusko. Di pwedeng, "o pare, iakyat mo na ang tangke sa bangka". Dapat, in a malambing voice, "kuya, pabitbit naman po ng tangke".

O well.. some useless mumblings

1 Comments:

Gaile said...

congrats!!!

9:39 PM